video transcript

Americans said thank you to stores that opened on Thanksgiving. According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll more than 30 percent of Americans said they shopped on Thanksgiving day- even more than the 28 percent who shopped on Black Friday. And of those who shopped- it was the first time for nearly one-third of the respondents-- A sign moving sales events earlier in the weekend worked. Clementine Martin Illanes is a retail strategist at consulting firm Kurt Salmon: SOUNDBITE: CLEMENTINE MARTIN ILLANES, RETAIL STRATEGIST AT CONSULTING FIRM KURT SALMON: "It's starting to take some of the focus off of Black Friday and Cyber Monday that now it's truly the weekend. I talked to a lot of friends who said they didn't even really notice which day it was. They were just going out and shopping and looking online to see what great things that they could buy and doing it whenever they felt like they found the right thing to purchase." REPORTER BRIDGE: BOBBI REBELL, REUTERS REPORTER (ENGLISH) SAYING: It also came down to convenience for some people- why fight the crowds in the middle of the night, when they could just come out after dinner, even with their kids, and make it an evening out. Shoppers still watched their pennies. 38 percent spent less than they had budgeted- and only 15 percent went over budget. The poll also had some telling findings about the product choices people made: Thomson Reuters News Editor, Maurice Tamman: SOUNDBITE: MAURICE TAMMAN, NEWS EDITOR, THOMSON REUTERS (ENGLISH) SAYING: "Among those people who were buying tablets for example, 32 percent of them said they were going to be cutting back on toys so that they could buy tablets. Now I don't know for sure, but I suspect what that is is that we are starting to see tablets move from being an adult product primarily where the children borrow it when they have permission to being a product that is purchased specifically for the children themselves." As for where they are shopping- Department stores were the top destination on Black Friday- followed by discount chains.