Wrote this one in 2009, when things were different. In 2020, I received a delivery from Amazon on Canada Day, so retail works year round now.

I received 3 different e-mails about On-Line Canada Day sales (Best Buy, Future Shop and Indigo) at various stores and at first I simply ignored them, but after thinking about it, this is really evil genius at work in the retail trade.

From the retailers point of view these “sales” are pure gravy for them:

1. Their retail stores are closed,  yet they are still selling stock (from their distribution centers).
2. They aren’t paying any retail sales staff, yet things are being sold (yes they are paying web folk to be around in case things crash, but I am sure they are relatively cheap).
3. No order is actually dealt with until the day after Canada Day (since you couldn’t ship, even if you had folks in your distribution center). No distribution center staff need to be working on Canada Day (thus you don’t have to pay them time and a half).
4. You have an interesting audience of folks either waiting to go out and party, or those that have come back from a party  and might be more motivated (read imbibed some alcohol).

This is truly evil genius on the part of these retailers and I salute their ingenuity. I like reading the e-mails and day dreaming about what I might buy one day, but unless there is something specific I am looking for, that I have the money for, I don’t usually take advantage of these “sales”.

Eating and Drinking Out More?

Even with the financial apocalypse Stats Can points out that Eating and Drinking out expenditures continue to increase in Canada:

Current dollar sales for the food services and drinking places industry increased 1.3% from March to just over $4.0 billion in April.

The price of food purchased in restaurants increased by 0.3% between March and April, according to the Consumer Price Index.

Very interesting numbers, given I would have thought folks would be staying home and eating more home cooked meals, however, this seems to contradict this a bit. Maybe this is a sign of a recovery, or more confidence folks have? We’ll see.