New York ? The holiday shopping season began with a solid show of spending Friday, but consumers faded by the weekend’s close, and many retailers were facing decent but hardly impressive sales.

Big chains, including J.C. Penney Co. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. were pleased with their sales. But Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was less fortunate — the industry leader said its sales in the seven days that ended Friday were disappointing, and the company lowered its sales forecasts for November.

“Friday overall was strong, but Saturday was weak and disappointing, so together it was only a modest two-day performance,” said Michael Niemira, chief economist at International Council of Shopping Centers. “Still, I continue to believe that this is not a bellwether for how the season will end up.”

Wally Brewster, spokesman at Chicago-based General Growth Properties, which operates 224 malls in 44 states, said sales and traffic were strong on Friday, but “stabilized” the rest of the weekend. As a result, he expects sales for the weekend to increase in the low single digits, in line with modest expectations.

“The retailers that won this weekend were the ones that were super-aggressive in special purchases and special pricing,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, based in Charleston, S.C.

Without any must-haves in apparel and toys, the main attractions were electronics, particularly flat-screen TVs and DVD players, benefiting stores like Best Buy Co. Inc. and Circuit City Stores Inc. Marshal Cohen, senior industry analyst at NPD Group Inc., a market research company in Port Washington, N.Y., suspects that many mall-based apparel retailers “took it on the chin.”