Canadian shoppers irk Costco customers in Bellingham, Wash.

skookumchuck

Council Member
Jan 19, 2012
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Something I noticed about the video, she referred to "these people" not Canadians..

She is clearly referring to East Indians. In Canada they are also really rude, so Bellingham welcome to our living hell... lol

"You would think you in were Canada" I would suggest the next time she visits Canada she get's out of the Vancouver Lower Mainland, drives east to Alberta..

Numerous cultures consider OUR everyday social interactions to be rude. Sadly the old adage about "when in Rome" has gone out of style due to the entitlements of ridiculously failed multiculturism.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Well.....for those Bellingham folks that think their Costco is too busy & that
parking lot is too crowded...I have a simple solution.

They simply drive North across the border into Canada to the next Costco.
They'd pay double, but the parking lot wouldn't be as crowded, etc...&
aside from the costs, it might be a relaxing excursion for them.
 

B00Mer

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Well.....for those Bellingham folks that think their Costco is too busy & that
parking lot is too crowded...I have a simple solution.

They simply drive North across the border into Canada to the next Costco.
They'd pay double, but the parking lot wouldn't be as crowded, etc...&
aside from the costs, it might be a relaxing excursion for them.

LOL.

Abottsford crossing, there one just as you cross the border..

15 and the Aldergrove crossing... Langley Costco welcomes you..

Peach Arch, run up to Knight St. Costco in Lichmond..

Honest, I don't shop at Costco much ...
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
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There is a magic bullet here, just enforce the food consumption laws at the
boarder. Canada has a managed milk quota system and we should just
enforce it. As for people shopping outside let us look at some additional
situations.
In Canada we are a nation with a much better social safety net and low food
prices compared with the rest of the world. There are no subsidies in Canada
for farmers. And managed systems like Milk etc are not government money
systems they are participant farm systems. People always equate them to
subsidies they are not.
As for America. they have hundreds of billions in subsidies direct to farmers
and a number of other advantages. I will speak to the issue of tree fruits as it
is one I am familiar with. We compete against Washington State.
A survey done less than two years ago, showed by self admission that sixty
percent of workers in orchards were illegals.
Water is provided through the Columbia River Treaty and the Military Engineers
built the Aquifers no cost to farmers which has allowed for thousands of acres
of cheap farmland. There are also additional subsidy programs and the US
Government provides nearly twelve billion in tree fruit farm subsidies. In this
country Canada we get NONE.
Every other business group in Canada has a mechanism for compensating for
cost increases, for Canadian farmers there is none. In addition we have had
several additional programs adding to our basic costs without additional income
streams to cover them..
I have cut my operations down to one farm lot, and in a few years I am out of here
but for Canadians they could find themselves without a food supply. The reason
older farmers are selling to Chinese interests and other international buyers who
are buying up farmland to ship the food out of Canada. Yes there are several
thousand acres on the Prairie not farmed, but there will be no money to farm them
or they will be in the hands of international competing interests. It is time to wake up.
 

B00Mer

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There is a magic bullet here, just enforce the food consumption laws at the border. Canada has a managed milk quota system and we should just enforce it. As for people shopping outside let us look at some additional situations.


In Canada we are a nation with a much better social safety net and low food prices compared with the rest of the world. There are no subsidies in Canada for farmers. And managed systems like Milk etc are not government money systems they are participant farm systems. People always equate them to subsidies they are not.


As for America. they have hundreds of billions in subsidies direct to farmers and a number of other advantages. I will speak to the issue of tree fruits as it is one I am familiar with. We compete against Washington State. A survey done less than two years ago, showed by self admission that sixty percent of workers in orchards were illegals. Water is provided through the Columbia River Treaty and the Military Engineers built the Aquifers no cost to farmers which has allowed for thousands of acres of cheap farmland. There are also additional subsidy programs and the US Government provides nearly twelve billion in tree fruit farm subsidies. In this country Canada we get NONE.


Every other business group in Canada has a mechanism for compensating for cost increases, for Canadian farmers there is none. In addition we have had several additional programs adding to our basic costs without additional income streams to cover them..


