Boxing Day is here again, but lately it seems like the Christmas after Christmas hasn’t been quite as exciting for the shopaholic as in the past:
According to a Visa Canada survey, more than five million Canadians planned to hit the shops on Boxing Day. After electronics, the most sought after item was clothing.(…)
However, the Visa survey also found the number of Canadians planning to make purchase on Wednesday was 17 per cent less than in 2006, and the lowest number since 2002. Those who do decide to hit the stores are expected to spend less too.
Prowling the RedFlagDeals forums this year reveals much the same story—disappointment at lacklustre sale prices, unstable online shopping experiences, and a growing distaste for huge lines and mob rule at store opening in order to claim hot items available in extremely limited quantities. When 500 people line up outside a store hoping for a crack at 20 HD DVD players, a lot of people are bound to go home disappointed. With the diehard bargain hunters realizing that many of the Boxing Day deals aren’t much better than sale prices from the rest of the year, it looks like for the person in the know there’s really not too much point to braving the crowds and the traffic.
That said, I did pounce on one Boxing Day deal, though it’s actually been available for a couple of days now and involved no lineups, limited quantities or even leaving the house. And assuming I never need to contact Dell’s horrific warranty service for repair, I imagine it really will feel like Christmas when I get my shiny new PS3 in the mail. RedFlagDeals strikes again!

