(The Center Square) – More than half of all Americans plan to buy things over the five-day holiday weekend, the beginning of a retail shopping season with consumers projected to spend more than $1 trillion.

Some 186.9 million people plan to shop from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, according to a consumer survey from the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. That's about 3 million more shoppers than last year, when about 183.4 million people hit stores to spend more than $970 billion.

"The holidays are an important part of many consumers' budgets, and that trend is especially true this season," NRF Vice President of Industry and Consumer Insights Katherine Cullen said. "As a record number of shoppers are expected this Thanksgiving weekend, retailers are prep

See Full Page