Canadian loonie going crazy!

[kima]

So our dollar hit 1.08 US today!

Have you Canucks here been heading south to shop (or doing the equivalent online?).
We went down to the Seattle area two weeks ago and did a bit of shopping. It was amazing to be above par with the US dollar. :eek:
I saw on the news last night that the lineups to get back into the country were 5 hours long last weekend! Apparently there are designated shopping buses?

Now that I see how huge the trend is I actually feel like I don't want to shop south much anymore. I feel guilty. :o

I also know that many retailers ARE trying to lower prices but it is not easy for small stores to do it after they paid for merchandise months ago when the dollar was much lower. I actually shop in the States more for superior selection than I do for price.
Anyway how is this strong dollar affecting you all and your shopping patterns?

[jmarie]

I actually shop in the States more for superior selection than I do for price.

kima, OT, I know....I have never been to Canada....so, this statement puzzled me. I am surprised that you all do not have the same selection as us, and was wondering if you would discuss this. We really have a better selection than you? First I read it as quality, then realized you said selection, but that still has me baffled.
Joyce

[kima]

The selection on most items- from clothes to household items (Groceries!!) is vastly superior in the States IMHO. I am blown away by the product choices you have- we can't even get Greek style yogurt up here.
We have 32 million people spread over the second largest land mass in the world. The US is 300 million. That could be one reason.

The selection has improved in leaps and bounds here but still....we have two very poor (again IMHO) department stores and nothing like Nordstrom's. (used to but Eatons closed).
Day to day you can get everything here and more (we aren't Russia circa 1980!:D :D ) and I have no real complaints.
Still even if I find a piece of clothing here I like they often will only have a few random sizes whereas in the States they always have one of every size on the rack or in the back.

TOT- Vancouver is getting a Williams Sonoma. :) :) :)

And to really confuse things-I don't really want every US chain to open up here-I like a distinct identity but I don't see why we can't have more choice.
Oh and I live in a small city on an island so my choices are much more limited than Toronto or Vancouver . A trip to the US once or twice a year is fun as I can buy things tht are new and different.(Target, Trader Joe's, Penzey's, J Jill...)

The last time our dollar was at par I was in high school(1976) so this little blimp is fun. (but of course some industries here can't wait for it to go down).

[ClaraB]

Not Maureen, but as a Canadian living in the US, I can vouch for the selection being better here. There are just so darn many more stores here (and I live in a "remote" part of the US :eek: !) - I can only imagine what shopping is like in Seattle.

Maureen, I wish we were moving to the US now, rather than 7 years ago when the loonie was 67 cents US :rolleyes: . We've moved some of our RRSP money into USD funds, but I'm wondering if we didn't do it too soon. I don't ever remember the loonie being this strong. It's pretty painful to go back to Canada to visit though....

[kima]

No one predicted this huge runup!

I do find it funny to hear Americans complain that Canada isn't the baragin it was when their dollar was worth 30% plus more. Compared to Europe we are still cheap and a great place to visit (again IMHO :D ;) ).

WE have lived with it for years and years going way in their favour and now we are worth a teeny bit more and they gripe? :rolleyes:
This won't last and I predict when it drops it will drop quickly and by at least 10-15%. Big time economist that I am. I bet we will be below 1.00 USD by next spring.

[lonetree1353]

Maureen, the article in todays paper says that they predict that the loonie will rise further. Unless Canada raises its interest rate they don't foresee it falling. I am sure this is just short term.

I am heading off for a sister shop til we drop long weekend in Seattle on Friday. As you stated it is for the variety of articles I can get in the US vs our small city selections.

My greatest pleasure when I go to the states is to go into a large grocery store and see the selections of things down there. Where we might have 8 different flavours of cake mixes as an example they have way more, the cereal isle is mind boggling compared to ours. One price I could never understand was the cost of books in Canada. We would have two prices shown on magazines and books. A US price (say $29.99) and a Canadian price ($45.00) It was way beyond the dollar difference.

Well for now I am going to enjoy shopping here in Canada and the US. The higher dollar is a nice bonus, but not the reason I shop in the US.


The loon is flying higher than the eagle at the moment.

[Canice]

This is my favorite thread title since the one about the silpat losing its Reagan-esque quality! :p

DBF and I reminisce about the old exchange rate, back when things were as nature intended. (Kidding! I'm KIDDING!) Well, not about the reminiscing part - it was pretty amazing. Needless to say, even without the current renovations at his place, the window of opportunity has closed on his Tofino retirement house.

[Robyn1007]

This is my favorite thread title since the one about the silpat losing its Reagan-esque quality! :p



SNORT! That was a FANTASTIC thread title.

I don't understand the book price difference either, it just seems extreme!

[Canice]

.....
My greatest pleasure when I go to the states is to go into a large grocery store and see the selections of things down there. Where we might have 8 different flavours of cake mixes as an example they have way more, the cereal isle is mind boggling compared to ours. One price I could never understand was the cost of books in Canada. We would have two prices shown on magazines and books. A US price (say $29.99) and a Canadian price ($45.00) It was way beyond the dollar difference.
....

