TeddG

Hi,

Having just spent probably the best 3 weeks of my life travelling from Victoria through the Rockies to Calgary I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone for helping me plan this trip.

Coming from the UK though we found some things a little strange: -

1) Why do the prices on your labels/tags not include the 7% GST or the recycling charge you add? We have a similar tax called VAT in the UK, which is 17.5%, but this is included in the price on the label. Don’t you find it frustrating not knowing how much something actually costs until you get to the till?

2) In Calgary in particular we found this odd. Why are you so good at recycling bottles to save the earth but then leave your computers and lights on at work on an evening and weekend?

3) More a where question but again strange. In Calgary where does everyone go after 6pm and at a weekend? We often found ourselves walking for 15 minutes until we passed someone on the street. A total contradiction to when we walked through the day on Friday when it was very busy.

4) And don’t you shop? In England on a weekend a shopping centre is always so busy you can hardly move and queue forever at a till. We went to 3no large centres in Calgary (TD and some nearby) and these were so quiet we felt very uneasy and a little scared.

5) Why do you have a changing room ‘started’ in a shop? In England you a pick up your clothes and go try them on.
We found ourselves being asked ‘Do you want a room started? And finally worked out what you meant.

6) And finally why do you have so many coffee shops? We laughed as we counted 15 small coffee/snack shops in a 2-minute walk.

There are probably more but I’m still trying to get my body and head to accept what time of day it is now I’m back.

You may well have found us English have some weird habits in the UK too.

Aren’t we all funny lot?

Thanks again and it’s true you Canadians are as nice as everyone says (Although you do have some odd folk just like us).

TeddG

SallyCanuck

#1 is that the retailers and every one else who has to charge and collect these taxes for the various levels of governments, want to remind customers that it isn't THEM charging and keeping the taxes. In other provinces, here in Ontario, for instance, the tax is 14% over and above the price on the label. Alberta is the only province without a sales tax - what you paid in Alberta is the GST - equivalent to English VAT.

#2 - good point! The towers I work in shut the lights off but not until midnight.

#3 - I'm sure a Calgarian can explain that - sounds like some US cities. Ever been to Cleveland - even in the daytime the streets are deserted, Rochester, too. It is scary. But there are possibly neighbourhoods where it's busy with street life.

#4 - better things to do than shop, maybe? Or too many shopping malls? Those malls may have been downtown and on a weekend the workers in the towers surrounding them and above them aren't around to shop. The malls are probably busier in the colder months.

#5 - I never thought that expression was odd but it makes sense that the change room will be yours till you decide to buy or not buy and leave the shop - otherwise you'd have to "queue", or "line up" as we say, each time you wanted to try something on.

#6 - ha ha - how do they make any money, you have to wonder, don't you!

Judy_in_Calgary

(1) During the period leading up to the introduction of GST, there was a lot of debate about including the GST on the price tag or adding at the point of sale. The majority of people seemed to want the tax to be transparent.

(2) This is the headquarters of the Canadian oil industry. Calgary is not the planet's most environmentally conscious city.

(3) and (4) Calgary life is centred in the suburbs.

On weekends many people shop in suburban shopping malls.

There also are quite a few outdoorsy people in Calgary, and those people go hiking in the mountains on weekends.

In recent years several neighbourhoods that are close to and right on the edge of the downtown core have taken on an "urban village" character. That is, they have several small, independently-owned stores (which add some interest in light of the fact that the suburban shopping malls are dominated by national chains). These "urban village" neighbourhoods are home to several street festivals through the summer.

Another place that has grown lively in recent years is the park on Prince's Island. You access the island by way of a foot bridge in the vicinity of the Eau Claire Market, at the north end of the downtown core. There are several music and ethnic festivals on Prince's Island during the summer.

Even if there is no specific festival on the go, people are more inclined to hang out in one of these "urban village" areas than to go to the downtown core on the weekend.

I don't know when you were here. It is likely that, if you had walked a few blocks north or south of where you were, you would have encountered a livelier and more interesting scene.

I have just contributed a list of Calgary's festivals to TripAdvisor's "Inside Pages," and I also contributed a substantial amount of information about Calgary's "urban villages" on the page entitled "Neighborhoods" over at TripAdvisor's "Inside Pages."

In the next post, I will provide a list of some of Calgary's summer festivals.

(5) I don't know. To help prevent shop lifting perhaps?

(6) We're addicts.

Judy_in_Calgary

Hello SallyCanuck,

Sorry, I didn't see your message when I hit the post button. Yes, you explained it all very well.

