US DATA: Redbook: Year-over-year: Week (w/e 11/17/12 vs year-ago) 1.8%
Year-over-year: Month (November 2012 vs November 2011) 1.4%
Month-over-month: (November 2012 vs October 2012) 0.0%

“Pre Thanksgiving week food, other staples and special promotions
drew in customers. In order to jump-start sales many retailers rolled
out holiday deals earlier than ever and will open Thanksgiving night to
jump-start the weekend madness. Some shoppers held off shopping and
waited for the upcoming Black Friday and Cyber Monday deep promotions.
In this trend less environment, sales leaders during the week were
focused on consumables such as food. For some formats, up to a quarter
per dollar of sales may occur in the final week of the fiscal month,
most notably on the day after Thanksgiving.”