Americans In Two-Day Holiday Shopping Marathon

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — One shopper in Oregon in the early morning hours today said it's "exciting" to "be out in the midst of all of it."

Ricki Moss was among those looking for bargains on what's known as Black Friday. It's being called "Gray Friday" by some, since it started creeping into Thanksgiving itself. More than a dozen major U.S. retailers decided to stay open for 24 hours or more on Thanksgiving Day through today.

But not everyone had to make a choice between shopping on Thanksgiving and spending the holiday with their family. Preliminary numbers show that a lot of people shopped online, without ever leaving home.

IBM Benchmark, which tracks e-commerce sales for 800 retailers, says sales were up 20 percent yesterday compared with last Thanksgiving. Activity surged at in the evening, when many merchants opened their physical stores for shopping and posted new Black Friday promotions on their websites.