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Does this mean it wasn’t worth it for all those employees to have to work on Thanksgiving Day? Consumers spent around $1.7 billion less on Black Friday compared with last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The chief executive of the federation blamed “economic challenges,” saying “many are intending to be a little bit more conservative with their budgets.” More than 141 million people shopped online or in stores between Thursday and Sunday, but the average each consumer spent went down, dropping to $407.02 from $423.55. But due to the shorter-than-average sale time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, many stores began their sale blitz early, and many retailers had already been warning of a weak holiday season to begin with. That probably didn’t make it any less disappointing, though.