The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday, Nov. 29, edition that the good news for retailers in the U.S. is that sales in the past week appear to have improved when compared with the preceding weeks, and few stores required heavy promotions. The Post's Jonathan Ratner writes that the bad news, however, is the structural changes favouring digital demand likely took more traffic from the malls, and this trend only seems to be accelerating. Canaccord Genuity Group analyst Camilo Lyon notes that many retailers entered the busy Black Friday weekend with clean inventories, colder winter weather finally arrived in the Northeast, and election-related uncertainty had largely passed. Canaccord's mall checks suggested most brands and retailers offered promotions that were similar to last year, but there were some exceptions. Mr. Lyon says in a note: "Overall, we believe Black Friday was a good (not great) start to the holiday shopping season. With winter weather firmly here in many parts of the U.S., we believe sales trends should sequentially improve over the coming weeks in December."