A subdued Black Friday at retailers amid COVID-19 pandemic as sales move online

Black Friday shoppers appear to have heeded public health warnings, with more online purchases and little crowding at stores across the country against a backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases.

Many brick-and-mortar stores were deserted compared with the usual crowds and fanfare of the one-day sales bonanza that traditionally launches the holiday shopping season.

Some stores and malls had lineups, but most remained under capacity limits throughout the day.

Discounted big ticket items at bigbox stores — often among the first products to sell out on Black Friday — were still well-stocked in many locations halfway through the day.

It’s a sign that staggered Black Friday promotions, which many retailers began rolling out as early as October, as well as the push to offer more sales online, has helped curb in-store shopping.

Retail analysts said they expected most of this year’s Black Friday purchases to be online.

Ottawa tech-firm Shopify Inc. said online Black Friday sales were “off to a historic start” early in the day, with merchants that use the company’s platform breaking last year’s peak sales-per-minute record in the first three minutes at 12:03 a.m. Friday morning.

Still, some consumers across the country opted to shop in brick-andmortar stores.

In Halifax, Daniel Smith said he decided to check out the sales at a local Walmart and was surprised to find no lineup outside and very few people in the aisles.

“I can’t believe there aren’t more people here, it’s reassuring,” he said, though he added that the retail event is usually “tame” compared to the United States.

Smith’s shopping cart was filled with toys, like L.O.L. Surprise balls and a unicorn slime milkshake kit.

“It’s a good time to get Christmas presents,” he said. “There were some good deals and I’ve got a bunch of nieces and nephews to buy for.”

Meanwhile, parts of Western Canada also saw some shoppers out and about, but fewer than in previous years.

Ten minutes before a Best Buy store in northwest Calgary was set to open, there was nobody in line.

When the store opened, about 25 customers, socially distanced, were lined up waiting to get in. A sign on the door announced a limit of 164 customers and a digital check-in where people would be texted when there was space for them to shop.

“It’s a smaller crowd than I was expecting,” said Dean Rawley, who was planning to use a gift card to take advantage of the Black Friday deals.

After a record surge in COVID-19 cases this week, Alberta put in place stricter public health measures including limiting occupancy in retail businesses to 25 per cent capacity.

Rawley said he wasn’t concerned about venturing out.

“Not particularly. I’m not too worried about it,” he said. “If something happens. It happens.”