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With the busiest shopping weekend of the year over, bargain hunters still had plenty of deals to entice them during what’s become known as Cyber Monday.

Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre Township was just one of the local places offering discounts on Monday.

“There are some pretty good deals to be had,” said Steve Poremba, director of sales and marketing for the arena.

Poremba said the arena works with promoters to offer specials on tickets throughout the day. He added the arena has been offering online deals for a few years, and they have seen consistent growth with Cyber Monday sales.

“It’s definitely gotten bigger for us,” he said.

The arena isn’t the only place where online sales have grown on the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The day was on track to becoming the biggest U.S. online shopping day ever, according to Adobe Analytics, the research arm of software maker Adobe. Nearly $3.4 billion had been spent online as of 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, up about 17 percent from a year ago, Adobe said.

The shift to online shopping has been noticeable even before Cyber Monday. At a Toys R Us in Toledo, Ohio, on Friday, the parking lot was about half full. Melissa Wetzel, who said she would also do some shopping online, said her Black Friday in-store shopping had been relaxing since she didn’t have to fight the crowds.

“It’s been pretty easy,” she said. “I guess most are shopping online.”

Over the weekend, an estimated 164 million shoppers were projected to spend money from Thursday through Monday, according to a survey by the National Retail Federation. For the first time in survey history, the numbers include Cyber Monday in addition to Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Sunday.

Spending for Thursday and Friday alone increased 11.9 percent compared with the same two-day period last year, says First Data, which analyzed online and in-store payments across different forms of cards from 1.3 million merchants. Retail spending, which excludes grocery stores, restaurants, auto parts merchants and gas stations, rose 9.3 percent.

Shoppers are also turning to their phones to place orders, with web traffic from mobile devices, including tablets, expected to top desktop computers for the first time this year, Adobe said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Amazon Prime employee Alicia Jackson hunts for items at the company’s urban fulfillment facility t in New York.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/web1_CyberMondayCMYK-1.jpg.optimal.jpgAmazon Prime employee Alicia Jackson hunts for items at the company’s urban fulfillment facility t in New York.

By Brigid Edmunds

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Reach Brigid Edmunds at 570-991-6113 or on Twitter @brigidedmunds