Just a Friday for some

Retail survey says Black Friday booming but not all buying in

Some Vancouver stores are gearing up for Black Friday, but some local consumers don't believe those deals are all that.

According to a Retail Council of Canada survey taken earlier this month, almost 43 per cent of Canadians said they would likely be taking advantage of the Black Friday sales this year - something the big stores will be looking to cash in on.

“Black Friday offers amazing deals and Canadians love deals,”

Anne DeWolfe, a marketing instructor at Langara College said.

DeWolfe said Canadian companies saw this huge sales phenomenon south of the border and decided to jump on board.

Anjee Gill is the communications specialist for Best Buy Canada and said that there are more deals to be had this year than ever before, “We will have hundreds of items on sale.”

Best Buy first introduced Black Friday to its Canadian stores back in 2012 when they only had 30 items on sale, Gill said.

The RCC survey also showed that Black Friday in Canada has now surpassed the traditional Boxing Day sales as Canada’s number one sales event.

However, not all Vancouver customers are buying into the hype.

Anthony Kegaly, a marketing consultant for Salesmatter in Vancouver said he was surprised by the growth of Black Fridays popularity being that it was an exclusively a U.S. Thanksgiving pre-holiday sale, “[I] won’t be running out to purchase an item just because it’s Black Friday,” Kegaly said.

Vancouver resident David Gao lives next door to the Best Buy on Granville Street, and said that while he always buys in store, he wasn’t planning on buying anything this coming Black Friday.

“I don’t see too much difference between Black Friday and the normal sales,” Gao said.

Gursewak Singh, a computer studies student at Langara College, said he also will not be buying anything, due to more applicable special sales.