Bargain hunters flood stores for Boxing Day sales

There are two kinds of shoppers on Boxing Day – hunters and gatherers.

Hunters seek out specific holiday bargains while gatherers wander around and stop when something catches their eye. Both kinds of shoppers, in large numbers, flooded area stores Sunday in search those post-Christmas sales.

Curtis Larson said he always takes his daughters Bailey, 18, Shayna, 15, and Melanie, 12, out Boxing Day shopping with him. This year, Larson said he was shopping for a printer and a microwave, which were two items he said he was waiting to drop in price.
 
Though Larson goes out ever year, he said he wouldn’t line up for the early morning door crasher sales unless he really wanted something big, like an HD TV.

"I go after a specific item, I get it and that’s about it," Larson said. "Money is tight so I have to be a hunter I guess."

Randy Mehagan said it’s his 13-year-old daughter, Shawna who dictates the shopping strategy when they head out to the stores. He said they usually get up earlier than 10 a.m., but this year Shawna slept in.
 
"She kind of decides and we follow her," Mehagan said. "She says what store we go to first and that’s where we go."

Boxing Day bargain hunting is a family tradition of sorts for some, but for others it is just a quick stop.

Ian Stevenson, 52, wanted a new camera and headed into Futureshop in hopes to get it. He said he goes through cameras like candy and wanted to take advantage of the lower prices to get a new one.

"My Boxing Day shopping usually takes 15 minutes," Stevenson said. "I usually come and grab a camera and it’s a quick hit, in and out."

At 76-years-old, Barbara Cain ventured out for her first taste of Boxing Day shopping Sunday.
 
"I was hoping to purchase a television," Cain said. "I just got here and I missed the sale."
 
Over at Intercity Shopping Centre, Sue and Mike Weathey were out with their two granddaughters Taylor, 13, and Courtney, 10.

Sue said she heads into stores when she sees a sale she likes and doesn’t really hunt down bargains in advance.

She said normally they don’t go out on Boxing Day because the crowds are too big. They arrived at the mall around 8:30 a.m. with no more than a few people around. That changed by 10 a.m. as the mall had filled with massive crowds, she said.