Millions of American shoppers returned to shop and spend at retail stores over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, as foot traffic rose 61 percent compared to last year, according to RetailNext, but still below pre-pandemic numbers. Though sales have rebounded from the 2020 pandemic sales slump, Black Friday traffic at brick and mortar stores this year is 28.3 percent lower compared with 2019. “It’s clear shoppers are shopping earlier this season, just as they did last season,” said Brian Field, the senior director of global retail consulting at Sensormatic Solutions, told CNBC. He believes that shoppers are still concerned about new COVID-19 variants and product shortages in the supply chain. Online retail had dropped $0.9 billion compared to 2019, with $8.9 billion in sales this weekend, according to data from Adobe Analytics. Online performance for Amazon brands this year seems to be underwhelming compared with the bumper 2020 sale event, according to Forbes. …