Shoppers Brave Cold Temperatures for Vancouver – BC Boxing Day Sales | The Canadian News

Shoppers braved both cold weather and the COVID-19 pandemic to access sales in Metro Vancouver on Boxing Day.

Lines outside Best Buy Kingsway in Burnaby began around 5 a.m. Sunday, store leader Younge Le-Roque said, with some customers waiting more than an hour to enter.

“Boxing Day is always our most important day of the year and we are prepared for it,” he told Global News.

“It’s great to see that a lot of our clients showed up even with the weather outside.”

On Sunday, temperatures were 10 ° C below Vancouver’s seasonal average with a high of minus 4 ° C and a wind chill of minus 13 ° C.

The city is among several in the province that are expected to experience “near record temperatures” this week as a chilly Arctic air mass settles over the southern coast, according to Environment Canada.

At the McArthurGlen Designer Outlet mall next to Vancouver International Airport, shoppers were dressed in winter coats, scarves and mittens as they waited outside to access the stores.

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As of last week, all retail outlets were required to have COVID-19 security plans.

“We kept our distance, we used our masks,” said a woman who drove more than two hours from out of town to take her daughter shopping at the outlet.

“There were a couple of people who got mad at one of the workers trying to make sure they all stayed six feet apart.”

The pandemic, combined with road closures due to catastrophic flooding last month, has wreaked havoc on British Columbia’s supply chains ahead of the holidays.

Thomas Lai, a manager at Visions Electronics in Vancouver, said his store has not been affected.

“Actually, compared to last year, we are doing better,” he said Sunday when the Boxing Day shoppers arrived.

“People know what they want, they have done their homework. They come, take what they like and move on. “

Nationwide, Retail Council of Canada spokeswoman Michelle Wasylyshen said she expects in-person purchases to be impacted this year as the highly infectious variant of Omicron fuels an increase in COVID-19 cases in large part. from Canada.

“Due to the new variant, I think we will see a significant shift towards online shopping,” he said in an interview with The Canadian press.

According to Opher Baron, a professor of operations management at the University of Toronto, many stores have had sales since November because “companies are trying to soften demand a bit.” It could explain why fewer people queued at shopping malls on Sunday overall, he noted.

With files from The Canadian Press