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TORONTO — The company that owns Canada’s highest-traffic mall knows many of its customers work on Black Friday — that’s why Toronto’s downtown Eaton Centre is opening at 6 a.m.

Tough competition and sluggish growth have spurred Canadian retailers to look for novel ways to defend market share, and many are opting to import U.S.-style Black Friday sales, even though Canadians celebrated Thanksgiving in October and the year’s biggest sales traditionally come after Christmas.

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A recent report from Deloitte forecast an anemic 1% to 2% retail sales growth in Canada this holiday season, and noted that Canadian retailers will have to compete with online merchants and with U.S. retailers, both those south of the border and those that have moved north.

If you’re trying to compare apples to apples and taking into consideration shipment and all that stuff, it’s getting closer to parity

No one thinks the Black Friday trend will whip up crowds on par with those in the United States, but most major retailers are planning some kind of sale.