Shoppers made a brief but welcome appearance over the Thanksgiving weekend, flocking to stores and Web sites to take advantage of Black Friday doorbusters and other deals. They spent enough to set new sales records in both offline and online spending for the weekend. This was, however, not enough to offset an otherwise lackluster November in which same-store sales growth ended up roughly flat. Still, recent earnings releases show that profits continue to exceed last year's levels, thanks largely to better inventory management and reduced discounting. The hope of a strong December remains. In what is sure to be a very competitive second half of the holiday season, the challenge for retailers will be to strike the right balance between promotions and profits.