The fall in sales reflects the fact that the disposable incomes of working-class households continue to stagnate and decline.

More... (http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2014/12/02/sale-d02.html)

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One business analyst correctly predicted the sales slump. PricewaterhouseCoopers, in a survey published before Thanksgiving, predicted average household spending for the holidays would fall from $735 in 2013 to $684 this year. It said that the slump was due to the enforced decline in spending by people earning less than $50,000 a year, who make up 67 percent of the population this year, compared to only 63 percent in 2012. These people—two thirds of the American population—are falling behind in the struggle to survive economically, and simply can’t afford to participate in extra holiday spending.

The Black Friday fiasco shows the class reality of Obama’s so-called “economic recovery,” which has seen the stock market hit record levels, while working-class living standards have actually fallen. As the New York Times summed it up in an editorial last month, “Since the recovery began in mid-2009, inflation-adjusted figures show that the economy has grown by 12 percent; corporate profits, by 46 percent; and the broad stock market, by 92 percent. Median household income has contracted by 3 percent.”

[quote] “Since the recovery began in mid-2009, inflation-adjusted figures show that the economy has grown by 12 percent; corporate profits, by 46 percent; and the broad stock market, by 92 percent. Median household income has contracted by 3 percent.”[./quote]

This is key - and tells the story.