Cyber Monday deals lure online shoppers

Forget the mall. On Monday, it was all about the Web. Cyber Monday, now in its 10th year, marks an online shopping extravaganza for bargain hunters. This year it was expected to rack up about $3 billion

News 12 Staff

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Dec 1, 2015, 3:47 AM

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Updated 3,308 days ago

Forget the mall. On Monday, it was all about the Web.

Cyber Monday, now in its 10th year, marks an online shopping extravaganza for bargain hunters. This year it was expected to rack up about $3 billion in U.S. sales.

Many Long Islanders say they were buying or at least looking for deals today. Email inboxes were filling up with offers from Amazon, eBay and beyond.

Analysts say early deals and online shopping could take a big bite out of traditional brick-and-mortar stores' sales this year.

But experts there could be a big downside to all of the online shopping. Many sites don't collect sales tax, so that potential revenue doesn't go into state and county coffers.

"That is the major reason why the counties can't balance their budgets," says economic analyst Dr. Marty Cantor. "The sales tax revenues are down significantly, primarily due to Internet sales."