The average amount spent per person from Thanksgiving, Nov. 25, to Sunday, Nov. 28, was about $365, more than a 6% increase over last year—according to a survey of about 4,300 Americans by the National Retail Federation (NRF).

An estimated 212 million people shopped, up from 195 million last year. That is the highest number of Thanksgiving weekend shoppers since the first survey in 2004, NRF said.

Spending on discretionary items rather than bargain-basement discounts seemed to help push the weekend total to a high of $45 billion, up from about $41.2 billion recorded in the last two years, the Times reported.

Spending on the holiday weekend usually accounts for about 8%-9% of the season's sales, but NRF spokesperson Ellen Davis cautioned that it was not always a predictor of how busy the holiday season would be. "It's important to keep the economy in mind here," she said. "Sometimes Black Friday is not an indicator of the holiday season because people are so focused on deals that they'll get themselves up early."

About 33.6% of weekend shoppers bought online, which, according to the federation's study, is the highest percentage ever. Online research firm comScore reported that online spending for the first 26 days of November rose 13% to $11.64 billion, compared with the same period a year ago.

On Thanksgiving Day, traditionally a lighter day for online spending, e-commerce sales rose to $407 million, up 28% from the year-ago period. That was helped by more stores pushing exclusive deals. Online spending is still a relatively small piece of the holiday pie, 8%-10% by various estimates, the Associated Press reported.

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