Weekend shopping should draw 1.3 million

The Retail Association of Nevada predicts more than 1.3 million Nevadans will be shopping for deals over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend.

Spokesman Bryan Wachter said an estimated 1.8 million will continue the hunt for deals on Cyber-Monday following Black Friday.

“Retailers are extremely competitive this year and will be offering attractive pricing across all merchandise categories from consumer electronics to household good to clothing,” he said.

He said this year, the American Farm Bureau Federation projects the Thanksgiving feast also will be a better deal than last year as the price of turkey, pumpkin pie and other fixings is also a bit less than in 2015. RAN predicts Nevadans will spend about $114.5 million on Thanksgiving meals this year.

Even though some food costs are down, that’s actually up from a year ago because of the state’s increasing population.

As always, he said Black Friday will be the busiest day of the weekend with 74 percent of shoppers planning to hit the stores the day after Thanksgiving. According to projections, he said that means some 970,000 Nevada shoppers that day alone, an increase of nearly 4 percent over last year.

He said the increase is expected to continue through the weekend into Monday with more shoppers each day of the long weekend than there were a year ago.