Canadian stores holding Black Friday sales

OTTAWA, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- Many Canadian retailers are offering Black Friday deals to keep shoppers from crossing the border, officials said.

Black Friday -- the annual U.S. Thanksgiving merchandise sales event -- has been steadily growing in Canada the past few years and is expected to have its biggest year yet this year, CBC News reported.

"I think you'll see, across the board, all the major players participating this year in the Black Friday frenzy," said Ran Ravitz, general manager of RedFlagDeals.com, which keeps track of consumer deals. "Overall, [we're] going to see more participation with smaller chains and chains that didn't have it last year."

Most of the big chains, including Best Buy Canada and Future Shop, The Brick, Sears Canada, the Gap Inc., which includes Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy, are holding four-day special sales to entice shoppers this weekend.

"This is the biggest bargain hunting site in Canada and when people like that -- they understand deals, they live and breathe deals -- are expecting Black Friday to be big, we take it very seriously," said Ravitz. "We think it's the voice of the consumer saying 'in Canada, we should see amazing Canadian deals,' if not there will be a lot of leakage to U.S. shopping."