The Black Friday results show what was to be expected – a rather blue Christmas for retailers:

As the closely-watched Black Friday weekend winds down, a National Retail Federation survey conducted over the weekend confirms the expected: more people spent less. According to NRF’s Black Friday shopping survey, conducted by BIGresearch, 195 million shoppers visited stores and websites over Black Friday weekend*, up from 172 million last year. However, the average spending over the weekend dropped to $343.31 per person from $372.57 a year ago. Total spending reached an estimated $41.2 billion.

The good side of this for the shopper is that retailers will probably be running bigger sales this holiday season in hopes to draw in larger crowds.