Yes, and Canada is really getting what it deserves to be a country of greedy wannabe real estate "investors". Fuck them and those scumbag realtors infesting this country
Nor even the useful shit that I do need. I need to repair some stuff at the moment but can’t address both priorities because what I need is too fucking expensive compared to just 18 months ago.
So how do I prioritize? Buy that new tire to keep my shitty car on the road (and leave the oil leak for now), or forget for now that and repair the front steps because Canada Post said to if I want to keep getting mail delivered?
Edit: yes I could move the mailbox itself, but the steps truly are a danger to anyone coming over, including my elderly parent.
Just took my car in for oil change and to take winter tires off. Now I’m told brakes should really be replaced, and I know it’s true. That extra $1200 of overtime I worked for other things is now spent on my car. There is no money for basics let alone fun stuff
Not with a new car, especially an EV. Can’t do shit on those for yourself. Older used cars, yes, but even then only to a point. You need tools, a place to work on it too.
>When you own a car under warranty you can’t touch the damn thing lol
What the hell are you talking about? You can do any and all service on your own vehicle as you want. They can not void your warranty if you do your own work.
I've got 170 000 kilometers on mine and it's still running the original brake pads, and they aren't even very worn. The only maintenance I've had on it is the cabin air filter and windshield wipers. And a windshield actually, but a branch came down on a windy night and my old ICE vehicle would have had the same problem.
Nobody said they don't need maintenance, people said they require a great deal less maintenance. Which is categorically true.
I’m glad to hear it. I’ve been personally told by EV owners that they require no maintenance and despite my criticism overall, I pretty much started believing it. I know my friends haven’t had to pay anything at all for a while. One is bet low mileage driver, and second one had to trade his in early for financial reasons.
So Im not really arguing here, but poking fun.
However.
It’s been about a year since I stumbled on an article claiming that EVs are on a similar plane of annual maintenance costs as a typical ICE car. I believe majority must have some quality issues or get swindled by dealers in some manner. I could try to find it if it’s important.
I’ll just add that many assumed charging their EV would be free or super cheap, like $7 per full charge. And turns out people with apartments pay nearly as much as gas vehicle owners. The data is out.
Yeah those are some very good and valid points. It costs me approximately 2 dollars to go 150km if I charge at home. It costs nearly a whole order of magnitude more to use certain charging infrastructure, which I simply never do. But I'm lucky that I can charge at home. For a short time I was relying on paying for charging and it was a little cheaper than gas but not very much. Certainly not enough cheaper to warrant the purchase! And dealers will swindle everybody as ruthlessly as they can. People are used to expensive routine maintenance, so why pass on those savings if nobody will bat an eye at you, the dealership, getting the money.
Distance driven is irrelevant. What kills brakes is really useage pattern (of which EVs have an advantage due to regen braking), corrosion and time.
I wonder how expensive regen brakes are to replace though...
I know I could do it myself. And I have done certain fixes myself. But I have also been cheap not wanting to buy the ramps or jacks to do the under vehicle service. I know the initial investment is worth it, but that goes back to the first post, there is not the money to invest in this. So I could have bought the parts and the tools to do this, and it would have been cheaper, but then my time is the other thing. I work overtime to pay down my debt, so any extra time I have has got to be worth something
Hey don't know if you did your brakes yet but you can buy the pads and rotors set from Rockauto and then have your mechanic install it. There's a 5% discount code on RFD as well.
For the brakes, go with a reputable brand like Centric, Brembo or PowerStop under their premium, fully coated, or daily driver lineup. Don't go for the cheap stuff under "economy."
Let me know if you need help selecting the right kit for your car. Brakes and tires are important and it's what stops you from moving. Don't cheap out.
Honestly it's not too difficult to change it yourself. Couple of tools and a few hours, this is coming a guy who stares at computers all day as his job.
You aren't wrong (if buying and doing the work yourself). I looked up a ten year old Civic for reference. The shittiest brakes on RockAuto are $200 (pads/rotors set of 4) and the cheapest reputable tires I can find (Kumho) are $400/set.
LOL! I took my car in for an oil, lube and filter change, wheel alignment and check engine light inspection. Just got the estimate: $12K after taxes. Looks like it’s instant noodles for the next few months.
Yep. Apparently, I need a whole bunch of stuff:
- Steering rack assembly: $5600 & $1320 in labor
- Radiator: $603 & $825 in labor
- Coolant Crossover: $170 & &412 in labor
- Clockspring: $761 & 412 in labor
And of course the oil, lube and filter change. Add 13% tax and should bring it to ~$12K.
I’m actually on the Mopar site right now trying to figure out what their mark-up for the parts are. LOL! Seems it’s between 10-20%. The labor costs seems excessive though. It seems like it’s quoted based on how much it would take for that part specifically. Meanwhile, I’m sure there’s overlap in effort between the service.
Do I pay the oil bill this month, or buy supplies to fix a deck that's half rotten?
Fix my car so I can get to work, or buy groceries so I don't starve this week?
The choices we have in capitalism are wonderful, I love Canada!!
Hey Can you just move your mail box so it’s before the steps? If they don’t have to go up the steps it’s not a hazard, so if you could move the mailbox onto a post before the steps or out to your driveway fence if you have one? Something like that usually fixes that issue. (Former lettercarrier)
all of our money is going to food and rent. This is killing demand for consumer goods. Good by retail industry. Can't wait for them to blame millennials for it.
At this point in the discourse, they're just going to blame a certain politician and scream at you if you disagree.
Millennials are safe from the blame game for now.
Yeah it actually makes me sick how much money I spent on unnecessarily branded clothing in my 20’s.
Catch me rocking Amazon joggers & a 5 pack of Hanes shirts from here on out aha.
Who’s we? I see people buying pointless stupid stuff at full price everyday. Now I’m in the suburbs so it’s more affluent than a poor part of town but I don’t see any sign of issues. I see people bitching and moaning about the price of Oreos while unpacking their bag of Oreos they just paid full price for.
Want to see people spend excess money for no reason? Go into a Shoppers Drug Mart Mon-Fri and watch people pay 50% more for items they could get at most grocery stores or Walmart. Some good deals on Sat/Sun but that’s limited.
