As inflation continues to weigh down Canadian spending, a retail expert says deceptive discounts based on higher regular prices could mislead shoppers this holiday season.

Bruce Winder told 麻豆影视 Channel on Sunday that consumers can expect to see 鈥渁 lot of sticker shock鈥� in retail stores in the coming months.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e going to see a lot of discounts but a lot of those discounts will be based on higher regular prices year-over-year because of inflation,鈥� he said.

鈥淢y hypothesis is that consumers are going to start [holiday shopping] early and they鈥檙e going to really cherry-pick discounted items.鈥�

Unlike last year, when retail stores faced supply chain shortages, Winder explained that retailers have stacked in excess inventory for this holiday season.

鈥淸Retailers] had to make calls about a year ago before inflation popped up and the economy [took a] hit. So retailers had those big bets and they all arrived,鈥� he said.

Winder added that these retailers are going to have to discount that excess inventory significantly to 鈥渕ove it out,鈥� and consumers should shop around if they鈥檙e hunting for deals.

Statistics Canada鈥檚 latest consumer price index report shows that Canada鈥檚 annual inflation rate in September lowered slightly to 6.9 per cent from 7.0 per cent in August.

This is a smaller decrease than economists anticipated given hiked-up interest rates from the Bank of Canada, and while economic projections of a technical recession have added to the storm of soured consumer sentiment, some consumers are concerned that retailers are bumping up costs to mitigate financial pressures later on.

鈥淩etailers will mostly try to pass on cost increases when they can,鈥� Winder said. 鈥淪ome can and some can鈥檛. But there are hypotheses going around that some retailers are padding it even more than inflation.鈥�

Winder said that consumers 鈥渨on鈥檛 really know.鈥�

鈥淭he best thing I would say if you鈥檙e a consumer is shop around,鈥� he advised.

鈥淟ook for real deals, and don鈥檛 just assume because it鈥檚 a discount it鈥檚 a great deal. Comparison shop. Look for retailers that have a lot of inventory in store 鈥� you鈥檒l notice it and they鈥檒l probably be discounting it more significantly.鈥