It seems to be taking a toll to some extent. The local large Canadian tire store just took on new owners. I was there this morning talking to the last owner out in the parking lot.

He was saying he was seeing the impact from them plus his concern were starting to reduce their margins. The ever increasing overhead costs today with the average person having less disposable income was probably a factor in him getting out as well.

They were closed today for inventory and the past owner was just telling people why basically. To do the inventory in one day on a store that large would require a lot of people. As for myself I only purchased things on sale there. As I considered that their normal retail fair pricing. Well as fair as you are going to see in Canada.

We also have a harbor freight type store chain in Canada called princess auto. It was relatively cheap until they put up the latest local store. If you do not know better most things there now cost more than the same item elsewhere.

So if I buy anything there. I generally no longer have any reason to pick up other things on kind of an impulse basis. They may not be hurting but they are not very busy anymore as well.

I also was at a napa store this morning. Asking about some rebuilt calipers. They told me there was currently a problem of availability. I asked why and they quoted that a large rebuilder in America had apparently closed up.

I was surprised if they were right. That there even existed a north American rebuilder of any size. I thought the remanufacturing all had left north America years ago. Also what seemed unusual was the average price of a rebuilt caliper had been steadily increasing in Canada in the last few years.