The holiday shopping season got off to a surprisingly solid start, according to data released by a Chicago research firm. But the sales boost during the post-Thanksgiving shopathon came at

the expense of profits as the nation’s retailers had to slash prices to attract shoppers in a season expected to be the weakest in decades. Sales the day after Thanksgiving rose 3% to $10.6

billion, according to preliminary figures released by ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which monitors more than 50,000 retail outlets. Many observers had been expecting consumers to spend more time

browsing than buying. MORE TO READ