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Black Friday shoppers flood into stores across Edmonton

The annual tsunami known as Black Friday has hit shopping malls across Edmonton.

Waves of consumers have flooded into stores to find the best bargains.

"This is fun, lots of fun," Lori Golly said. "Every year we do this, Black Friday and Boxing Day. The challenge, awesome sales and just fun."

Golly was among hundreds of people who lined up in the wee hours at West Edmonton Mall, hoping to be among the first 200 customers through the door to qualify for a prize, including gift cards.

"We love it, and we're here from 6:30 till probably 10 tonight."

A marketing professor at NAIT said last year in Alberta, according to credit- and debit-card processing companies, Black Friday was more successful than Boxing Day sales.

"It makes total sense," Surjit Rai said. "When we're shopping on Boxing Day, sure you might have really good sales, maybe 70 per cent off in some cases, but we're also looking at slim pickings during the Boxing Day sale."

There just isn't the selection Rai said. "I'm a medium . . . what's on offer, extra larges or extra small. But now there's more of an impetus to buy. The sales may not be as good, but you'll get exactly what you want."

Rai expects the low Canadian dollar will likely mean fewer Albertans spending money in the United States, either in person or online. He said duty and shipping costs on top of the exchange rate may also eat away at any savings on items purchased online.

"A lot of the items are going to be final sale. So if you can't try on those products and then you're paying for shipping cost, and then you're paying duty as well, it can put people off, I think, from shopping online," Rai said.

Rai has discovered many retailers don't make as much profit at this time of the year as some might think.

Many retailers don't like Black Friday

"A lot of retailers feel they've been forced into competing during Black Friday . . . in fact a lot of companies in the U.S. regret that they started the Black Friday tradition because in some cases they actually end up losing money."

Todd Shapka is an example of someone not spending money, but still taking advantage of the gimmicks used to entice shoppers into stores.

He arrived at Old Navy in WEM right after his night shift, lining up at 5:30 a.m. The store offered the first 50 people to show up at their stores across Canada an entry into a draw for $1 million.

"I'm pretty excited right now," Shapka said.

With about 7,000 people overall entered in the draw, he's optimistic about winning.

"The odds are definitely a lot better than going for 6/49 or Lotto Max."