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It's not the Monday after Thanksgiving, as the news stories would have you believe. It was actually this past Monday, Dec. 11 - two weeks before the big day. Online sales that day jumped 19 percent, to $661 million, from a year earlier. In recent years, retailers have advised leaving a couple of weeks to make sure everything arrives on time. But if you look at the WSJ.com chart of retail delivery dates, most of the deadlines for standard delivery are extending into next Monday or Tuesday (expedited shipping is Dec. 20 or 21). Online retailers are getting much better at shipping merchandise quickly.
More by Mark Lacter:
American-US Air settlement with DOJ includes small tweak at LAXSocal housing market going nowhere fast
Amazon keeps pushing for faster L.A. delivery
Another rugged quarter for Tribune Co. papers
How does Stanford compete with the big boys?
Those awful infographics that promise to explain and only distort
Best to low-ball today's employment report
Further fallout from airport shootings
Crazy opening for Twitter*
Should Twitter be valued at $18 billion?
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Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted
until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.