At our July monthly meeting, Keith Pitts, author of “The Canadian Cross-Border Shopping Guide” — as the title implies a guide to shopping in the U.S. Some of the points Keith made included:
- The reality of the falling value of the Canadian dollar
- 95% of imported goods are priced at US dollars
- Food costs in Canada are 12% higher than in the US
- US high-end stores are moving into Canada for higher
profits - 37% of Canadian Tire Products are imported from the US
Keith believes that products in Canada are handled by too many people. Large US stores buy directly from the manufacturer and save many mark ups. He gave as an example a child car seat manufactured in Montreal sells for $379 in Canada
and is available in the US for $120. His suggestions to save money shopping in the
US were to:
- Pre-plan a shopping trip
- Get on line with stores and get coupons and specials
- Take advantage of on-line shopping
- You pay HST but no duty on Canadian, American, and Mexican products
- You pay no duty on groceries.
Our speaker at the upcoming August 11th, 2015 meeting will be Lois Sarkisian, Manager, Groups and Tours Department of CAA Niagara. Her talk is entitled, Travelling our world – travel tips, great savings, hot spots and hidden gems.