Black Friday 2008 has come and gone with more than a few reports of tragedy among the good deals. According to research firm NPD Black Friday sales have declined for the first time ever during the week of the busiest shopping day of the year.

NPD says that discounting was much less this year than in previous years and there was an emphasis on online shopping and less exciting products being offered. Despite reduced sales a few bright spots emerged, with one of them being notebook PC sales.

Notebook PCs grew 19% as a category and revenue was up 8%. LCD TVs over 30-inches in size grew 18% in units and 9% in sales dollars. Other categories also grew including GPS, plasma TVs, and digital picture frames, but declined in revenue to reduced selling prices. Overall sales were $2.03 billion, a drop of 8.4% from Black Friday 2007.

Via NPD