More crossborder shopping to come?

[sailor723]

I see the US dollar has fallen from 1.18 CDN to 1.12 in the last week alone. I've been reading predictions that we may see continuing strength in our dollar over the coming months due to recovering oil/base metal prices and concerns about US debt. Lot's of "ifs" but if we do see parity (or something close to it) in the coming months do you think the floodgates will open again?

[The Mighty Duck]

Tough to say.  On the one hand, the economic situation has worsened considerably since early 2008, and new car purchases are down.  But then, with the dollar difference, buying in the US becomes an attractive option.

I'd say, if the dollar regains those heights, we'll probably see lots of cross-border shopping.  But will it be as high as it was?  Maybe not...

[Careener]

I think we'll see a lot of it again. There have already been some crazy deals in the US and it will only get better as the dropped dealers blow out their inventory. 

[Railton]

Neighbors just returned from Florida house hunting.
Railton

[JSCC]

I went last Victoria Day weekend to get some Hugo Boss clothing at the Buffalo Fashion outlet (basically half the final price you see at the HB outlet at Vaughn Mills) to match my upcoming Merc demo!

Yes! I am converting into a MB hotshot! 

[sailor723]

I wonder if the new June 1st passport requirements will hurt the retail outlets along the border that get a fair amount of Canadians?

[safristi]

..cross border shoppers.....................well first  ya have ta swim across one of two fast flowing streams here in Ontario..............no wunner I"M CROSS..........have ya weighed 5 flagons of Johnnie Walkers??   damn near swallowed  half of tha Erie canal................

[sailor723]

..cross border shoppers.....................well first  ya have ta swim across one of two fast flowing streams here in Ontario..............no wunner I"M CROSS..........have ya weighed 5 flagons of Johnnie Walkers??   damn near swallowed  half of tha Erie canal................

Not to mention dodging heavy machine gun fire from the Gesta....errr I mean the US Border Patrol

[PJungnitsch]

Might be quite a lot of shopping going on. I know I was kicking myself I didn't get my motorcycle parts when the CDN dollar was up.

[tpl]

I wonder if the new June 1st passport requirements will hurt the retail outlets along the border that get a fair amount of Canadians?

After two years of saturation ads in the newspapers AND having to use a passport on flights to the US for some time I would think that Canadians have given in and got passports by now

[mmret]

One could always get a Nexus pass. If I did more traveling I certainly would.

Then again maybe I should just get it done now. Would presumably be harder in the future once America is finished pissing off the entire world and everyone who isn't white is a terrorist or south-sea pirate. 

[sailor723]

I wonder if the new June 1st passport requirements will hurt the retail outlets along the border that get a fair amount of Canadians?

After two years of saturation ads in the newspapers AND having to use a passport on flights to the US for some time I would think that Canadians have given in and got passports by now

Excerpt from a story in our  local Saint John paper (Telegraph Journal) this AM....

"Despite the hype ahead of the June 1 deadline, only 35 per cent of New Brunswickers have their passports, Passport Canada spokesman Sebastien Bois said last week in Ottawa.

Nationally, 54 per cent of Canadians have their passports. The numbers range from as high as 62 per cent in British Columbia, 60 per cent in Ontario and 58 per cent in Alberta to 38 per cent in Nova Scotia, 36 per cent in Prince Edward Island, 30 per cent in Newfoundland and Labrador, and 12.5 per cent in Nunavut."


I don't know if that many Canadians never go to the US or if a lot of people are clueless and are in for a shock when they arrive at the border in the coming months.

[tpl]

I haven't been to the USA since 1995 and that was just unavoidable business meetings.  But I do have both a Cdn and a EU passport.

I wonder. If  those statistics  do not show the many many people who are not citizens and who have other passports with US visas then the lack of passport problem may be less severe than they show.

[sailor723]

Good point. I wonder if those numbers are for Canadian citizens only or include other nationals who are residents? I would assume the former,but who knows.

I do remember reading that a much lower percentage of US citizens have a passport then is the case in Canada. That being true the new regs may have a larger negative impact on Canadian tourism than on the US border states.

[tpl]

i read somewhere recently that it is well less than 25% of US citizen/residents have passports.
One must obviously assume that all US citizens resident outside the US have passports and as with Canada, most if not all non-citizen residents have passports of some country.

http://www.gyford.com/phil/writing/2003/01/31/how_many_america.php    This is slightly interesting

[safristi]

..so the is who recognises who with what??...(Canada Visa  vis.US ).....................Does a Biafran get into Canada....................does a Ukranian walk into the States.............we are all assuming Canadian & US Passports passing freely.....it's a GAS i tells ya.....

[tpl]

Saf, Most Landed immigrants need a Visa to enter the USA.   I don't know but I imagine that if you are a legal Canadian resident from Iran or North Korea that you might not be issued a Visa.  I don't know,

In theory all Canadian citizens with Canadian passports no matter their previous citizenship should be able to freely enter as tourists subject to the usual US restrictions:  Criminal record and some other stuff.   Again I don't know what happens if you are a dual citizen of An "Evil Empire country " and of Canada.

[The Mighty Duck]

i read somewhere recently that it is well less than 25% of US citizen/residents have passports.

I've heard the same too, but after thinking about it, it makes a certain amount of sense.  In Canada, the vast majority of the population lives very close to the US border.  That makes traveling to the States a fairly common occurrence for many Canadians - shopping, school trips, sports events, concerts, whatever.  We're very close to the US, so it's a viable option.

But the United States is very different geographically from Canada.  A lot of the border region is very sparsely populated, and even the population centers that are close to the border do not come close to the numbers (percentage wise) of Canadians who live near the border.  And because the US market is so much more developed, it is rarer for Americans to come to Canada to shop, or see sports events or concerts, etc., than the reverse.  And many, many Americans live too far from the border for this to even factor in at all - your average Joe living in Florida or Texas is not likely to travel to Canada.  The only Americans making trips to Canada are tourists.  So the lower numbers of passports should not be surprisingly, really.

[tpl]

Right in terms of coming to Canada.   What about all those Americans who flock to the UK to see Buck House and to Paris to see the Louvre... maybe they all fit into the <25% ( affluent middle class etc.)

[The Mighty Duck]

Right in terms of coming to Canada.   What about all those Americans who flock to the UK to see Buck House and to Paris to see the Louvre... maybe they all fit into the <25% ( affluent middle class etc.)

I wondered about that, too.  I guess the answer is, not many Americans travel abroad?  Plenty of my friends have never been outside of North America, and my social circle is predominantly middle/upper-middle class.  I have little trouble believing that a majority of Americans have never left the USA.

Also, that 25% only includes current passport holders...  many Americans might have had PPs in the past and traveled, but not maintained them.