The Thanksgiving weekend gave the nation’s retailers a solid start to the holiday season although there were still plenty of signs that consumers are cautious and looking for bargains even if the economy is improving.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and other discounters attracted crowds of shoppers with specials on TVs, DVD players and toys and had the strongest sales. Department stores and mall-based apparel retailers were discounting less than they did last year, and their business was uneven.

“Sales appear to be better than last year, but the consumer is still value-oriented and is looking for sales,” said Walter Loeb, who runs his own New York-based retail consulting firm.

Consumers out shopping

In Kansas City, Mo., Joyce Shropshire and Candy Macy discussed their spending plans as they took a break from window shopping Saturday afternoon to eat at the packed food court at the Crown Center shopping center.

Shropshire, of Lee’s Summit, Mo., planned to spend the same as last year, buying many gifts on the Internet. Macy, of Overland Park, Kan., envisioned a less costly Christmas.

“I’m going to try to not spend as much this year,” Macy said, then added less confidently. “I’m going to try. I say.”

Not spectacular

Michael P. Niemira, a retail industry analyst with Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi Ltd., said of the weekend, “It was pretty good, but it wasn’t spectacular.” He described business as stronger for discounters than it was for department stores and apparel merchants.

Ellen Tolley, a spokeswoman at the Washington-based National Retail Federation, noted that “it looks like (store) traffic was about the same as last year, possible a little better than last year.”

“It was as good as we had hoped for,” she said.

Although the economy is recovering and consumer confidence is on the rise, a shopper’s own job security is often the greatest factor in how much he or she spends.

Jane Howard, of Melrose, Mass., was at CambridgeSide Galleria mall in Cambridge, Mass., early Sunday with her daughter, Daria Hinz. The day before, the two snapped up some “tremendous deals,” such as sweaters reduced by 40 percent, at another mall, Howard said.

“I’m enjoying shopping this year. I feel like I’ve got enough money. I’m very happy because I’ve been in my job for a year,” she said.

By the numbers

Total retail sales Friday were up 4.8 percent to $7.2 billion from the Friday after Thanksgiving a year ago, after posting a 6.8 percent gain last year over 2001 results, according to ShopperTrak, which tallies sales at 30,000 retail outlets.

For Friday and Saturday combined, total sales were up about 5.5 percent, according to Niemira, a consultant with ShopperTrak.

Niemira said he still forecasts a sales gain of 4.5 percent for the November-December period, the best performance since 1999, when sales rose 5.4 percent. He based the estimate on sales from stores open at least a year, considered the best indicator of a retailer’s health.

Indicators

There were other indications that overall, it was a good weekend:

• Online sales had a strong showing on Friday. Research firm comScore Networks Inc., reported online sales rose 38 percent to $200 million on Friday from $145 million a year ago.
• Visa USA said total U.S. spending on Visa credit and debit cards on Friday and Saturday rose 12 percent over the same period last year.
• Wal-Mart said it hit a single-day company sales record on Friday, taking in more than $1.52 billion nationally, compared with $1.43 billion for the day after Thanksgiving a year ago.
• Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Bloomfield Hills, Mich.-based Taubman Centers, which owns or manages 31 shopping centers in 13 states, said stores reported more customers were paying full prices. On Friday and Saturday, business was up in the mid-single digits from a year earlier.

While the Thanksgiving weekend starts the shopping spree, it no longer is the busiest period of the season. Last year, the weekend accounted for 10.1 percent of holiday sales, up from 8.4 percent in 2001.

The busiest day over the past few years has been the Saturday before Christmas.