Survey: Most Americans plan to skip Thanksgiving Day sales

FILE - In this Thursday, Nov. 26, 2015, file photo, J.C. Penney General Manager Bridie Clinkscales hands out sales papers to Thanksgiving Day shoppers as they line up outside of the store at Eastdale Mall in Montgomery, Ala. (Mickey Welsh/The... (Copyright by WSLS - All rights reserved)

Ted Miller, WBAY – (WBAY) -- Black Friday has lost some of its luster, with sales starting on Thanksgiving Thursday, and stores are already promoting "pre-Black Friday" sales. But this shopping tradition isn't broken yet.

Last year, shoppers parted with $10 billion on Black Friday alone.

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Overall, holiday spending is projected to reach $656 billion in November and December, up from not quite $631 billion last year, according to personal finance website WalletHub.com.

A survey commissioned by Offers.com found 53 percent of Americans say they won't shop on Thanksgiving, making it the second-least shopped holiday of the year. That's 8 percent more than skipped out on Thanksgiving shopping last year.

The discount-tracking website says only 30 percent of people say they'll go to stores; most of the rest plan to shop online, if at all.

But the customer traffic will be back the day after Thanksgiving. Offers.com's survey found 66 percent of Americans plan to shop on Black Friday, which is 24 percent more than last year. Most of those shoppers will be 18 to 34 years old. The survey showed 85 percent in that age group plan to hit the stores or shop online on Black Friday.

And, according to the survey, the store to beat this year isn't a store at all: 59 percent of those surveyed plan to do much of their holiday shopping on Amazon.com, more than will shop at Walmart (52 percent), Target (36 percent) or Kohl's (25 percent).

ShopperTrak, which tracks retail trends, expects Black Friday to be the busiest shopping day of the season. Other busy shopping days are expected to be the first three Saturdays in December and the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before Christmas Eve.

If you want a break from the crowds, ShopperTrak suggests shopping on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday after Thanksgiving, and the first Monday and Tuesday in December.