Manitoba businesses offer reasons to come back for Black Friday deals in 2021

Winnipeg -

After a 2020 holiday shopping season severely impacted by tight provincial health restrictions, many Manitoba businesses are relieved they’ll be able to serve more in-store customers this year.

Many Winnipeg businesses want the pent-up retail demand they say is there to be fulfilled locally as much as possible. To that end, many plan to piggyback on the usual Black Friday hype with deals designed to attract in-person visits.

Louise Nowak owns Supper Central, a south Winnipeg business that offers pre-cooked meals and meal kits for people who don’t want to make dinner from scratch or who don’t have the time do to it.

With the added time pressures of the holiday season looming, Nowak said she wants to encourage people to shop locally and she decided to use Black Friday as a way to bring in some extra customers.

“We’re offering all day Friday, on Black Friday, a ten per cent discount on our holiday packages. The turkey dinner, the beef dinner and the vegetarian dinner,” said Nowak.

Supper Central is not the only business looking to take advantage of Black Friday.

At CF Polo Park, many of the stores are advertising sales around the popular shopping day. General manager Peter Havens says not being able to open for Black Friday last year because of COVID-19 was discouraging for Winnipeg shoppers—and this year, stores are getting ready to see some big crowds.

“We’re not 100 per cent sure what to expect. We’re preparing for busy like we’ve had in years prior to COVID, but we’re cautiously optimistic we’ll see something like that,” Havens said.

Havens believes Canadians requiring a negative COVID-19 test will deter some from travelling and increase sales on this side of the border. The Retail Council of Canada says in 2019, Black Friday surpassed Boxing Day as the busiest shopping day of the year.

John Graham of the Retail Council of Canada said he expects in-person retail traffic to rebound to near 2019 levels.

“We’re also seeing this pent-up demand for getting back into brick-and-mortar stores. And we expect this weekend and straight through until Christmas to be extremely busy,” said Graham.

A recent Retail Council survey shows that 78 per cent of Manitobans want to support local retail stores—and it expects that trend to continue this holiday season.

Back at Supper Central, Nowak is encouraging Winnipeggers to take advantage of the Black Friday sale.

“It’s just another way of making your life easier at a very crazy time. And as I say, it’s just one more thing ticked off your list.”