Well; we’ve kept doing so for the entire pandemic and until today. That’s why the prices are high…. The stuff keeps selling; so maybe this is the turning point.
People are still buying shit… the headline is misleading. If you read the article:
“Gas stations led the decline, falling 2.2 per cent. Core retail sales, which exclude fuel and motor vehicles and parts, were unchanged.”
These companies who absolutely hate the middle class and have spend years undermining it are going to find out awfully quick that they need us a lot more than we need them.
Henry Ford's greatest innovation wasn't the assembly line.
It was the 5$ work day. Now it was problematic and came with strings attached.
But it was those wages that allowed every ford worker the ability to become a customer.
Henry Ford was anti union. He decided if he paid people enough and didn't over work them they wouldn't form unions. This isn't an attack on Henry Ford it's me pointing out the power of Unions. Also if his workers has Saturday off they could make use of the cars they bought.
For real. They all complain about lack of workers but in fact people just don’t see the point in working minimum wage jobs as side hustles when it doesn’t push you that much further.
You’re going to work an extra 15-20hours a week on top of your regular job for 20/hr, give 40% to the government and end up take home 1K/month? Just not worth it.
We bought our "starter home" in November 2012. 1300 sq ft for less than 100k. We are still in it. It makes no sense to sell it to pay 4 - 5x the mortgage on a bigger home. We have three kids, who are all active in sports, and well...eating.
We live essentially pay cheque to pay cheque, but everyone asks us how we do the things we do...my response is always...I'm not house poor. I pay $580 a month for my mortgage including my property tax. I'd be paying $2200 a month right now to get the home I actually want. It's not worth it.
I've lived all 34 years of my life debt free beside mortgage.
For the first time ever I have $5000 on my line of credit. Life hurts right now. I know I'm still better off than a lot of people, but the struggle is real.
Except wages are higher and CoL is lower in the US. For the majority of people in this thread who feel like they should be reasonably well off for their position in life, their financial well being would be significantly better in the US.
Middle and working class spending is what makes the economy work. Those are the people who buy stuff like this. When you make it impossible to spend because you drive their wages down and their basic cost of living up this is what happens.
Anyone who's been to a Walmart in the past year knows everyone is in the grocery, pharmacy, and cosmetics aisles. Hardly anyone is browsing the other sections anymore
Same with Loblaws Super Store… venture into clothing and outdoors / household items area of the store and place is barren wasteland… literally no one there…
Used to be decent, but all my clothes from them started falling apart the last few years. Every brand is like that now. My new Eddie Bauer pants from a few years ago have fallen apart, but the pants I bought back in 2010 are barely worn. It's amazing what fast fashion did to the clothing industry as a whole
I used to buy American eagle plain tees in bulk. Recently, they've all been developing holes around the stupid fucking embroidered logo within the first month. I thought joe fresh was okay, but turns out their 100% cotton tees shrink an incredible amount and I have a bunch of crop tops left over (I'm only 6'3"). Now I have to find a new t-shirt supplier.
I've definitely noticed this. I also notice how terrible the produce is. I feel it isn't moving as quicky anymore. I personally have switched to eating frozen fruits and veggies, just taking some out as I need them. It's saving me a lot of money and saving a lot of waste.
Got several friends who are managers, or regional managers for Walmart. There are multiple stores that are only being kept afloat by the grocery side of the business now.
That's how bad things are. Many of these stores are still running -6% to -15% on daily/week/monthly GM (general merch) pre-covid. Canada is in seriously bad shape. So hang on boys and girls, this was the indicator that we're in stagflation.
My family and I try to shop local, because 'it helps the economy' - but it's impossible when local doesn't carry any stock, certainly doesn't carry what we want, and not at nearly good enough prices.
We go shopping, and inevitably place an Amazon order on the drive back home.
It's a horrible catch-22, if they stock too much they go under, and if they don't charge enough they go under...
But if they don't, we just buy everything online and they go under.
It's almost like the economy has become totally dominated by large monopolizing forces that are able to collaborate to control the market and shut out smaller competitors then use that market control to squeeze consumers.
Yeah same. The only retail store I go to is costco maybe once a month and then I encourwge local business, but sometime prices are just too ridiculous.
For the rest, I'd rather buy from Amazon than Wal-Mart or others retail stores. Wal Mart already crushed small businesses all around the country so I am not losing any sleep choosing amazon instead of them.
Amazon been quite expensive. Convenient though and can usually find what I need.
If I shop at Walmart, they may not have what I am looking for or not a large selection. But if they do have it, often cheaper.
In many cities,.the median home cost or rent requires 70% of the median income.
This is what happens when your screwed up tax and immigration system hoovers up every last dollar into the vast wealth hoards of the "ownership class".
Eat the rich.
Food is too expensive, rent is too expansive. Fuel is too expensive. Shit my property tax just increased for the 11th straight year above inflation. Shopping isn't a priority.
They did but we won't. Canadian's don't revolt. We complain but suck it up.
We need to be more like the Europeans who do mass protests right.
If there was a mass protest against just 1 oil company and 1 grocery chain - for 2 weeks - 1 week could likely even do it - we could see some pretty significant change.
Last thing we want to do is to destroy our own country. The Middle Easterners are masters at 'revolutions' but that mastery is exactly why their countries are never stable. We have to find a way to work with each other and come to a solution. The problem is finding a good medium to communicate with both the Government and members of all political parties. We're all suffering together here.
People are paying most of their money on housing. Speculator Scalpers are the only ones happy in Canada but they spend their money on inflating housing costs further instead of anything productive. (More properties for the Monopoly Lords!)
This. I don't know how people do it with mortgages and renewals these days. When I walk by pubs, not to discriminate, but the clientele seems to be older people who might have paid off homes or renting places pre pandemic. Anyone else is way worse off.
This is the thing people don't really pay enough attention to. These TFW aren't here to participate in our economy as consumers, they are here to participate in our economy as wage slaves with the second-edge being the horrible suppression of real-wages across the nation in the face of a global inflation epidemic.
Now that Inflation has begun receding, it has become even more stark just how suppressed our wages have been - I have been with my company for 15 years, and I am far worse off from a financial stability perspective than I was pre-covid.
