Bargain Hunters rejoice: It’s Boxing Day!
Posted Dec 26, 2014 5:53 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
It is the day bargain hunters look forward to all year: Boxing Day!
In some cases, retailers cracked open their doors at 6 a.m. Friday.
Despite the recent rise in popularity of Black Friday in late November, Paige O’Neill — the General Manager of Chinook Centre, the city’s largest mall — says the early start to bargain shopping hasn’t hurt the numbers for December 26th and the ensuing week.
“Once Black Friday hits, the sales just continue on,” says O’Neill. “But Boxing Day is still — at least at Chinook, and probably for more Calgary centres — still that day to come out. Traditionally we hit over 90,000 to 100,000 people through the building in that day, compared to the Black Friday” (which is) “70,000.”
Chinook Centre plans to open its doors at 8 a.m. Boxing Day.
At the Northland Mall Future Shop location, customers were lined up for the 6 a.m. start to the day for door crasher specials.
But Manager Gary Crowe notes these days you can do that type of shopping from the comfort of your bed, and as early as Christmas Eve.
“You’ll be able to go and do some of your Boxing Day shopping online,” notes Crowe, “which for those that are comfortable doing the online shopping, they can avoid the line-ups and get some of those limited quantity door-crasher items without having to standing in line. But sometimes that takes all the fun out of what Boxing Day is all about.”
Nevertheless, they’re expecting 10,000 customers at the Northlands Future Shop outlet, which is open until 9 p.m. Friday. Some of those shoppers will be looking for the latest televisions.
“One LG’s really pushing this year is they’re the first on the market with the OLED tv’s or OLED’s, which is a thinner television than ever before but with better contrast ratios that haven’t been seen in televisions for a number of years, giving one of the best pictures I’ve ever seen on a television.”
On the flip side, some people will be passing on home theatres in favour of the movie theatres, and surprisingly the movie slate at the Scotiabank Cinema at Chinook also drives shoppers to the mall.
“With the theatres and seven full service restaurants,” — and the shopping complement that we have — people tend to have a long stay here at Chinook Centre, because you can come in for a movie at 11, go grab lunch, still shop and leave by four,” says O’Neill. “People can spend the whole day here.”
