Ottawa shoppers take advantage of Black Friday deals

In recent years, Black Friday and Cyber Monday have become less about the actual days, as deals are now spread out over weeks, or even a month-long period.

For retailers it's their opportunity to clear out overstock and get them 'into the black' before the holiday shopping season.

Zacharie Cadieux is taking advantage of the savings at Best Buy on Coventry Road in Ottawa. "I'm here for Black Friday, yes, absolutely. I just got a TV; 65 inches," says Cadieux. "I did shop around online. I checked all the prices, and it was the best deal over here for this specific TV. I had a Samsung for 12 years, 50 inches, and I wanted bigger, so I went with Samsung 65."

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Diana Cheezo was also shopping for Black Friday deals with her family but doesn't think she will save much. "There's no difference anymore," says Cheezo, "that's why you don't see many people out to shop for Black Friday."

Rabbie Rahman feels Black Friday has better deals for Canadians compared to Boxing Day but doesn't feel the deals are what they used to be. "I feel like it's a lot of artificial price gouging," says Rahman, "like raising the prices or just making up higher prices and then saying it's like 40 to 50 per cent off."

While the hype around Black Friday isn't like it was in previous years, Marc Saltzman, technology columnist and host of Tech Talk on 580 CFRA, says shoppers can still score deals in the days and weeks leading up to Black Friday. "Retailers, especially this year, don't want to see any customer look elsewhere. They are advertising heavily these discounted prices long before Black Friday. You don't need to wait until November 29th in order to score a good deal, because the retailers want to move inventory (before Christmas) sooner than later."

Saltzman also suggests comparing prices at different stores online before heading out. "I would urge Canadians to make sure you download apps and visit websites that keep an eye on things you're looking for. You can sign up for deal alerts and be notified if you've got your eye on something," says Saltzman.

Retail Analyst Bruce Winder says Black Friday shoppers can score deals on wide variety of items as stores are making room for their holiday inventory. "Black Friday still has a lot of consumer electronics. It's going to have kitchen appliances, major appliances, even clothing and beauty products. The price point is all over the board," says Winder. "It's not just high-ticket items. It's lower ticket items too. It's everything right now because merchants are trying to grow their sales and profits between now and the end of the year."

With the two-month-long federal and provincial tax holiday this year, Winder believes some Canadian shoppers can save even more money on big-ticket items. "You might see more people waiting and not striking this week and early next week and waiting for that tax holiday," says Winder, "which might have people looking a little more at Boxing Day because it also applies during that time as well."