During the last weeks of October and early weeks of November, the number of unique visitors to the top Web sites offering previews of Black Friday sales, such as bfads.net, has quickly been increasing. Week-over-week, traffic to these sites has increased 87 percent, from 3.8 million unique visitors during the week ending Nov. 8 to 7.0 million during the week ending Nov. 15.

“As we saw in our recent online holiday survey, consumers plan on bargain hunting more extensively this year in order to save money and many view the Internet as the place to do this,” said Maya Swedowsky, associate research director, Nielsen’s online division. “Multi-channel retailers can leverage these Black Friday Web sites to draw consumers into their brick-and-mortar stores on the big day.”

Among the top Web sites dedicated to Black Friday deals and previews, TGI BlackFriday was the fastest growing in terms of unique visitors, increasing 154 percent week-over-week during the week ending Nov. 15. BlackFriday.fm and BlackFridayAds.com were the No. 2 and No. 3 fastest growing, increasing 125 and 114 percent, respectively.

Consumers are also spending more time on these sites, scoping out the best deals on the perfect gift. Total minutes spent on the top deal sites increased 763 percent over the last four weeks, from 6.3 million minutes during the week ending Oct. 25 to 54.6 million minutes in the week ending Nov. 15.

In addition to searching for Black Friday deals online, shoppers are actively discussing the deals they plan to take advantage of, both in-person and online. Amazon’s Black Friday deals were the most buzzed about during the last 30 days, with Wal-mart and Best Buy coming in at No. 2 and No. 3.

“Shoppers aren’t the only ones generating buzz about Black Friday deals. Retailers are taking advantage of social media and using it as a channel to share sneak previews of deals and to get shoppers excited,” commented Swedowsky.

These early marketing activities have led to a boost in buzz for some retailers. Staples, one of the first retailers to announce details about its holiday deals on Facebook and Twitter, ranked 9th among the most buzzed about Black Friday shopping destinations.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, we expect to see an increasing number of retailers using the Internet and Social Media to drive in-store and Internet sales.

Supermarket shoppers in markets like Hartford and New Haven, Conn., Pittsburgh, and Boston spend significantly more, percentage-wise, on ready-made Thanksgiving-related food products than average American consumers, Nielsen reported Thursday.

Hartford/New Haven residents were the top consumers of stuffing products, spending 44% more than average American consumers during the 52 weeks ending September 6, 2008.

During the same period, shoppers in Pittsburgh dominated sales of canned gravy, spending 119% more than average Americans, while Boston consumers spent 194% more than average Americans on New England’s signature fruit condiment, cranberry sauce, according to Nielsen.

But when it comes to Thanksgiving dessert, northeasterners can’t compete with their neighbors to the south, who purchased the lion’s share of frozen pies.

Little Rock, A.R., Birmingham, A.L., and Memphis, Tenn. topped Nielsen’s ranking of the top markets for frozen pie sales.  Shoppers in these three markets spent 75% to 102% more on frozen pies than average Americans.

Nielsen’s Dollar Sales Index reflects a category’s share of total dry grocery sales for a Nielsen market versus the total U.S., using supermarket dollar sales over the most current 52-week period.

The Hartford/New Haven market’s index of 144 for the Stuffing product category, for example, reveals that supermarkets in that particular market sell 44% more stuffing products, relative to total dry grocery purchases, than the national average.

In 2007, ad spending for stuffing mixes increased 10,800% from the late summer months (Q3 2007: $45,180) to the fall (Q4 2007: $4.9 million).

During the same time frame, ad spending on products within the Pie Crust category grew from literally nothing (Q3 2007: $0) to $3.3 million.

Meanwhile, ad spending within the Gravy Mix category grew from nothing (Q3 2007: $0) to $920,358 in the fourth quarter, and ad spending within the Cranberry Sauce category grew from nothing (Q3 2007: $0) to $939,112.

What about the turkey?

Surprisingly, poultry ad spending declined by 24% from Q3 2007 ($15 million) to Q4 2007 (almost $11.4 million).