I've never understood that either. So you'd think when someone actually explained it a few weeks ago on NPR, I would have paid attention. :rolleyes: But as I recall it was one of those "explanations" that doesn't really succeed, if you know what I mean.

As far as selection, well, yes - you need the number of consumers to support it. California alone has several million more than Canada, so at some point it just isn't worth trying to sell the product. I remember once having a sort of odd conversation with a woman in a supermarket, talking about the butter. It wasn't *really* strange, just a little funny. Then she said, "I'm Canadian, and I'm a little overwhelmed by the selection." How many places on earth is there a chunk o' land as big as the US and Canada combined where it's actually not hard to "pass"?

[lonetree1353]

Speaking of butter...don't get me started about Canadian butter:o What I mean is for us to get our butter in a package that has quarters we have to pay close to $1-2 more. Ours comes in 1 pound blocks. Now would it be so hard to package it into quarters? I have never found a satisfactory answer to that one.:(

[kima]

I got a very nice pamphlet from a Winnipeg bookstore (I am on their mailing list!) and in it was a letter from the owner about the price discrepancy in books.
Y'all know I can't type worth beans so I can't type it all out but it made sense to me.

First he said CDN book prices are going down and he sighted exampels of books by Kathy Reich. In 2003 one her books was $37.95 and now in 2007 her latest book is 29.99 A 21% decline in five years.
He said there really is a time lag-since early 2007 when books were commited, catalogued, priced, budgeted and put into production for August release the CDN dollar rose by 17%. No one could have predicted that. He says booksellers are not profitting. All American books distributed in Canada by a Canadian entity even if it is just a branch plant. Or it may be an independent Canadian publisher acting as an agent, or a dedicated Canadian book distributor. At the very least it is a Canadian sales agency. On a given title the Canadian distributor of an American book will have few economies of scale. If a book sells 50,000 copies in the US, it'll sell maybe 3-4,000 in Canada. This increases the costs per book and makes prices higher. So it is true that Canadian distribution costs consumers money, perhaps 10% when the exchange rate settles down. The more obscure the book, the higher the differential.
He says it is very important that there is Canadian involvement in book distribution and production to keep the Canadian book scene vibrant and growing.

I copied most of that from the brochure- hope it makes sense. I certainly don't mind paying abit more for books here as I want to see Canadian literature thrive but it is nice to see the price difference improving.

Yes Canice- the time to buy in Tofino has passed for now but it will return. someday.

I thought CA had about the same population of all of Canada- 32 million.

[foodfiend]

It's true, the selection in Canada is nowhere what it is in the States. That's why I like shopping on eBay for clothing -- I see all the styles we can't get here in Toronto, the centre of the Canadian universe (yes! I'm absolutely joking!). But seriously, Toronto probably has the largest selection in all of Canada, and yet I see only a sampling of the brands and clothing in the American catalogues. I often get compliments from co-workers about my clothes, mainly it's stuff they don't see in the stores.

[Canice]

Speaking of butter...don't get me started about Canadian butter:o What I mean is for us to get our butter in a package that has quarters we have to pay close to $1-2 more. Ours comes in 1 pound blocks. Now would it be so hard to package it into quarters? I have never found a satisfactory answer to that one.:(

I do think it's more convenient to have it cut in quarters since I don't go through it very fast: I keep one stick in the 'fridge and freeze the rest. But in cooking school it comes just in one pound blocks, and when you've got people in a class who don't really cook anyhow, it confounds them. Of course it's a snap to cut off two tablespoons if you're used to working with sticks and don't care what happens to the rest one you plunk it back in the 'fridge!


Yes Canice- the time to buy in Tofino has passed for now but it will return. someday.

Yea, and by the time the currency shifts again every celebrity and two-bit celebrity will have escalated the property values out of reach anyhow! Not that I care. Lovely spot and all, but how long do you see me surviving there? A long weekend? I'd be heading down to Victoria every weekend to boogie with kima!! :D

[lisas3575]

The upside down exchange rate, coupled with being 12 hours away from their only grandchild, just prompted MIL and FIL to buy a house here and leave BC. One reason they retired there was to help stretch their retirement $$ and that benefit is no more.

Maureen, want to buy a house in Kelowna??? :D They are staying up there until it sells, but I'd love for them to be here for the holidays!

[lonetree1353]

Lisa....DH and I were in Kelowna this summer and boy have the house prices escalated there in the last few years. I was talking to a lady from just outside of Vancouver who sold her 10 acre property and was having a hard time finding a home within their budget. She said she got a good price for the 10 acres.

I know some friends parents who live here from the UK because their pension goes further here then there and I guess they are noticing the same thing.

Hope they sell quickly and are with you for the holidays.

[erinlovesmarc]

update: it's up to 1.10 today!!!!! :D I need to do some online shopping! ;)

[Hoodone]

When we moved to Canada in 2004, the conversion price we paid for our house was .74. When we left this summer we got .94 for our house conversion. We were pretty happy about that! Now just a few short months later it's 1.1! WOW!!

