Tis the season to shop for a marketplace. I'm Sabree Beneshore in for David Brancaccio.

Tomorrow is Black Friday, the biggest shopping day of the year and what we think of as the official start of the holiday shopping season.

The National Retail Federation expects consumers to set records this year with more than 183 million people

planning to shop between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. And by the end of the season,

consumers are expected to spend $902 per person on gifts, food, and decorations. That is the

highest spending on record. Marketplaces Kristen Schwab has more.

Marshall Cohen has been going out on Black Friday every year for the last couple decades.

It's his job as a retail analyst at Sircana.

I look at the parking lot. I look at how crowded the mall is. I look at how long the register

lines are. I look at the prices of the items and make comparisons to years past.

This year, Cohen might do a little shopping himself.

He needs a new laptop.

And he's not alone.

Cohen says self-gifting makes up about a quarter of holiday spending.

And with this fall being unusually warm, there might be extra demand.

Consumers, well, they haven't bought a lot of sweaters. They haven't bought a lot of cold weather boots.

They haven't bought a lot of product that they would normally have bought already.

Cohen says retailers are trying to capitalize on that by setting the stage for impulse shopping with more door buster deals than they have in recent years.

But just because people are willing to spend doesn't mean they aren't being cautious.

Lupin Skeli, retail research leader at Deloitte, says people are more brand agnostic this year.

And we're just seeing this value-seeking behavior across income groups.

It's a reason why retailers started Black Friday deals as early as Halloween,

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