103,880 Maniacs

That’s the number of people who went to the Northwest Arkansas Mall in Fayetteville during the three-day shopping weekend after Thanksgiving.

Andrea Taylor, marketing manager for the mall, said the number represents a 21.4 percent increase over the comparable weekend of 2001. For the day after Thanksgiving, known to retailers as “Black Friday” because deep discounts allegedly turn red ink into black, foot traffic at the mall was up about 25 percent.

“Obviously, you can begin to speculate what that would translate into,” Taylor said, hinting that revenue at the stores may have been up by a similar percentage for the weekend.

“Everyone here had a great exhausting weekend,” she said.

The International Council of Shopping Centers said sales for the weekend at malls across the United States increased by 7.6 percent when compared to the same weekend last year. The category of toys and sporting goods lead the increase with a 16.6 percent jump from last year’s number.