Detailed Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Q: Indeed, veteran retailing executives and analysts said that, while store turnout was improved from a year ago, they had never seen the American consumer shop so strategically. 
  
 “If it’s at full price, nobody’s even looking at the stuff,” said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst for the NPD Group, who spent the day surveying malls. 
  
 Terry J. Lundgren, president and chief executive of Macy’s, said some 5,000 people lined up outside Macy’s in Midtown Manhattan on Friday morning, slightly more than last year. But he said consumers were still shopping with caution. 
  
 “They’ve got a budget that they’ve planned to spend and I think most consumers will stick to that,” he said. “We expect that this will be a market-share holiday season. We don’t need consumers to spend more money. We just need to make them spend more money with us.” 
  
 The National Retail Federation, an industry group, reported that high-definition TVs, laptops, winter coats and Zhu Zhu Pets toy hamsters were among the most sought-after items. 
  
 How much consumers actually spent on Friday will not become clear for several days. Gerald L. Storch, chairman and chief executive of Toys “R” Us, said he thought the day would be a success. “For the retailers as a whole this might be the biggest Black Friday in history,” he said. 
  
 It was also a more orderly day, despite some jostling and angry words here and there. Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest retailer, strengthened security in some stores a year after a temporary store worker in Valley Stream, N.Y., died after being trampled by an unruly crowd. The biggest disturbance appeared to be at a Wal-Mart store in Upland, Calif., which closed for a few hours when shoppers began fighting over merchandise 
  
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
  
 Black Friday got its name because it was perceived as the day retailers shifted into the black, or became profitable for the year. While it is always a high-volume shopping day, that turnout does not necessarily translate into big profits or determine how consumers will behave in the weeks to come. 
  
 Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You will receive emails containing news content , updates and promotions from The New York Times. You may opt-out at any time. You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. 
  
 Chains are hoping this season will be better than last, when retailers posted the worst sales figures in decades. Industry sales last year fell 2.2 percent for the shopping season (November and December combined), the biggest decline since at least 1970, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, an industry group. This year, sales are expected to be about the same as last Christmas, give or take a couple of percentage points. 
  
 The National Retail Federation, a trade group, predicted sales would decline 1 percent, to $437.6 billion. Some industry groups and professionals say that figure is low. The International Council of Shopping Centers, for instance, estimates holiday sales will rise 1 to 2 percent. 
  
 One bright spot on Friday was a trend of people giving themselves gifts. Many shoppers, after denying themselves for the better part of a year, snapped up discounted merchandise like boots and sweaters. Matthew F. Katz, a managing director in the retailing practice of AlixPartners, a reorganization firm, said the shoe department at Nordstrom was packed with such shoppers. Consumers will wait for better discounts around Christmastime to buy gifts for others, he said. 
  
 Madeline Hart, 18, a high school senior, arrived at Woodfield Shopping Center in Schaumburg, Ill., at 4:30 a.m. and spent $200 on clothing and accessories at Express and Victoria’s Secret. 
  
 “I work part time at a car wash, so I bought this with my own money,” said Ms. Hart, peeking into a pair of shopping bags holding a few shirts, a bra and a shiny red vinyl tote bag, a free extra from Victoria’s Secret. 
  
 While the economy is showing signs of recovery, unemployment is the highest in decades and consumers are still deeply worried, which is likely to affect holiday shopping. The Conference Board said this week that American households were expected to spend an average of $390 on Christmas gifts, down from $418 last year. 
  
 “Job losses and uncertainty about the future are making for a very frugal shopper,” Lynn Franco, the director of the board’s consumer research center, said in a statement. 
  
 At Wal-Mart stores around the country, consumers said they were feeling the pain. At a store in Columbus, Ohio, Michelle Perry, 33, a waitress at Waffle House, said she moved this year from a nice rented house in the middle-class suburb of Pataskala to one in a rough neighborhood on the north side of Columbus. 
  
 Advertisement Continue reading the main story 
  
 “I can’t even let my kids outside without me going with them,” she said. “But we had to do something to save money, and I’m saving $300 a month by switching from renting to buying.” 
  
 Still, she feels better about her finances this year than she did last year. After Wal-Mart, she was off to Meijer’s to look for an Xbox 360 for her son, and for gifts inspired by the film “Twilight” for her 12-year-old daughter. 
  
 “She’s got to have the Twilight lip gloss,” Ms. Perry said. “Every girl at her school has it, so she’s got to have it, too.” ||||| Crawl performed by Internet Archive. This data is currently not publicly accessible. |||||
A:
It will take a few days for the Black Friday sales numbers to be crunched, but early indications show a decent, if unspectacular, shopping day. A retailer trade group reported "strong crowds" across the board, notes Bloomberg, with high-def TVs, laptops, winter coats, and those ubiquitous Zhu Zhu hamsters the best-sellers. A note of caution is sounded from the Wall Street Journal, however, which notes that shoppers seemed to be sticking to heavily discounted items instead of opening their wallets wider once inside stores. That could ultimately prove disappointing to the bottom line. In fact, analysts tell the New York Times they've never seen Americans shop so strategically. “If it’s at full price, nobody’s even looking at the stuff,” says one.