Businesses are getting set to offer big discounts as Cranbrook Black Friday takes place tomorrow, Nov. 21.
This is the third year for the event, which takes place at shops and businesses all over the city.
Joey Hoeschsmann, chair of the Black Friday event, said people can go on the new website www.cranbrookblackfriday.com to take a look at all of the businesses participating and see their deals for the day.
"The whole initiative started as we were seeing some leakage going down to the States, it came off a 10 per cent shift initiative," Hoeschsmann said.
He said that of course residents of Cranbrook travel all over and places like Calgary and Spokane are not far away.
"But when you're there and you are at a shopping centre, just think for a moment 'can I get this locally?' Not all of it, you're going to buy stuff, just 10 per cent of the things you buy, could you buy it in the local area?"
Hoeschsmann said it's a two way street though and it's up to businesses to also give customers a reason to want to shop local. He said they came up with the Black Friday slogan which is: live here, spend here.
For businesses, Hoeschsmann said it's an opportunity to showcase your business and also an opportunity to drum up sales.
He said there are studies that talk about how a dollar spent locally gets spent again in the community and continues to drive the economy.
"So when that dollar leaves it's a huge loss, it's not just that one dollar that was spent."
Last year somewhere between 60 and 70 businesses participated in the event.
"Even if you're not a retailer, there are other ways you can participate," he said, to businesses.