Canadians Surprised by BlackFriday Hours,Best Buy Shoppers Treated to Music[Maine: Merci Canadians!]

BangorDailyNews ^ | Friday, Nov. 25, 2011 12:37 p.m. | Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff

[fight_truth_decay]

BANGOR, Maine — Canadian shoppers arrived early Thursday to get in line at Walmart and were surprised that the doors didn’t open until midnight.

Maine has a law that bars big box stores from opening on Thanksgiving.

“We thought it opened at 10 p.m.,” as advertised nationally, said Wanda Myers, a Saint John, New Brunswick, resident who arrived at the Brewer Walmart Supercenter at 6 a.m. Thursday and stood first in one of the store’s two lines.

A convoy of Canadian shoppers drove 3½ hours to get to the Bangor area for Black Friday deals.

“I was absolutely shocked” that no one was in the parking lot, said Myers, who came to Maine to buy electronics. “I thought it would be packed.”

Store maintenance worker Robert Modery, who was outside in the 32-degree weather helping to direct shoppers to the end of the long lines, said the Maine advertisement fliers had information about the local store hours.

“That’s a national ad. All they had to do was turn to the second page,” he said.

The Canadian shoppers in line in Brewer said they got their information — including store maps to the items they wanted — from the company’s website.

Etna resident Teresa Harvey, who has been first in line on Black Friday for two years in a row, was shocked when she arrived at the Brewer store at 5 a.m. Thursday and found Saint John residents Barb Lynch and Tracey Buick already standing in front of the store in its other line.

“We introduced ourselves and played Phase 10 for the first hour,” she said, referring to a card game.

Lynch, who was with Buick on their first Black Friday excursion, said the duo drove from Canada to buy “anything on sale.”

[fight_truth_decay]

Virginia Michael ,left,of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia makes several purchases
at the checkout line at Marden's [a success story by new gov. Paul LePage [GM]] in Brewer Friday afternoon.
On the far right are cashier Kathy Lindsay of Bangor
and shipping/receiving clerk Nobby Cleaves of Palmyra, far right.
Virginia Michael and her family members made a pilgrimage to central Maine for the first time to take advantage
of the Black Friday sales

Love those Canadian shoppers [convoys] bringing down $$$$, the rest of the year as well. Now, if BIG Box store Lowes which posts in Spanish [17,000 pop 2009] on EVERY sign in all Maine stores would get with it and replace Spanish "bienvenida" with French "Bienvenue" and all the other aisle signs. Maine is made up in the majority of those with French Canadian ancestry.

A "French Connection" genealogical site produced their study of 10 years of most Maine and many New Hampshire marriages of French-Canadians/Acadians consisting of over 700 different surnames with 90% of brides and/or grooms traceable through Quebec or the Maritime Provinces of Canada back to early 17th century France.

However, Asians have become the fastest growing Maine ethnic group. Maine, 1.3% Hispanics make up the Me. population. White persons not Hispanic, percent, in 2010 94.4% Quickfacts

Avec tous mes remerciements.
fight_truth_decay

[buccaneer81]

The strength of the Canadian dollar as well as the new roads in the Maritimes that have cut travel time to the border by as much as 25% will make this a very busy retail season in Bangor.

[yldstrk]

what some people call fun

[fight_truth_decay]

..if it adds to the economy in Maine, I welcome it. But Canadians are already big shoppers and vacationers in Maine. Glad for Bangor. The Canadians are all over L.L.Bean's Freeport, and have been; but very noticeable now even after the summer visitors have gone. The Canadians still come "to buy"; unless you are without power after a storm, say in CT etc, then they return to their places in ME to wait it out.

This currency convertor is up to date with exchange rates from November 25, 2011.

[HIDEK6]

Is this from the Onion?

[buccaneer81]

Why would it be from The Onion? The story is straightforward enough. The shoppers read a national ad that didn’t mention certain state laws prohibit holiday openings.

[Astronaut]

Nice to see Canadians are as dumb as most Americans who line up like sheep in the middle of the cold night to save $50 on a flat screen. I have no sympathy for the lice infested OWS people, but this is consumerism taken too far. Eat dinner with your family. Sleep in on your Friday off. Wal Mart isn’t going anywhere. Stop acting like brain dead puppets dancing on Madison Avenue’s strings.

[buccaneer81]

Nice to see Canadians are as dumb as most Americans who line up like sheep in the middle of the cold night to save $50 on a flat screen.

You've obviously never seen the price of certain consumer goods in Canada. These people are smart. They'll save over 50% on some items, especially electronics, even after paying the duty at the border on the way home.

[BigBobber]

Ditto!