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 "The right thing for us to do is drop prices and let Canadians shop right here at home," says South Winnipeg Wal-Mart's Johnson. (Sun Media photo) |
Canadian retailers are chopping prices in hopes of seeing more green on Black Friday.
Large Canadian retailers are hoping Boxing Day-like prices this weekend will keep more Canadian shoppers from heading south of the border to take advantage of one the biggest annual discount shopping weekends in the U.S.
Wal-Mart, Sears and Canadian Tire are all rolling out special discounts this weekend in hopes of keeping shoppers at home.
Black Friday kicks off the annual holiday shopping season today, the day after American Thanksgiving, with door-crasher and loss-leader specials drawing customers to shops sometimes as early as midnight.
While Canadian retailers won't take things to those extremes, they hope sales will keep some bucks at home.
Wal-Mart is holding its "Big 2-Day Event" starting tomorrow, and is lowering prices on some items southbound shoppers may be looking for including consumer electronics, toys and housewares.
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CHALLENGE
"We need Canadians shopping in Canada," said Valdimar Johnson, store manager of the Winnipeg South Wal-Mart on Kenaston Boulevard.
Johnson knows it's a challenge, with the relative strength of the Canadian dollar and the U.S. recession sparking big price cuts.
"What we're going to do is work harder and the right thing for us to do is drop prices and let Canadians shop right here at home," he said.
Sears Canada held its "Boxing Day Prices" sale last weekend and is bringing it back for one more day today. Canadian Tire is featuring its seventh annual "Biggest and Best Sale of the Year" starting today and running all weekend.
Winnipegger Lisa Thomson Stifora is making her third straight trip to North Dakota for Black Friday today and said sales north of the border likely wouldn't make her shop at home next year.
"It's just not the event it is when you go down to the states and your goal is to shop until you drop," she said.
Thomson Stifora, family and friends hit the road about 1:30 a.m. today to be sure they arrived in time for stores opening at 4 a.m. She characterizes the shopping experience as being like Canadian Boxing Day on steroids.
"I'd say it's a little bit more intense," she said, recalling lineups snaking back around the store on themselves at Target last year.
She said shoppers in North Dakota don't have to look far to find a fellow Manitoban.
"There are Manitoba licence plates all over the place," she said.
jason.halstead@sunmedia.ca