Discounters top holiday shopping spot: survey

By Brad Dorfman

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Discount stores were the choice of more Thanksgiving weekend shoppers this year than last, a survey released on Sunday showed in what may be the latest sign that the weak U.S. economy is pushing consumers to cut back on spending.

Almost 65 percent of people who shopped on Friday said one of the places they shopped was at a discount store, according to the survey by America's Research Group, a consumer-behavior marketing firm. That compares with 55.7 percent in 2006, according to the group.

On the other end of the spending spectrum, jewelry stores were named by only 6.3 percent of the people who said they shopped on Friday, compared with 10 percent in 2006, Britt Beemer, founder and chairman of the group, said.

For the whole weekend, 31.4 percent of people said they did most of their shopping at discount stores, 20.8 percent said department stores and 16.7 percent said electronics stores.

The weekend after Thanksgiving is the unofficial kickoff for the holiday shopping season, though some retailers have been trying to entice shoppers with holiday sales items even earlier this season.

The U.S. housing downturn, higher prices for food and gasoline and concerns that the U.S. economy could be heading toward a recession have prompted many forecasts of weak holiday sales growth. The National Retail Federation has forecast a 4 percent increase in holiday sales this year, the smallest increase in five years.

Another sign of consumers cutting back is the number who said they would spend $100 or more on something for themselves. The 30.2 percent who said "yes" was an all-time low and down from about 42 percent last year, Beemer said.

Many of the people who shopped this weekend got to stores early Friday, snatched up deeply discounted "door-buster" items and were done shopping by the middle of the day, Beemer said.