Americans demand Canadian-free shopping at Costco

[davemata]

Foreign money infusion to a local area, ensuring some people retain employment? That's not complaint worthy.

Live in Reno or LV for a while, you'll see a few Canucks and a few RVs are no big deal, and that their cash is well worth the few minutes of extremely minor inconvenience.

 

[Sincere]

Yeah, Asians are the worst...

 

[John H]

Take the busiest Costco you have seen, times that by 10.

Not to mention this Costco is only 90,000 sq ft, they are planning on building one almost twice that size.

Not to mention they are plugging up parking for other business in the area.

It is a hell a lot more then a few minutes inconvenience , and is is not minor.

 

[gallogiro]

Washington state has sales tax?

 

[gallogiro]

I tend to agree with those that it's still money coming into the local economy. It might suck to get groceries but your kids get to keep woodshop/music programs in school. It appears the mayor of Bellingham is smart enough to know this and is willing to put down 1.5m to help the store grow. Bigger store, more employees too.

<broken link removed>

I grew up in so cal so I know what combat grocery shopping is like.

 

[John H]

They offered alot more , but it is all in secret. When the letter requested most of it was redacted .

 

[gallogiro]

Here's another quote I found

But the crush of Canadians is not all bad: "In the last two years, our sales tax generation has doubled or tripled the pace in the rest of the state," Ken Oplinger, president of the Bellingham/Whatcom Chamber of Commerce, told the CBC.

"And its almost entirely because of the Canadians coming south."

I mean, I understand where you are coming from. A usually quiet town gets a huge surge of traffic coming through it, it would piss off the locals without a doubt. But at the same time, our economy needs this (local/state/fed).

Having 'American only' hours doesn't make any sense. What if they just built another Costco closer to the border? I can almost guarantee neither of those will happen. It sounds like the local government is pretty adamant about keeping the store in Bellingham and actually making it more accessible to I-5 to accomodate easier travels for Canadians. Sorry guys.

 

[John H]

It would be nice to be able to use my own town once in a while.

I know of lots of people who drive to Burlington to use that Costco just to avoid this one.

I would like to see the actual figures, you can't trust the CoC.

 

[HappyRoman]

LET'S SEE WHAT INFLATION IN 2013 DOES.. WATCH OUT

 

[JackThompson]

Take the busiest Costco and time it by 10... hmm. that's massive shopping.

If only there were opportunity to open businesses nearby that could also sell things to these people while they're in town by the millions.

Down here in Vantucky, we had a Costco open up in what used to be a cow field.

Shortly after that we had a Panda Express open near it.
Shortly after that we had a Burger King open near it.
Shortly after that we had a Home Depot, Weinerschintzel, Krispy Kreme Donut, Shell "Mini-Mart" Gas Station, Starbucks, Wendy's Burgers, A privately owned "Rocks, boulders, gardening center" shop and like two other businesses I've personally never bothered to make note of.

They had to make traffic light modifications and road modifications to adapt to the influx of traffic and problems it caused.

It has created an insane amount of jobs and opportunities and brought a lot of nice revenue increasing businesses to that cow pasture.

If only the super genius that figured out how to do that in Vantucky would go up and show Bellingham how it's done...

I've been to Bellingham, if you took the college away that place would be a ghost town...

 

[JackThompson]

P.S.
Don't get me wrong.

I get the "What happened to my small town" feeling. It sucks when it grows like that.

The same thing happened in our area. That's one of the main reasons I moved MANY MANY miles north, at the edge of BLM land so it won't happen again in my lifetime.

I don't begrudge Vancouver their expansion, and appreciate what it does for the economy... and I wouldn't say "I need a shopping time that doesn't involve all these <Insert newly immigrated races/Other State Residents> around here!"

 

[Botte Hork]

As for them acting like they own the joint, that's just something that comes with foreigners. (The Scots complain and the Polish, the Germans complain about the Welsh, the Turkish complain about the Greeks... this is nothing new.)

Assuming you're not against foreigners, that first sentence could raise an eyebrow or two.

Down here in Vantucky, we had a Costco open up in what used to be a cow field.

Shortly after that we had a Panda Express open near it.
Shortly after that we had a Burger King open near it.
Shortly after that we had a Home Depot, Weinerschintzel, Krispy Kreme Donut, Shell "Mini-Mart" Gas Station, Starbucks, Wendy's Burgers, A privately owned "Rocks, boulders, gardening center" shop and like two other businesses I've personally never bothered to make note of.

They had to make traffic light modifications and road modifications to adapt to the influx of traffic and problems it caused.

It has created an insane amount of jobs and opportunities and brought a lot of nice revenue increasing businesses to that cow pasture.

I live a few minutes away from there and to me it seems the traffic situation is pretty decent. Of course I haven't seen the old situation and on top of that I've lived in busy traffic areas. How long did it take to get to the current situation regarding traffic? Again, it looks quite good now.

I mean, I understand where you are coming from. A usually quiet town gets a huge surge of traffic coming through it, it would piss off the locals without a doubt. But at the same time, our economy needs this (local/state/fed).

