|
 "Is that 75 percent off?" Gina Vieira asked. "Well then I'll just take the rack!"
The Canadian and her 10-year-old daughter were visiting the mall for one reason on Black Friday.
"We'll shop 'til we drop and probably have a nap in the car before our two-hour drive home," said Vieira, from Toronto.
Canadians have always been regulars at the sprawling Walden Galleria, a 10-minute drive from the border, but they've been an all-out shopping force since the "loonie" hit parity with the American dollar in September.
On Friday, with the Canadian dollar at $1.01 US, it seemed an equal numbers of cars with Canadian and New York plates were stalking departing shoppers for their parking spaces at the mall.
Once inside, Vieira was thrilled to avoid the exercise of translating American prices into Canadian dollars.
"If it says it's $26, it's $26 and that's just amazing," she said. "Normally it's `OK, it's $26, so it's really like 30 bucks. Is it really worth it?'"
After browsing Black Friday Internet sites and sales, and packing her laptop for on-the-spot research, Vieira's list included digital picture frames for $50 to $60 from Best Buy, Circuit City or Kmart, and a Kodak camera she expected to cost $80 less than back home. Daughter Cairo, meanwhile, had her eye on Montana clothes at Macy's and some shirts that would cost $6 to $9 each with the one-day discounts.
[to top of second column]
 |
 Both said variety not seen at home was as appealing as the low prices.
"You just want everything and before you know it, you've run out of money and now you're on the credit card and then your friends' credit cards," Vieira laughed.
As the Canadian dollar surged to a peak of $1.09 earlier this month, Walden Galleria merchants reported that 35 to 60 percent of their weekend customers were Canadian, compared with the usual 18 to 20 percent, marketing director Russ Fulton said,
About 40 to 45 Canadian charter buses now pull into the mall on Saturdays, more than double the typical number.
The Buffalo-area mall prepared for the post-Thanksgiving shopping madness by placing goodwill collection bins at three entrances for all the clothes Canadians have ditched in restrooms and parking lots. Many have worn new clothes home to avoid hefty taxes and border duties.
Some merchants placed employees inside restrooms to keep them stocked with paper and soap, Fulton said. Others have pulled racks off the floor after running out of merchandise to fill them.
"What a great problem to have!" Fulton tells them.
[Associated Press; By CAROLYN THOMPSON]
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This
material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or
redistributed.
 |
