Downtown Vancouver streets were lined with eager shoppers ducking into and out of brand-name stores looking for their Boxing Day bargain.
At Future Shop on Granville and Robson, store manager John Kennedy turned on the air conditioner to keep shoppers browsing in winter coats cool at 65 F degrees. It’s the single-largest shopping day of the year for the electronics retailer, and in-store sales still outstrip online sales – still “livin’ large,” he said – despite the growth of pre-Christmas discounts.
The first customer arrived just after midnight to make sure he got his DJ-quality Monster brand headphones at 50 per cent off, for $149.99.
Vanessa Godinho, a second year Western University student home for the holidays, was already bored as her father Rory and a salesman debated LCD versus Plasma when it comes to flat-screen TVs. He settled on LCD while Godinho finished her Starbucks, sitting on the floor.
“I just want to go to Zara,” she said. But her dad wasn’t quite done shopping even after saving $400 on the flat-screen 55-inch Samsung.
Zara, the fast-fashion store on Robson, was jammed with shoppers looking to save $10 on coloured denim or $20 on leopard-print ankle boots. There were nearly as many boyfriends outside avoiding the line-up for the cash register, which snaked halfway around the inside of the store.
Sabrina Roman waited 20 minutes to save $60 on a wool pea coat and a knitted sweater for her daughter.
She said she was spending her Christmas money and otherwise wouldn’t be shopping for extra.
“It seems like there are a lot of good deals before Christmas, and things kind of seem picked over by Boxing Day,” she said.
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In Toronto, eager shoppers lined up in sub-zero temperatures outside downtown stores while others scoured the Eaton Centre mall for savings.
Griffin Courtice, 17, got a 5 a.m. lift to Best Buy, braving the morning cold to stand in line with dozens of people an hour before the store opened its doors.
The teen said he set his sights on a deeply discounted TV, the nearly half-off sale price deemed worth the pre-dawn wake-up call and “mind-blowing” lineup.
Despite growing competition from the U.S.’s Black Friday – the annual day of drastic markdowns held the Friday after American Thanksgiving – Courtice said the bargains found on Boxing Day are nothing to sleep through.
“Even though Black Friday may have been a bit more intense, a bit crazy, people are still getting good sales,” Courtice said while clutching a 32-inch flat-screen TV.
A new survey commissioned by the Bank of Montreal suggests Canadians continue to embrace the Boxing Day tradition this year.
The Pollara survey of 1,000 Canadians found that roughly six in 10 respondents planned to shop on one of the busiest business days of the year for retailers.
The survey suggested Alberta would see the most transactions Wednesday, with 76 per cent of respondents saying they planned to take advantage of Boxing Day bargains. Atlantic Canada was next at 72 per cent, followed by Ontario at 69 per cent.
Quebec was expected to see the lightest Boxing Day shopping, with just 36 per cent of respondents saying they planned to take part in the annual shopping extravaganza.
The survey also found that men were more likely than women to take advantage of Boxing Day sales at a rate of 66 per cent versus 58 per cent.
One-in-five, or 22 per cent, said they planned to shop for themselves, while 34 per cent said they would buy items for both themselves and others.
The survey was conducted between Oct. 11 and 16. and the results are considered accurate plus or minus 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Despite the survey’s findings regarding Quebec, several major electronic and clothing stores in downtown Montreal drew big lines on Wednesday.
A crowd of bargain hunters waited for hours outside a big-box retail store despite frigid temperatures.
Fabiola Ruiz, 31, split the waiting duties with her mother and brought along her eight-year-old daughter for company as well.
“It’s very cold, but it’s worth it,” she said, sipping coffee to keep warm.
“We’re looking for deals for the whole family.”
Future Shop spokesman Elliott Chun said most shoppers ducking into the electronics chain on its busiest day of the year are looking to fulfill their own desires.
“We’re seeing customers coming in with their gift cards, with their Christmas cash and they’re starting to spend it on themselves,” he said, adding the average transaction on Boxing Day tops $500.
Chun said Black Friday isn’t sapping the enthusiasm of shoppers, noting that hundreds lined up early at Future Shop stores across the country, some arriving the night before to camp out for a prime spot in line.
Meanwhile, BMO Vice-President Su McVey said in a statement that bargain seekers should take Boxing Day buys into account when figuring out how much they’ll spend over the holiday period.
Robert Knowles, 56, said he didn’t work Boxing Day spending into his holiday budget this year, but that the $50 computer printer he nabbed Wednesday in Toronto isn’t going to break the bank.
“I’m not very good at budgeting (for) it other than not to spend too much money,” he said before heading home with his purchase.
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