Christmas Shopping Season Starts off Strong for University Mall Retailers CARBONDALE, IL (wsiu) - The numbers came in from University Mall's sales this past weekend and many people were pleasantly surprised including mall general manager Debbie Tindall.

She says Black Friday even saw a three to six percent increase compared to last year. Saturday sales increased as well with Sunday's numbers breaking about even. Tindall says this is the opposite of what many economic experts thought would happen. Despite the gain... she believes it's hard to predict if a good black Friday will indicate a good shopping season.

Tindall also speculated the increase had to do with customers looking ahead on their calendars. She said there is one less Saturday in the shopping season © Copyright 2009, wsiu