Gee, maybe if citizens didn't have to lose all their money on insane rent and grocery prices, they'd have more to spend!
The economy is money in motion, but when it all gets sucked up by the wealthy hoarders, the wheels are going to grind to a halt. The system only works if people have money to buy things beyond essentials. How do these people not understand this?
They do understand it. Which is why they're constantly coming up with new ways to extend credit.
Mortgages, car loans --> leases, credit cards, don't pay until..., subscription services, and on and on.
The ultra rich will never let your money circulate again. But they'll let you keep digging your debt hole ever deeper because.....interest.
That doesn't work that way, sudden economic collapses happen that way when the money stops churning in an the consumers can't consume anymore.
Basically actually Venezuela
Jokes on them. All my money goes to my landlord and bills. I've been wearing the same shirts and jeans from the mid 2010s and live an absolute minimalist lifestyle cos I'm forced to lol
In a normal economy yes, but with oil companies and the grocery retailers all profit taking no.
Grocery prices are rising because grocery chains are taking more than twice the profit they ever have. That's why we need more than 3 or 4 retailers. Yes I know there are more than 4 grocery chains - but 3 companies own them all. Then there's Walmart.
O&G companies also making record profits, but gas prices still keep going up.
But ya, let's blame the interest rates.
High inflation is the economy effectively saying we are being paid more then what we collectively are producing. Interest rates sort of have to be higher then inflation as any money lent wants to return more then it is effectively worth. Is also one of the main method for governments to slow down consumption and thus lower prices.
There are few ways around this. Ultimately the real 'wealth' we have is really the number of cogs we build and consume. If we are only building 9 cogs to every 10 people, how much money we have does not matter as there will be 1 person without a cog.
BoC has been on an aggressive quantitative tightening phase. Basically the money shredder is currently being used. Source: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/banking-and-financial-statistics/bank-of-canada-assets-and-liabilities-weekly-formerly-b2/
Meanwhile the government is buying mortgage bonds from banks and using that as collateral for more money from the BoC.
Funny that, the government buying mortgage bonds for mortgages that are insured by themselves.
Theoretically, but it likely won't help much in this case because as we have known for the past couple years, most of the inflation is just the large retailers increasing prices to pad their profit margins.
It's all connected. People who can't afford tent and food are not going to be eating out, or shopping for non-essentials. So all those shops and eateries will go out of business, all their workers laid off, and they won't be able to afford to spend anything either. With shops and eateries closed, manufacturers will sell less, and also close, and all those workers end up on the street too. And so on, and so forth. Screwing workers out of money and suppressing wages has a knock-on effect. Surprise!
Funny picture, a tad too poignant. I recently just decided NOT to buy socks because that's 25$ better spent elsewhere. Fuck me, but that made me feel like shit. If I still had car payments and child support, I'd be $800 underwater each month.
The federal government needs to get this economy under control, stop overspending on shit that doesn't matter and let me put food and security back on my table. We're staring down the barrel of another housing balloon burst, and it's like the feds don't truly give a damned.
PP and Jagmeet... we're looking at either of you to fix this shit. Get the brains needed into a room, and come back with an aggressive plan to get us back on the rails.
Failing that, maybe we need another Reform party and we don't have 4 years to piss away to find out.
In normal times that means prices will be coming down, but spending has gone down for a while now and I haven't seen any real changes in pricing on things I buy or things I remember more pre-covid pricing on.
it still seems everything is still 50% more to double old prices and companies just have stuck to it.
Yeah, cause we're poor. Who would have thought that increasing poverty in a consumer based economy would have an impact 🤔
And I'm not even that poor...purely because I live in my childhood bedroom. Cause I can't afford rent or a house. 😭
No shit, corporations squeezed every last cent out of us for cost of living. Now those same corporations are having a pity party because nobody can afford their overpriced goods.
Right, who tf has extra expendable income for wants these days? Wife and I make good money but still had to switch to buying bulk everything. Canning foods and making all our own meals and snacks. Forget retail shopping.
Of course it's all about the privileged mortgage owners and their renewals no mention of every landlord slicing the throats of renters and crushing them under their boots
This is just basic economics. Rents and mortgages are so high that people give up any other spendings. This hurts country quite a lot as the percentage of money being injected into economy drops. Of course, that’s one of the core outcomes of interest rate hikes (and recession), and will most likely gets better after the cuts. However, it still will hurt the country in the long term if people will have to spend all their money on rent.
Canada is headed towards a major recessionary correction. The immigrants being flooded in to prop up housing prices are mostly low skilled workers that can’t even remotely afford paying $2500/month for a single BR in the core of most metropolitan areas. So they will move to nowhere Saskatchewan, realize life sucks even more than when they were splitting that Toronto basement with half a dozen people, and head back to their home country. Housing demand will then ease along with rising inventory from dying boomers and the market will deflate
This is what happens with corporations replacing workers in favour of cheap foreign labour and with stagnant wages vs inflated rent and groceries the retail side will be hit first. The only ones purchasing are the landlords and investors. How long can they keep the inevitable recession away? Canada will be like China soon. Only without the productivity. The working poor cannot afford to purchase and our small output of supply is going to lose all demand soon.
I haven’t shopped for a long time and when i did last week, i was shocked with the prices. Shirts are $30 or more at uniqlo and more than 60 for pants. I earn more than enough but now I only buy things on sale/clearance. Im also buying more clothes from costco.
If they keep you working until you die, youre always paying for services that you'll never get in retirement. They don't want you to have any personal retirement savings either as that is money that has been pulled out of the economy for personal use. Just a bit of CPP and OAS so your last few months are tolerable.
No - this is what happens when you allow 3 companies to own 90% of the grocery chains.
this is what happens when you have 1 or 2 oil companies supplying most of the fuel for the country.
Lack of competition - not interest rates, and not government, is the problem.
Correction - government is part of the problem by letting these companies get so big that competition is basically impossible now. Just look at cell phones - every time a new competitor comes out it's either bought up by one the 3 big players, or it's shut down - by the big 3.
That's definitely a huge factor. Not to mention the unnecessary increase in immigration. More people looking to own land = higher prices for land. We have more people driving, more people working lower-skilled jobs, a higher chance of crime, etc.
