Cross border shopping
Jan 5th 2014 | 1:10 am
#31
Account Closed
Joined: Jan 2006
Posts: 0
Re: Cross border shopping
Fruit and veg prices in the supermarkets south of the border are generally much greater higher than the prices in produce stores in the Vancouver area. Dairy products and meat are noticeably lower in the USA.
Immediately south of the border, the small town of Blaine once hosted a large number of gasoline stations catering almost entirely to Canadian visitors, many of which closed when the C$ lost ground a few years back. For a while US shoppers were even looking at buying automobiles in Canada to save money. Now that the C$ has regained value and taxes on Canadian gas have increased, the trend has reversed, and the volume of visitors going to buy gasoline in the USA has gone up again. And while you are there you might as well check out the supermarket and the outlet stores and maybe the mall ..
I have the impression that cross-border price differences for many things have decreased over the years as big box stores like Home Depot Lowe's, Walmart and Target have proliferated in Canada. After the cost of travel, exchange, and taxes you may have to pay, the list of things it's worth going to the US to buy is not as long as you might think. Things still on the list include vehicle tires.
As someone who doesn't like shopping or waiting at the border, I will only go down if I can't find a specific item in Canada, or its C$ price is excessive, and the US supplier won't ship to Canada at all or shipping to Canada is very pricy.
Obviously there are many other people who do think it's worth the hassle.
borderbuying
Immediately south of the border, the small town of Blaine once hosted a large number of gasoline stations catering almost entirely to Canadian visitors, many of which closed when the C$ lost ground a few years back. For a while US shoppers were even looking at buying automobiles in Canada to save money. Now that the C$ has regained value and taxes on Canadian gas have increased, the trend has reversed, and the volume of visitors going to buy gasoline in the USA has gone up again. And while you are there you might as well check out the supermarket and the outlet stores and maybe the mall ..
I have the impression that cross-border price differences for many things have decreased over the years as big box stores like Home Depot Lowe's, Walmart and Target have proliferated in Canada. After the cost of travel, exchange, and taxes you may have to pay, the list of things it's worth going to the US to buy is not as long as you might think. Things still on the list include vehicle tires.
As someone who doesn't like shopping or waiting at the border, I will only go down if I can't find a specific item in Canada, or its C$ price is excessive, and the US supplier won't ship to Canada at all or shipping to Canada is very pricy.
Obviously there are many other people who do think it's worth the hassle.
borderbuying
And those retailers near the border tend to up their prices on goods because of all the cross border shoppers, still cheaper then Canada, but the prices in say Bellingham tend to be higher overall then the average store not near a border with Canada.
All those retailers tend to price based on geographic location and not nationwide, but the further from the Canadian border one gets the cheaper the prices tend to be.
I find the Seattle area stores for example cheaper then the Bellingham stores.
Jan 5th 2014 | 12:02 pm
#32
Grumpy Know-it-all
Joined: Jul 2010
Posts: 8,928
From: Calgary, Alberta
Re: Cross border shopping
You should all watch this: http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/episod...014/price-wars
What this fascination is with Dr Scholl's shoe inserts is, I'll never know. I hear it mentioned so often.
What this fascination is with Dr Scholl's shoe inserts is, I'll never know. I hear it mentioned so often.
