More US retailers to open on Thanksgiving

Macy's and a slew of other US retailers are opening on Thanksgiving for the first time ever in an effort to win a bigger slice of overall holiday sales.
US department store rivals Kohl's and JC Penney led a string of Thanksgiving opening announcements after Macy's said it would open its US stores on the popular holiday, ending a 155-year tradition.
Sales trends, survey results and an online "Save Thanksgiving" backlash suggest that shoppers may resist the urge to splurge on the popular holiday.
But with six fewer shopping days this year than in 2012, retailers who get nearly half of annual profits during winter holiday season are nibbling away at Thanksgiving. Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us are opening earlier today than they did last year.

Up to 140 million shoppers are expected to hit US stores during the Thanksgiving weekend, slightly more than the 139 million who turned out last year.
A wintry blast of heavy rain, wind and snow across the eastern US disrupted Thanksgiving travel plans for many yesterday, but colder temperatures and drier conditions from today means limited impact to business over the big shopping weekend, analysts said.
While US home prices and stock market gains have many upper-income shoppers feeling more confident, data from ConsumerEdge Research's tracking study indicates that there may have been a sharp pullback in consumer spending so far this month.
Low-income shoppers, who often face dismal work prospects and struggle to make ends meet, have been hard hit this year by a reduction in government food stamp benefits.
High earners are better off, but they are concerned about rising healthcare costs and the prospect of yet another US government debt fight on Capitol Hill early next year. They also worry that home and stock prices may be topping out and that the job market may not see further gains.
A new survey from Deloitte suggests that fewer shoppers will hit stores on Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year versus last year. Among holiday weekend shoppers, 13% plan to shop in stores on Thanksgiving, down from 23% last year, according to the online survey of 1,000 consumers.
Black Friday has for years been the official kickoff of holiday shopping season and is still is predicted by ShopperTrak to be this year's biggest day of the season for sales and traffic. This year, 53% of survey respondents said they planned to shop the on the day after Thanksgiving - down from 63% in 2013.
Weekend shoppers also said they planned to split their budget evenly between online and in-store purchases.