We didn’t see the frenzy of yesteryear on Boxing Day Monday in Montreal. Not many queues waiting for hours in front of the shops doors. There was also no crowd in front of the electrical retailers, which were particularly busy on December 26th.
Posted 8:08am Updated 4:04pm
Has this post-Christmas tradition essentially gone virtual?
“Boxing Day is the continuation of the Christmas celebration,” said Benoit Duguay, a professor in UQAM’s School of Management Sciences, who believes the December 26 sales are here to stay and that customers will always come to the stores.
“Consumption is above all pleasure,” explains the professor, who believes that people will increasingly want to shop locally, to be able to touch the clothes they want, than to shop online. .
According to Benoit Duguay, the trend of the last few months confirms this.
“We know online sales were up a lot before the pandemic. It apparently exploded during the pandemic, he says. However, the past few months have seen a drop in online sales. It’s a realignment, to the point where Amazon had to lay off employees. »
PHOTO PASCAL RATTHE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
There weren’t many queues waiting for hours outside the store doors, even at the electronics stores, which are usually particularly busy on December 26th.
Above all, the professor recalls, when consumers think about the environmental footprint of their purchases, they will avoid taking home items that they might later return.
Busy day in the plaza
Yesterday at noon we saw more people on the sidewalks of the Plaza Saint-Hubert than on a normal Monday, but there weren’t any crowds.
“It’s like a Saturday,” confirms Fabien from the Neon shop, which was pretty full. The same applies to neighboring shops, which were open on December 26th, which was not the case for all.
In fact, the only customer line that had formed in the plaza was outside the Medieval Dracolite store just before it opened at 1pm.
According to the site’s manager, Patrice de Villiers, the idea of offering members additional discounts only for products bought in-store had paid off. The atmosphere was indeed cheerful and there were many shoppers looking for bargains. “We also decided to do a boxing week starting today,” he said.
PHOTO PASCAL RATTHE, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Several customers took advantage of the discounts in the medieval Dracolite store.
According to Professor Benoit Duguay, the traditional side of the sale will remain after Christmas, although on the night of the 25th to the 26th we no longer see people queuing in front of the shops with the best bargains. “Nevertheless, it remains a folklore, he says, a tradition. »
However, he notes that many consumers have chosen to shop closer to home rather than drive to central Montreal, particularly when driving for bargain hunting. Mall stores are likely to do better deals than those in Montreal for Boxing Day sales this year, according to Benoit Duguay.
great expectations
Some traders had high expectations for December 26th.
A survey released this fall by the Retail Council of Canada (RCDC) suggests consumers are tempted by shopping on December 26 to take advantage of the holiday deals.
It was the first time since December 2019 that consumers could visit commercial establishments to take advantage of post-Christmas sales without facing COVID-19-related health restrictions.
When the survey, conducted by the firm Léger, was released in late October, the President of the Retail Council of Canada for Quebec, Michel Rochette, said he expected Quebecers to return to in-person celebrations and in-store shopping this year. He also felt that Quebecers’ financial worries would not affect their habits.
According to last August’s survey of 2,505 Canadians, six out of 10 respondents were affected by economic hardship, but most participants intended to spend about the same amount, $790 each, as they planned to spend in 2021. That average rose to $588 in Quebec this year.