More than 500 shoppers waited in a line outside the Bellingham, Washington mall in bad weather for great deals on Black Friday -- the busiest shopping day of the year.
Despite our weak Canadian dollar, it's not hard to find B.C. residents among the bargain hunters.
"This is a good deal," one home electronics buyer told CTV. "It's about $350 back home and I got it for 199."
This is not just the biggest shopping day in the U.S. Promises of slashed prices have traditionally been a huge draw for cross-border shoppers.
"We get more shoppers from the Lower Mainland today than any other day of the year," says Ken Oplinger from the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce.
"With the change in the dollar over the last 90 days we've seen a little decline in our Canadian business, but they're back in force today," says Best Buy store manager Dave Lackey.
But B.C. shoppers are being careful how they spend.
"Some things are still not worth buying," one woman tells CTV. "You can get them in Canada probably cheaper."
"You just have to be careful on what you buy but there's still good deals if you look," another shopper tells CTV.
And while B.C. shoppers were everywhere, they may not have been coming in the droves of past years.
Most years, Bellingham's Comfort Inn would be filled to capacity come Black Friday. Almost half of the guests would be from B.C., but not this year.
"We're definitely down this year," say Brent Baron. "The economy in general is down but we're definitely seeing less people coming down and shopping. Probably about 25 per cent than last year."
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Michele Brunoro