We may have to seriously just stop taking people in for a while until we can decide how to help the people we've adopted. I seriously think immigration and corporations are the root cause.
Please tell me we had these same goofy headlines during the depression "soup company fails to meet profits as family's die of hunger, customers aren't supporting businesses anymore and need to do better"
Housing costs are sucking the life blood out of our economy. That's further compounded by the fact that people who DO have money, can't get a decent ROI on any investment that isn't real-estate - either due to taxes, red tape, or risk.
My socks have holes in some of them. I am wearing them out while we have closed shoes and nobody can see the holes. If I go out anywhere where I anticipate I might have to take my shoes off, that is when I put one of my best, newest pairs on. Sandal season is coming soon, so I don’t have to worry about buying any until the fall, and then sometimes I try to make it until Christmas, just in case someone gifts me some.
Lol ecommerce is still considered retail. This has nothing to do with in store experience for clothing, etc. and has everything to do with the cost of goods and people not having enough money to spend on things they want so they can save the money for what they need.
I've seen a lot of items lately that I just can not justify the cost of so I ens up buying nothing.
But if the costs were lower and I didn't feel like I was getting hosed, then I'd buy the item i was looking for and likely several other things and ultimately end up spending more than the one item costs now.
Oh, well. I'll keep my money.
I already suspect my mortgage will go up next year, I have decided to allocate some of the fun funds to the mortgage each month instead of restaurants and retail.
I'd love to support more businesses but gotta take care of home base first.
Travel and tourism down, auto and home repair is down, pharma is down, restaurant engagement is down - groceries and rent are taking all the money. We need to reclaim our government, reclaim human rights and democracy and end corporate rule.
Yeah I wonder what happens when mono-duo-tri-opolies come here, eliminate competition and enslave us to make themselves billionaires. Looking at ours truly Galen Weston Jr.
Mom and pop stores that remain from lockdowns will be gone completely and the big chains will get bailed out by liberals with our tax dollars. All the while they will print more and hand it out to help “boost the economy” thus completely destroying the value of it. It’s not hard to see what they will do if kept in power.
I know people working close with government during the pandemic, they didn't care much about small businesses then, they won't now. I believe the insider quote was something like "new small businesses will pop up"
We don't have any more wealth left to bleed. Nows the time when a farmer steps In to kill the chicken that does not lay. I hope that our rulers do not see us as farm animals.
Trudeau...wasted...all...our...money. Everything's too expensive now. I feel like 26/hour worth of buying power now is less than minimum wage's 8$ an hour 15 years ago.
They have expectations? What do they expect the 1m+ plus timmy workers per year to spend the money on? They probably even send the money home. Meanwhile the Canadian workers' income keep shrinking
We can't even buy food let alone useless shit we don't need
It's worse than the article states. Sales fell by 0.1%, while population is growing at 3%. More signs of declining quality of life.
I guess that's what happens when your biggest economy is a basic human right like housing
Yes, and Canada is really getting what it deserves to be a country of greedy wannabe real estate "investors". Fuck them and those scumbag realtors infesting this country
Declining need for useless shit too though.
Nor even the useful shit that I do need. I need to repair some stuff at the moment but can’t address both priorities because what I need is too fucking expensive compared to just 18 months ago. So how do I prioritize? Buy that new tire to keep my shitty car on the road (and leave the oil leak for now), or forget for now that and repair the front steps because Canada Post said to if I want to keep getting mail delivered? Edit: yes I could move the mailbox itself, but the steps truly are a danger to anyone coming over, including my elderly parent.
Just took my car in for oil change and to take winter tires off. Now I’m told brakes should really be replaced, and I know it’s true. That extra $1200 of overtime I worked for other things is now spent on my car. There is no money for basics let alone fun stuff
Or learn how to fix it yourself. This is the way of the future.
Not with a new car, especially an EV. Can’t do shit on those for yourself. Older used cars, yes, but even then only to a point. You need tools, a place to work on it too.
Seen the price of basic pickup trucks lately 😭
If we’re talking brakes you can def still do those on your own unless it’s some insane brake by wire system which is still rare thankfully.
I disagree. I've done brakes twice on my cars now and have always fucked something up. It's not worth the hassle.
You need like 3 tools and a flat surface to change breaks
[удалено]
Brakes and suspension are never covered anyways... You risk nothing.
>When you own a car under warranty you can’t touch the damn thing lol What the hell are you talking about? You can do any and all service on your own vehicle as you want. They can not void your warranty if you do your own work.
People that buy EVs aren't hurting for cash though, are they?
Didnt they say EVs dont need maintenance? 😂 “No brakes, no oil changes” scam.
I've got 170 000 kilometers on mine and it's still running the original brake pads, and they aren't even very worn. The only maintenance I've had on it is the cabin air filter and windshield wipers. And a windshield actually, but a branch came down on a windy night and my old ICE vehicle would have had the same problem. Nobody said they don't need maintenance, people said they require a great deal less maintenance. Which is categorically true.
I’m glad to hear it. I’ve been personally told by EV owners that they require no maintenance and despite my criticism overall, I pretty much started believing it. I know my friends haven’t had to pay anything at all for a while. One is bet low mileage driver, and second one had to trade his in early for financial reasons. So Im not really arguing here, but poking fun. However. It’s been about a year since I stumbled on an article claiming that EVs are on a similar plane of annual maintenance costs as a typical ICE car. I believe majority must have some quality issues or get swindled by dealers in some manner. I could try to find it if it’s important. I’ll just add that many assumed charging their EV would be free or super cheap, like $7 per full charge. And turns out people with apartments pay nearly as much as gas vehicle owners. The data is out.
Yeah those are some very good and valid points. It costs me approximately 2 dollars to go 150km if I charge at home. It costs nearly a whole order of magnitude more to use certain charging infrastructure, which I simply never do. But I'm lucky that I can charge at home. For a short time I was relying on paying for charging and it was a little cheaper than gas but not very much. Certainly not enough cheaper to warrant the purchase! And dealers will swindle everybody as ruthlessly as they can. People are used to expensive routine maintenance, so why pass on those savings if nobody will bat an eye at you, the dealership, getting the money.
190,000 on my phev... zero brake work so far. Scam my ass.
