Today is Boxing day – and I have no idea what is on sale.

That may be because there is really nothing I need. Yes, I have plenty of wants, but my life is no less fulfilled if none of those ever happen. I think though it is more the way society has shifted.

This used to be the biggest sales day of the year in Canada, as merchants offloaded seasonal material and had great deals on other products. I was usually out shopping before 6 a.m. to get the best deals before the product ran out.

Times have changed though, and I think Black Friday has become the big shopping day. Once again Canada is taken over by an American cultural influence.

The bigger change though is something that took place in the past few years that i didn’t really notice happening because we were living in Germany. My home is no longer inundated with paper flyers from local and national merchants telling me what to buy.

Not that many years ago I would get at least three grocery store flyers, a couple of department store flyers, two from hardware stores and maybe a dozen others from specialty shops and restaurant chains – each week. They were dropped off on my doorstep in a big bundle.

For Boxing Day there were more sales, which meant more stores and bigger flyers. But that doesn’t happen any more.

Yes, there are sales, but I have to go looking for the deals online. To me that is too much work. There may be some great deals out there, but I’ll only find them by accident if I stumble across them when I am out buying groceries.

From an environmental perspective the lack of flyers is probably a good thing. I’m not sure about the impact on the economy though. I’m certainly spending less – and those who delivered the flyers are out of a job completely.

It’s a subtle social shift, and I missed it completely. It leaves me wondering what other changes happen around me that I don’t notice at the time.

Does that ever happen to you?