I think one of the main issues is that the traffic situation by nature will only improve with a significant delay (months or years), if they're improved at all. If you live in a nice & quiet area that all of a sudden needs a 5-lane freeway cutting through it to deal with the traffic, I can imagine it upsets people.

The situation with the garbage being left is one that the stores should enforce on their lots and they can assist there by adding a lot of waste bins.

Having 'American only' hours doesn't make any sense.

People that support this under 1A must feel equally warm about "no firearms" signs posted.

 

[gallogiro]

Yup, happens everywhere. I moved from California to Silverton about 12 years ago. Loved the "small-town" feel, great community. During the 11 years I lived there and the economy/real estate boom many more Californians and Portlanders moved in as well. There was atleast 3 more new subdivisions, new high-school, Oregon garden resort, 2 stop lights, etc.

The folks who had been there for a long time hated it. And I get it, outsiders move in and create change. What really gets me is when people move out of the city for the 'country' life but don't embrace it. Get this, my brother in law owns a 100-something acre farm outside of Silverton and most it is grapes. He puts up propane cannons and has LOP tags to control the birds and the deer. Someone (portlander) bought a couple acres down the road and has been in a legal battle of sorts with them over the noise of the cannons. I mean, really?? You move in to the middle of farm land, what do you expect.

Sorry, that was way off topic, my brain told me it was somehow related.

 

[Burt Gummer]

LET'S SEE WHAT INFLATION IN 2013 DOES.. WATCH OUT

I amazes me how gullible people are about that issue. Some hack authority criminal figure like Bernanke tells people not to worry about inflation, so they (as in the 98%) simply .... don't. As if it will never be an issue - erase that possibility from your mind

Open your eyes and you'll see inflation already starting. The printing press at full steam for years and years DOES have consequences. If you can't sell a home when the interest rate is 3.3%, WTH do you think you'll be able to get for that house when the rate is 17% and property taxes are tripled?

Oh well. There is no REAL RE collapse coming , no sir.

Buy REAL things with those fiat toilet paper dollars while you still can; get out of anything related to paper assets. Once you have got everything you need in terms of 'survival' items, if you have any dollars left (with the exception of what you need for day to day business, talking savings here) get it into a hedge like physically held silver. No ETFs, no third party storage BS, no promises; no IRA.

Hyperinflation is going to be a real beatch. In days (or with the help of 'bank holidays' suspended business days), your life savings can go POOF. When you have a finance policy (and criminals behind it) like Zimbabwe, expect Zimbabwean results.

 

[JackThompson]

They got the traffic situation under control within 3 months. They closed on entrance across from home depot and opened another by padden. It's been working smoothly since.

I also understand the bias against foreigners. They are different. What seems rude here is commonplace there and likely vice versa.

In my experience it appears Hispanics enjoy listening to each others music down the block. It's probably perfectly normal for them.

In the Ukraine they probably DO just let 2 year old children play in the middle of the street and ignore honking cars.

They likely aren't accustomed to teenagers riding skateboards all over their sidewalks like we do. Who knows.

Who am I to judge?

I'm much happier with no neighbors and on a private road now.

I didn't have to change them. I just changed how it affected me.

 

[Botte Hork]

Agree Jack, people do need to adjust if they move to a new place. Since moving to the US, I haven't (yet maybe? ) taken any steps to meet my fellow Dutch people, I prefer to meet people that don't want to blahblah all night about how things are so much better back home. (Oh really? Go back then ).



edit: I guess I could be considered one of those darned Californians moving up here.

 

[accessbob]

edit: I guess I could be considered one of those darned Californians moving up here.

Oh, no - you can't be a part of us here then.




(just kidding - glad to have you here. Was never a part of Emmett Watson's campaign to keep Californians out.)

 

[gallogiro]

edit: I guess I could be considered one of those darned Californians moving up here.

Ditto! Although I must say I've adjusted quite well, I enoy my newly found freedom in Oregon. (To be honest I only go back to CA to visit my parents and I usually can't wait to get back after 2 weeks of being there.)

 

[Botte Hork]

Ditto! Although I must say I've adjusted quite well, I enoy my newly found freedom in Oregon. (To be honest I only go back to CA to visit my parents and I usually can't wait to get back after 2 weeks of being there.)

Hehehe, my parents consider me too American to be able to return. Not that I'd want to move back to Europe.

 

[JackThompson]

Agree Jack, people do need to adjust if they move to a new place. Since moving to the US, I haven't (yet maybe? ) taken any steps to meet my fellow Dutch people, I prefer to meet people that don't want to blahblah all night about how things are so much better back home. (Oh really? Go back then ).



edit: I guess I could be considered one of those darned Californians moving up here.

That's where you got such a cool name

It's too bad people are so beat up for speaking that they're scared to say words like "Foreigners" or "Different people" without fear of being called racist or god knows what.

To me there's a difference between racism and culture shock. I know what it's like to be me, and I know what the people I was raised around are like.

I've been to 30 states in our Union, and I can say affirmatively that you don't even have to be from another country to be vastly different than we are in the Northwest. Some people have told me I have a Northwest accent! I don't even know what that sounds like! lol