Talk about a Bleak Friday

Ouch.

That's what retailers across the country were thinking Thursday after the sector collectively fell on its face -- everyone from Wal-Mart to Neiman Marcus fell below their May sales estimates.

But today's the day I feel sorry for the retail world, because today's the day the pain really sets in. Thursday, no doubt, retail execs and their deputies spent most of the day in closed-door meetings, discussing what went wrong in a big-picture sense and doing damage control with their investors and the media. Today, though, is the day everybody else -- sales teams, fashion buyers, marketing coordinators -- gets theirs.