Americans spent almost 13 percent more this past holiday weekend compared to the same period last year, according to the National Retail Federation.

But does the weekend binge mean we are actually spending more? Julia Coronado, chief economist at BNP Paribas, says not necessarily: “This pulls forward shopping from other days and later weeks. A lot of it is just deal-centered concentration of shopping rather than an absolute increase in how much we’re buying.”

Yet retailers are still pulling out all the stops with a litany of shopping events this season — Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Mobile Tuesday. Coronado explains: “Consumers are still cash-strapped, they’re looking for a deal, and retailers are competing with eachother to deliver that to them.”