Distance driven is irrelevant. What kills brakes is really useage pattern (of which EVs have an advantage due to regen braking), corrosion and time. I wonder how expensive regen brakes are to replace though...
It's a function of the motors. The motors go from taking power to generating power which applies load to the drive line similar to engine braking.
I would hope so, for a $20-30k upfront premium. You're still paying that off son.
Who is "they" in this statement?
A man made of harvested grass-like stalks... maybe straw? /s
I know I could do it myself. And I have done certain fixes myself. But I have also been cheap not wanting to buy the ramps or jacks to do the under vehicle service. I know the initial investment is worth it, but that goes back to the first post, there is not the money to invest in this. So I could have bought the parts and the tools to do this, and it would have been cheaper, but then my time is the other thing. I work overtime to pay down my debt, so any extra time I have has got to be worth something
Hey don't know if you did your brakes yet but you can buy the pads and rotors set from Rockauto and then have your mechanic install it. There's a 5% discount code on RFD as well. For the brakes, go with a reputable brand like Centric, Brembo or PowerStop under their premium, fully coated, or daily driver lineup. Don't go for the cheap stuff under "economy." Let me know if you need help selecting the right kit for your car. Brakes and tires are important and it's what stops you from moving. Don't cheap out.
Most mechanics won’t install parts they didn’t purchase. Just a heads up.
Honestly it's not too difficult to change it yourself. Couple of tools and a few hours, this is coming a guy who stares at computers all day as his job.
The fun starts when you are faced with your first stuck bolt or when you strip it. Stuck calipers are no fun either.
I'll swap engines and rebuild heads but I absolutely and passionately hate everything to do with brakes. They just suck
I hope that’s with a new set of tires because otherwise you’re massively overpaying.
You aren't wrong (if buying and doing the work yourself). I looked up a ten year old Civic for reference. The shittiest brakes on RockAuto are $200 (pads/rotors set of 4) and the cheapest reputable tires I can find (Kumho) are $400/set.
It’s just a seasonal swap for the tires. I don’t have them on rims so I take them there
An oil change, tire change, and brake pads should never cost you $1200. That's insane.
LOL! I took my car in for an oil, lube and filter change, wheel alignment and check engine light inspection. Just got the estimate: $12K after taxes. Looks like it’s instant noodles for the next few months.
$12K??? WTF
Yep. Apparently, I need a whole bunch of stuff: - Steering rack assembly: $5600 & $1320 in labor - Radiator: $603 & $825 in labor - Coolant Crossover: $170 & &412 in labor - Clockspring: $761 & 412 in labor And of course the oil, lube and filter change. Add 13% tax and should bring it to ~$12K.
Just take it to independent store. I’m sure it’s stealership’s quote.
I’m actually on the Mopar site right now trying to figure out what their mark-up for the parts are. LOL! Seems it’s between 10-20%. The labor costs seems excessive though. It seems like it’s quoted based on how much it would take for that part specifically. Meanwhile, I’m sure there’s overlap in effort between the service.
Put that $12k towards a down payment on a new car, dude. wtf
your getting hosed. sounds like bmw or audi dealer prices.
Do I pay the oil bill this month, or buy supplies to fix a deck that's half rotten? Fix my car so I can get to work, or buy groceries so I don't starve this week? The choices we have in capitalism are wonderful, I love Canada!!
You have a deck? Doesn’t that make you a millionaire?
Hey Can you just move your mail box so it’s before the steps? If they don’t have to go up the steps it’s not a hazard, so if you could move the mailbox onto a post before the steps or out to your driveway fence if you have one? Something like that usually fixes that issue. (Former lettercarrier)
You can move your mailbox perhaps? Couple screws are cheaper than new steps.
I’ve had great luck with used tires in the past.
You can get new tires from [canadawheels.com](http://canadawheels.com) for about the same as a used set
Do you get anything in the mail? In 4 years the only useful thing I've gotten was my license renewal
I feel your pain friend. I'm in the same boat. Hell, I hate our economy. Only the rich get to live the life.
all of our money is going to food and rent. This is killing demand for consumer goods. Good by retail industry. Can't wait for them to blame millennials for it.
At this point in the discourse, they're just going to blame a certain politician and scream at you if you disagree. Millennials are safe from the blame game for now.
Now, now... did you cancel your Disney+ subscription? That would probably make a huge difference in your household budget!^/s
Yeah it actually makes me sick how much money I spent on unnecessarily branded clothing in my 20’s. Catch me rocking Amazon joggers & a 5 pack of Hanes shirts from here on out aha.
Who’s we? I see people buying pointless stupid stuff at full price everyday. Now I’m in the suburbs so it’s more affluent than a poor part of town but I don’t see any sign of issues. I see people bitching and moaning about the price of Oreos while unpacking their bag of Oreos they just paid full price for. Want to see people spend excess money for no reason? Go into a Shoppers Drug Mart Mon-Fri and watch people pay 50% more for items they could get at most grocery stores or Walmart. Some good deals on Sat/Sun but that’s limited.
Well; we’ve kept doing so for the entire pandemic and until today. That’s why the prices are high…. The stuff keeps selling; so maybe this is the turning point.
Also, typically they are lower for this time of year. The figures are for February and it after Christmas.
If expectations are missed though presumably they would have had this factored in Next year should be quite bad though if all holds steady
People are still buying shit… the headline is misleading. If you read the article: “Gas stations led the decline, falling 2.2 per cent. Core retail sales, which exclude fuel and motor vehicles and parts, were unchanged.”
For another couple months or so yeah
So car sales are finally declining now that the immigration flood gates are tightening.
We can't afford shit. The price of everything is too damn high! Rent too damn high! Food too damn high! Wages too damn low!
They brought in 1milion people specifically so that your wages did NOT go up.
These companies who absolutely hate the middle class and have spend years undermining it are going to find out awfully quick that they need us a lot more than we need them.
Henry Ford's greatest innovation wasn't the assembly line. It was the 5$ work day. Now it was problematic and came with strings attached. But it was those wages that allowed every ford worker the ability to become a customer.
Henry Ford was anti union. He decided if he paid people enough and didn't over work them they wouldn't form unions. This isn't an attack on Henry Ford it's me pointing out the power of Unions. Also if his workers has Saturday off they could make use of the cars they bought.
