Holiday shopping impact in San Diego

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) – According to the National Retail Federation, $136 million Americans will be shopping from Thanksgiving day through Cyber Monday and a larger share of their dollars are being spent online, a trend that continues to grow every year.

Total sales will be slightly higher than last year.

The holiday shopping season is critical for the economy because 30 percent of retail sales for the entire year occur between Black Friday and Christmas.

The retail federation said Americans will spend 20 percent more than last year, about $90 more.

KUSI’s Brad Perry was out early Friday morning, walking the Fashion Valley Mall where many stores opened at 6 a.m.

Perry discovered that most people out shopping were buying for themselves, rather than gifts for Christmas.

More and more shoppers are turning to the Internet.

Sales Tracker Adobe said more than $1.7 billion was spent online on Thanksgiving Day.

The retail federation said online sales this year will top $105 billion.

In between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, is small business Saturday.

"Everybody’s doing their online shopping and we would never tell anybody to stop online shopping but if you can take and dedicate just 10 percent of what you’re spending to your local stores, you’re gonna make a big difference," said Debra Rosen of the North County Business Chamber.

Rosen said several small businesses closed in the last decade.

"It is important that we support our local small businesses and the reason is they give so much more to the community, and there’s no one in the community that’s not impacted by small businesses in some way," she added.

Rosen said small business owners not only live in the community, they employ members of the community.