Shoppers Go Online for Deals
CHETRY: Well, this morning, the countdown to Christmas is on and thanks to the tight economy, the price of 12 drummers drumming, 11 pipers piping will cost you a bit more. According to the PNC Wealth Management, they measure the cost to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas if you were to buy everything, of course. The price tag to actually buy all of the gifts in the well-known holiday carol, $86,609. That's up more than $8,000 or 10 percent from last year.</s>CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The five gold rings.</s>CHETRY: Really?</s>JOHNS: You got it.</s>ROMANS: You're right. I bet it's the five gold rings.</s>CHETRY: Christine Romans is here "Minding Your Business." And we're talking about holiday shopping.</s>ROMANS: We are.</s>CHETRY: A lot of retailers were holding their breath to see if things will work out end of this year.</s>ROMANS: They were. Today is a thing they call cyber Monday, which is really kind of -- I'm going to sound a little bit, you know, like a pessimist -- but today is a day that's kind of created by the industry to make you want to spend more money again. Cyber Monday, go online shopping after the long weekend after Thanksgiving to spend even more money so that they could have a good holiday and year-end shopping season. Cyber Monday it's called. You know, a few years ago, you used to come into the office to do all of that shopping and get those sales because you probably didn't have broadband access at home, right? Well, now we all have computers in every room of the house in some cases. And so, you know, I don't know if there's such impact from cyber Monday, but a survey by careerbuilder.com found that 29 percent of people surveyed planned to do some shopping, online shopping at work over the holiday season altogether. Forty-three percent of people will spend an hour or more. Twenty-three percent will spend two hours or more. Thirteen percent will spend three hours. What kind of boss do you have? Because I don't think I have the time to spend three hours shopping online. But that's kind of an indication how many people -- productivity drain, perhaps -- how many people over the holidays will be shopping online. A couple of things to tell you that retail analysts have been telling me you shouldn't pay for any shipping. And this is going to make some of the retailers mad that I say this. But don't pay for shipping for online shopping because they're all pretty desperate. They want your business. If you keep waiting and you're picky, you're going to be able to find some good deals, I think. So don't pay for any shipping in your online shopping. And just quickly about the weekend, there was a pretty good shopping over the weekend, better than a lot of people had expected. Everyone is talking about how weak the economy is, falling home prices. But look, people spent $41 billion over the weekend, a $373 on average per shopper. That's up about seven percent from last year. Those 55 percent of people were shopping at discount stores. They get 70 -- I don't know if you guys were shopping. I certainly didn't. I avoid this weekend like the plague.</s>CHETRY: Me too.</s>ROMANS: But 70 percent door buster, you know, price cuts, 70 percent toys that they were selling for a loss in some cases just to get you in. So that's what that was all about.</s>JOHNS: How much money could they possibly have made if they cut prices so low though?</s>ROMANS: Right. That's absolutely right. They cut prices a lot. And you know, $41 billion is what we spent but real deep discounts for a lot of things. And there are a lot of people that tell me there will be even more discounts heading into -- Christmas is on a Thursday, so that weekend and then the three days before Christmas, a lot of retail analysts are telling me, boy, it will be really deep discounts then.</s>JOHNS: Great. Thanks, Christine.</s>ROMANS: Keep waiting. Don't pay for shipping.</s>CHETRY: I mean, you keep getting these online offers. Last day only or just today.</s>ROMANS: Yes.</s>CHETRY: And then the next day, you think, did I say one?</s>ROMANS: And maybe tomorrow, too.</s>CHETRY: Right. Thanks, Christine.</s>JOHNS: Thanks a lot, Christine. In just a few hours, Senator Hillary Clinton will be one step closer to adding secretary of state to her resume. And the nomination taking a new sense of urgency after the massacre in Mumbai. It's 14 minutes past the hour.</s>CHETRY: Black Friday.</s>LT. MICHAEL FLEMING, NASSAU COUNTY POLICE: We are examining videotape footage that was shot by Wal-Mart and by some of the surrounding stores.</s>CHETRY: The latest on the hunt to identify members of a mob that trampled a store worker to death. You're watching the "Most News in the Morning."