When my wife and I went to the nearby mall this morning to walk (boring, but it beats being out at -10 degrees) the door to the mall had a sign that said “faites de la place pour le vendredi fou” (literally “make room for crazy Friday”, although elsewhere in the mall the translation “make room for Black Friday” was added). Now Thursday is no holiday here; Canada has a Thanksgiving holiday, exactly 45 days earlier than the American one. So Black Friday makes no sense. And to all intents and purposes, the Christmas shopping season begins right after Halloween. The downtown streets and giant Christmas tree on the Place Ville Marie plaza have been up for weeks. In addition, only one store in the mall actually had a sign announcing a Black Friday sale. So it doesn’t seem to have taken, at least not this year.
A Canadian black friday makes sense, if your a merchant watching Canadians spending money in the US, its just a way of repatriating those dollars to GST land.
Declan
Yeah, it’s on its way though.
Brick and mortar stores are continuing to lose money to on-line retailers and are doing what they can to maintain customers.
Still, the price gap is ridiculous. I was in Port Huron, Michigan 3 weeks ago and bought a pair of shoes at Payless for $30. When I returned to Ottawa (just for kicks) I went into the Payless here. The exact same pair of shoes, at the exact same store name was $50. What the hell is that all about? With tax and exchange I think the shoes in Port Huron came to $34. With tax here they would have been about $57.
No wonder some of us are shopping at US on-line stores.
I have seen Black Friday stuff here in Vancouver. I assume it’s a way of getting people not to cross the border for the Black Friday sales there.
Of course, to my mind, Black Friday makes no sense in the US either, but I’m one of those grinches who feels that four weeks of Christmas (or more) rather dilutes the holiday.
I live close to the US border, so it’s a recurring theme for business owners here to scream “SHOP LOCAL!!!” while not doing much to cut their prices. I can see why the shops here are trying to cash in on this, but I’m also sure that it’s not going to catch the attention of the border hoppers. Those who care about good deals will go anyway, and those who don’t won’t be lining up for any door busters. It’s Boxing day with an extra side of cynical consumerists shaking their heads muttering about Canadian cultural standards.
I also live in Montreal, and I haven’t seen many Black Friday (Crazy Friday?) ads around. Though I don’t plan to do a whole lot of Christmas shopping this year.
We saw some Black Friday sales signs in the mall here today, too. I’m not opposed to sales, but they’re sort of bullshit - the prices don’t seem all that special.
I’ve seen Black Friday ads and signs here in Victoria. Just today, driving to/from work, actually. Didn’t notice them last week.
I’ve seen the Christmas decorations start last week, too. I’m not ready for that, but I guess it’s a scant month away now!
Our black friday is supposed to be boxing day, but even that as far as I know has not equaled the kind of price drops of yesteryear
I don’t mind Black Friday, because it never made sense to me to have all the sales be the day after Christmas.
Most of the Black Friday sales I’ve seen resemble the usual pre-Christmas sales of seasons past, they’ve just rebranded them. I did take advantage of the free shipping offered for Black Friday/Cyber Monday by a few online stores to order a fan I’ve had my eye on (shipping cost was as much as the fan when I looked a few weeks ago).
There were two “Black Friday” ads on a single Crappy Tire door the other day. I considered pasting a couple of enlarged roll-eyes emoticons over them.
The only rationale I can think of for a Black Friday in the US is that most people take that day off work to have a 4-day weekend. I do too, but I can think of better things to do than go to war in a retail store over a cut-price TV.
I’m not sure just mimicking America, same name, same date, is the smartest way to market it to Canadians. Strikes me as a half good idea, poorly executed. Needs to be rethought, in my opinion.
That brings to mind two companies, Krispy Kreme and Target. There was a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop here for about two weeks before it shut down. The Target store roll-out across Canada has been a disappointing effort so far. I’m not sure what happens when a US American success story tries to enter the Canadian market and it flops, but I suspect it comes from assuming that what works in the US will automatically work in Canada.
Krispy Kreme had an outlet here for a year or so. The day they opened, there were lineups around the block. Then business diminished and they finally closed. It seems that Walmart, damn them, is doing well. So is Costco. Home Depot too. Go figure.
I was so excited for Target. I’d heard so much about good prices, stylish products, and the like. I hated Zeller’s so much, so when two Zeller’s in Victoria were to be transformed into Targets, I thought: I’ll never go to Wal-Mart again! Yay! But… but… the Target that’s opened here first is woefully low on stock, very poorly laid out, and just a great disappointment overall. They don’t have the funky, stylish products I’d heard about, with good design, and the stock in store is incredibly small. There are huge sections with very little actual stuff for sale. It looked like a Soviet-era department store. One of this, and one of that, and lots of emptiness. And zero plus-sized clothing.
I really want to give my money to any store that is not Wal-Mart, but they are making it really, really hard.
Still, I’d rather the sales happened pre-Christmas, because I will not, not, not go shopping on Boxing Day. I just think it’s really wrong.
When I was downtown today, I noticed a few “Black Friday” posters in shop windows. Not many of them, but enough. However, they weren’t enough to entice me in, as I needed neither a new pair of glasses, a picture framed, or a shampoo and style. I did need some coffee; but sadly, the coffee shop had nothing on sale.
I think we’ve been in a Target store twice, mostly to check it out, and I don’t think we bought anything either time. We didn’t see anything in there that was particularly interesting or unique or that enticed us to come back and shop there. Overall, our response was about 100% “meh.”
I totally agree. Although I visited a Target in Port Huron, Michigan last month and had the same reaction. I didn’t see much difference between Target Port Huron and Target Ottawa. The food selection is shitty, The shoe selection is shitty. I didn’t comprehensively browse much else, but I did notice the jeans were priced the same in both countries (amazingly) so if you want a pair of $17 Wranglers you’ll get the same deal in Canada.