{"id":20342,"date":"2017-11-25T10:04:06","date_gmt":"2017-11-25T15:04:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/?p=20342"},"modified":"2020-03-26T03:25:49","modified_gmt":"2020-03-26T07:25:49","slug":"a-canadian-black-friday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/allin\/2017\/11\/25\/a-canadian-black-friday\/","title":{"rendered":"A Canadian Black Friday"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Black<\/a>

Black Friday bargain hunters in the housewares department at Sears in the St. Laurent Shopping Centre in Ottawa. Photo: James Morgan<\/p><\/div>\n

The legend of Black Friday <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Black Friday phenomenon has moved north in recent years, but on a lighter level than in the United States.\u00a0 When Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, it\u2019s just another Thursday in Canada and the day after is really just another Friday in both countries.\u00a0 However, the day after Thanksgiving in the US has become the historic beginning of the Christmas shopping season.\u00a0 It\u2019s also the day where retailers large and small count on turning a profit and showing black rather than red on their balance sheets.\u00a0 That\u2019s what is supposed to put the black in Black Friday.<\/p>\n

What it means to retailers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Retail Council of Canada is the national organization of retail stores of all sizes.\u00a0 Michael LeBlanc, who is one of its Consultants said that Black Friday in Canada is more than just a day, it continues through the following weekend into so-called Cyber Monday\u2014the day where retailers offer big sales to encourage shoppers to buy online.\u00a0 LeBlanc acknowledged that Black Friday is not as big of a deal in Canada because it doesn\u2019t follow a major holiday, but noted that Canada has Boxing Day the day after Christmas on December 26th<\/sup> when stores have major sales while it\u2019s just another day in the US.<\/p>\n

Contrary to popular belief, Black Friday is not a day that makes or breaks the yearly earnings of Canadian retailers.\u00a0 Michael LeBlanc said it creates \u201choliday shopping momentum\u201d that helps keep customers coming into stores and malls right through until the week after Boxing Day.\u00a0 LeBlanc added that because US Thanksgiving and Black Friday are just ordinary work days in Canada, the bargain hunters tend to not go shopping until the weekend when they have more time, meaning Black Friday shopping in Canada usually hits its peak on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The St. Laurent scene<\/strong><\/p>\n

The crowds were not as big as I had expected when I checked out the situation at St. Laurent Shopping Centre in Ottawa on Friday morning.\u00a0 It was easy to find a parking space and there were no signs of the unruly customers stampeding for sales.\u00a0 Sears Canada is bankrupt and in the process of liquidating merchandise and closing all of its stores.\u00a0 The St. Laurent Sears was among the more crowded places in the mall.\u00a0 Orderly Canadians rooted through clothes, kitchen products, toys, and trying to find good deals on a Kenmore washing machine or Craftsman snowblower.\u00a0 I talked with a couple who were excited to have found Christmas toys for their grandchildren at almost half the regular price.\u00a0 I took a more cynical approach, especially after reading that Sears Canada is under federal investigation for allegedly marking up prices on purpose, before they began their liquidation sale.\u00a0 I looked around and thought the store had that trampled and picked-over look in many places.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t find socks, and thermal undershirts were nowhere to be seen.\u00a0 I ended up buying the latter at the nearby Hudson\u2019s Bay department store where there was only a modest 25% discount.\u00a0 It covered Ontario\u2019s 13% sales tax and another 12% of my purchase.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n