Holiday Season Off to Modest Start

Updated from 3:52 a.m. EST

NEW YORK -- The Thanksgiving shopping weekend doesn't appear to have been the disaster some had feared, but consumers' tempered buying and stores' unprecedented deep discounts are likely to result in sales that at best met retailers' low expectations.

Now, the nation's merchants are struggling to find other tricks to entice financially strapped shoppers for the rest of the holiday shopping season, expected to be the weakest in decades.

"The consumer clearly is showing us that there is a holiday to be had, but the consumer wants bigger deals. And they are not panicking," said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, a market research group. "They're willing to wait it out at almost any price." ...