Empire: Seven Safeway-to-FreshCo conversions Canadian retail sales bounce back as online shopping surges Retail sales climbed for the seventh straight month in November as Black Friday deals and a rush to order online gifts early to avoid shipping delays pushed sales up 1.3% to $55.2bln, Statistics Canada said. But the federal agency's unofficial early estimate for December appeared to dampen the retail momentum. It said sales for the last month of 2020 - typically the peak of the holiday shopping season - potentially fell by as much as 2.6%. Canada: Empire to open seven more FreshCo stores Empire has announced the next Safeway-to-FreshCo conversions. Seven Safeway locations - six in Alberta and one in Northern Ontario - will reopen under the company’s FreshCo discount banner in the second quarter of fiscal 2022, the company said in a press release.