Is Boxing Day's impact decreasing?

Get up, get the news you need, and grab a few laughs along the way. The Andrew Carter Morning Show on CJAD 800. And Andrew's off for a couple of weeks, so are the holidays recharging and ready to go when he gets back. It's 819 Ken Conners filling in. And one of Andrew's regular guests throughout the week is on Thursday morning. Tony Chapman, the host of a great podcast called Chatter That Matters is on the line. Tony, good morning.

Great to hear your voice back on the radio. How are you? Thank you very much. Tony, I got to start with this. Did I hear you tell Andrew last week or the week before that one of your first jobs when you were a kid, you worked at the bay?

I did. I worked at the bay. I was selling suits. So I started off folding pants, but I got pretty good selling suits. So they got somebody else to do the folding, which I hated doing. And I love the selling part of it. I actually, I love selling in the men's where I actually, when I moved to Toronto, I took those skills to tip top tailors as well. It helped me, helped me survive the first couple of years in a very expensive city. Which, which page did you work out here? A doorbell shopping center. Oh, sure. Oh, well, close to home, right?

That was close to me, you could what, cycler walk over and it was a great place. The bay was a very special store back in those days. The bay day, which happened once a year, was just chaos. I mean, people would be pressed against the glass, waiting for the doors to open. And I think I told Andrew, my best seller at bay day was a $99 10-piece suit. You got two pairs of pants, you got a reversible vest. You could wear 10 different ways. And the material felt like j-cloth.

The hardest thing I ever had to pin to sort of, you know, fit the seams of the pads because the thing was just like, it was like almost wearing rubber gloves. But people loved them and we sold a lot of them. Well, my ears perked up one. I heard you say that because we have something in common. One of my first jobs too, when I was struggling trying to get into radio and start a radio career, I worked at the Bay at Rockland for a couple of years.

Oh, sure. Yeah. And, uh, while I was going to a venue in the sea jeff, and I don't know why, Tony, but they put me in the linen department in the basement and they know nothing about pillow shams and sheets, but they had me down there.

It's amazing how many people used to service the customers at the bay. I think one of the reasons the department stores fell on tough times is you didn't have those people helping so people would wander around and get lost in the sheer size of it before the big box stores and then walk up and that's really what the beauty of

The beauty of retail is when you can have a smile in front of you saying how can I help you. It's kind of sad actually what's happening to the big, you know, more and more of them are closing and I guess the real estate is so valuable, right? They're just selling those buildings. They've got rid of most of that too. I mean, once it was taken over by venture capital, it became much more. How can I extract

profit out of this and value out of this versus what value can I bring to the customer? And you know, it's a thousand pen knife wounds. And that's what we've seen. And will it ever come back? Maybe somebody will buy it. You know, it certainly will never be the glory it was. Yeah.

One of our busiest days, at least when I was there working at the bay when I was a kid, was Boxing Day. A lot of returns. It was a busy time of the cash. Boxing Day. How do you feel about Boxing Day with so much online shopping now and sales year round? Does Boxing Day still have the impact that it used to?

nowhere near it. I mean, when sales worked, it was scarcity. They were once a year, twice a year. Boxing Day was a very big event because the kids were armed with cash that they got before the gift card era. But now, retailers are putting their Boxing Day sales on as early as mid December. Gift cards have moved mostly online.

Uh, you know, the, the, the sales are the black Fridays and cyber Mondays. So the whole concept of the sale, everybody knows there's a deal that we had. If you're on Instagram, look at a product go away next thing, you know, to come back and offer you a discount. And it's just a game of vacation of discounts. It's a race to zero. And retailers that used to have that as one of the most important traffic drivers, you know, when they put it on sale, that's really lost a lot of its teeth and a lot of its currency.

If I wasn't working Boxing Day at the bay when I was a kid to Tony, one of the things I would do with that bay money, whatever I was making, I loved going to Sam the record man downtown on Saint Catherine on Boxing Day and getting some deals.

Yeah, I let me mind with Steve's shopping center, doorbell shopping center. I love perusing the whole music stores, the albums, the covers. I did a post this week on the late 10 about T for the Tillerman and Kat, Steve, and the morning is broken. And I just, you know, music in those days. And I think we all love the music from our youth because it just, you know, it evokes that time where you didn't maybe have the pressures we have now. And it was about, you know, friends and family and

flirting and just it was a much more innocent and the music. So when I still hear that album or, you know, some of the early Elton John's like Honky Chateau and stuff, it just, it just, it just brings back such beautiful times. And then you think of the store that you bought it and then you think of the friends that went over and, well, am I going to buy the single or an album? It's that era.

Which we all dream of. When times get tough, if you look at what's happening in marketing, we all try to go back to that retro time where we felt more confident, more secure. And I think that's what music does so well for us. And what does it they say about the music? They say it'll never have more of an impact on you than it will between the ages of 16 and 22. That's the music that stays with you for life.

Absolutely. I mean, listen, look at the bands, they're still selling on stadiums, the boomer bands. I mean, the Rolling Stones, I mean, you know, you go to see them and you go, how is it possible at 82 years old that they're still playing? And you go, how is it possible people in the 60s are going to a rock concert? And that's the reality of it. I mean, we live, music is incredible. It's almost this chariot that takes you back in time. And

very often when you know if you're at a party and you know people are it's a dinner party with a lot of strangers you start talking about music or movies that matter to you and it's the greatest icebreaker in the world because people can connect it to personal stories very easily and that's

I think that's why you see the combination of music and movies so well done. I mean, I think of Greece and Saturday Night Fever and some of the movies of the era and people had footloose and fame and some of these great music genre movies that people still

Holiday times put on because again, they capture those special moments in life that weren't always perfect. They had all the speed bumps as well, but we don't remember them that way. We just remember them as a perfectly paved speed way to skip down and enjoy life. Exactly. Next episode of a chatter that matters telling about this life coach and motivational teacher.

Shane Marville is just a beautiful human being. I titled the episode Whisperers in Wisdom. She's more than a life coach. She just really has an understanding of what matters most. And I saved her for the holiday season because sometimes this is a time when many have a little bit more time for reflection. And it's less about New Year's resolution and I'm gonna get up every morning and drink seven glasses of water and much more about just reminding you

of really that it's humans and humanity and peace and getting along that that is so needed today in society. And if we start with the individuals and start taking that attitude and looking out with it and that whispers become a roar, I think we'll be a better plan. Shame Marvell. She can aid you from here.

Yeah, she's Canadian, her mum immigrated. Incredible story actually. She almost died on visiting, visiting back at home and came back and her mum was just this, this saint that really raised her to, to believe she could do what she wanted to do. And she's just, I mean, you know, you listen to her voices very peaceful. She's just one of these, I start the show actually talking about my older sister, Anna. And she, she,

These are people who just really have a connection with the energy of the planet. A lot of people might be rolling their eyes, but I do believe we're all connected through energy. And I think the more we can turn that energy to positivity versus negativity to words like what Shea brings. Uh, last week with Simseer did next week, Jennifer Laidlaw, I'm kind of ending the show and starting the new year with sort of three women that have really, uh, I feel have gone answers for each of us versus here's five steps to this or five steps to that.

Nice. You can find it. Chatter that matters wherever you find your favorite podcast. Sounds like another good one, Tony. And all the best to you and your family moving forward here in 2025. All the best we'll chat with you next week.