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Electronics sales solid for Victoria-area retailers

Boxing Day in Canada may be one of those oddities that sets the country apart from the U.S., but it’s also a traditional day for electronic retailers to start making some noise.
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Atlas Audio Video Unlimited owner William Hordyk with a Samsung 78-inch curved UHD smart TV. The Super Bowl extends a positive holiday selling season.

Boxing Day in Canada may be one of those oddities that sets the country apart from the U.S., but it’s also a traditional day for electronic retailers to start making some noise.

According to a pair of Greater Victoria retailers, this year did not disappoint as consumers scooped up new televisions, wireless audio systems and upgrades to smart devices and car audio systems in both a pre- and post-Christmas rush.

“It was very positive overall. We had a really good season,” said William Hordyk, owner of Atlas Audio Video. “It was a pretty typical Christmas rush. It’s hard to know if it’s about increased consumer confidence, but we saw positive traffic and really good sales overall.”

Driving the sales at Atlas were the 4K ultra high-definition televisions and wireless audio systems.

“Wireless audio and Bluetooth speakers are something we’ve seen a lot of growth in,” said Hordyk, noting that market is driven by music-laden smart phones and other smart devices.

Rick Taylor at McKays Electronics Experts in Colwood saw much the same thing this year, though there was nothing out of the ordinary and people weren’t spending any more than usual.

“We were steady and busy, it was nice,” he said. “It was a pretty busy time this year.”

Taylor said the timing of Christmas — falling on a Thursday — helped retailers this year.

“That meant Boxing Day was a Friday, which led into Saturday, Sunday and the following week was basically Boxing Week sales stuff that you could do. It extended [post-Christmas] retail to two weekends instead of just one,” Taylor said.

Though it’s too early for hard numbers that paint a picture of the Christmas shopping season, debit and credit card processor Moneris Canada is predicting there was an overall increase in sales of between four and five per cent compared with last year’s holiday shopping season.

“We saw a lot of strong spending this holiday season and it continued right up until Christmas,” said Rob Cameron, Moneris’ chief marketing officer.

“Based on what we were seeing and the fact Boxing Day ran through a weekend, we fully expect that trend to continue.”

According to the Retail Council of Canada, that trend to spend has been in the air for a while.

Michael LeBlanc, senior vice-president for digital retail at the Retail Council, said a variety of factors, including more co-operative weather across the country during December, spurred shoppers to hit the stores.

“The exchange rate was also much weaker this year, so we’re pretty sure we put a good dent into cross-border shopping, and the price of gas was significantly lower putting more disposable cash on the table,” he said.

“That led to a solid holiday, Boxing Day and Boxing Week.”

But LeBlanc said that did not necessarily mean more people crowding stores after Christmas.

“The composition or nature of Boxing Day is a little different with online shopping. We saw a little less standing in line and a little more shopping online,” he said.

Hordyk said the post-Christmas sales tend to bleed into January with some electronic suppliers still pushing incentives and stores offering January clearance sales.

“January is still typically a good month for a lot of people. The Super Bowl is coming up and the weather is poor, so people are still spending a lot of time indoors,” he said.

aduffy@timescolonist.com