In our weekly blogs we try to provide pertinent information to our wine and beer makeing readers. But every once in a while, we pull a Rick Mercer’s "Rick’s Rant". The last was about gouging related to credit card fees and interest. There must be some interest out there as August saw the most visiters on our website ever.
So here it goes, time for Armand’s Rant:
Two weeks ago I’m invited by my teen daughter to go shopping for school cloths and supplies. She knows I despise shopping. To me its needing something, getting it and then getting out. "Well, dearest, what would I know about the latest fad for 17 years old girls?" "That’s ok, you’ll have fun!"
We get to St.Vital Centre, park 1 km away and get in. The food court is packed solid, as are the hallways. There are a few people in each shop but the cash registers are no in overdrive. Then it hit! 50-60-70-80% off stickers… everywhere! What?!?!? How can these places pay their rent doing this? Well since these stores are still open, seems like maybe their regular prices are such a gouge that 50-80% discounts don’t hurt them. 12 years ago we had our retail store in a strip on Goulet. A nice little 940 sq ft shop, but they wanted to raise the rent. We were looking at a choice of getting up every morning just to pay rent, or raising the prices, or moving. So we moved to our present location with 3000 sq ft space for less than the pre-increase rent we had on Goulet.
A.Bedard