Blow out! Blow out! Blow out!
The lure of a bargain drew a steady influx of bargain hunters to the Stone Road Mall on Boxing Day. And, yes, most stores were offering sales. And, it appears that Boxing Day has now completely morphed into Boxing Week.
There are some who wouldn’t mind one bit if the post-Christmas sales event started one day later.
“Boxing Day is like another Black Friday,” said Christopher Portelance, a young merchant in one of the mall’s retail outlets. “It’s the sales that bring the people in, the possibility of a good find.”
Describing his overall condition Monday morning as “a little exhausted, a little tired,” Portelance said an extra day of rest wouldn’t hurt after Christmas Day.
“I think it would be cool to have one more day off,” he said. “Especially for shop owners themselves, who have to put in all the hours. Two days off rather than one, would be nice.”
Karen Metcalf had a couple of ‘good finds’ in her arms first-thing Boxing Day morning. But she, too, could wait an extra day to shop for bargains.
“Boxing Day can be exciting,” she said. “But if the stores were actually closed today it wouldn’t make much difference to me. It would give all the retail people a day off, and I think they would like that.”
A native of England, Metcalf said her home country is currently exploring the idea of making Dec. 26 a national holiday, with stores closed.
“I think that would be a good thing for Guelph,” she said.
The mall parking lot, and parking lots all along the retail corridor on Stone Road, were filling up with vehicles by about 9 a.m. Monday. This, despite very icy conditions on residential streets in Guelph, and in defiance of an Environment Canada freezing rain warning.
Bryan Greenhalgh braved more than Guelph streets to get to the city’s largest shopping centre bright and early – he drove the roughly 45 minutes from Orangeville to do his bargain hunting. He planned to head to a giant mall in Brampton after Guelph.
“It’s just exciting, knowing there are sales of 20, 40, even 50 per cent off,” said Greenhalgh, a hockey player who mostly purchased a number of hockey-related sales items at Stone Road Mall.
“This is mostly a shopping day for me,” he said. “It’s about getting to the sales before they’re gone.”
Boxing Week will continue all week in the city.
