Friday Shoppers

Nearly a third of Americans (31.0%) who planned to shop Thanksgiving weekend did not get around to it.

Friday early bird specials were a big hit for 84.7% for Friday shoppers, however 63.4% were heading home by noon to eat Thanksgiving leftovers.

Discount stores, department stores, electronics stores and toy stores were the big winners on Friday with 65.3% of Friday shoppers visiting Discount stores; 46.6% of Friday shoppers visiting Department stores; 31.3% of Friday shoppers visiting toy stores and 23.3% of Friday shoppers visiting electronics stores.

Friday shoppers completed more of their shopping then ever before with 43.3% completing 75% or more of their shopping on Friday.

More Friday shoppers spent $351-$500 on Friday making it the largest dollar range beating last year where $251-$350 was the number one price range.

71.3% of shoppers did not believe they could have saved more money on the items they bought had they waited 2 to 3 more weeks.

A new trend since 1998, the vase majority of Friday shoppers would return to the same stores again to shop for Christmas gifts, however this year 54.7% of Friday shoppers would probably not return to the same stores this holiday season.

Saturday or Sunday Shoppers

Discount stores, department stores, electronics stores and toy stores tops Saturday/Sunday shopping with 49.6% of Saturday/Sunday shoppers visiting discount stores; 33.8% of Saturday/Sunday shoppers visiting department stores; 22.8% of Saturday/Sunday shoppers visiting electronics stores and 13.4% of Saturday/Sunday shoppers visiting toy stores.

Saturday /Sunday shoppers were more frugal, shoppers were more likely to spend $101-$250 where last year the number one price range was $251-$350.

Saturday/Sunday shoppers were very bargain driven with 38.0% only buying the advertised specials beating out last year, which had been the largest percentage of bargain shoppers (30.2%) to date.

Saturday/Sunday shoppers agreed with Friday shoppers with 59.8% not going to the same stores this season to complete their Christmas shopping.

Of those who shopped Thanksgiving weekend 80.3% expected to complete all their Christmas shopping in 5 days or less.

Top 5 gift items purchased Thanksgiving weekend are:

• Toys -- 40.9%
• Jeans -- 22.1%
• Perfume/cologne -- 20.6%
• Video games -- 19.6%
• Sporting goods -- 19.0%

Thanksgiving weekend shoppers are not big on-line shoppers with only 12.0% shopping on-line since the first of November.

Among Thanksgiving weekend 10.6% believe they will purchase between 7-10 Christmas gifts on-line making that the largest percentage for future on-line buying.

Thanksgiving weekend shoppers stayed within their gift budgets because only 23.1% of shoppers saw enough discounts to make them want to spend more than they planned.