CHICAGO Reuters A focus on bargains pulled US shoppers into stores and onto websites over the holiday weekend but many said they would stick to their budgets and avoid purchases if they couldnt find a good deal Shoppers turned out in force on Black Friday the day after US and returned on Saturday for more Industry executives and analysts have predicted a tough holiday season that may only show a slight improvement over 2008 when retailers logged their worst performance in nearly four decades due to a weak economy and high This will be the hardest holiday season ever to predict said Eric Karson associate professor of marketing at Villanova Universitys School of Business We have this big game of chicken now evolving between the retailers and the customers While retailers used to offer steep promotions on select items as the initial lure to shoppers in the hopes they would buy moreinside the store consumers now expect the discounts as a matter of course The whole idea of the loss leader getting people into the store to buy other things may not work as well as it has in the past Karson said Claude Smith a 45yearold outofwork plumber from Virginia said he was trying to pay off his credit card which now has a higher interest rate He now pays with cash when he visits stores such as TJX Coss AJ Wright Syms Walmart and Sams Club Things are bad Everybodys thinking about saving everything they have I go out when theres sales and thats it said Smith who visited the Galleria at White Plains mall in New York with his two teenagers on Saturday Wall Street is getting better but the average New Yorker is still feeling it With I make enough to survive As soon as I start working itll get better EARLY COUNT SHOWS MORE SHOPPING Shawn Kravetz president of hedge fund Capital LLC said retailers that slashed costs would do well You can count companies with positive comps on two hands J Crew WalMart Chicos and few others That is not a strong holiday he said The and other promotions should be called Based on early data from the weekend which could set the tone for the holiday season retailers dont have to panic about prices they dont have to panic about inventory said Marshal Cohen senior analyst at retail consultancy NPD Group More shoppers appeared to be buying than they did in 2008 The number of consumers with shopping bags rose to 60 percent on Black Friday from 48 percent last year Cohen said By midday on Saturday 35 percent to 38 percent of shoppers were carrying bags up from just 24 percent in 2008 he said Saturday usually has a good start early and fizzles out by almost noontime but so far it looks like the traffic is going tohold up even longer Cohen said while surveying an outlet mall Sunday usually is pretty quiet so if tomorrow is busy at all thats a really big plus for the retailers Many shoppers showed they were relying on lessons learned from the 2008 season which began just after a global financial crisis erupted An rate above 10 percent and other financial pressures also weighed on their minds I have three children I am a single mom The economy is bad I am getting only those things that we really need said Natasha Walker a 35yearold telephone operator whose purchases included a GPS navigation system for her car CD holders movies for her children and clothing for herself ONLINE SALES JUMP More shoppers spent time online at the start of the 2009 holiday season They spent 35 percent more on Black Friday web purchases than a year earlier with the average order value reaching 17019 according to analytics company Those shoppers bought an average of 54 items per order up from 46 items last year Coremetrics said Shoppers also took a break from holiday festivities and went online on WalMart Stores Inc s site Walmartcom was the most popular retail site on for the fifth year in a row followed by Amazoncom Inc and Best Buy Inc according to tracking firm Hitwise Online sales are growing but they still account for less than 4 percent of total retail sales Karson said Now that the Black Friday rush has passed retailers are not letting Saturdays potential for shoppers pass them by Kohls Corp whose website shut down for a bit on Friday advertised Christmas Super Saturday sales on its website and in stores Meanwhile WalMart hoped to lure shoppers with limited quantities of Samsung HDTVs WalMart also plans to host exclusive viewings of footage from Miley Cyruss Wonder w sobotę po południu oraz wentylatory w niektórych sklepach spotkałaby wolna pizza Reporting przez Jessica Wohl dodatkowe Maestri Nicole w San Francisco i Jennifer Ablan Martinne Geller i Dhanya Skariachan w Nowym Jorku