Black Friday has arrived, and many local businesses are excited about the upcoming rush of shoppers.
Tony Playter, CEO of the Regina and District Chamber of Commerce, said it’s a great opportunity for everybody to help out local businesses.
“The key is to shop local,” he stated. “You’re helping your neighbours, your friends, and their businesses grow.”
Playter said that as more people are shopping online, businesses have adjusted.
“It’s a combination,” he said. “COVID and the pandemic changed how businesses do business.”
“What we’ve noticed is that businesses have created an online option for shopping, but I think most people are happy to get out and go shop inside the store and have that personal interaction.”
Retailers have stretched deals over several weeks and offered similar discounts online, taking some of the frenzies out of the holiday shopping event.
Several big box stores, such as Best Buy and Walmart, lacked the usual early morning lineups that once epitomized Black Friday.
“We’re seeing a dilution of Black Friday as a physical shopping event where you go to the store early in the morning,” retail analyst Bruce Winder said. “It’s finally sort of hit that tipping point where it’s much less about the day, and it’s more about the shopping period.”
The elongation of Black Friday sales has lessened the urgency for consumers to shop on one particular day, said Lisa Hutcheson, managing partner at consulting firm J.C. Williams Group.
“The need to line up isn’t as necessary,” she said Friday. “Most of the retailers have been on sale a good portion of the week already.”
Experts say that Black Friday sales are expected to be strong as inflation intensifies the hunt for deals.
Yet the rising cost of living will also lead customers to “cherry pick” sales, Winder said.
Stores that offer blowout deals of up to 70 per cent off will be busy, while retailers with more tepid discounts won’t see the same traffic online or in stores, Winder said.
“If you’re a retailer and you’re trying to move something at 25 or 30 per cent off — it ain’t gonna sell,” he said.
Some retailers, especially those with high levels of inventory, such as apparel, will likely offer bigger sales in stores than online.
“If the merchandise is already there and they’re running short on space, they’ll want to turn it into cash — especially if they don’t have room to pack it up and hold it for another year,” Winder said.
Meanwhile, after years of pandemic health restrictions, shopping in brick-and-mortar stores is expected to make a comeback this holiday season, including on Black Friday.
with files from The Canadian Press
