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As Uday Peddakotla waited in line outside the Best Buy in Beacon Hill on Saturday morning, he said he felt confident that health precautions being taken by customers and staff would justify his venture out to the store in search of Boxing Day deals.
Peddakotla had planned to buy a vacuum cleaner and an air fryer, but said shopping in person at the northwest location was simply more advantageous than searching for the right price online even as COVID-19 has turned the annual holiday-turned-commercial bonanza upside-down in 2020.
“I mean, you get more choice to select,” he said, adding it’s just not the same trying to choose what to buy when you can only “see it in a system.”
“I think they’re taking all the precautions for COVID, like the two metres distance, maintaining it (between customers).”
Current public health restrictions in Alberta limit the number of in-store customers at retail locations. Stores can only allow 15 per cent of usual fire code occupancy, not including staff.
Shopping mall capacity limits of 15 per cent include common areas and individual stores. The province also encourages curbside pickup, delivery and online shopping when possible.
“Shop alone if possible or only with the people you live with,” it states online.
By noon, there were more than 20 people or small groups lined up waiting to get into the northwest Best Buy store.
“I had a couple questions, I wanted to have a chat with one of their specialists,” said Jack Smith, who purchased a printer.
“They answered my questions. I guess I’m a bit old school that way.”
A survey conducted this fall by the Retail Council of Canada showed Canadians planned to spend a similar percentage of their holiday budgets on Boxing Day as they did last year, compared to other shopping spree-filled occasions such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
A separate poll by RedFlagDeals.com found an overwhelming majority of Canadian shoppers planned to shop more online this holiday season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Around 94 per cent indicated they would take their business to web checkout pages, with nearly four-in-five Canadians saying that in-person shopping was more stressful due to crowds, limited inventory and pandemic-related concerns.
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