Braving the cold
Local shoppers don’t let the weather keep them from Boxing Day deals
Extreme cold weather didn’t stop Hatters from hitting stores on Boxing Day, looking for extreme savings.
“We see the ‘Canadian line-up’ — where everyone sits in their truck and then five minutes before opening they line up outside,” said Jermaine Brewster, general manager of Medicine Hat’s Visions Electronics which opened at 6 a.m. on Dec. 26, with an estimated 30 people already waiting to come inside.
This is “pretty darn good,” said Brewster, considering that overnight and early morning temperatures were reaching below minus-40 C with wind chill.
Ultimately the cold doesn’t stop people from coming out for Boxing Day, said Marshall Pilatzke, general manager of Best Buy, attributing it to the Canadian spirit.
“If they want a deal, they’re here,” he said, estimating that when Best Buy opened its doors also at 6 a.m., there were 40 at the doorstep, plus others also sitting in their vehicles in the aforementioned “Canadian lineup.”
Most local stores didn’t jump on the 6 a.m. opening bandwagon — but parking lots quickly filled up with vehicles once they opened up at 8 and 9 a.m., and thousands upon thousands are expected for what’s considered in Canada one of the top shopping days of the whole year.
“Even with Black Friday, it hasn’t dampened this day at all,” said Pilatzke.
Boxing Day also means all hands on deck.
At Best Buy, Pilatzke said it means having all staff in for the day, proudly pointing to how, despite the store being bustling with customers at 10 a.m., they were coordinated and efficient enough that there was no line up for folks at the front cashiers.
For Visions, Brewster said that alongside all staff being at the store, they have seasonal help for the day — often former employees happy give up their statutory holiday to come in and work for the big day.
The big items this year for Boxing Day, said Brewster, are televisions, and — with the weather turning cold — car starters. Laptops continue to be popular as more people shift to portable computers instead of desktops, he added.
At Best Buy, the big items were Google Home, the Amazon Echo, 4K televisions, iPhones and tablets, said Pilatzke, while the “instapot” has become a must-have item for many. The 10-in-one cooker does “everything from ribs to soups to a whole roast in one pot,” he said.