New York in November can be bitterly cold. New York at the end of November at four o’clock in the morning is especially so, yet yesterday, under black night skies and with breath casting trails in the chilly air, that was the time that America began a key period in its retailing year.

The day after Thanksgiving, known as Black Friday because it typically marks the point in the year when retailers go into the black, is the biggest shopping day of the year and kicks off the Christmas retail period. Yesterday, however, there were more nerves than usual behind the tills of the country’s big stores. Would the summer’s credit crisis and America’s housing slump dampen sales?

Many stores were promising 90 per cent discounts on electrical items, furniture, clothing and footwear from sales that started at 4am yesterday. Shoppers were urged to visit stores early because the deepest discounts are offered only for a short time.

Michael Unger, director of consumer product and retail practice at Archstone Consulting, said that early signs – queues of freezing shoppers, competition to find the best bargains – indicated a growth in business compared with last year. “The stores are so promotional that people will rush in just to take advantage of it,” he said.

This year, JC Penney, the clothing retailer, opened at 4am. Toys ‘R’ Us, the toys and games group, and Best Buy, the electrical retailer, followed at 5am. Macy’s, the world’s largest department store chain, opened its doors at 6am. Some shopping malls, including the vast Citadel Outlets in Los Angeles, opened at midnight, with early-bird specials such as a free $10 bonus card.

This year, about 132 million Americans were expected to have faced the cold and gone shopping yesterday, spending an estimated $19.1 billion (£9.3 billion). The National Retail Federation was this week forecasting that sales on Black Friday would rise by about 3.5 per cent – the slowest rate of growth for five years.

It expects total holiday retail sales, which account for shopping from Black Friday to Christmas Eve, to rise 4 per cent to $474.5 billion this year. That would be the slowest holiday sales growth since 2002.

Yesterday, crowds queued outside Toys ‘R’ Us in Times Square, New York, eyeing 50 per cent discounts for Star Wars Transformers from 5am to midday. Jerry Storch, chief executive, said that the line was the longest that store executives had seen on a Black Friday, except for the year that the Nintendo Wii went on sale.

Fred Crawford, at Alix Partners, the retail consultants, told The Times: “Retailers know that they will be facing a difficult trading period and will be offering very deep discounts. Among the worst-hit are likely to be the middle market, such as JC Penney and Home Depot.”

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