By the numbers there can be no denying Black Friday is a dominating national event. An estimated 147M Americans will participate in the shopping frenzy, compared to the mere 126M people that voted in the national election or the 112M who watched the last Super Bowl. Early reports on turnout has been strong, but the read-through to the bottom line of the retail sector won't be known until there is a better handle on the level of promotional activity pushed out by under-duress retailers such as J.C. Penney (JCP +1.6%) OfficeMax (OMX -0.7%), Best Buy (BBY +0.3%), and RadioShack (RSH).