Judy_in_Calgary

Some of Calgary's summer festivals:

<b>Lilac Festival</b> : Craft, food and entertainment vendors venture out onto 4th Street. Just south of the downtown core, starting at 12th Avenue SW and continuing as far as the Elbow River. Last Sunday in May.

<b>Calgary Stampede</b> : Western-themed festival focused on Stampede Park. Early July.

<b>Calgary Folk Music Festival</b> : Prince's Island. Late July .
Sun &amp; Salsa : Bands, food vendors, dancers. Held in Kensington, just north of the Bow River from downtown. Late July.

<b>Calgary Fringe Festival</b> : Theatre, street performers, film presentations, food, arts and crafts vendors, music, outdoor stage events. Held in the middle of August, along Uptown 17 Avenue and at the EPCOR Centre for Performing Arts.

<b>Afrikadey!</b> : African music and dance. Events at various venues, but mostly at Prince's Island. Middle of August.

<b>Calgary International Reggae Festival</b> : Held at Shaw Millenium Skate Park, at the west end of downtown, in the middle of August.

<b>Taste of Calgary</b> : Sample-sized portions of food and beverages from a wide variety of vendors. Festival Market at Eau Claire. Middle of August.

<b>Dragon Boat Races</b>: Glenmore Reservoir, in a southwestern residential neighbourhood. Middle of August.

<b>GlobalFest</b> : International fireworks display and multi-cultural celebration. Cultural pavilions are set up all over the city, but the fireworks display takes place at Elliston Park in the northeast quadrant of Calgary. Latter half of August.

<b>Expo Latino</b> : Jack Singer Concert Hall (on the 8th Avenue Mall) and Prince's Island. Features Hispanic music, dance, arts and crafts, community booths, food vendors. Last weekend of August.

<b>Calgary Highland Games</b> : All things Scottish. Shouldice Park. Beginning of September.

<b>Masters Tournament</b> : Show jumping competition at Spruce Meadows. Early September.

<b>Calgary International Film Festival</b> : Held at three art house cinemas -- the Globe and the Uptown in the downtown core and the Plaza in Kensington. Last week of September

Judy_in_Calgary

TeddG,

I have just added a &quot;Weekend&quot; section to the blurb about downtown Calgary on my website:

http://tinyurl.com/hx4pl

I'm sorry that, through our communications on this forum and by whatever other means theoretically might have been available to you, you did not receive a warning about the tombstone quality that downtown Calgary acquires on weekends.

But your bringing that point to our attention may help us to warn future travellers and prevent them from suffering the same fate.

While I was typing the additional blurb on my web page, I remembered how lively Chinatown is on a Sunday. It's absolutely bustling. I don't know where you were, but most likely you could have walked a few blocks northeast of your accommodation, and you could have been in the thick of it. Arghhh! Lessons learned.

I'm going to go back to the &quot;Neighborhoods&quot; section at TripAdvisor and add a warning about the downtown core on weekends.

April

1. Yes, I do find it frustrating not knowing what things will cost until I buy them. I wonder who these people were who supposedly wanted the tax to be transparent? Retailers perhaps? I certainly don't remember being asked.

Kate_W

#5. (a) Salespeople in some shops work partly on commission and (b) even in a lot of other stores, sales are tracked by salesperson as a performance measure. Did you notice that, in some shops: (i) the cashier asks if you know the name of the person who helped you, and/or (ii) the salesperson writes a code on the price ticket of the items you're purchasing or escorts you to the cashier, so that the cashier knows who &quot;helped&quot; you? So, in shops where (a) or (b) applies, salespeople want to lay claim to you, which they can do by putting your clothes into a fitting room.

Alternative explanations (which could be cumulative with the explanation given above) are that: (a) it's a method of inventory/shoplifting control (i.e. reduces your opportunities to stuff things into your backpack on a busy salesfloor - the fitting room areas are monitored); and (b) Calgarians are very friendly people who want to relieve you of the burden of lugging piles of clothes around while you browse.

TeddG

Thanks for your comments it looks like us visitors are not the only ones sometimes confused.

We were in Calgary last Friday/Saturday (11th and 12th)and you must have had the English weather because all it did was rain. Apparently the day before we arrived you had golf ball size hailstone.

We used the plus 15 system where possible (very good) but again on the Saturday very quiet and access doors from office buildings were closed.

Stayed on 5th and 5th (Does that make sense) and enjoyed the Devonian Gardens (thanks Judy) there was a wedding on also in the gardens on Saturday which we watched (The wifes idea!!)

