How the Canada Post strike could affect your Black Friday shopping

A nationwide shutdown of Canada Post is acceptable to person large implications for the biggest buying play of the year, experts warn.

Workers astatine the nationalist postal work stay connected onslaught for a 2nd week, with the Crown corp reporting that “limited” advancement was made connected talks implicit the weekend.

The national representing striking postal workers is seeking improved wages to drawback up with years of ostentation and occupation security, portion Canada Post is looking to instrumentality a caller exemplary that could rotation retired seven-day-a-week transportation to bolster its struggling business.

The postal work said Monday that it has missed retired connected delivering immoderate 10 cardinal parcels successful the archetypal 11 days of the strike.

With Canada Post crushed to a halt heading into the engaged Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, businesses and experts are informing consumers whitethorn extremity up paying much oregon missing vacation gift-giving deadlines arsenic a effect of the strike.

Retail expert Bruce Winder says that the impacts connected Canadian shoppers volition alteration depending connected wherever they’re spending their wealth this weekend.

For those buying connected the pages of mega-marketplaces similar Amazon oregon connected the websites of different large retailers, the interaction from the Canada Post onslaught is apt to beryllium minimal, helium explains.

That’s due to the fact that it’s predominantly tiny businesses who thin connected the nationalist postal work for affordable shipping, whereas the bigger players person their ain logistics networks and lasting contracts with couriers to autumn backmost on.

Winder says that for tiny concern owners who privation to get their products retired to customers to instrumentality vantage of the engaged vacation buying season, they’ll apt person to crook to the much costly couriers — and overmuch of those costs could beryllium borne by the consumers themselves.

“The (price) summation is important from Canada Post to the couriers. And astir tiny businesses can’t spend to devour that,” Winder says.

Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), notes that immoderate tiny businesses are apt to instrumentality a nonaccomplishment this play conscionable to get goods retired the doorway and debar inventory pileups successful the caller year.

But adjacent if tiny concern owners bash wound the slug and wage much for the costlier couriers, Kelly warns determination are immoderate areas of the state that those providers don’t reach. Some agrarian and distant communities are solely serviced by Canada Post, with those consumers apt retired of luck until the onslaught is resolved.

“If we don’t person the onslaught resolved this week, astir merchants are not going to beryllium capable to usage Canada Post arsenic a reliable transportation service,” Kelly says.

Even if the onslaught does get resolved up of Black Friday, some Kelly and Winder pass it won’t needfully beryllium creaseless sailing for deliveries implicit the holiday.

It volition apt instrumentality aggregate weeks for Canada Post to wide the backlog of unsent items from its warehouses and drawback up with the flood of request erstwhile workers are backmost disconnected the picket lines.

“It’s going to instrumentality a fewer weeks earlier Canada Post tin get escaped of the existing backlog that it’s sitting on, fto unsocial commencement to present caller goods,” Kelly says.

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Even if there’s a woody achieved comparatively soon, Winder warns that galore packages are apt to beryllium delivered via Canada Post aft Christmas — “unless there’s a miracle.”

Even with Canada Post presently retired of commission, determination are immoderate workarounds that could spot gift-givers and deal-seekers travel retired connected apical for the Black Friday-Cyber Monday weekend, Winder says.

Already, cash-strapped consumers are turning to alternatives similar Chinese discount retailer Temu, helium notes, oregon opting for second-hand routes similar Facebook Marketplace to find gifts oregon caller clothes.

To trim the load connected gift-givers, helium recommends doing a Secret Santa-style speech with household to chopped down connected the sheer fig of gifts oregon to marque presents from scratch.

“There’s each kinds of things happening wherever radical are conscionable trying to find a mode to prevention money,” Winder says.

And conscionable due to the fact that Black Friday is traditionally a large vacation buying event, that doesn’t mean anxious shoppers shouldn’t hold a fewer much weeks.

The Liberal authorities has projected a GST/HST “holiday” starting Dec. 14. During this two-month period, a wide fig of communal gifts including clothing, toys, video crippled consoles and much volition spot national income taxes waived.

Winder says that if those items connected a shopper’s database are not heavy discounted astir Black Friday, helium could spot consumers holding disconnected to instrumentality vantage of the taxation exemptions a fewer weeks later.

“If there’s not a batch of savings, if it’s benignant of an point that’s regularly priced, surely they’re going to look astatine the class much earnestly erstwhile the GST vacation comes into effect,” helium says.

— with files from Global News’s Sean Previl