I can totally relate to the lack of selection comments. Even in Calgary with lots of Americans living there (Canada's most "American" city with 10% of it's population from south of the border) the selection was limited. You should have seen me doing the happy dance when Williams Sonoma opened there.

Also, the butter thing. I hated trying to cut 1/4 a cup of butter (or whatever) off a giant block. I took to weighing butter.

Well, with the loonie being above par, maybe the internet shopping won't be so prohibitively expensive as it was when I lived there!!

[lonetree1353]

I ordered some books last week from Amazon.ca Two of the cookbooks were used and came from the US. The cost of shipping was the same price as the books :( but even with that I got a much better price than buying them new here. I couldn't find them used in Victoria.

I watched a show on TV that was talking about people shopping online and how that was affecting sales in stores locally. (here and in the US). I think more Canadians will be shopping online for the selection choices and now with the dollar rise, the cost of shipping, overall, won't hit the pocket book quite so bad.

[kima]

Your inlaws are doing a smart thing financially Lisa. The houisng market is very strong up here and they should have no problem selling. And of course they want to be close to their adorable grandson!

I have done my share of cross border shopping but I do worry about our local merchants and Canadian companies . These are our neighbours and friends.
I will try and balance my spending over the next few months and make sure I buy locally too.

yes- 1.10 today! Wow!

[AvrilH]

I couldn't help myself. Blame it on the loonie.

Despite the fact we are not in a great financial place, I ordered a new suit yesterday. I buy most of my clothes at Eddie Bauer online bc they carry everything in tall and their stuff fits me consistently. I REALLY NEED another suit, and I looked in the only tall shop here, and the suits were crappy and started at $200. I ordered a beautiful suit for $155 american at EB. :)

If the loonie keeps going up, I will need more hangers.

[kima]

Don't you find the duty, shipping and GST costs for ordering from EB really put the final cost up Avril?
I ordered some pants from there (albeit the exchange was not quite what it is now but it it was pretty good) and the final cost was at least another 50% of the US price.
Luckily I love the pants and they were only available online.

Anyway I am wondering if you find those add on costs still keep things cheaper (I hear you on the selection aspect! )

[oceanjasper]

I feel pretty strongly about shopping locally, but I think that comes from having been a small business owner myself. However, I still do love going to larger centres (in Canada) to shop in order to get more variety. Some things you just can't buy here.

I don't think I have ever bought anything online directly from a company in the US. The last time I was physically in the US was 2 years ago and it was for a concert. Not saying that I wouldn't go to the US to shop; it is just such an effort to actually get to the border, cross it, and shop. The time and money spent to get there would probably eat up anything saved on purchases made. Now, if it was part of a greater plan, like a road trip down the Washington and Oregan coast, that's a whole other story. As for shopping trips, I'm really quite content to stay here on my little island. :)

Having said that, my SIL is looking for photography equipment right now and it is amazing what the difference in prices are between Canadian and American retailers. It is pretty difficult not to justify buying across the border when the price difference is just so significant. I would undoubtedly do the same, if I was in her position. But by the time I get around to buying new equipment, the dollar will be back where it was before! :)

[kima]

I feel fairly strongly about the issue too oj and shop down south maybe once a year and it is more just for a change than anything else. Living on an island it is is not cost effective to travel south- ferry costs alone negate any savings. :eek:

We are going to San Diego after Xmas though it is not a shopping trip I am sure some of that will occur. :o
I feel a tad guilty as I said so will do all my Christmas shopping here. :)

[lonetree1353]

I also feel that we should support Canadian industries as well as local shopping. I don't think my twice yearly shopping down south will be a big imput or deterrent in the overall scheme of things.

We started this tradition when we were dealing with two ailing elderly parents as our "break" from being the sandwich generation.

I see that the loonie has dropped down to $1.08 from an all time high of $1.10

[kima]

I think pretty well everyone does a bit of shopping south of the border and that is fine. I certainly enjoyed my shopping experiences down there.
The worry is that so many people are going down more frequently that Canadian retailers are bound to affected.
A balance between shopping elsewhere and in your local community is best. Many people only think about getting a bargain and not the ramifications on their local small retailers.


I certainly don't put you or any of us occasional US shoppers in that category. Hope you and your sister have a great time!

[hollysmom]

Two lovely people from Nova Scotia flew down and picked up the car that I had sold to them on EBay. He is a car guy and will do the body work that it needs himself, but apparently even used cars are so expensive up there that it will be worth the airplane tickets and gasoline to take the car back across the border.

SSM

[AvrilH]

Kim: I shop at EB online for myself bc finding clothes that fit is such a hassle! I am a very tall size 10, and either I can buy at TallGirl, and get waists taken in (their sizes fit large) or buy at a regular store (after searching for long hems and seam allowances) and get them let out. Both ways is very expensive and time consuming.

If I order at EB, the eventual markup after shipping and duty is 30%, which is less than it costs to buy here and tailor. And if I get lucky at their outlet site, it actually is a decent savings! At the end of season, I often spend $150 total for about 5 pieces of good quality.