By Taylor Chartrand

Hatters take advantage of Boxing Day deals

Dec 27, 2018 | 3:52 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – Once Christmas finished up and people may not have unwrapped exactly what they wanted, their focus shifted to the next best thing: Boxing Day.

Residents of Medicine Hat packed the halls of the mall yesterday, as well as numerous other retailers throughout the city, as they looked to cross items off their wish list or spend some of those gift cards they may have received.

Boxing Day deals within the mall ranged anywhere from 10 – 80% off and staff at the mall described yesterday’s atmosphere as ‘absolute chaos’, but in a good way.

WEST 49 Manager Ashly McLeod said heading into this years Boxing Day, she wasn’t sure how things were going to go.

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“Lately, people have been struggling financially due to the poor economy,” said McLeod, “Because of that, I didn’t think we’d be overly busy, but I’m happy to say I was wrong and we doubled our projected sales target.” 

McLeod said WEST 49 sales on Boxing Day also surpassed their Black Friday numbers as well, making it one of their busier, if not the busiest, days of the year.

In addition to the downturn in the economy, McLeod believed the uncertainty of mail deliveries from Canada Post may have also tempted shoppers to buy local, rather than shopping online.

“It’s easier that way anyways because you can feel the material, you know what you’re getting and you can try it on. That way there’s not that problem of having to come back and do returns.” 

McLeod said thankfully after several years in the retail industry, she’s happy to report customers this year were in a relatively good mood.

“For the most part they were pretty friendly. You get the odd customer that comes in that’s relatively grouchy, but we don’t really take that to heart. We just get them through to the line and help them to the best of our ability.”

Switching gears a little bit, Bart Greven is the Assistant Manager over at Visions Electronics.

Greven spent 4 years at a Visions location in Lethbridge, but this was his first Boxing Day in Medicine Hat. 

He said he appreciated the way Hatters treated the staff at Visions this year.

“It was definitely a bit of a different environment for sure,” explained Greven. “We had a lot more support from the community itself. Great energy from the people, great energy from the staff and we tried to make it as smooth as possible for those Boxing Day shoppers.” 

Greven then echoed the McLeod’s comments by saying the poor economy and postal disruptions may have played a factor in this years Boxing Day totals.

“If shoppers are having issues with the postal service, it may persuade them to come in to the retailer themselves. Also, with the downturn in the economy, people were looking for the best deals. As a competitive retailer, we try our best to make sure shoppers get the best deal available and hopefully that sends them home happy.” 

Now although there may have been a ton of foot-traffic at several Medicine Hat retailers this year, those numbers conflict a recent survey conducted by RetailMeNot.

Of the 1,150 people to participate in the survey, 74% said they would avoid shopping malls or stores on Boxing Day/Week due to the crowds.

The survey concluded that Albertans are the most likely people from any province to avoid shopping malls during Boxing Day/Week, as 79% reported they were planning to stay as far away as possible.

And maybe that’s no surprise, as 55% of Canadians said they believe there are better deals online than in the stores.

The survey also found that only 10% of Canadians were willing to stand in a line for two or more hours waiting for a deal.