Comments on: Cross Border Shopping

By: The Financial Blogger | Financial Ramblings

The Financial Blogger | Financial Ramblings — Sat, 19 Apr 2008 11:26:11 +0000

[...] – Cross Border Shopping at Quest for Four Pillars [...]

By: The 55th Carnival of Money Stories - Tax Day Edition — The Baglady

The 55th Carnival of Money Stories - Tax Day Edition — The Baglady — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 05:03:24 +0000

[...] Cheap presents Cross Border Shopping posted at Quest For Four Pillars. This is Mr. Cheap’s story about the tariffs he had to pay [...]

By: Sunday Morning Link Love | I've Paid For This Twice Already...

Sunday Morning Link Love | I've Paid For This Twice Already... — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:34:03 +0000

[...] for Four Pillars: Cross-Border Shopping – lesson here: do not buy liquor and try to bring it [...]

By: Remodeling This Life » Sunday Roundup

Remodeling This Life » Sunday Roundup — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 09:04:57 +0000

[...] for Four Pillars made me laugh when sharing adventures in Cross-Border Shopping. Growing up very close to the Canadian border, this post was amusing to me because I know lots of [...]

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:48:06 +0000

Telly: ahh, thanks for the clarification! $17 US is definitely a better deal than beer up here…

By: Telly

Telly — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 14:04:12 +0000

Cheap, if you haven’t spent the required time in the US than “Duty Free” isn’t necessarily duty free. I do find (and know many others have said the same) that they don’t tend to pull people over for a case of beer, either purchased at a duty free or a liquor / grocery store. Apparently they don’t much mind about wine either but I’ve never tried it.

Duty Free isn’t necessarily cheaper than many of the grocery stores in the US for beer but if you want say, a Canadian Blue as opposed to the US watered-down version, you’re better off stopping at the Duty Free. Also, you can return these bottles to the Beer Store, whereas the US bottles you just have to recycle.

Duty Free case of beer is ~$17 US.

By: Four Pillars

Four Pillars — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 11:37:41 +0000

Guinness, we’re still waiting for a written account of the “wallet throwing incident”.

Mike

By: guinness416

guinness416 — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 03:40:02 +0000

Wow you’re brave, Cheap. Having had several nasty run ins with them I try not to mess around with customs any more in my old age. As well as being as aggressively humourless as most other uniformed gorillas, they always impress as the gang that were to too dumb to become real cops. Although the airport ones are slightly brighter than the world-class idiots on the land borders.

Gates, your run down is good but you’ve yet to experience the annual change in insurance suppliers. Once every twelve months-ish the two-hour meeting, the new round of limits and copays to learn,the new histories to fill in, and the discovery that your regular doctor doesn’t take the new coverage. Complete nightmare. I don’t miss US “healthcare”.

By: Mr. Cheap

Mr. Cheap — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 20:01:53 +0000

telly: I *tried* flirting, and the guy just looked unimpressed . When you buy something at duty free, you can take it across without paying anything? How do the prices there compare to liquor stores away from the border?

By: telly

telly — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:56:39 +0000

Sorry to hear you got busted Cheap!

I think you’re right about the hard liquor thing. I stop for a case of beer pretty regularly from Duty Free on my way home from work and haven’t been asked to pay duty yet. Even if they did, it’d still be cheaper than paying Beer Store prices (plus, I can get Blue Moon ).

As far as other stuff goes, I think being a “regular” helps. I don’t end up paying duty very often.

Oh yeah, and it helps if you flirt too.