With Black Friday shopping in full effect, Lethbridge shoppers are taking advantage of the season of deals.
“We’ve got a lot of happy customers today,” said Jesse Nordin, store lead for Best Buy in Lethbridge. “Very exciting times to have a basically restriction-free Black Friday again. It feels great, it feels back to normal.”
Nordin said customers have been streaming in all day to get in on the deals, starting their shopping as early as 8 am on Friday.
“This is one of the busiest shopping days of the year, pretty much right on par with boxing day these days, so we’re looking to have an awesome Black Friday,” said Nordin.
These big bargain events can sometimes mean locally-owned shops get left in the dust.
“Some of our downtown businesses do have Black Friday sales. They’re not going to be outdone by the big boxes,” said Sarah Aimes, executive director of the Downtown BRZ.
Aimes explained how supporting local offers a one-of-a-kind experience.
“You become really friendly with the folks within the stores and they start to curate their shelves based on what the customer needs are,” said Aimes. “So you’re getting this really unique, individualized service when you’re shopping local in the smaller stores.”
Additionally, money spent in locally-owned shops tends to have more of an impact.
“From every $100 spent in the community, between $68 to $73 actually stays in the community and further revives economic growth,” said Aimes.
Nordin says although Best Buy is a large company, it also has a big impact on Lethbridge’s bottom line.
“We all have local people working for us as well, so it’s all helping everything go into the local economy,” said Nordin.
Although asking shoppers to stay away from big box and online deals may not be realistic, Aimes hopes southern Albertans will invest a lot of their holiday shopping dollars close to home.
“I know Black Friday is a big thing with huge deals everywhere. Don’t ignore the downtown because the good deals are also downtown,” said Aimes.