174 million Americans shop over Thanksgiving weekend

NEW YORK, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- More than 174 million Americans shopped in stores and online during the just-concluded Thanksgiving holiday weekend, beating expectations of 164 million shoppers, said the National Retail Federation (NRF) on Tuesday.

"All the fundamentals were in place for consumers to take advantage of incredible deals and promotions retailers had to offer," NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.

"From good weather across the country to low unemployment and strong consumer confidence, the climate was right, literally and figuratively, for consumers to tackle their holiday shopping lists online and in stores," he added.

From Thanksgiving day through Cyber Monday, top shopping destinations for American shoppers included department stores (43 percent), online retailers (42 percent), electronic stores (32 percent), clothing and accessories stores (31 percent) and discount stores (also 31 percent), NRP reported.

According to the association's earlier estimates, holiday retail sales in November and December - excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants - are expected to climb four percent this year, reaching up to 682 billion U.S. dollars, higher than last year's sales of 655.8 billion U.S. dollars. Enditem