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Early birds

It would seem the old adage is true, the early bird does get the worm. Although in this case the worm is a 55 inch flat screen TV. By 7 a.m., Cheyenne Linklater had already finished her Boxing Day shopping.
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A shopper walks by a store window Wednesday morning. (Jamie Smith, tbnewswatch.com)

It would seem the old adage is true, the early bird does get the worm.

Although in this case the worm is a 55 inch flat screen TV. By 7 a.m., Cheyenne Linklater had already finished her Boxing Day shopping. Standing outside of Future Shop with a massive television she got for under $500 and a high-tech coffee maker, Linklater hadn’t even slept before hitting the store to find a deal.

“I came here straight after work to see what kind of deals they had,” she said.

Linklater was surprised that she didn’t have to wait in line but was thankful given temperatures were -23 C with the wind.

“It didn’t seem as busy as it did a couple of years ago,” she said.

Matthew Thompson was also surprised by the small crowd considering the mosh-pit of commercialism Boxing Day tends to be. He woke up around 5:30 a.m. and said it was worth every minute of sleep lost in order to get two Playstation 3 displays, a minifridge and a flying drone.

“Boxing Day shopping is a tradition as much as Christmas,” he said loading his goods into a truck. “It’s pretty chaotic (in the store) but not as bad as I thought it would be. I thought it would be a bit worse considering how many cars are here.”

Over at Intercity Shopping Centre Randy Gallen, John Priscott and Dustin Roose sat in the sparsely populated food court waiting for stores to open at 9 a.m. The friends woke up just before 4 a.m. but it was because of another Boxing Day tradition, the start of the World Juniors. After Canada downed Germany 9-3, they decided to walk over to the mall, warm up and wait.

“Just to get our stuff first I guess,” Gallen said, adding he was looking for video games.

Priscott was also looking for video games, along with some new shoes. Roose said he was surprised to be one of the only people at the mall so early .

“We were expecting some more people here,” he said.

By 7:30 there was only one store with people in front of it, EB Games. Cory Bouley and his three kids were the first and only waiting customers outside of the store. They were there for wireless videogame headsets, which were more than half off. Veterans of the holiday line-up, the Bouleys got up around 6:30 expecting to have company.

“We’re very shocked,” Bouley said. “We figured there would be a big lineup by now.”

As for what possesses someone to get up before the sun rises in order to shop, Bouley said the reason is simple.

“The kids. You gotta get them the best deals you can,” he said with a smile.





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