Hi Everyone,
I understand the whole cross border shopping thing. The last time I did it was 19 years ago, before I began working in a variety of retail environments. As soon as a long weekend rolled around or there was “back to school shopping,” the shopping malls were dead! There would be more staff than customers. I am serious. So before anyone thinks about cross border shopping this long Thanksgiving weekend or ever, I would like them to think about a few things. This is what I mean.
While working in those retail environments when Canadians generally cross border shop, I would be so BORED out of my skull because there wasn’t a customer anywhere that I would “create” things for myself to do. Some of the people I worked with went on extended breaks, lunches or went shopping to escape their boredom. If someone wanted to go shopping my thinking was, “At least someone is keeping the economy going!”
That is the point of today’s blog. As Canadians, we should keep OUR economy going by shopping at stores within Canada. (Before any American readers get upset, please continue reading.) There may be some things that are cheaper in the U.S. than in Canada and things that you can buy there and not here. Remember, I used to cross border shop too until I really began to think of the economic impact of all those dollars. So this is what I have to say about that.
Canada is the second largest land mass after Russia. Canada is not as densely populated as other countries, like the United States and Canada has a population of just over 34 million people. Population wise we are small in numbers but big on land mass per person. In my opinion, every Canadian should be happy about that.
Unfortunately, because of the above, the distribution costs, like oil, to transport goods, in some cases great distances, across Canada are expensive. Canadian businesses may not have the distribution channels that other countries do either. That is another cost by the way. And all of those costs contribute to the mark-up that businesses in Canada must charge in order to get their products to their consumers, the people who shop in their establishments so they can stay in business. With that said, the above is another reason as to why some Canadian businesses do not have the same product offerings, (products available) as those in the U.S. They simply cannot afford to, especially when there is no one shopping in their stores to give them the capital to do so!
So before you or anyone you know goes cross border shopping this long weekend or ever, please consider the above, because every time any Canadian spends their Canadian dollars outside of Canada, they are DIRECTLY supporting another economy. With the unemployment rate as it is, I find that rather scary since approximately 10 percent of the Canadian workforce is employed in the retail sector.
For any American readers, this is something I came across a few weeks ago that, in my opinion, should entice Americans to buy American and Canadians to buy Canadian and shop in the country they earn their, (hopefully) hard earned money in. The link is called, Million Jobs Project and it is 3:42 minutes in length,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FrGxO2Fn_M
If you decided to watch the video, than you would know just how powerful the consumer is and the economic impact of their decisions. If you have no idea what I mean, please watch the video again, have someone explain it to you or both! That’s if for today. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
Thank you for reading A. Rebel’s Rant! ;D
by 
by