I have cut my operations down to one farm lot, and in a few years I am out of here but for Canadians they could find themselves without a food supply. The reason older farmers are selling to Chinese interests and other international buyers who are buying up farmland to ship the food out of Canada. Yes there are several thousand acres on the Prairie not farmed, but there will be no money to farm them or they will be in the hands of international competing interests. It is time to wake up.

Not sure where you cut and paste that from, nevertheless.. prefect reason why we need to scape NAFTA and enforce Fair Trade.

The USA government and it's endless subsidies makes for an unfair trading partner..if we do as we did in past and tax products based on their true value.. including unfair subsidies.. it would grow our economy..

Not to worry about cheap labor from illegals, as immigration laws get stronger in the USA, Canada is the country many illegals choose to come to vs returning to their country, and with the largest undefended border in the world.. not much of a hindrance.
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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It's pretty hard to fault someone living just north of the border, when times
are tight, to buy the things they need at $0.50 on the $1.00 with a 10 minute
drive. I don't do it ('cuz the border isn't next door), but I get it.

I work in the extreme S.E. corner of Saskatchewan bordering on Manitoba
and North Dakota. We work with "oilfield" pricing where most things are
priced to gouge in a wicked way with companies picking up the tab as a
cost of doing business...& that's just the way it is.

Many of the locals are priced out'a being able to take their families out for
supper in their own home towns, and when going out....they drive across
the border into the USA to get twice as much at a better quality (steaks
instead of burgers, etc...) for a portion of the price. It's just the way it is,
& while there they might as well pick up their smokes & booze with what
they save on their meals, etc...

I only see what happens locally, but what %'age of the Canadian population
lives within an hour of the border? Something like 80%? 90%? With such
huge pricing disparities, Canadians shopping in the USA is inevitable.
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
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I did not cut and paste anything, I have been involved in Agricultural Politics for a half
decade. I took the information from several notes I have over that time. I took a year
off and plan to go back to the issues confronting us as farmers. Several family issues
made it near impossible to continue.
I had been working on securing a place at the table for BC Farmers especially those in
potatoes, vegetables and tree fruits. The fact is the current Columbia River Treaty did not
cover irrigation for farmland. America wants to do that to make what the did legitimate
and I think the farm community should be considered here. Let me give you one example.
The irrigation and aquifer system has allowed US Growers to have free water for
elevation growing of cherries and other commodities. This means grow higher up and
have a fresh supply of produce later in the season through the growing season. Free
Canadian Water growing abundant Canadian crops.
Before Columbia Treaty, both sides of the boarder grew about 12 million boxes of apples
a year. Now America grows 120 million BC now down to about 3 million there abouts.
Oh and I pay for water and am subject to restrictions for use due to climate.
As you can see this is one segment of the farm industry but we are not alone. There are
a lot of problems that need solutions. If you are waiting for an end to American subsidies
you will wait a long time. Subsidies exist in Europe, Australia and a lot of places. Try getting
meaningful exports into Japan Good luck. We need to invest in agriculture in Canada,
not subsidies, but investment in marketing and distribution networks etc. We also have to
pay more for food to encourage the growth of the industry and a safe reliable food supply
is a meaningful trade off for higher prices providing both sides live up to a social contract to
do so.
 

damngrumpy

Executive Branch Member
Mar 16, 2005
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It is also partly me Boomer, I used to be a New Director in radio and I never did
get the spacing thing right on computer text, I used to chop it up for the eye so I
could read it and it became a style I suppose.
The problem I have with the people in the video is they do not understand the
problem either. They may be getting a good deal but they are depriving their
own nation of tax revenue and some of them are Fraser Valley Farmers who in
deed cut their own throat for fifty cents as it were.
The problem will not be solved by doling out cash as it creates many of the problems
we have now.
We have to decide what an even playing field is for competition and set the rules
accordingly. Tariffs should be applied where these competitive conditions are not
lived up to. Illegal workers make far less. For example and employee if I want a
competent person is at least 15 dollars an hour plus benefits. Sometimes the pay
rate goes up if conditions are poor in a crop year. Personally I have paid over 20
dollars an hour plus to ensure I have the right quality. That is where I make my
money. All culls and substandard fruit goes on the ground for fertilizer I don't send
it to the packinghouse. Packinghouse processing costs me 8and a half cents a pound.
no point in sending it to juice. I get charged 8.5 cents to sort it, then I get back about
5.5 cents for juicing apples and so I am still three cents short.
We have to make the playing field equal in order to compete. The freed trade deal is
nothing more than a scam for business it does nothing for farmers and its costing us
plenty. it is time to make it a fair trade deal in the interests of the nation not business
and if that can't be done scrap it.
 

