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John Thomson  

Rumours and things

B.C. retail sales are set to grow faster than every other Canadian province in 2010, except Nova Scotia, according to a study released Friday by Toronto-based KubasPrimedia.

B.C. will then top the country for retail sales growth in 2011, according to the research organization.

KubasPrimedia expects B.C. retail sales to grow 6% to $58.5 billion in 2010. Metro Vancouver retail sales are expected to get an even bigger 6.2% boost to 33.1 billion. Nationwide, retail sales are expected to grow 4.8% to $435.4 billion in 2010.

Retail sales growth in B.C. will slow slightly, to 5.9%, in 2011, the research organization projects. Ontario is the only other province expected to have retail sales grow more than 5% in 2011.

“Nothing in the outlook at this point indicates a significant recovery in 2011,” the report warns.

Retail sales growth took a break in 2009, when every province except New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland saw declines.

In B.C., retail sales fell 4.4% in 2009. That was a steeper decline than the average 2.9% slip for Canada as a whole.

The product categories KubasPrimedia expects to grow sales the fastest in 2010 nationwide are:

  • new car dealerships (9.1%)
  • specialty food stores (8.1%)
  • motor vehicle and parts dealers (7.4%)

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    The Mrs. and I went to Vernon just last week and she noticed the gasoline prices were different in every location. In Vernon $1.04, Lake Country $1.05 and Kelowna when we left in the morning was $1.06.

    When we drove back she noticed that one of the stations in Kelowna had changed their price. It had changed at the Petro Canada station at Leathead and Highway 97 N and had raised to $1.09. She said, "You had better stop at Skogies and fill up," which I did.

    Sure enough, all the stations the next day were up to $1.09.

    Why you ask? Certainly it is the time of year we are using our vehicles more than normal and haven’t got time to worry about three cents.

    When we need a reading on the gasoline industry we always turn to Michael Irvin, the president of M.J. Irvin & Associates in Calgary. His company does market research for the large gasoline companies. There is no conspiracy - gas prices have been increasing due to the introduction of the HST and the jump in the price of crude oil in more recent months.

    The oil price increase since July is about $10(US).

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    I have written about this before and many locals from the valley have bought homes in the south since the prices have been falling.

    The Canadian dollar is virtually at par so those that have a few bucks and don’t like this prolonged winter season that hasn’t even started yet are looking south for a property.

    Canadians should be more a bit more inquisitive than they normally have been because the risk is greater these days with the different states investigating their mortgage industry. The story goes that some of the banks may have used fraudulent paperwork to get homeowners out of the foreclosed homes. From what I can find out this has slowed down on homes in places like Arizona and Florida.

    Vancouver author Philip McKernan wrote the book, “Fire Sale: To Buy U.S. Foreclosures Now!” He says Canadian buyers have to do a thorough due diligence before purchasing any property in the U.S.

    Canadians are the largest foreign buyers of property in the south and according to the National Association Realtors that is 23 per cent.

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    Have you seen any of these e-mail messages that are making the rounds? It is always the same type of message about how much money the person sending the message has made in the last few days for doing almost nothing.

    “I just snagged $718 in four days doing almost nothing! All thanks to – Business Week Journal. You will thank me.”

    That’s what the messages read like and they are coming from an e-mail
    service centre. You rent an address and they in turn send out thousands of e-mails for you, at a price. This garbage also has a hotmail address.

    Just delete, quickly.


  • More John Thomson articles

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    About the Author

    John Thomson is the Okanagan's pre-eminent business columnist writing his column, Rumours and Things, for over 24 years. Plugged in to the valley's who's who, John keeps his readers coming back for more with his straight talk and optimistic perspective on where we are headed next.

    When John is not writing his column, he runs a sixteen year old think tank called the Executive Roundtable and holds his popular "Thomson Presents" quarterly business speaker seminars.

    Have a comment, question, or tip for John? 

    E-mail John at
    [email protected]
    or send him a fax at 250-764-8255.

     



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    The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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