The holidays are expensive, and everyone wants to know how to save some cash in their pockets. In Canada, Thanksgiving happened over a month ago but for our neighbors down south, Thanksgiving is tomorrow. More importantly though, Black Friday, which marks the beginning of the commercial holiday season in America, is coming up this Friday. Black Friday is known for huge sales companies offer and the beatings that ensue as overly enthusiastic shoppers pummel each other at Toys 'R Us to get their kid a My Little Pony for 50% off.
Historically Canadian stores don't observe this "holiday," but there are ways that Canadians can take advantage of Black Friday.
1. Day trip to the States
Montreal is only about an hour to the New York border and only two hours to the Vermont border. With the U.S. so close, why not go and take advantage of the enormous sales that are going on down there? Vermont is such a deserted state that you'd have no problem finding everything that you were looking for easily.
2. Sign up for a Kinek account
One solution to your shopping woes would be to rent a US P.O. Box. But it can take a long time and there's a lot of work involved. A more realistic solution is to sign up for a Kinek account. Kinek offers pickup stations along the border so that Canadians can order things online to a US address and receive American promotions and prices. So why not go buck wild on the internet and order all your holiday gifts to a Kinek location and then go down at your convenience to pick them up?
Kinek - Your Delivery Network from Kinek on Vimeo.
3. Order something to your distant US relative
Some places only offer Black Friday sales within the US so that means it's time to hit up your long lost uncle in the US to use his address to send your packages to. If you have a sibling studying or working in the States, even better. You can use their address to send all your gifts and they can bring it to you when they come home for the holidays. It's a win-win. Just don't send their own present to them.
4. Shop Amazon.ca
Amazon is amazing. They have tons of sales all week long that are around 30% to 50% off. And they ship to Canada. This is probably the best (and laziest) way to take advantage of Black Friday in the US.
5. Know the Canadian stores that offer it
In recent years, Black Friday has become more popular among Canadian retailers. Stores that have American counterparts like Future Shop, Sears, and Walmart all offer sales in Canada. Some people even think that Black Friday is starting to take the place of Boxing Day because expectations have been set so high in terms of sales that it's hard to meet them after Christmas. Whatever. You're getting dope deals either way.
How do you plan on cashing in on Black Friday? Any helpful tips we didn't know about? Let us know in the comments below.
