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MINNEAPOLIS — Target will donate $5 million to local schools nationwide as part of the company's commitment to give $1 billion for education by the end of 2015.

Retailers who promoted their online presence as a way to avoid the crowds this past weekend were rewarded for their efforts with record sales on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.

All those flat screens televisions sticking out of shopping carts in the aisles of Target stores early Friday morning were no optical illusion.

Few vehicles on the NASCAR circuit look as good or are as identifiable on the track as the No. 42 Target Chevrolet with its red-and-white color scheme and distinctive Bullseye logo adorning the hood. Unfortunately for Target, style doesn’t count for anything in auto racing and driver Juan Pablo Montoya failed to win a race this year.

Minneapolis -- Target will donate $5 million to local schools nationwide as part of the company's commitment to give $1 billion for education by the end of 2015.

Target has teamed up with "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" and its viewers to select 50 schools in need to receive a $100,000 grant. Viewers are encouraged to submit the name of a school that needs help, along with a compelling story that explains why the school should receive a grant, to "The Ellen DeGeneres Show.”

New York City -- A survey released Tuesday by Deloitte, which polled 1,000 consumers, found that the majority – 51% – will shop in stores or online over the Thanksgiving weekend. Among them, 66% plan to shop in stores on Black Friday and 17% plan to shop in stores on Thanksgiving Day.

The survey also found that shoppers expect to spend an average of $224 over the holiday weekend.

New York City -- The third annual Retail Finance Outlook released Tuesday by CIT Group found that 80% of retail executives expect their holiday sales to increase or remain the same as last year. And they are eying social media as a means to drive sales.

Among the notable shopping days this holiday season, more than one-third of executives expect Black Friday sales to increase this year; more than a quarter expect Cyber Monday sales to be up and nearly a quarter expect Super Saturday sales to increase.

You’ve seen her in television commercials, that blonde-haired wacky lady dressed in red whose passion for shopping at Target knows no bounds. Advertising Age’s Natalie Zmuda interviewed the “Christmas Champ” recently to get her thoughts on off-season preparation and Black Friday strategy. Read the article here. 

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. That seems to be the message implied in Walmart’s guidance for fourth-quarter same-store sales in a range of flat to up 2%. The company’s comps expectations follow a third-quarter increase of 1.3% that ended a two-year string of negative results, but appear rather muted against the backdrop of talk about the company’s gathering momentum, the effectiveness of strategies and solid positioning for the holidays.

WASHINGTON — Up to 152 million people plan to shop Black Friday Weekend, compared with the 138 million who planned to do so last year, according to a preliminary Black Friday shopping survey, conducted for the National Retail Federation by BIGresearch. According to the survey, 74 million people say they will definitely hit the stores and another 77 million are waiting to see if the bargains are worth the hassle of Black Friday.