B00Mer

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We have to decide what an even playing field is for competition and set the rules
accordingly. Tariffs should be applied where these competitive conditions are not
lived up to..

..and full circle to what I said earlier.. get rid of NAFTA for Fair Trade.. adding tariffs or penalize products that get unfair subsidies to keep them far less in cost than similar products being imported.

Worked great in the 60's and 70's when (cough) Ontario actually had a manufacturing base..

However, we live in a global world (which really means run by global corporations) that want to source out cheap labor to maximize their bottom line and give those undeserving CEO's billion dollar severance packages..
 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
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It seems Saputo figured that out before you did;-)
Note the suggestion of ties to organized crime, Quebec? Couldn't be..........
Saputo Incorporated - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I view marketing boards as much like organized crime. They stifle competition and innovation. The only way new players can enter the field is to buy out an existing quota owner.
This is the real reason some food is more expensive in Canada.`
It is also not fair to Canadian retailers near the boarder or taxpayers in the rest of Canada if shoppers can take advantage of both lower prices in the US and taxpayer funded social programs in Canada.
 

B00Mer

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Sep 6, 2008
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It is also not fair to Canadian retailers near the boarder or taxpayers in the rest of Canada if shoppers can take advantage of both lower prices in the US and taxpayer funded social programs in Canada.

So charge a $20 head tax for those individuals who return to Canada within a 72hr period.. (3 days)

If you go on vacation which is generally 5 to 14 days, have fun.. but just border hoping for cheaper goods.. that's will cost you $20 on your return to Canada.

But a head tax won't happen because the US wouldn't like it.. so Canadian politicians would grab their ankles and spread cheeks wide.

 

taxslave

Hall of Fame Member
Nov 25, 2008
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So charge a $20 head tax for those individuals who return to Canada within a 72hr period.. (3 days)

If you go on vacation which is generally 5 to 14 days, have fun.. but just border hoping for cheaper goods.. that's will cost you $20 on your return to Canada.

But a head tax won't happen because the US wouldn't like it.. so Canadian politicians would grab their ankles and spread cheeks wide.

I was thinking of charging an import tax on any products brought back instead of this ever increasing duty free BS. Perhaps an exception could be made to second hand products.
 

Liberalman

Senate Member
Mar 18, 2007
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It's all about supply and demand and in the US they are poorer and businesses have to price their products accordingly if they want to stay in business. So when the people that have more money north of the border come south they get the deals and we can't forget years ago that it was the other way around when Canadian money was worth less than 60 cents to the Yankee buck more Americans were at the Canadian cities north of the border. When you look at the cheap American milk, is it watered down like their beer?
 

Ron in Regina

"Voice of the West" Party
Apr 9, 2008
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Solution.. bring our dollar back down to 70 cents of the US Dollar and all those Bellingham folks will be flooding our parking lots, and over crowding our stores.. :lol:


How? How do you artificially deflate the value of your currency?

....and if you managed that feat, it would be awesome for keeping most cross
border shoppers from shopping in the USA (except for things like milk & cheese
and clothing and paper products which would still be cheaper in the USA than
in Canada even at 70 cents on the US Dollar) and maybe some telemarketing
companies might re-open back in Canada from India or the Phillipines (not).

Myself? I'm enjoying my paycheque being worth something.
 

taxslave

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Nov 25, 2008
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If our dollar dropped to $.70 US everyone would need at least a 30% raise just to remain even since most products are priced in US dollars.