record number of shoppers. 166 million people are expected to shop from thanksgiving day all the way through cyber monday. and this year, inflation really is the elephant in the room. it s pushing consumers to kind of think strategically on how they want to shop because inflation is cutting into their budgets. here s what one shopper told us one of the problems is inflation, prices high, so we have to make some adjustments. what we re going to buy this year. so yes, it is little bit downsizing in terms of buying gifts. not like last year. so yes, inflation is affecting us. reporter: so shoppers tell me they are sticking to their budgets, they re letting deals and discounts dictate how they re going to spend. the national retail federation is upbeat about how the shopping season will wind up saying they expect americans to spend 8% more than last year adding up to a total of $940 billion to $690 billion for notch and december.
your patience and maybe also the poncho as well. got to have that patience. yeah, got to have that patience. allison chinchar, thank you so much. so, shoppers have spent billions and billions shopping for deals since thanksgiving morning. and that spending spree is expected to continue through cyber monday. but inflation is taking a bite out of shoppers budgets. cnn s alison kosik has the story. reporter: good morning, boris and sara. it looks like deals and discounts will bring out a record number of shoppers over this long holiday shopping weekend. 166 million shoppers across the country are expected to shop from thanksgiving day all the way through cyber monday. of those had 115 million shopped just on black friday, with more than half, 67% shopping in store. which is interesting because a lot of us think that people only like to shop online. now, inflation is certainly the elephant in the room for a lot of shoppers. it s taking away a lot of
the main focus here is baton rouge, new orleans, mobile, biloxi stretching into panama city. this system will begin to push into the midwest by the time we get to tonight. also other areas like atlanta and charlotte. the concern tomorrow is going to be the big east cities, new york, boston, philadelphia, washington, d.c., that s where you are likely going to see delays on sunday. such an easy start, too, for the thanksgiving holiday. looks like that may be changing quickly as people head home. allison chinchar, thank you so much. that stormy weather isn t dampening the spirits of holiday shoppers. the official start to the season got off to a strong start yesterday on black friday and despite inflation driving up prices, consumers were out in full force. hunting for the best deals. the national retail federation expects more than 166 million americans will be shopping this weekend. that s an increase of about 8 million over last year.
something that s completely preventible. the unions say if a deal is not reached by december 9th they ll go on strike, that s about two weeks ahead of christmas. molly. molly: perhaps a test of the president s clout. thank you there from beautiful nantucket, griff. griff: inflation and sky high prices are eating into americans holiday budget with the national retail federation estimates 166 million people will shop black friday and cyber monday this year. and nate foy has more on the story from harold square in new york. yeah, despite budgets being so tight for so many, a lot of people are coming out and shopping in person. many for the first time in two years and you mentioned a projected 166 million consumers shopping this holiday weekend. black friday, so far, has been the busiest day, take a look at these numbers that are coming in. so far projected from thursday to monday, the five day stretch this have holiday weekend,
be a significant increase this year in the number of people that will be out there shopping. 166 million americans expected to go out there and do their holiday shopping. that s an increase from the previous year when there was 158 million. so we are seeing that increase despite what you were just discussing, the pfact that the economy is very much in flux and that inflation and higher prices are still very much a concern for a lot of people. but all points, all signs so far point to the fact that this will be a relatively strong shopping season considering everything else about the economy. now, this weekend black friday was yesterday, now it s saturday. some people may have more time off. they are hitting those stores. today there is an estimate that at least 60 million people will go out there and shop. we spoke to one of those shoppers just few minutes ago who told me that this is a tradition for him and, yes, he