Boxing Day used to be the biggest retail day of the year in Canada but it’s been replaced by a long standing shopping tradition from south of the border.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday, have taken off in our country but the The President of the Kamloops Chamber of Commerce, Joshua Knack was on Radio NL and wondered if the two days are as big a deal as they seem. “It’s hype, right? And it gets people out there and there’s the perception that if I don’t buy it right now, I’m going to end up paying more and I think retailers are certainly using that and maybe there’s some advantage to consumers on that but it is interesting how much of it has shifted from the U.S. up to Canada.

“I mean the Friday and the Monday are clearly around US Thanksgiving.”

Knack says that convenience comes at a price and consumers are taking notice. “The momentum shifted to everything being automated but now people are missing that face to face contact and hopefully that translates again back to your shop local that’s what we want to see as a chamber, that’s for sure.”

Knack added while the convenience of online shopping is undeniable, there’s something about shopping in person that can’t be replaced. “For me, there’s a relationship that you develop.”

“There’s a retailer downtown that I buy almost any clothing that I need I buy from there because there was one period of time that I needed a suit in 24 hours and he made sure that happened. I can’t get that through Amazon, that’s for sure.”