Shades of gray on Black Friday

The Thanksgiving shopping weekend, one indicator of consumers' holiday spending, doesn't appear to have been the national disaster some had feared, but tempered buying and unprecedented deep discounts likely resulted in soft sales.

Maryland business operators have sounded off with similar reports, said Tom Sequella, president of the Maryland Retailers Association.

"I would say that the response was better than retailers had expected," Mr. Sequella said, basing his judgment on some of the information he had received this morning from businesses. Throughout the day he expects to get more reports with more...