Christmas shopping completed

Exclusive: Many Americans already done with holiday shopping

Excerpt:

More than a third of U.S. shoppers are already done with most of their holiday shopping, a survey showed on Monday, signaling that retailers need to offer bigger incentives to win sales in the few weeks before Christmas.

The findings underscore the fragility of the U.S. recovery, since consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of the nation's economy.

About 32 percent of people surveyed by America's Research Group said they finished a majority of their Christmas shopping in November. Last month included Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving when stores pulled out all the stops on discounts to woo shoppers during their biggest season of the year.

More than 6 percent completed most of their holiday shopping in the first weekend of December.

Comment: All shopping completed. All on-line. Not one visit to a mall! We cut the budget in half this year. Thankfully all paid for. No debt!