Description: The April 8 solar eclipse was certainly good for business. Niagara Falls, with locations on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, anticipated a million visitors https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/lifestyle/travel/a-million-solar-eclipse-enthusiasts-expected-at-niagara-falls-canada . About 100 Super 8 motels in the path of totality sold out. Occupancy rates on AirBnB trended upwards and no doubt some in the tourism industry had… Read more »
Posts Categorized: eCommerce
Productivity Problems
Description: Carolyn Rogers of the Bank of Canada says Canada needs to improve its productivity, or we could be bracing for a tough period of inflation. Canada lags behind other parts of the world in our investments in plant and equipment, in addition to our comparative deficits in intellectual property. Scotiabank vice-president Derek Holt says… Read more »
Good Quarter for Canada Goose
Description: Canadian clothier Canada Goose reports good results with its latest quarterly earnings of over $130 million. Revenues were almost $610 million, up by six percent over results from the previous year. Canada Goose anticipates that its sales results for the full 2024 year will be somewhere in the range of $1.285 billion and $1.305… Read more »
Books Bounce Back
Description: A few years ago, the emergence of e-readers was seen as one more disruptive technology; one that seemed poised to kill the book. Well, take another look folks as the analog book is back. Sales of print books have risen somewhere between 10 % and 14 % in English speaking markets over the last… Read more »
A 47-Year Mortgage
Description: Negative amortization is pushing some Canadian homeowners to longer and longer mortgages. When rising interest rates eat up more and more of a fixed payment from a client, the life of the mortgage gets extended to allow more time to pay off the principal. Homeowner Michael Girard-Courty now finds that only $27 of his… Read more »
Big Win? Or No Win?
Description: When Luc Massé of Shediac, New Brunswick, rolled up his rim for the first time this year playing Tim Horton’s annual contest, he was surprised to see a big win of a $10,000 American Express prepaid card. Massé smartly took a screen shot of the prize notification and began to dream of a trip… Read more »
Tax on Stock Buybacks
Description: The federal government is set to introduce a 2% tax on stock buybacks. The government hopes this move will encourage companies to reinvest their profits in order to grow and benefit the Canadian economy, rather than buying back shares with excess cash. Kim Forrest of Bokeh Capital Partners does not believe the 2% penalty… Read more »
Facebook Falling
Description: The stock price of Meta, Facebook’s parent company, has been tanking. On Thursday, the markets wiped out 20 percent of the big tech giant’s market valuation, following two quarter’s of revenue declines. Investors see former Facebook advertisers heading off to TikTok as one of Meta’s problems. Others see the billions of spending on the… Read more »
Netflix Light?
Description: Perhaps it will appeal to some customers in these inflationary times; Netflix is offering Canadians a reduced monthly rate of $5.99. The catch is you have to be willing to put up with about five minutes of ads each hour in exchange for your rate reduction. The move seems to fly in the face… Read more »
Loading up on Debt
Description: Canadians are taking on more debt with Statistics Canada telling us that debt per household in Canada is now 181.7 per cent of income. This figure is up from just under 180 per cent in the previous quarter. According to Ksenia Bushmeneva, an economist with TD Bank, “the selloff in financial markets earlier this… Read more »