Long lines snaked around city blocks last night as retailers such as Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) and Target (NYSE:TGT) opened late on Thanksgiving. Others, including Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) and Macy's (NYSE:M), waited until Black Friday. Despite the queues, the National Retail Federation reckons the number of shoppers will fall to 147M over the Thanksgiving weekend from 152M last year, and that the growth in retails sales will slow to 4.1% in November-December from 5.6%.