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Britt Beemer America's Research Group articles most recent first Furniture Buying Index Falls in May Consumers Shift Spending To What They Need, Not What They Want Furniture Buying Index Drops Two More Points; Wal Mart Expands Home Furnishings In Midst of Sluggish Furniture Sales Beemer - Many Retailers In Free Fall After Disappointing December August Retail Sales Surge; Home Furnishings, Accessories Lag behind Expert Predicts Back-to-School Spending to Grow Meagerly in 2007 Retail Shopping Takes A Holiday Early Indications Are For A Frugal First Quarter Independent Retailers Outperformed Chain Stores In December Britt Beemer Lowers Forecast of Christmas Retail Sales to 2.7% Rise Over Last Year; Lack of “Must Have” Item to Blame Want To Drive Shoppers Away? Decorate Stores Less and Don’t Say “Merry Christmas” 2006 Q4 Shoppers Study Revealing; Cyber Monday a Hoax, Biggest Retail Push Will Be After December 15th 10 Trends For Retail Christmas 2006 Survey; Parents Cite High Gas Prices As Primary Reason For Limiting Back To School Spending Families Reduce Summer Spending As Gas Prices Rise Or Was It? New Survey Casts Doubt On Rosie Black Friday Survey; Bargain Hunters Drive June Results Top 10 Retail Stores For April; Discounts Drive Traffic Survey Says Americans Extremely Optimist About The Future 37% Of Shoppers Noticed Less Christmas Decorations In Stores; Spent Less As A Result America’s Research Group; Shopping Levels Increasing But Still Expected To Be Lackluster 3.2% Over 2003 Lack Of Hot New Product Weighing Heavily On Holiday Shopping Survey Of Thanksgiving Weekend Shoppers; "We're Not Impressed"; 45% Say Discounts Not Enough Britt Beemer’s Christmas 2004 Sales Forecast; 19% Will Spend More Since Bush Was Reelected Seven Things Your Store’s Appearance Tells Your Customers Britt Beemer Cites Convenience As Key To Drawing Male Shoppers Beemer Lowers Christmas Sales Projection to 4.2% Increase This Year Compared To His Earlier 4.8% Sales Increase survey 31.0% of Americans Who Planned to Shop Thanksgiving Weekend Did Not Get Around To It Study Shows 11% Increase In Consumer Spending For Appliance, Electronics, Computers Britt Beemer Predicts 4.8% Increase In Holiday Spending survey Furniture Leads All Categories For Shopping Levels Over Labor Day Weekend survey Consumers Plan to Spend 10% More on Back to School Furniture Buying Index Up One Point Buying furniture is on consumers’ minds, but not a top priority Shopping Is Not a Big Priority for Many Americans The Incredible Shrinking Customer Base How Loyal is Your Customer? The Loyalty American Consumers Have Towards Brand Products

When asked if they saw enough discounts to spend more than they planned to spend, 45.3% of shoppers said no, the biggest negative response ever.

America's Research Group conducted a survey on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of consumers who said they were shopping during the Thanksgiving weekend. This study has an error factor of +/-4.5%.

Of those who planned to shop Thanksgiving weekend, 31.3% did not shop any of the three days.

Most shoppers, 87.9%, had finished by early afternoon on Friday.

For both 2003 and 2004, 84.7% and 83.5% shopped for the early bird specials on Friday.

This year, discount stores, particularly Wal-Mart, were the big loser on Friday with only 30.4% shopping there first on Friday compared to 41.3% shopping there first in 2003.

Electronics stores were the biggest winners getting 20.9% to shop there first compared to only 7.3% a year ago.

The department stores, particularly JCPenney and Sears saw solid increases with 22.2% going there first compared to 20.0% last year.

Saturday and Sunday shoppers noticed the stores were not that busy with 24.7% expressing that opinion which is the highest number we have recorded in the seven years we have asked that particular question.

The big winners on Saturday and Sunday were the department stores, driven by JCPenney and Sears both offering early bird specials again on Saturday Department store shopping on these two days was at a 23.9% level compared to 17.3% last year.

Again the discount stores were the big losers on Saturday and Sunday with only 21.8% shopping there first compared to 32.3% last year for those two days.

These Thanksgiving weekend shoppers are not big Internet buyers with only 10.3% buying anything on the Internet in the month of November. Since 1999 only 12.0% have shopped the Internet for the month of November.

When asked if they saw enough discounts to spend more than they planned to spend, 45.3% said no. This is the biggest negative response since we have been asking that question.

Retail stores need to watch out how much they can cut back on Christmas decorations in their stores. Only 63.0% said they felt stores were decorated as much as in years past and of those who said "no," 23.3% said they would spend less and those spending less were the most affluent who buy the big ticket items at Christmas.

This survey was conducted on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and is a sample of those who said they were shopping this Thanksgiving weekend. This study has an error factor of +/-4.5%.