While Black Friday popularity rises, Canadians say Boxing Day deals are overrated: poll

TORONTO – Canadians love a good deal, but the way they shop is changing.

A recent poll, surveying the retail attitudes of Canadians around the holidays, said that while Canadians continue to embrace the traditional shopping holiday on Dec. 26, most (70 per cent) think that Boxing Day deals are overrated.

The survey, conducted by RetailMeNot.ca, also found that 63 per cent of Canadians polled believe the shopping deals before Christmas are just as good – or better – than the deals on Boxing Day.

The past few years have seen the traditional holiday shopping days creep earlier and earlier toward U.S. Thanksgiving.

READ MORE: Cyber Monday sales in U.S. hit record $1.74B

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Black Friday and Cyber Monday attracted record crowds, and some retailers test-drove “Brown Thursday,” beginning the shopping madness a day earlier.

READ MORE: WATCH: #Walmartfights during Black Friday madness

Black Friday has been fully embraced by Canadian retailers, but experts say this is largely because of necessity in order to keep pace with U.S.-based competition.

Retailers in Canada used to a Boxing Day sales strategy continue to fine-tune their efforts in order to compete with Target and Walmart.

And their efforts appear to be working – a recent BMO survey anticipated that 47 per cent of Canadians would be enticed to buy during Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. According to BMO, Black Friday sales in 2013 were expected to grow by 15 per cent. (A clearer picture of retail figures will emerge early in the new year when companies start reporting their fourth quarter results.)

But while images of U.S. shoppers camping out in front of stores to get their hands on the few door-crasher deals becomes more and more commonplace, Canadians agree that pulling an overnighter isn’t worth it.

In fact, 96 per cent of Canadians polled by RetailMeNot.ca wouldn’t be caught camping out overnight in front of a store in order to get a deal.

Just over half of those polled (57 per cent) said they would only wait in line for a discount if the sale was more than 40 per cent off. And one-third said they would never wait in line to score a deal.

With files from Global News’ Jamie Sturgeon