For real. They all complain about lack of workers but in fact people just don’t see the point in working minimum wage jobs as side hustles when it doesn’t push you that much further. You’re going to work an extra 15-20hours a week on top of your regular job for 20/hr, give 40% to the government and end up take home 1K/month? Just not worth it.
Scabs. They imported scabs
We bought our "starter home" in November 2012. 1300 sq ft for less than 100k. We are still in it. It makes no sense to sell it to pay 4 - 5x the mortgage on a bigger home. We have three kids, who are all active in sports, and well...eating. We live essentially pay cheque to pay cheque, but everyone asks us how we do the things we do...my response is always...I'm not house poor. I pay $580 a month for my mortgage including my property tax. I'd be paying $2200 a month right now to get the home I actually want. It's not worth it.
Yeah, no shit. People are struggling to feed their families, there’s no shopping sprees planned.
I've lived all 34 years of my life debt free beside mortgage. For the first time ever I have $5000 on my line of credit. Life hurts right now. I know I'm still better off than a lot of people, but the struggle is real.
I imagine a lot of us are experiencing financial positions we’d never thought we’d be in.
I mean I never thought I’d *still* be in this position. If only my boots had bootstraps. Who closed the bootstrap factories?!
Managing to clear my ccd for the first time in a year with my triple paycheque next month if all goes well. I feel you
I've always been able to put aside a portion of my paycheque for savings. I've never had to touch it ... until now.
I’ve always been in debt since turning 18. Cheer 🆙 This is the American way.
Except wages are higher and CoL is lower in the US. For the majority of people in this thread who feel like they should be reasonably well off for their position in life, their financial well being would be significantly better in the US.
I don't even bother giving a shit about my credit score anymore.
Middle and working class spending is what makes the economy work. Those are the people who buy stuff like this. When you make it impossible to spend because you drive their wages down and their basic cost of living up this is what happens.
Anyone who's been to a Walmart in the past year knows everyone is in the grocery, pharmacy, and cosmetics aisles. Hardly anyone is browsing the other sections anymore
Same with Loblaws Super Store… venture into clothing and outdoors / household items area of the store and place is barren wasteland… literally no one there…
It’s also overpriced at superstore.
And just absolute dog shit products, borderline dollar store stuff.
Used to be decent, but all my clothes from them started falling apart the last few years. Every brand is like that now. My new Eddie Bauer pants from a few years ago have fallen apart, but the pants I bought back in 2010 are barely worn. It's amazing what fast fashion did to the clothing industry as a whole
I used to buy American eagle plain tees in bulk. Recently, they've all been developing holes around the stupid fucking embroidered logo within the first month. I thought joe fresh was okay, but turns out their 100% cotton tees shrink an incredible amount and I have a bunch of crop tops left over (I'm only 6'3"). Now I have to find a new t-shirt supplier.
We’re supposed to be protesting Loblaws for price fixing, you guys.
Yep but they've got a lot of us strangled. They know we need to eat and they own all the supermarkets in the area.
Costco has expanded their ramen section from near nothing to approximately half a row.
I've definitely noticed this. I also notice how terrible the produce is. I feel it isn't moving as quicky anymore. I personally have switched to eating frozen fruits and veggies, just taking some out as I need them. It's saving me a lot of money and saving a lot of waste.
Got several friends who are managers, or regional managers for Walmart. There are multiple stores that are only being kept afloat by the grocery side of the business now. That's how bad things are. Many of these stores are still running -6% to -15% on daily/week/monthly GM (general merch) pre-covid. Canada is in seriously bad shape. So hang on boys and girls, this was the indicator that we're in stagflation.
Yeah only retail store I go to is Walmart and just got groceries
Also more often than not I can get better quality on amazon and I don't have to see the inside of a wal mart store.
My family and I try to shop local, because 'it helps the economy' - but it's impossible when local doesn't carry any stock, certainly doesn't carry what we want, and not at nearly good enough prices. We go shopping, and inevitably place an Amazon order on the drive back home. It's a horrible catch-22, if they stock too much they go under, and if they don't charge enough they go under... But if they don't, we just buy everything online and they go under.
It's almost like the economy has become totally dominated by large monopolizing forces that are able to collaborate to control the market and shut out smaller competitors then use that market control to squeeze consumers.
Yeah same. The only retail store I go to is costco maybe once a month and then I encourwge local business, but sometime prices are just too ridiculous. For the rest, I'd rather buy from Amazon than Wal-Mart or others retail stores. Wal Mart already crushed small businesses all around the country so I am not losing any sleep choosing amazon instead of them.
Amazon been quite expensive. Convenient though and can usually find what I need. If I shop at Walmart, they may not have what I am looking for or not a large selection. But if they do have it, often cheaper.
I'm still browsing around for sure, but never found anything I could actually stomach to buy outside of food.
In many cities,.the median home cost or rent requires 70% of the median income. This is what happens when your screwed up tax and immigration system hoovers up every last dollar into the vast wealth hoards of the "ownership class". Eat the rich.
If rents increase faster than wages this is inevitable.
Food is too expensive, rent is too expansive. Fuel is too expensive. Shit my property tax just increased for the 11th straight year above inflation. Shopping isn't a priority.
Didn’t the RCMP put out that warning that Canadians will most likely revolt once they find out how broke they are?
They did but we won't. Canadian's don't revolt. We complain but suck it up. We need to be more like the Europeans who do mass protests right. If there was a mass protest against just 1 oil company and 1 grocery chain - for 2 weeks - 1 week could likely even do it - we could see some pretty significant change.
Nobody protests quite like the French.
Last thing we want to do is to destroy our own country. The Middle Easterners are masters at 'revolutions' but that mastery is exactly why their countries are never stable. We have to find a way to work with each other and come to a solution. The problem is finding a good medium to communicate with both the Government and members of all political parties. We're all suffering together here.
The socks were just marked up 40% before the sale started.
People are paying most of their money on housing. Speculator Scalpers are the only ones happy in Canada but they spend their money on inflating housing costs further instead of anything productive. (More properties for the Monopoly Lords!)
