By Brittney Matejka

Black Friday move over for Cyber Monday

Nov 24, 2017 | 5:05 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB. – Shoppers were able to take advantage of Black Friday sales at the Medicine Hat Mall, and search for the best deals and savings.

Aaron Flemming with the Medicine Hat Chamber of Commerce said Black Friday is still relatively a new phenomenon in Canada.

“A lot of local businesses are getting involved in that increase in sales and you know deals for consumers,” he said.

The deals are what Flemming explains brought Black Friday to Canada.

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“We’ve seen the trend with so much online shopping going on, businesses here are choosing to capitalize on some of the deals that are being made in the U.S. market place and being able to offer those here, so they are not losing stuff to online retail,” he said.

But Black Friday shopping can  lead people into shopping for Cyber Monday. Miranda Davies, Business Instructor at Medicine Hat College explained how businesses have adopted the American shopping tradition to keep dollars in Canada.

“We’re actually predicting in Canada to sell 6.6 billion dollars on Cyber Monday and Black Friday is an extension of that. People were going south and Canada wanted to compete head to head,” she said.

Davies, was able to explained why consumers are so keen for a deal on Black Friday.

“Christmas is a time of anxiety for a lot of people, it’s a pressure time and Black Friday is telling people: I can get it, I can be happy if I can just come and shop, like a mad person,” she said.

Black Friday has been changing over the last few years, said Davies. Many sales for Black Friday are moving online similar to Cyber Monday’s online platform. This is seen through out the regular shopping season of the year with many people choosing to shop online. Davies says either way this isn’t good for shoppers.

“We can she psychologically, the physical impact of using cash is psychologically impulses your brain, it’s a painful reaction and you don’t spend as much, but if you’re using a card, you actually don’t have the same psychological impulses happening. No synapse is actually happening in your brain, you actually have a tendency to spend more,” she explained.

Black Friday is known as the kick off to the holiday shopping season in both Canada and the United States.