Last year I moved to Vancouver B.C. with my family. We moved from Bellingham, Washington and before that Salem, Oregon. After we moved to Canada I became more aware of the cross border price differences for consumer goods. This weekend we went to Bellingham to do some shopping. I can go to Old Navy in Bellingham and consistently find button-up dress shirts for under $10usd. I have to search to find dress shirts for under $20cdn in Canada. A couple of weeks ago I bought several dress shirts for $3.99usd in Bellingham. If I go to the Old Navy in Langley B.C. (near our house) an item that was $10usd in Bellingham will be $20-25cdn. This is more than an exchange rate difference and it is the exact same item. Of course, this isn’t true all the time. I would like to buy more in Canada, but it is hard to justify not going on a Sunday drive across the border to do some shopping.
Another big difference I have noticed is in the price of gas. I have consistently seen a $0.20 difference per litre. When gas is near $1.00cdn per litre in the Lower Mainland, you can usually get it for under $0.80cdn per litre just across the border in Blaine, Washington. The car I drive has a capacity of over 70 litres. This is a cost savings per tank of over $14.00cdn. A cool site is GasTips where users post gas prices that they observe. They have a cross border town area where the gas has been converted to the litre and Canadian dollar. Here you can see what gas prices are just across the border in Blaine, Bellingham, Pt. Roberts, etc. And it has been converted so it is easy to compare.
I am interested in what some of your experiences and observations have been. If it is less expensive to cross the border, is it worth it?
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