Hi

I been hearing a lot from family friends in Ontario about cross border shopping expeditions to take advantage of cheaper products in the US.

We are due to arrive in Calgary in two weeks and was wondering whether the same is done there. Where do you go?

Cheers
Andy

Most of the people in Canada who I know (in Calgary and on the west coast) don't bother with cross border shopping anymore... although people might pick up a few things if they're visiting the States for some other reason.

What HWP said.

Calgary is not THAT close to the US border. It's almost a 3-hour drive. Then, even once you get there, it's rural Montana on the other side. There has never been as strong a cross-border shopping culture in Calgary as there has been in some other Canadian towns and cities that are closer to the US border.

Edited to add that some people like to fly to Las Vegas for a weekend about once a year. While they're there, many of them shop at the outlet malls. But, to reinforce the earlier point, it's not a weekly exercise.

Cross border shopping was a big craze once the Canadian govt introduced the GST federal tax back in (I think!) the late 80's and the strong US dollar certainly helped back then too as economics 101 teaches you, richer/better off countries do not need to charge as high prices for goods/services unless demand goes up too high. Due to this, alot of Canadians would drive to the USA for a day trip and buy clothes, jewelry, food, tabacco, gas etc at a cheaper price even with the exchange rate.

The how and now though is that the US Dollar currently stands at 97cents to a Canadian dollar... back then it was hovering between 50-70cents US for 1 Canadian dolllar, hence, the benefit has been mostly lost for cross border shopping day trips.

It's not so much to do with the Canadian dollar gaining strength as it does with the USA dollar dropping value rapidly.... more so then it has ever had since 1986 when I first moved to Canada, it has NEVER gone this low!! Not good as alot of Canadians keep USD accounts that used to earn more value with the USD going up in value, now you wouldnt give a second glance to it. There is a definate USA recession going on which (I think) is rare for the Americans during 'times of war' as historically it usually entailed a boom for industry/manufacturing.

Sadly I think Prez Bush's legacy will be one filled with pointless wars & expenses with little reward & sinking the Americans further and further in debt while the local economy's stagnated in the aftermath of terror attacks damaging the economy by targetting the financial areas.

Even pre 911 terror attacks, Canadian economists were marvelling that the US dollar was so strong considering the enormous amount of federal debt they had to internationals.

Lucky for Canada, they had Jean Chretien come into power a decade(ish) ago who scrimped and saved and managed to reduce Canada's national debt by half within 8 years (also thanks to his Financial left hand man who is now PM I believe?).... OK it didnt make many Canadians happy at the time as it meant added taxes and less money to play with after yearly Income Taxes, but that is why Canada can NOW enjoy an economic boom while the Yanks are left begging for credit from other rich countries.

EDIT: Just wanted to add that most of my friends & family in Canada only cross border shop now if they are looking for new products/technology which isn't out yet in Canada... ie; wasteful impatient spenders showing who's LCD is bigger then everyone elses if you get my drift *lol*

Long time ago. The current PM is President Bushclone.