Calgarians flock to city's big box stores to take advantage of Boxing Day savings

It's typically one of the busiest shopping days of the year and Monday was no different, with stores reporting lines of people waiting to drop money on flashy deals.

Staff at Best Buy at Deerfoot Meadows say about 100 people were lined up, ready to go inside to find the best deal on all electronics.

"Black Friday is obviously a very busy day for us, but Boxing Day is one of our biggest sales events of the year," said store leader Steve Toews.

"It's been really amazing with customers this year – we've seen a large inflow of people coming through."

Toews says flat-screen TVs, gaming devices and all the latest tech gadgets were flying off the shelves.

"We definitely see a big influx of TVs – a lot of you are looking for that. Computers, as well. Very big. Appliances," said Toews.

"We've seen a huge lift as well for headphones – like everything is on at a great deal right now, so we've seen a lot of people looking for that."

One retail analyst says Boxing Day is generally a day of shopping where consumers treat themselves, and not others like they do for Christmas.

"It has been watered down over time and so we're seeing even in physical stores, pre-Christmas, Boxing Day sales and discounts there," said David Ian Gray, with DIG360.

"We also know with our research about half of Canadians sit out Black Friday and Boxing Day, (as) they just don't like the mayhem or the crowds."

Gray says this is the first year retail stores have been able to gauge interest in consumer habits since COVID-19.

"I think the trend coming out of the pandemic is more pragmatic shopping than sort of joyful shopping," said Gray.

Analysts say the shopping period between the middle of November to the end of December is only about 12 per cent of the year, but accounts for 50 per cent of the revenue for most retail stores.