Shopping picks up in the latest weekBy Anne D'Innocenzio, Associated PressUpdated 17h 3m ago

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NEW YORK (AP) —Shoppers came out to seriously shop last week, after taking breather from a record spending spree over the Thanksgiving weekend, according to one measure.

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  By Frederic J. Brown, AFP/Getty Images

  Shoppers browse through items on sale at a Target store in Rosemead, east of Los Angeles, on Nov. 25, 2011.
  
  

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By Frederic J. Brown, AFP/Getty Images

Shoppers browse through items on sale at a Target store in Rosemead, east of Los Angeles, on Nov. 25, 2011.

Sales at stores open at least a year rose 3.4% the week ended Saturday, compared with the previous week, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index, released Tuesday.

That follows two consecutive weekly declines, compared with previous weeks, as shoppers took a break after a discount-fueled spending spree over the Thanksgiving weekend, the official start of the holiday shopping season.

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Compared with a year ago, sales for the latest week rose 4.6%.

"Consumers were out in force this past week trying to complete their holiday shopping," said Michael Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers.

And there's more shopping to do. According to a poll of 1,000 shoppers by ICSC and Goldman Sachs, shoppers on average completed 70% of their holiday buying as of Sunday. That compares with 74% at the same time a year ago. And 9% of shoppers polled hadn't started their holiday buying, up from 6% last year.

The weekly index is a sales proxy for 24 major stores, including Target, Costco and Macy's.

Niemira still expects revenue at stores open at least a year for his monthly tally of retailers to be up anywhere from 3.5% to 4.0%, following a revised 2.8% increase in November.

Overall, he's predicting the measure to be up 3.5% for the combined November and December period. That's considered a healthy increase but less than the 3.8% pace during the 2010 holiday period.

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