thanks a lot Dorothy again...
WEll, I really want to move to OZ, so I guess even if it means to sacrafice on little things it is fine for me. By the way, can you tell me if there is any equivalent to Costco in OZ as well as which stores would match Safeway/Save-on or Superstore down there.
Oh, almost forget, is car insurance comparable with canadian one price wise.

Thanks a million

No, there is no Costco equivelent here. I haven't been able to find any decent outlet stores. There is something called Harbour Town, but it's nothing like the outlets we get in NA. We moved from Southern Ontario, so used to hop over to Buffalo for the day and shop at the cheap outlets in the States. When we lived in BC we used to go to Bellingham for the outlets.
Coles or Woolworths are the big grocery chains here. We do have Wal Mart, but it's called Big W here. The Aussies would argue it's not WalMart, but it is WalMart. We also have K Mart and Target for cheapy stores. The equivalent to The Bay would probably be David Jones and Sears would be Myer.
For car insurance, I paid about $300 for the YEAR on my car. Registration costs me about $600 for the year, so it's much cheaper than Ontario. I can't remember what I paid for ICBC so can't compare to BC anymore.
If you need anything else, just shout.

Speaking as an Aussie, I can assure you that Big W is not Walmart. It was created in the 1970s as a division of Woolworths (an Australian company established in the 1920s).

There is absolutely no connection between Walmart and Big W.

Wal Mart owns Woolworths in North America. It was bought in the early 1990's. And, if Big W is not part of WalMart, can you explain why they have the same yellow smiley mascot, the same slogan "We sell for less" and "roll back" prices?

According to the link above:

Many of the techniques used by Big W in promotions are nearly identical to the US chain Wal-Mart, such as the in store "smiley face" and the "price rollback". Indeed, former Woolworths CEO and one-time Big W Managing Director Roger Corbett has a mentor relationship with a former President of Wal-Mart and has been appointed to the board of the American retailer.

There might not be a connection between Walmart and Big W. But I agree with Dorothy, it looks and feels like a Walmart to me.

I used to shop at Safeway and Canada and here I like Coles. Here's a hint that will save you some time. Look for the eggs on a regular shelf, not in the refrigerated section. I must have went around the entire store twice before finding the eggs.

I was interested in Dorothy's comparisons because I've made the same ones on my own. I guess I should have just asked her in the first place, it would have saved me a lot of time! And no, there's no Costco unfortunately. I can hardly find anything in bulk either even in the regular grocery stores. No more family packs of cookies for us, which is probably a good thing

I would say these are pretty equivalent in my opinion:
Walmart = Big W
Zellers = K Mart
Safeway = Coles
Save-on-Foods = Woolworths (or close anyway)

I haven't yet been to a David-Jones or a Myer but Dorothy's comparision seems pretty accurate based on the flyers I've seen.

There's also Target which I would say is sort of like Sears or The Bay without all the appliances and really big items.

I haven't quite seen anything like Superstore yet, although most of the grocery stores I go to have a row or two devoted to household type items.

Oh yah, there's no Air Miles here....it's flybuys. I was really confused the first few times at the grocery store when they would look at me and say "Flybuys"? When in doubt just smile and say no. It didn't take me long to clue in though.

Here's a couple of links from my blog about terminology and shopping. I've realized most of the Oz/Canada comparision are buried in the earlier section of the blog back in May.
http://haleyculver.spaces.live.com/b...4BA2!798.entry (check out the links on the bottom)
http://haleyculver.spaces.live.com/b...4BA2!863.entry
http://haleyculver.spaces.live.com/b...4BA2!797.entry
http://haleyculver.spaces.live.com/?...26ayear%3d2007
There are definitely differences at first but I never minded, it just made shopping more interesting! Now that I've been here a few months I've discovered which brands I like and don't like by process of elimination.

Hi .... I can't add much more than others have written, except I have been Melbourne for over 2.5 years, am an Agency (psych) nurse, and have worked in all the big city hospitals - so if you want any info...ask away - either here or via PM

Cas

In 1992 or 93 WalMart bought the North American arm of Woolworth, which had earlier bought out the Canadian arm of Kresge/K-Mart, and rebranded all the former K-Mart and Woolworth stores into WalMarts. The stores here in Australia are almost identical to the Canadian version of WalMart.

If it helps there's a BigW in Bradford, where I come from and that looks just like it too

Hows things?

On the subject of store comparisons, what are the equivalents in Australia of Home Depot and Canadian Tyre?

No clue yet....Dorothy???

I think I'll need to know the answer to this when we get our new house in a few weeks.

However, the North American "Woolworth" is a completely different company to the Australian "Woolworths", and the two are not connected.
Wikipedia.

The reasons for Big W's similarity to Walmart has already been explained.

Home Depot would be Bunnings.
Not sure about Canadian Tire

On the general subject. I grew up in Canada moved back to Uk for 6 years now off to Perth. Does anyone miss Canadian winters ? I loved them as a kid but had enough of them by the time I left and now couldn't imagine dealing with them ever again.
I was worried that the Perth winters weren't 'wintery' enough but experienced a bit of june and was quite impressed. The light and the leaves on the ground reminded me of Canada.

This is realllllllly important to you isnt it

I thought Big W was a chinese store, everythings Made in China


Back to the thread, we know canadians living here for now, (the wifes australian) she says they are finding aus expensive but say thats due to the smaller market, canada must have the benefit of being neighbours to 220 million usa consumers, far more competitive.

Well some things are more expensive. For example hockey equipment, for the obvious reasons. We bought a pair of hockey pants on sale at Canadian Tire for $50, here they are $398. A wooden stick for $30, here it is $70. So either of you plays hockey make sure you get equipment before you leave. And obviously check to see if where you're moving has hockey because only the major citites do.

Before we left a friend of a friend told us things are expensive. He told me his pants were like $200. So I asked on here what the heck this guy was talking about. It was determined that he probably was buying Levis or similar import brands. So if you're stuck on particular clothing buy it before you leave, or adapt and buy a similar item here. We haven't spent any more on clothing than we normally do but that's because we are buying the local stuff which is fine for us.