Exhibition action Vancouver Island
University Mariners take on Balloholics. PAGE 26 C&S TRANSMISSION SPECIALTIES LTD.
“EXPERT SERVICE SERVED RIGHT”
6852 Mart Rd. LANTZVILLE
www.nanaimobulletin.com
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2014
250.390.1871
VOL. 26, NO. 57
Marijuana producer plans to double facility at Duke Point
Nanaimo’s retailers hope to boot Christmas season shopping into high gear by flooding the market with sales events this weekend. CHRIS BUSH/THE NEWS BULLETIN
BY TAMARA CUNNINGHAM THE NEWS BULLETIN
Retailers ready for bargain hunters
I
BLACK FRIDAY signals start of shopping season. BY CHRIS BUSH THE NEWS BULLETIN
A
n American shopping tradition that has spread north of the border will have Canadian shoppers stampeding toward sales items. Black Friday (Nov. 28) happens the Friday after the U.S. Thanksgiving – the last Thursday of November – and kicks off the Christmas shopping season for major U.S. and
Canadian retailers. The term Black Friday originated in Philadelphia as a metaphor for unusually heavy foot and vehicle traffic in the city the Friday after Thanksgiving. By the 1960s, Black Friday became the day that kicked off the profitable Christmas shopping season when retailers operated in the black after losing money or ‘operating in the red’ the rest of the year. “It’s representing, basically, the biggest period of the year,” said Stephan Pilon, general manager of the Nanaimo Canadian Tire store. “It used to be
Quality & Service at Budget Prices Wisecrack Of The Week
If life gives you melons, you may be dyslexic.
Boxing Day, but now it’s not. It’s basically Black Friday.” Canadian Tire was among the first Canadian retail chains to start Black Friday sales. Pilon said customers line up at the doors to snatch up heavily discounted items. Future Shop claims bragging rights as Canada’s first retailer to get big into Black Friday, according to Elliott Chun, company spokesman, who said it’s now Future Shop’s second busiest day of the year. The company’s 136 Canadian stores extend the sale over the weekend into
Cyber Monday, which also originated in the U.S., for online sales. Boxing Day and the week following remain the company’s busiest days for traffic and sales. “We were actually the first national retailer, as Future Shop, to offer a Black Friday sale back in 2009,” Chun said. “We experimented with it just because we knew people were aware of it and with most of our population living so close to the border we wanted to be a part of that phenomenon in the States and see if there was any stickiness in Canada.”
See ‘PRIZES’ /4
O GREAT TIME T ING START PLANN FOR M O O R N U S R U YO NEXT YEAR.
3900 ISLAND HWY. N.
| 250.758.3374
A Nanaimo medical marijuana grow operation is planning a major expansion at Duke Point. Tilray applied to rezone three Duke Point properties to expand its medical marijuana operation, including construction of a building more than double the size of its current facility. The application comes seven months after the company celebrated the official opening of its production facility in Tilray had Nanaimo – a $15-milmet or was lion investment. Now is proposing to exceeding the Tilray grow its facility with a five-storey building projections that spans more than they had 85,000 square feet. No one from Tilray established was available for an interview about the when they expansion, but an first opened e-mail statement from for in Nanaimo. athespokeswoman company, with Toronto-based EnergiPR, said in the short term, the property will house an employee cafeteria and break areas, maintenance and non-cannabis storage facilities and in the longer term, expansion of its production capacity is being considered. Nanaimo Mayor John Ruttan said he is pleased to see the company’s expansion, pointing out that it’s proven to be a good corporate citizen and a valuable and supportive commercial enterprise. “We did have continued reports that Tilray had met or was exceeding the projections they had established when they first opened in Nanaimo,” Ruttan said.
“
See ‘EXPANSION’ /10
No need to go to ICBC, come directly to us!
| www.budgetglass.com