Canadian shoppers, always on the lookout for a bargain, look to push Black Friday sales into unprecedented territory this week.
The promotional blitz that spread from the U.S., in large part as Canadian retailers tried to stem cross-border shopping, has been centred on the last Friday in November, right after American Thanksgiving.
This year, though, the deep discount push is morphing into a Black Friday week as Canadian retailers scramble for every available dollar in a highly competitive market
RedFlagDeals.com, the website and app for bargain hunters, has seen significant growth in the number of retailers wanting Black Friday flyers posted.
Some statistics suggest Canadian shoppers are doing more holiday shopping earlier than they used to.
Sales at electronics and appliance stores have been rising more than normal in November, and then falling a little more than normal in December, one expert said, noting Statistics Canada figures that show December sales of electronics down 6% in 2012 and 9% in 2013.
But the seasonally adjusted figures show electronics sales have increased almost 7% in each of the last two Novembers.
But any shift in consumer spending doesn't necessarily translate into a complete demise of Boxing Day.
One expert thinks most of the broader shift of spending from December to November is pre-Christmas spending being pulled into November when the Black Friday sales come up, "not necessarily Boxing Day but there probably might be some impact there, too."
RedFlagDeals is waiting to see if consumers do spend more of their money on Black Friday this year, and what effect that might have on Boxing Day, but a spokesman for the site doesn't see that day as totally doomed.