Judy, we were expecting Calgary to be quiet (Just not that quiet) - The info we had was good but to be honest were glad of the rest for 2 days after all the travelling.

Don't get me wrong we had a good time but just wondered were everyone was.

Kate W, yes I think it was a friendly thing although my wife wasn't too keen on coming out of the changing rooms to show the staff how 'things fit' - again not something that you would do in the UK - you might show you're friend/Partner but not the staff.

Thanks again and will post a trip report soon.

April

TeddG,
I won't even shop in clothes stores that don't have mirrors in the change rooms.

Carolred

Please do not think that Calgary is representative of Canada. I live in Canada and occassionally travel to Calgary on business and I too am apalled at the energy wasted by the lights on in office towers.

Taxes are added on after in Canada as the norm. Partly because taxes vary across the country. Also because the retailer wants the customer to know the actual money the government is taking.

Not all shops &quot;start&quot; you. It is nice if you want to try on a lot of things and don't want to carry them.

Downtown Calgary is dead after 5 pm and on the week ends.

Coffee culture in Canada came west to east the same as in the US. I wish there were more pubs like UK!

mitchdesj

The gov collects the taxes from the merchants every 3 months; it's easier to do the accounting if all systems show it separately from the sales price.

An item shipped out of province will have the gst tax only; shipped out of country, no tax at all.

Glad you enjoyed your trip !!

Retail in Canada is slow; the Walmart parking lot is always full though....

Terrence

Tedd,

As a Calgarian, here's my response to a few of the questions you posed:

#1) Yes, it's frustrating, especially at the grocery store, when you never know what the tax does and does not apply to (e.g. - if you purchase 5 muffins, you pay tax, if you purchase 6, you don't).

#2) Having worked in downtown office towers my entire adult life, I have asked this questions to various building managers. Their response is always along the lines of &quot;with the bulbs we use, it costs more to turn them on and off, than it does to keep them running/it shortens the life of the bulbs to turn them on and off&quot;.

#3) There is far less residential development in Calgary's downtown core then in any other city I have lived in. Other than dining and the arts scene, there is little reason for people to stay downtown at the end of the day.

#4) I recently read where Calgary has the highest revenue per square foot of mall space in Canada. As with my answer to #3, everyone shops in the suburban malls on the weekends, as there are very few stores in the downtown malls that you can't find elsewhere.

#5) I don't know...

#6) We love our caffeine.

I'm happy you enjoyed your trip so much!

AussiegallovesUSA

&quot;with the bulbs we use, it costs more to turn them on and off, than it does to keep them running/it shortens the life of the bulbs to turn them on and off&quot;.

I believe this is true of fluerescent lights. It's cheaper to leave them on for long periods than turning them on/off.

Here in Australia our tax is included on our price tags so we can get the right amount of money ready to pay at the register. Certainly makes for faster transactions, especially when buying small grocery items or things like chocolate bars etc. On my visits to the US out of habit I would get the right amount of money ready, only to hear those words &quot;plus tax&quot;. So frustrating!

Kate_W

2) In Toronto, they have been running a public awareness campaign in the business district to encourage companies and individuals to turn off their lights at night, because the lights attract birds who crash into the buildings. I'm not sure how successful the campaign has been, though.

TeddG

So that explains what the 'splat' marks were that are randomly seen on some of the high rise office blocks!

SallyCanuck

The program to save birds from colliding with lighted buildings is called FLAP - Fatal Light Awareness Program. You can read about it here:http://www.flap.org/new/nestegg_3.htm

These people have managed to convince buildings that the lights should not be left on all night and in the buildings I works in - 5 towers - we are encouraged to lower the blinds at night.

Lenore_Trippy

2)In the office I work in downtown our lights go on when there is movement - and go off when there is none for a specific amount of time. One of the reasons the lights are on at night is people are still working (I have been known to be at work until 2:00 in the morning if we are working on a press release with our UK or SE Asia office) or the cleaning staff is in. Can't speak to all of the buildings downtown.

saltymuffin

You are so right about how dead downtown Calgary is on the weekends. The suburban nature of the city is one of the things I like least about Calgary.

But you haven't seen Calgary dead until you wander around downtown on a summer long weekend. There is no one around, the whole city &quot;jumps ship&quot; on the long weekends, and heads out of town.

The downtown shopping malls make all their money from office shoppers during the lunch hour and right after work. As others have said, suburban shopping centres are hopping on the weekends.