Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Canadian Currency & Shopping at Real Canada Superstore

We slept in this morning until almost 8:30. I got on the computer to locate the nearest bank so we could exchange some of our money into Canadian currency. I also checked the current exchange rate which is about $.947 U.S. to $1.00 Canadian.

I forgot to mention last night that I washed 2 loads of clothes last night at the laundry here. The washers (3) take $1 (coin) & quarters for the $2.00 load and the dryers (3) are $1.50 - not as expensive as I thought it would be.

We left the RV at 11:00 this morning and saw that the RV office was open. Mike went in to pay and register. He learned that the office is closed on Sunday & Monday and when an RV comes in on those days, they are put in a 15 amp site and then moved to a 30 amp site when the office is open. The cost for the 2 nights that we are here is $30.45 (Canadian) which is the half price rate for Passport America.

We then went to a shopping center about 4 miles south of here and went into a Scotiabank to get Canadian money. Some banks charge a fee for exchanging currency, but the teller didn't charge us any fee. The exchange rate was $.94396 US to $1 Canadian, so for the $260 US we got $245.43 CAD.

Our next stop was at the Real Canada Superstore which is similar to Wal-Mart Supercenter. In Canada the shopping carts are "rented" and the carts are chained together. There is a coin slot in the handle and when you insert the coin, the chain is released. When you're through shopping, you return the cart & push out your coin with the chain. The last time we were in Canada in 2009 the carts took quarters, so when I put a Canadian quarter in the chain wasn't released. Another customer said that the carts took $1 and it had been a long time since they took quarters. We didn't have any $1 coins (loonies), so I went into the store to get change. 

While I shopped in the store, Mike stopped by the barber shop in the Superstore for a haircut. He paid $14 which was the senior price for a haircut.

I stopped at the Deli to get some turkey for sandwiches and realized I had forgotten to check on metric weights. I checked some of the pre-packaged meats for weights and decided on having 500g sliced. It turned out that is just slightly over 1 lb - just what I wanted!

A lot of US brands are the same in Canada, but with slightly different labels & packaging - and the labels are in French & English (1 side French, the reverse English).

We ended up spending about $88 for groceries and the only tax we paid was on non-food items. We took in our own shopping bags which is standard in Canada. They do have plastic shopping bags if you need them and a lot of stores charge a quarter for each. Also at the Canada Superstore you bag your own groceries.

We got back home at 1:00 and had a late lunch. This afternoon I did 2 more loads of laundry. Mike checked the air in the RV tires and used our air compressor to add air in the tires that needed it.

Tomorrow we leave here and head to Lake Louise which is a little over 100 miles from here.

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