With elaborate in-store displays, early 5 am openings, and jaw-dropping sales, “Black Friday” is traditionally the busiest shopping day in the US, but a number of changes have started to bring the hysteria north of the border. The weakened economy is expected to bring larger crowds looking for a deal and retailers, intimidated with the prospect of managing the stampedes and all-night campers, are shifting more of their sales online. Combined with the stronger Canadian dollar this becomes an attractive online opportunity for Canadian shoppers. In response, many Canadian retailers, including TheSource.ca, and Apple.ca are holding their own Black Friday sales events.

TheSource.ca – Starting at midnight tonight The Source will be offering discounts on LG LCD HDTVs, Toshiba Laptops, GPS devices, digital photo frames, and headphones.

Apple.ca – Just as they are in the US, Apple is holding a special “one day shopping event”. No word yet what the online deals will be.

Newegg.ca – Many of the deals being offered through their US website will also be available through their Canada site. These include digital cameras, LCD monitors, digital photo frames, and George Foreman Grills.

Many Canadian retailers and shopping centres are also holding in-store events. Future Shop will have their “Main Event” sale tomorrow which includes a program where you can book an appointment with one of their sale associates for a tour of the deals. Here in Toronto the Eaton Centre will open early at 6am with many of their stores planning big sales as well.

Black Friday Tips

- Today is the day to sign up for an online store account. Don’t wait until the frenzy of tomorrow to go through that process.

- Research return policies and shipping and handling fees which might counter any savings a sale might offer.

- Look up retail Twitter/Facebook accounts. Many stores send out last-minute sale details through their various social networking sites.

- Most US websites (Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Amazon, etc.) will not ship to Canada. Many Canadians explore ways around this with friends or relatives in the US. Today would be the day to make those arrangements and keep in mind that some stores ship to the address associated with the credit card you use.

- While there are a number of websites that do ship to Canada, keep in mind that there might be customs fees or duties, so avoid small deals where the added border fees might cancel the savings.

- Only buy sale items. Some stores will “boost” the prices of their regular wares in order to take advantage of the hype.

- When shopping at a new online store, make sure you have a secure connection. One quick and easy way to spot this is to look at the address bar in your browser. During the check-out process, the web url should have an added s, like so: https://

 

When it comes to Black Friday online, many stores add sale items throughout the day, so it’s always worth checking in later in the day to see what’s new. Keep in mind that this coming Monday is “Cyber Monday”, when many retailers hold additional online sale events.

Here in Canada one of the best sites to use to monitor sales that are available to Canadians is RedFLagDeals.com which has an entire section devoted to Black Friday.