Move Over Boxing Day, Black Friday Enters The Ring
Prince George, BC – Whether you regard last weekend’s leap of Black Friday deals and Cyber Monday sales into Northern BC as a black mark on our sovereignty or as a bonus for the consumer, there’s no denying it kick-started the Christmas shopping season…
The majority of chain retailers in Prince George and local businesses, as well, had at least one promotion tied to the American marketing campaign which begins the day after US Thanksgiving and continues through the weekend, with cyber sales into the week.
According to a report released by Canada’s largest debit and credit card processing company, Moneris Solutions, Canadians spent 6.51-percent more this Black Friday compared to last year, and Cyber Monday saw an increase of 22.54-percent over last year.
"Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been popular shopping days with our neighbours south of the border for years. Thanks to the unprecedented number of Canadian merchants and consumers who embraced them this year, these two shopping days are becoming a mainstay in Canada," said Moneris Solutions Marketing Vice-President, Malcolm Fowler. "While there have been concerns that overall spending may decrease this holiday season, Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending are encouraging for Canadian retailers going into December."
The Marketing Manager at Pine Centre Mall, Sandra Raymont, says while shopper traffic was on par with last year, there was a 20-percent increase in unique visitors to the mall’s website to check out the deals being offered by retailers. Raymont says, "From a retailer’s point of view, and from a shopper’s as well, Black Friday seems to be meaning more than it has in the past."
Black Friday has routinely been the busiest shopping day in the United States since 2005, according to the international customer traffic tracking company, ShopperTrak.
Comments
Canadian black Friday is a sad joke.
While I am happy for merchants, I really don’t think Canada needs Black Friday. Is that what our holidays have become; a reason to spend more and reasons for corporations to advertise to us to spend more money.
Signed
Sick and Tired of Consumerism
I’m with bornandbred
Just opt out. I did years ago.
So why do we not create White Wednesday before US Thanksgiving and beat the US to the good sales …. inundate the web and the border stores and accept US currency on par.
Let’s lead for a change. In stores near the border we could certainly compete quite well. They would just have to make sure they come across with a full tank of gas. …LOL
Its the same with chritmas
Why do we hae all this hype about white friday, black friday and all these dumb sales in consumer goods.Are we as consumers not inteigent enough to make our own choices?
We arem being led down the garden path by hawkers and cant see the light.
Cheers
The retailers are always dreaming up new ways to part consumers from their money, this is not a new concept.
Buy into the hype, or don’t… It’s your choice.
I do not care if it is Boxing Day, Black Friday … Pink Tuesday … or a closing out sale….. if there is an item I want to buy, and it is being sold for half price and I can save a few hundred dollars …. I figure that is a good deal ….. I’ll get it, and then go home and enjoy it …..
The savings will make up the difference I have in paying for gasoline in PG rather than Kamloops or Ferndale.
As far as going “window shopping”, I’ll wait till the feeding frenzy has stopped and go then.
JohnnyBelt, it’s not me I worried about buying into the hype, it’s the children. They don’t have the mental capacity to make the right choice based on what they are exposed. And, yes, parents can limit their exposure somewhat but not completely.
What do you expect when there’s such a focus solely on having “full employment” that we lose sight that the ‘job’ itself is not the be all and end all of everything? We ‘produce’ PRIMARILY to ‘consume’ ~ not so someone can have a job, or some business can book a profit. These are only secondary effects of the primary reason for production ~ consumption.
It’s consumer demand that’s the only sane origin of all economic activity. No consumption, no production. No production, no jobs. So if modern consumerism sickens you, then full employment in a world that already produces a glut of everything must sicken you too.
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