Black Friday kicking off the local Christmas shopping season too

Cross-border shopping by Canadians on Black Friday is dropping.  That’s in person or online according to the latest numbers.

The drop is over 20 per cent according to a survey by Leger.

One reason may be that local retailers in Canada are offering their own Black Friday sales. North Bay and District Chamber of Commerce president Jake Lacourse concurs.

In fact, he says he encourages local businesses to take advantage of the Black Friday opportunities.

Lacourse says 25 per cent of local retailers sales are during the holiday period.

He points out Black Friday typically happens on the same day as the Downtown Walk and that may be helping too in getting Christmas traffic into stores.