Although there have been all sorts of interesting stories about people camping outside stores to get the best Boxing Day sales, an Ipsos-Reid survey, commissioned by PayPal Canada, found that 34% of online Canadian shoppers will not be going to the malls this year. They are planning to do all of their shopping online instead. This represents a significant change in how Canadians are shopping - up 40% from the number of people shopping online two years ago.

According to the survey the top pet peeves for consumers are:

•    Crowds and long lineups - 68%
•    Wanted item is sold out - 11%
•    Looking for a parking spot - 5%
•    Rude or unhelpful sales staff - 3%

Never the less, thousands of Torontonians braved the elements in the hopes of snagging a great deal, particularly on electronics. Best Buy and Future Shop opened at 6:00 AM on Boxing Day, but some intrepid (or very foolish) souls formed a line the evening before for LCD televisions and laptop computers. But, this lunacy was not exclusive to electronics. In Toronto’s Eaton Centre, more than 300 people were lined up outside Abercrombie & Fitch for its Boxing Day sale. The store was only letting 50 people in at a time. At Coach, in the Yorkdale Shopping Centre, lineups which began in the wee hours of the morning stretched across the mall.

Christmas shopping wasn’t as brisk as was hoped but many assumed that shoppers were holding back in the hopes of getting a bigger bang for their buck on Boxing Day. Hopefully this shopping madness will save the season for Toronto’s retailers. Holiday sales typically account for 30% - 50% of their annual total.