Bontis on Business

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We’re going to talk more about Black Friday now. The U.S. retail industry predicts 140 million people will spend more than $40-billion shopping from Black Friday through cyber Monday. That’s up more than 2 per cent from last year. And the Bank of Montreal says 47 per cent of Canadians plan to check out Black Friday sales in this country this year, up from 41 per cent last year.

Nick Bontis joins us to talk more about these big sales.

How does a Black Friday sale impact Boxing Day?

So many U.S. retailers opened on Thanksgiving this year to offer earlier sales. What does that say about the state of the economy and retail industry when a once sacred day for family is turned into yet another shopping day?

Something that might be impacting decisions to shop south of the border is gas. The price at the pump is, on average, around $1.26 a litre. But oil prices are falling. Why aren’t we seeing a drop in the cost for gas?

The Canadian dollar is a little lower than it used to be. Why?

With the lower dollar in mind, is it easier now for Canadian retailers to compete with the big deals we hear about in the U.S. Can they offer similar deals?