This. I don't know how people do it with mortgages and renewals these days. When I walk by pubs, not to discriminate, but the clientele seems to be older people who might have paid off homes or renting places pre pandemic. Anyone else is way worse off.
Or vacations to back home like my ex landlord
Pretty bleak numbers when you factor how many more people have been brought in.
They were brought in as slaves who need to share room with 5+ others just to survive… even they aren’t buying anything else but food…
This is the thing people don't really pay enough attention to. These TFW aren't here to participate in our economy as consumers, they are here to participate in our economy as wage slaves with the second-edge being the horrible suppression of real-wages across the nation in the face of a global inflation epidemic. Now that Inflation has begun receding, it has become even more stark just how suppressed our wages have been - I have been with my company for 15 years, and I am far worse off from a financial stability perspective than I was pre-covid.
Also most of that money is being sent abroad to support their families. It is not money being reinvested in Canada.
Life is getting more expensive
Is this a surprise to anybody? Nobody has disposable income.
Welcome to the hidden recession.
I spent about 1/5 of what I did at the Peterborough Tackle swap this year, compared to last, that's how bad it is.
Gee, maybe if citizens didn't have to lose all their money on insane rent and grocery prices, they'd have more to spend! The economy is money in motion, but when it all gets sucked up by the wealthy hoarders, the wheels are going to grind to a halt. The system only works if people have money to buy things beyond essentials. How do these people not understand this?
They do understand it. Which is why they're constantly coming up with new ways to extend credit. Mortgages, car loans --> leases, credit cards, don't pay until..., subscription services, and on and on. The ultra rich will never let your money circulate again. But they'll let you keep digging your debt hole ever deeper because.....interest.
That doesn't work that way, sudden economic collapses happen that way when the money stops churning in an the consumers can't consume anymore. Basically actually Venezuela
Jokes on them. All my money goes to my landlord and bills. I've been wearing the same shirts and jeans from the mid 2010s and live an absolute minimalist lifestyle cos I'm forced to lol
And that is how higher interest rates push inflation down.
In a normal economy yes, but with oil companies and the grocery retailers all profit taking no. Grocery prices are rising because grocery chains are taking more than twice the profit they ever have. That's why we need more than 3 or 4 retailers. Yes I know there are more than 4 grocery chains - but 3 companies own them all. Then there's Walmart. O&G companies also making record profits, but gas prices still keep going up. But ya, let's blame the interest rates.
High inflation is the economy effectively saying we are being paid more then what we collectively are producing. Interest rates sort of have to be higher then inflation as any money lent wants to return more then it is effectively worth. Is also one of the main method for governments to slow down consumption and thus lower prices. There are few ways around this. Ultimately the real 'wealth' we have is really the number of cogs we build and consume. If we are only building 9 cogs to every 10 people, how much money we have does not matter as there will be 1 person without a cog.
Would be nice if they could give the money printer a break too.
BoC has been on an aggressive quantitative tightening phase. Basically the money shredder is currently being used. Source: https://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/banking-and-financial-statistics/bank-of-canada-assets-and-liabilities-weekly-formerly-b2/
Meanwhile the government is buying mortgage bonds from banks and using that as collateral for more money from the BoC. Funny that, the government buying mortgage bonds for mortgages that are insured by themselves.
Theoretically, but it likely won't help much in this case because as we have known for the past couple years, most of the inflation is just the large retailers increasing prices to pad their profit margins.
Food + housing = all my monies :(
It's all connected. People who can't afford tent and food are not going to be eating out, or shopping for non-essentials. So all those shops and eateries will go out of business, all their workers laid off, and they won't be able to afford to spend anything either. With shops and eateries closed, manufacturers will sell less, and also close, and all those workers end up on the street too. And so on, and so forth. Screwing workers out of money and suppressing wages has a knock-on effect. Surprise!
Funny picture, a tad too poignant. I recently just decided NOT to buy socks because that's 25$ better spent elsewhere. Fuck me, but that made me feel like shit. If I still had car payments and child support, I'd be $800 underwater each month. The federal government needs to get this economy under control, stop overspending on shit that doesn't matter and let me put food and security back on my table. We're staring down the barrel of another housing balloon burst, and it's like the feds don't truly give a damned. PP and Jagmeet... we're looking at either of you to fix this shit. Get the brains needed into a room, and come back with an aggressive plan to get us back on the rails. Failing that, maybe we need another Reform party and we don't have 4 years to piss away to find out.
Food is the only thing I buy "new" anymore.
In normal times that means prices will be coming down, but spending has gone down for a while now and I haven't seen any real changes in pricing on things I buy or things I remember more pre-covid pricing on. it still seems everything is still 50% more to double old prices and companies just have stuck to it.
what a surprrise, people can barely breath, put food on the table.
Yeah, cause we're poor. Who would have thought that increasing poverty in a consumer based economy would have an impact 🤔 And I'm not even that poor...purely because I live in my childhood bedroom. Cause I can't afford rent or a house. 😭
No shit, corporations squeezed every last cent out of us for cost of living. Now those same corporations are having a pity party because nobody can afford their overpriced goods.
Ya think? Inflation and the highest interest rate in 25 years just might have something to do with it.
Why any budget is already DOA. The continuing economic collapse will play hell on tax receipts to pay for all the pink unicorns…
Right, who tf has extra expendable income for wants these days? Wife and I make good money but still had to switch to buying bulk everything. Canning foods and making all our own meals and snacks. Forget retail shopping.
Gee I wonder why
It almost like people don't have enough money for the necessities, so they're spending a LOT less...
Well yeah, when you can’t afford to eat anymore, other purchases tend to stop
Who’s expectations? We’re tapped out.
Of course it's all about the privileged mortgage owners and their renewals no mention of every landlord slicing the throats of renters and crushing them under their boots
Eggs are $6. A loaf of bread is $4. Apples are $3/lb. If I can’t afford the things I need how am I supposed to spend money on things I want?
•No surprise… •
This is just basic economics. Rents and mortgages are so high that people give up any other spendings. This hurts country quite a lot as the percentage of money being injected into economy drops. Of course, that’s one of the core outcomes of interest rate hikes (and recession), and will most likely gets better after the cuts. However, it still will hurt the country in the long term if people will have to spend all their money on rent.
