Extreme weather and Omicron hinder Boxing Day sales, expert

Between the extreme cold weather and the rapid spread of the Omicron variant, Boxing Day sales in B.C. may take a hit.

David Ian Gray, retail advisor and founder of DIG360 says since Black Friday shopping was slow, he expects the same for Boxing Day.

“[Black Friday] was before the variant kind of took hold. So, I think between concerns about being in public places, and then any kind of weather that’s impacting us, the odds of having a robust Boxing Day are really low,” says Gray.

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Although it is too early to tell, Gray explains how Canadians usually are uninterested with annual sale days.

“We’re kind of on par with 2018 and we’re bang on with 2019 spending which was $401 on average per Canadian.”

(Courtesy DIG360)

For many small businesses, the pandemic has taken a massive toll on revenue and with growing concerns of the variant, and more people shopping online, Boxing Day does not offer smaller businesses much respite.

“We’ve got other effects like price inflation as a big thing that’s been creeping in and again, the shoppers we interviewed certainly had noticed the price effects. The supply chain will probably take the balance of the year to start to get into a better steady state again, because it’s so complicated and broken,” Gray explains.

– With files from Sonia Aslam and Martin MacMahon