While Americans usually find their best deals on Black Friday, Boxing Day is the annual tradition for bargain hunters in Canada. It is on this day after Christmas that most retailers put their products on sale, trying to clear out as much of this year’s stock as possible.

However, the concept of Boxing Day has quickly expanded in recent years to go well beyond a single day of shopping. Part of this has to do with the increasing popularity of the Internet, but it also has to do with increased competition and increased motivation to move as much stock as possible before year’s end.

These days, many major retailers do not wait until Boxing Day proper to start their sales. If they have an online storefront, it is not out of the ordinary to see the online sales start around supper time on Christmas Eve. In this way, online shoppers can start diving into the deals nearly two full days before they pay a visit to the brick-and-mortar stores. Does this take away from Christmas dinner? Perhaps.

Further still, the sales are expanding past Boxing Day to become a Boxing Week instead. Many of the sales that you see at stores will continue to be honored through for an entire week, giving shoppers the opportunity to avoid the initial crowds. The selection may be more limited, but the experience can be less daunting and potentially less frustrating.

At some point, these “massive sales” are going to lose much of their meaning, because retailers have already started offering Boxing Day-level sales at other times of the year. The spectacle simply is not there anymore. Don’t you agree?