Retailers have a robust start to holiday season

More Amer­i­cans hunted for bar­gains over the week­end than ever before as retail­ers lured them online and into stores with big dis­counts and an earlier-than-usual start to the hol­i­day shop­ping sea­son. A record 226 mil­lion shop­pers vis­ited stores and web­sites dur­ing the four-day hol­i­day week­end start­ing on Thanks­giv­ing Day, up from 212 mil­lion last year, accord­ing to early esti­mates by The National Retail Fed­er­a­tion released on Sun­day. Amer­i­cans spent more, too: The aver­age hol­i­day shop­per spent $398.62 over the week­end, up from $365.34 a year ago.