Boxing Day is Dead

[igotskill]

I agree, Scott. It's been about 10years since the good ol A&B Sound crazy boxing day sales. Gone are those days. I also agree with you about the online shopping from BB/FS. While the deals are nowhere near as good as they use to be. At least we can cherry pick those few items online and sleep in boxing day.

If you've ordered from FS online boxing day before you know how much of a nightmare the site can be at the time, but atleast you get to sleep in :P

[Falcon2004]

Maybe some of us feel Boxing Day is dead because we have already bought everything that has been on sale, price error, and one day only, clearance, special coupon codes, price match and any other deal that may have come along. Most of us on here probably already have 3-4 TV’s, a projector, Xbox, ps3, Wii, 2 Kitchenaids, 2 ipad’s, 2 laptops, 5 drill and impact driver combos, 2 Lawn mowers, 2 snow blowers, 10 hard drives, 2 surround systems, 3 monitors, 4 routers, a museum of cell phones and countless of unopened boxes of small appliances and power tools stuffed in the basement. We even got deals on sheds just to put all this stuff in.

Our wives are telling us that we can’t bring anything else home until we get rid of some of the junk (deals) we have collected over time. But still we come back here time and time again just hoping to score the next big deal just to retire a perfectly good product we already have.

Some of us got so much stuff and at great deals that it seems like deals just aren’t what they used to be!

But don’t stop checking this site because you never know when that Retailer may surprise you or some employee made a typo mistake.

Just remember when you get home to enter through the back door and have spot on the shelf in the basement and when the time is right you can bring it upstairs.

Good Luck in hunting for the next deal!

Now to have to watch the TV series Coach, season 6, episode 6 for a good laugh. It is on your XBMC apple TV 2; you must have a couple of them.

http://www.tv.com/shows/coach/uneasy-riders-22152/

[wwedx]

I would wait untill you see the walmart and BB/FS flyer before saying this.

[MikeAK]

If you've ordered from FS online boxing day before you know how much of a nightmare the site can be at the time, but atleast you get to sleep in :P

Never had an issue.

[KC108]

If you've ordered from FS online boxing day before you know how much of a nightmare the site can be at the time, but atleast you get to sleep in :P

I know exactly what you're talking about. It's a struggle just to make it all the way through the checkout process.

[Chew300ZX]

I think the issue is that we RFDers are better tuned in to the deals all year round than most people and are more aware of how boxing day prices stack up than the general public. We are harder to please and most shoppers are easy to please, most will look at the flyer and spot something they want and conclude "it's in the BD flyer, that must be a great deal!"

It seems that retailers test the waters a little more each year as to how little of a discount they can offer and always get favourable results. Why cut into margins and make it up on volume when they can have margin AND volume?

All that being said, I find the 'thrill of the hunt' to be fun and still go out almost every year and buy a few things, but I haven't bought a big ticket item in 4 or 5 years, if not more. I just get a couple of cheap video games and DVD/Blurays these days usually.

[wilsonlam97]

This is a sad realization for all RFDers.

[KC108]

Is there a point to cross the border on Boxing Day to go shopping for clothing? Or will the prices be the same as on a regular day?

[oakjefferson]

honestly, I think Boxing week being dead is partly a good thing, and partly optics. The internet has changed the competitive landscape, so some of the issue is that the deals are stronger year round than they used to be, hence the gap between those sales and Boxing Day (still need to make money) is smaller - ESPECIALLY if you're an RFDer and know pretty much any deal in the market at any given time from someone posting. In addition, it's a bit of a "I used to walk 4 miles uphill each way" syndrome - without the internet 10 years ago it was tough to get a grasp just how good the deals were - either against comp or history for the last year. I doubt the deals were as blockbuster as you remember them being.

Also - only have to discount as much as is needed to sell. If the sheep line up, why change?

3 posts after already "back in the day"

[Minimal Effort]

A few posts in this thread are incredibly well-written. Thanks for the read and a laugh.


RFD is the definition of penny-pincher. I have seen stuff like 'yeah this is 820, but before it was 799. I wont buy unless its under 800'

Its.. twenty bucks.. 2.5%...

These prices
ARE TOO DAMN π !

[heywhatsmyname]

I'm predicting in 5 years Boxing Day will have lost some of its significance to Canadians as Black Friday becomes more prominent in Canada.

Boxing Day (or week) is becoming an event where people are able to use the gift cards they received for Christmas. Modestly discounted products with an almost carnival like shopping atmosphere.

[ryanmission]

Shopping was ruined by online shopping.
Online shopping was ruined by online shopping.

Old news..

[zod]

I agree and the fact that retailers now offer Black Friday deals to compete with the US, Boxing Day doesn't seem very appealing all of aa sudden. I actually ended up finding really good deals from Black Friday to now and have purchased all the items I would have Boxing Day. For once my wife will be happy I won't be pulling out my phone during Christmas Eve dinner to do early on line BD shopping lol.

I didn't think Black Friday deals in Canada were very good either. They were pretty sad compared to the sales they have in the US.

Someone else posted that is because RFDer's don't want as much stuff on boxing day (because we scoop up good deals all year long). I think that actually backs up the argument. Boxing Day doesn't have the spectacular sales that it used too (back when A&B Sound and Future Shop had to compete against each other). If you see a good deal during the year you can pretty much buy it now, knowing the odds of a better deal on boxing day are slim to none.

[SCEvan]

I haven't made any significant boxing day purchases in about 5 years, past few years maybe the odd Blu-ray or knick-knack but beyond that nothing. I'm not one of those people who will buy something just because its on sale, I buy things as I need them. One man can only buy so much stuff.

[kamascottra]

My biggest gripe about boxing day this year is that online sales start on Christmas Eve, they keep starting earlier. Last year I only purchased a couple of items, the sales seem to be getting smaller.

been that way for a few years now. i love it. no more waiting out in the cold on the morning of the 26th.

truth is though, boxing day is definitely for the retailers now. they know ppl are going to buy stuff just on habit. so why have blowout prices on more than a couple items just to get ppl in the doors? the best deals will always be when retailers NEED your business. it USED to be right after xmas when most ppl were shopped out, and had all the stuff they wanted. that's not the case anymore, so you have to adapt.

on the bright side(assuming from your comment about how early the sales are you are a family man) there's way less reason to spend time away from the family over the holidays now.

i would predict in the future, black friday deals will get better. that's actually hurting canadian retailers, and it's not like they'll get those sales later now either. if you just bought a big tv in nov, you're not buying another in dec, even if the price is exactly the same. retailers NEED to start having better prices on black friday to stop their customers for spending money in the states