Thousands of shoppers are expected to head to Devonshire Mall this weekend in the hunt of the best Black Friday deals.
The mall has been preparing since Santa Clause arrived by helicopter on Nov. 17., when was the mall was transformed into a holiday winter wonderland.
Speaking on AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides, The mall's property manager Aaron Edwards says Devonshire expects to break some records.
"We anticipate welcoming over 110,000 visitors over the Black Friday weekend. We sort of bill Black Friday at Devonshire as a weekend event, as oppose to just Black Friday alone, so Black Friday alone in 2023 we had just north of 47,000 customers, but between Friday, Saturday and Sunday last year was just under 109,000."
He says the mall has seen a roughly 62 per cent increase in foot traffic from when they started to promote Black Friday in 2012 to last year.
"I was a former tenant here for 10 years so I got to know a lot of the [general managers], store managers and what not, and talking to them, their budgets that their head offices have set are higher than ever, so even their head offices are anticipating to be a big one."
Edwards says consumers can get a sneak preview at what will be on offer before they head to the mall.
"The specials our retailers are posting this year are just unreal. They're all posted at DevonshireMall.com. We've got a promotions page that everybody can click. It's good to see all the different categories across the centre that are offering deals, whether it's women's apparel, jewelry, even some of the food court tenants, there's something for everybody."
The mall will have special Black Friday hours through the weekend.
- Friday Nov. 29: 8 a.m. - 9 p.m.
- Saturday Nov. 30: 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
- Sunday Dec. 1: 11 a.m. - 6 p.m.