Both Town and County boutiques and Manchester big box stores saw record—and well behaved—crowds during Black Friday 2011.

“It was really busy the whole day,” said a clerk at Codi Jewelry in Town and Country Crossing. Though Codi didn’t advertise its sale, the store sent out special Black Friday alerts to customers who joined its email list.

Managers at larger stores said they were pleased with the Black Friday turnout.

“It went really smoothly, we had a crowd to the end of the building,” said a manager at Town and Country’s Target. “We had Door Buster items left over from the night, but they were gone by Saturday morning.”

Kohl’s in Manchester prepared diligently for its first midnight opening.

“We got a lot of complements on how well organized it was,” said a Kohl’s manager. “We reviewed how to handle line monitoring and went over where everyone needed to be stationed throughout the store.”

According to national surveys, holiday shoppers pulled out their wallets this past weekend and spent $11.4 billion on Black Friday. The survey by ShopperTrak indicated that nationally Black Friday sales increased 6.6 percent when compared to previous Black Fridays and this year saw the largest gain since 2007. Last year revenue only increased by .3 percent.

Black Friday accounts for an average of 20 percent of retailers year long sales, according to ShopperTrak.

Another survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation showed that shoppers spent an average of $398.62 each on Black Friday weekend, up by about $33 dollars compared to last year. The survey also showed that many Black Friday shoppers went online searching for deals and spent an average of $150 each. This does not include figures for “Cyber Monday” when retailers breakout even more online specials.

“Consumers are clearly demonstrating their desire to spend this holiday season, but are far from throwing caution to the wind when it comes to how much they will spend on gifts,” said Phil Rist, EVP, BIGresearch. “Retailers will have to stick to an aggressive holiday promotion schedule to keep consumers interested.”

On the Horizon:

• The St. Louis Business Journal Women's Conference will be held January 18 at the Hyatt Regency in downtown St. Louis. Early bird registration is $200.
• The West County Chamber of Commerce will host an awards galla January 26 at the Meadowbrook Country Club.
• The Basics of Writing a Business Plan is a class offered by the University of Missouri-St. Louis on December 9. The cost is $59.