Canadian retailers are souping up underwhelming Black Friday sales of years past, finally appearing poised to take a chunk out of the cross-border shopping market.
What’s long been the biggest retail shopping day of the year in the United States has caused a tangible push-back in Canada, according to business owners.
“We had a lineup in here (Thursday) morning already looking for deals, so we know we're going to have a really good weekend,” said Roger Delarosbil of Signature Audio Video.
“The deals are as good if not better here. The manufacturers are giving us incentives to help us keep our consumers here.”
If you compare prices from retailers that sell on both sides of the border, they are quite similar:
- An iPod Touch costs $179 in United States Wal-Mart locations (plus extras) while in Canadian Wal-Marts, the price is $188 for just the music player.
- Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 software that costs $100 in American Staples stores sells for $110 in Canada.
- A Samsung LED TV costs the exact same amount at Best Buy stores in Canada and the United States.
The Canadian dollar is selling for $1.0027 American dollars as of 5 p.m. Thursday.
The general manager of Ottawa’s Bayshore Shopping Centre says there’s no question his stores are putting on “real sales.”
“There are door crashers, I just can't tell you what they are,” said Denis Pelletier.
“The important part of that for us is to kick off the day on the right foot and also provide additional incentives to get people in early.”
Bayshore opens at 7 a.m., with most other malls and stores opening at 8 a.m.
With a report from CTV Ottawa's John Hua
