Early birds hit the Boxing Day sales

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This article was published 26/12/2014 (3967 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

At 3 a.m. this morning, Mark Rowe was sitting in his car, waiting.

Though the Californian has lived in Winnipeg for a decade, today was his first time Boxing Day door-crashing.

“I had no idea what it was going to be like. I probably didn’t need to be up that early,” he says with a rueful laugh.

Rowe joined around 60 or 70 other eager Winnipeggers in the lineup at Advance Electronics on Portage Ave, hoping to scoop up some Boxing Day deals. Those numbers are down a little from last year, when about 150 people braved the -30 C weather to be first in line and get their hands on discounted electronics.

In line right behind Rowe were John Slobodzian and his son, Kaden. They got in line at 4:30 a.m. as they do every year.

“It’s just kind of our routine but it’s the first year for Kaden,” John said.

“He wants a 32-inch TV for his bedroom, but we’ll see how it goes,” he said.

That wish put Kaden in direct competition with a lot of other customers. According to the store’s general manager Rob Olinyk, the hottest items through so far have been super-high definition 4K TVs and the stereo sound bars that go with them.

While there were fewer door-crashers this year, Olinyk said that fits with a general trend that he’s been seeing this year.

“It’s a steady pace, that’s for sure,” he said, “but it’s different this year. Boxing Week is now almost like a marathon. It’s not a sprint anymore. It’s more spread out throughout the day and the week,” he said.

Olinyk attributes some of that spread to the growing popularity of Black Friday, as Canadians adopt the traditional American mega-sale rush. The fact that so many of Advance’s customers have the week off between Christmas and New Years also helps keep things from getting out of hand. People tend to take a little more time instead of crashing the doors the way they do in the U.S., Olinyk said.

Even without last year’s out-the-door line up, Olinyk said as of 12:30 p.m. the store was still pacing ahead of last year’s sales.

Store staff handed out coffee, cookies and prizes to everyone in the morning line, including DVDs, footballs and a free pair of headphones to the first 120 customers to arrive. Once the doors close for the day at 6 p.m., There will also be draw-prizes for anyone who made purchases during the day, including tickets to the Jets, a dinner for two at 529 Wellington Steakhouse, and a 50-inch 4K TV set.

Over at Polo Park Shopping Centre, things got going around 8 a.m. At first, things were quiet but by 9 a.m. the place was packed, with line-ups stretching down the hallways for many stores.

Sisters Rachel and Jennifer Tiamzon waited in line for 25 minutes just to get into Suzie Shier because the store was at maximum capacity. Staff were only letting customers in 10 at a time.

“It’s been okay so far,” she said, just after 9 a.m. as the mall swelled with shoppers.

“We’ve been in lots of lineups already. We don’t normally come down for Boxing Day, but my sister got me a gift card for Christmas,” she said.

Jesse.Winter@freepress.mb.ca