Black Friday 2011: Best Buy Sells Out of Playbooks, Sets Weekend Records

Best Buy stores around the country opened at midnight on Black Friday in 2011, leading to record breaking sales for the electronics retail giant and an a complete sell out of Playbook tablet computers.

This strong opening to the holiday shopping season was drastically different from last year, Reuters reported. In 2010, Best Buy put a strong emphasis on selling fairly expensive 3D TV's, leading to disapointing sales totals for what is thought of as the biggest weekend of the year for retail stores.

Last year, they weren't as responsive with their pricing as they needed to be. We are seeing a different set of behaviors from them this time around, Lawrence Creatura, a portfolio manager at Federated Clover Investment Advisors, told Reuters.

The chains selling out of the Blackberry Playbook was likely due to their significant discount for the weekend, according to CNET. The price of the units dropped to $200 or $300 depending on how much memory the model has. CNET reported that Best Buy expects to get more stock of the product soon, contrary to reports that they were dropping th product entirely from their stores.

The rumors started when the Playbook disapeared from Best Buy's Web site, according to PC World. Some customers even reported having their orders cancelled.

Best Buy refuted the claim in an e-mail to PC World, saying that the promotion had simply been a success.

The strong weekend translated in the stock market as Best Buy shares closed up 3.36 percent, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Some note that this solid weekend should not be regarded as a sign of the broad economy turning around.

One swallow does not a holiday season make. After the deepest recession in decades, the solid Black Friday weekend is welcome news, but we're only in the second quarter of a long playoff game, said Craig Johnson, president of consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, told Reuters.