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Boxing Day sales draw deal-hunting crowds
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CBC News
Canadians headed to shopping venues on Boxing Day in hopes of scooping up deals on everything from cameras to clothes.
There were early-morning lineups outside the West Edmonton Mall and the Eaton Centre in Toronto, where Yorkdale Shopping Centre expects more than 100,000 people to walk through its doors.
But shoppers are not working the sales in all provinces.
Future Shop, a large electronics retailer, said its stores in all four Atlantic provinces, and the northern Ontario cities of Sudbury and Sault Ste. Marie are closed because of local laws forbidding store openings on the public holiday.
There are two scenarios on the potential size of the take from the Dec. 26 bargains.
Stores started their sales early, with online divisions offering deals on Christmas Eve. And Canadians flocked to the Black Monday sales, said Moneris Solutions, which processes debit and credit card sales.
If enough shoppers opted to buy before Christmas, it could limit the volume on Boxing Day.
Consumers often Boxing Day holdouts
On the other hand, Moneris also said that electronics and camera sales dropped sharply from the 2010 pre-Christmas levels, "which may indicate consumers are holding out for Boxing Day discounts."
That's certainly the impression the CBC's Shannon Redmond got, reporting from outside Toronto's Eaton Centre on Monday morning, when there were 500 people lined up at 6 a.m.
"People want their deals," he said.
Wide-screen TVs appeared to be the object of choice. "You just see people dragging them along the floor" (because the boxes are too big to carry), Redmond said.
But if crowds are good for retailers, potential shoppers are not so enthusiastic.
"I am so not looking forward to the crowd of people that will be at the mall today. But that still won't stop me from going," one Toronto shopper tweeted Monday morning.
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