Shoppers swarm Orchard Park Mall for Boxing Day.
(ADAM PROSKIW / iNFOnews.ca)
December 26, 2013 - 2:28 PM
KELOWNA - Slick roads and packed parking lots weren’t enough to deter Kelowna shoppers from taking advantage of Boxing Day sales Thursday.
Future Shop in Spall Plaza is always one of the busiest locations in the city, and Operations Manager Nathan Larent says that this year was no different.
“I was the first one here at 4 a.m. and there were zero cars in the lot,” he says. “I was surprised the line didn’t start until about 5 a.m. It started with one guy, then there were ten, then all of a sudden there’s 40, and 50 and the line-up went all the way around the corner.”
Future Shop Security Guard Randy Martin says that the hottest item this year was definitely the GoPro Black, which sold out within an hour. Still, he says the crowds have been well-behaved and there have been no incidents.
"That’s always something we worry about," he says. "We don't want anybody to get hurt or anything like that but so far everybody’s behaved themselves."
He says every year he expects the crowds to be less intense, due to the rise in online shopping, but that wasn’t the case this year.
“I don’t think online shopping has really hurt us that much,” Treger says. “A lot of people were picking up their online purchases here so we really haven’t noticed much difference from last year.”
Kelowna resident and Boxing Day first-timer Nathan Larent opted for a more leisurely approach.
“We decided to miss the line ups and went for a run this morning with our dogs,” he says. “We walked in and all the TV’s that we wanted were already gone but luckily a lady was returning one that she didn’t want so we ended up getting a 39” for a screaming deal.”
Orchard Park Mall was also packed by the time it opened at 9 a.m. and will remain open until 9 p.m. to accomodate shoppers like West Kelowna resident Faye Weldon.
"It's been crazy," she says."We drove around the (parking) lot for half an hour before we found a spot. Now I'm going to spend money I don't have on stuff I don't need."
To contact the reporter for this story, email Adam Proskiw at aproskiw@infotelnews.ca, call (250) 718-0428 or tweet @AdamProskiw.
News from © iNFOnews, 2013