OTTAWA: Annika Reid misses the years she cross-border shopped til she dropped on Black Friday.
“It was a ritual,” says the Toronto plus-size fashion blogger. She explains she and friends would sometimes hit the road at midnight to get early dibs on big sales in Buffalo, N.Y.
“Stores are open all night. So we would be there, all night shopping and finish the day probably around noon and then go to the hotel and [pass] out.”
But that was the past. This is the second year in a row Reid is sticking to home for the event. “The main thing that keeps me here now is the drop of the loonie.” As the Canadian dollar dives, so does interest in hitting U.S. malls for Black Friday.
It’s traditionally an American shopping bonanza full of deep discounts that begins Friday and often runs for days after. But with the loonie stagnant at around at 74 cents US, many Canadians now find U.S. bargains are no longer enticing.
“When things were close at par, it would be much more of a deal,” says Reid about those hazy cross-border shopping days. “I would come [home] with a car full of things.”
