While the economy is beginning to recover, unemployment is still high and money is still tight for millions of consumers. Normally that means a dip or dive in holiday spending. PriceGrabber.com just revealed a study that showed 53% of consumers planning to spend less on the holidays this year. Many (57%) intend to do this by removing acquaintances and co-workers (53%) from this year's Christmas lists.

That sounds bad for the tech industry, but it's not quite as apocalyptic as all that. Most customers seem to be looking to the Internet for much of their money-saving. 70% of those surveyed intend to do more research and comparison shopping online, as opposed to 38% last year.

Customers seem to be looking to reduce costs by cutting out gifts for acquaintances and co-workers, and finding better deals online. I don't know about the rest of you, but I seldom buy my co-workers and distant associates expensive gadgets and computers for Christmas. It looks like we're heading for a Christmas with less silly impulse purchases and the like, but not necessarily less high-tech shopping.

In fact, if the retailers play their cards right we could see a boom in sales. A bad economy makes the traditional Black Friday deals more important than ever. This study shows that consumers are going to be out deal-hunting in force this year. Gadgets are never cheaper than during Black Friday. That, coupled with increased penny-pinching sensibilities, could lead to some very impressive sales this November.