It's Different in Toronto

Boxing Day Sales Up! doesn't really fit with the U.S. inspired media narrative. But that's what we get from Toronto Sun: Boxing Day sales hit high note

It's all fairly anecdotal but it's there.

Apart from better confidence Toronto (and other Canadian urban centres) may benefit from cultural diversity and the fact that so many residents are born overseas. Again an anecdote - but what's the point of writing a blog if you cannot expand anecdotes into profound truths - but my hairdresser is headed back to her native Iran with in her words, "half of Zellers in her bag".

Attitudes to consumerism may differ among Toronto's foreign born residents. I have posted before about the declining enthusiasm for consumerism among Canadian general population. But what about the roughly 5% of the Toronto population who arrived from China over the last 20 years? I doubt they are sick of consumerism. Many are just getting a taste for it.

Note to self to dig up Environics data on attitudes to consumption by ethnicity. Let's see...