At the same time, their pajama-clad counterparts, a much smaller group that accounted for only a fraction of overall sales, shopped online from the warmth of their homes and dramatically boosted their spending.

More than a year after the economy’s collapse began rattling shoppers, industry observers said Friday’s shopping sprees offered a strong start to the holiday season.

“We have struggled for a long time and one of the ways for the economy to get going again is for the consumer to begin to spend more freely,” said Bill Martin, co-founder of research firm ShopperTrak, which released its sales figures Saturday. “And I think this is an indication they were willing to do that.”

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Preliminary sales data from Martin’s organization, a Chicago research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 stores, showed shoppers spent $10.66 billion when they hit the malls on the day after Thanksgiving. That’s only 0.5 percent more than last year when Black Friday sales rose a striking 3 percent.

The traditional shopping spree — dubbed Black Friday because it often was the day when a surge of shoppers helped stores break into “the black,” or profitability, the full year — has marked the kickoff of holiday shopping for many consumers.

But its importance has faded in recent years as merchants started hawking the deep discounts usually reserved for that day well in advance.

For example, last year’s Black Friday spending grew from $10.3 billion to about $10.6 billion. But the overall holiday spending fell 4.4 percent as shoppers slowed spending as the holiday season went on.

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Still, the day is often used as an important barometer of shoppers’ mindset: what kinds of items they’re buying and what kind of discounts will lure them.

Stores offerred deals on more practical items to woo recession-weary shoppers who more than ever might want gifts that the recipients will really appreciate.

“I know what they want, but I’ve been looking for a deal to make sure I get a good price,” Jude Leeper, 49, of Hanover, Pa., said as she shopped for gifts for family members Friday at a Maryland mall. “I’m going to buy that gift that I know is going to get used, not stuffed in a closet.”

On Friday, many of the in-store deals were also available online, causing some Web sites to overload as shoppers tried to get deals without waiting in long, cold lines.

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The White House released a photo showing Michaele and Tareq Salahi in the receiving line in the Blue Room with Obama and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in whose honor the dinner was held. Obama and Michaele Salahi, a candidate for Bravo’s “The Real Housewives of D.C.,” are smiling as she grasps his right hand with both of hers and her husband looks on. Singh is standing to the Obama’s left.

The Secret Service earlier this week had said the president was not in danger because the Virginia couple — like others at the dinner — had gone through magnetometers. But in light of their close proximity to the president, no such claim was made Friday.

The Salahis were not on the guest list and should have been prohibited from entering last Tuesday’s dinner on the White House South Lawn for the prime minister of India, said Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan.

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On Friday, Sullivan was apologetic in a written statement, saying the agency that protects the president is “deeply concerned and embarrassed” that procedures were not followed.

“As our investigation continues, appropriate measures have been taken to ensure this is not repeated,” Sullivan said.

Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin said officers at the checkpoint had a clipboard with names of the invited guests. Even though the Salahis names weren’t on it, they were allowed to proceed. The officers should have called either someone on the White House staff or Secret Service personnel before allowing them past the checkpoint, Mackin said.

Earlier, Mackin said the Secret Service may pursue a criminal investigation of the Salahis.

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Sullivan said, “The preliminary findings of our internal investigation have determined established protocols were not followed at an initial checkpoint, verifying that two individuals were on the guest list.

“Although these individuals went through magnetometers and other levels of screening, they should have been prohibited from entering the event entirely. That failing is ours,” he said.

Sullivan said it wasn’t good enough that his agency screened more than 1.2 million visitors last year to the White House complex and protected more than 10,000 sites for the president, vice president and others.

“Even with these successes, we need to be right 100 percent of the time,” he said. “While we have protocols in place to address these situations, we must ensure that they are followed each and every time.”

It is unclear what the couple told officers at the checkpoint that allowed them to go through the security screening. Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully falsify statements on matters within the federal government’s jurisdiction.

“As this moves closer to a criminal investigation there’s less that we can say,” Mackin said. “I don’t want to jeopardize what could be a criminal investigation. We’re not leaving any option off the table at this point.”

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