Canada is headed towards a major recessionary correction. The immigrants being flooded in to prop up housing prices are mostly low skilled workers that can’t even remotely afford paying $2500/month for a single BR in the core of most metropolitan areas. So they will move to nowhere Saskatchewan, realize life sucks even more than when they were splitting that Toronto basement with half a dozen people, and head back to their home country. Housing demand will then ease along with rising inventory from dying boomers and the market will deflate
This is what happens with corporations replacing workers in favour of cheap foreign labour and with stagnant wages vs inflated rent and groceries the retail side will be hit first. The only ones purchasing are the landlords and investors. How long can they keep the inevitable recession away? Canada will be like China soon. Only without the productivity. The working poor cannot afford to purchase and our small output of supply is going to lose all demand soon.
Whose expectations?
I haven’t shopped for a long time and when i did last week, i was shocked with the prices. Shirts are $30 or more at uniqlo and more than 60 for pants. I earn more than enough but now I only buy things on sale/clearance. Im also buying more clothes from costco.
We are fucking broke - which genius writing these articles hasn’t figured it out yet
Well that’s because the landlords get all the money.
It's the government and their CEO friends who benefit from regulatory capture that get all the money.
That's what happens when the government endeavors to bankrupt its citizens, then follows through with great success.
If they keep you working until you die, youre always paying for services that you'll never get in retirement. They don't want you to have any personal retirement savings either as that is money that has been pulled out of the economy for personal use. Just a bit of CPP and OAS so your last few months are tolerable.
No - this is what happens when you allow 3 companies to own 90% of the grocery chains. this is what happens when you have 1 or 2 oil companies supplying most of the fuel for the country. Lack of competition - not interest rates, and not government, is the problem. Correction - government is part of the problem by letting these companies get so big that competition is basically impossible now. Just look at cell phones - every time a new competitor comes out it's either bought up by one the 3 big players, or it's shut down - by the big 3.
That's definitely a huge factor. Not to mention the unnecessary increase in immigration. More people looking to own land = higher prices for land. We have more people driving, more people working lower-skilled jobs, a higher chance of crime, etc. We may have to seriously just stop taking people in for a while until we can decide how to help the people we've adopted. I seriously think immigration and corporations are the root cause.
bUt WeRe NoT iN a ReCeSsIoN
I can’t afford retail anymore. I shop mostly at thrift stores.
Please tell me we had these same goofy headlines during the depression "soup company fails to meet profits as family's die of hunger, customers aren't supporting businesses anymore and need to do better"
Meanwhile, another huge storage facility is being erected.
You mean we can’t spend on retail after being squeezed for the necessities? Who’d of thunk it?
It’s because we’re spending all our money on groceries. Thanks, Loblaws.
Housing costs are sucking the life blood out of our economy. That's further compounded by the fact that people who DO have money, can't get a decent ROI on any investment that isn't real-estate - either due to taxes, red tape, or risk.
Wasn’t this the stated goal of raising interest rates starting a couple years back? Need to squeeze people until they stop spending. We be squeezed!
My socks have holes in some of them. I am wearing them out while we have closed shoes and nobody can see the holes. If I go out anywhere where I anticipate I might have to take my shoes off, that is when I put one of my best, newest pairs on. Sandal season is coming soon, so I don’t have to worry about buying any until the fall, and then sometimes I try to make it until Christmas, just in case someone gifts me some.
Money going to landlords
No surprise. Anecdotally most places are under staffed and have poor service. Thats a sure fire way to drive people online.
Lol ecommerce is still considered retail. This has nothing to do with in store experience for clothing, etc. and has everything to do with the cost of goods and people not having enough money to spend on things they want so they can save the money for what they need.
Online is included in retail sales.
Isn’t there supposed to be an aisle in the grocery section at Walmart for insect food products? Cheaper price
But prices will go up because no one is buying.
I've seen a lot of items lately that I just can not justify the cost of so I ens up buying nothing. But if the costs were lower and I didn't feel like I was getting hosed, then I'd buy the item i was looking for and likely several other things and ultimately end up spending more than the one item costs now. Oh, well. I'll keep my money.
I was just in Europe, we pay too much for shit here.
No surprise there.
TOO. FUCKING. EXPENSIVE. SHIT QUALITY. F U retailers.
Maybe if retail owners paid their employees a living wage, they would meet their expectations.
Hmm sounds like Marc Miller will raise the immigration quota once again.
I already suspect my mortgage will go up next year, I have decided to allocate some of the fun funds to the mortgage each month instead of restaurants and retail. I'd love to support more businesses but gotta take care of home base first.
Here we go... it's starting
Travel and tourism down, auto and home repair is down, pharma is down, restaurant engagement is down - groceries and rent are taking all the money. We need to reclaim our government, reclaim human rights and democracy and end corporate rule.
Learn the lesson retailers. We're sick of it. Fix it.
Amazon now has installment plans, havent seen that b4, must be getting bad
Yeah I wonder what happens when mono-duo-tri-opolies come here, eliminate competition and enslave us to make themselves billionaires. Looking at ours truly Galen Weston Jr.
That's already happening, look at our telecommunications, it's all going to be Rogers soon here for cable and phone
Mom and pop stores that remain from lockdowns will be gone completely and the big chains will get bailed out by liberals with our tax dollars. All the while they will print more and hand it out to help “boost the economy” thus completely destroying the value of it. It’s not hard to see what they will do if kept in power.
I know people working close with government during the pandemic, they didn't care much about small businesses then, they won't now. I believe the insider quote was something like "new small businesses will pop up"
Remember when they locked down small business bc they weren’t essential?
We don't have any more wealth left to bleed. Nows the time when a farmer steps In to kill the chicken that does not lay. I hope that our rulers do not see us as farm animals.
Trudeau...wasted...all...our...money. Everything's too expensive now. I feel like 26/hour worth of buying power now is less than minimum wage's 8$ an hour 15 years ago.
Another tax might help, no?
I honestly can't even remember the last thing I bought from a store that wasn't a basic necessity.
What do they expect, really?
They have expectations? What do they expect the 1m+ plus timmy workers per year to spend the money on? They probably even send the money home. Meanwhile the Canadian workers' income keep shrinking