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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

Not only that, but most Canadians live near the American border, and can shop American stores in the states at lower prices. Why go to Nordstroms in Vancouver when you can hit the one in Seattle? Costco in Bellingham does brisk business with mostly BC license plates.

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Bellingham is one thing, but Seattle is a good 2.5h drive from Vancouver, or maybe even more depending on border crossing and traffic along I-5.

I can't imagine anyone deciding that they want to drive for five hours plus to save a little bit of money at Nordstrom, especially given the cost of gas, especially since folks who shop at Nordstrom aren't exactly penny-pinchers, and especially because Nordstrom is pretty high-end...so by the time you've spent enough money to have saved enough money to make all that worthwhile, you've blown past your duty exemption allowance.

Yeah, I've never heard of someone going to NYC for a weekend specifically to go shopping and taking empty suitcases on the plane. /s (feel free to fill in whatever city Paris, Milan, LA, etc)

People make shopping excursions all the time. Just because you don't do it, doesn't mean others don't. People drive from Houston<->Dallas specifically to go shopping. Yes, there's no international border to cross, but it is still a 5 hour drive one way. So a 2.5 hour drive from Vancouver to Seattle would be nothing for those that are into it.

I'm not saying no one does it (though, like I said, I can't imagine why), I'm saying there's a very good answer to OP's question of:

> Why go to Nordstroms [sic] in Vancouver when you can hit the one in Seattle?

Also...are you familiar with Vancouver or Seattle? New York, Paris, Milan, LA are shopping meccas in a way that Seattle isn't. Heck, Seattle isn't even a shopping mecca in comparison to Vancouver. I actually am having a hard time picturing someone going to Seattle with an empty suitcase unless they live in Yakima or something. Maybe an empty icebox, if they're real into fish.

You are sort of right about Seattle, but not Bellevue. Bellevue is a high end Nordtrom store (so is Seattle, but Bellevue has a lot more stuff these days). And Bellevue these days caters a lot to Indian and Chinese shoppers (like it does in Vancouver). There is also Seattle Outlet malls that is way north of Seattle and is pretty much just luxury brands with a bunch of BC plates in the parking lot.

>(though, like I said, I can't imagine why),

wow, that's a tough one to accept. surely, that can't be true, but my guess is you're limiting your imagination to shopping for essentials vs shopping for the experience or retail therapy type of shopping sessions. destination shopping is absolutely a thing. maybe not a thing you do, but it is an industry

I'm not sure if I'm expressing myself poorly or we just disagree on this point, but for the record: I understand why someone might destination shop in a place like NYC, LA, Tokyo, etc.; I can't imagine why someone who lives in Vancouver would destination shop in Seattle.

Ya, when I wrote this I though there was a Nordstrom in Bellingham, but found it closed in the 90s. They can still go to Macy's and Target, but...no longer Nordstrom. There is one in Lynwood, however, so not quite a 2.5 hour drive (and of course, the Seattle outlet mall north of Everett is mostly Luxury, though no Nordstrom).

Crossing the border is a bit of a PITA. A few years ago I took my kids to play in a youth hockey tournament that was split between the US and Canada. Our hotel was on the Canadian side. Crossing back and forth was a nuisance and even though beer was cheaper on the US side it was technically illegal to bring very much back across the border. I assume the same is true for other shopping.

People who doe this regularly will get a NEXUS card, which makes the process much easier. Bringing alcohol back is totally fine in any quantity if I recall correctly, you just have to declare it and maybe pay some tax either direction. Fruits/veggies are more restricted I believe actually.

My impression was the whole “go to the USA to shop because everything is cheaper” thing was illegal but I didn’t look into it deeply.

Totally legal, just be sure to declare whatever. We do it for ketchup chips (From Canada)

My impression is that groceries are more expensive in the US. I didn't do an extensive research but I was camping for a week in WA and OR last summer and didn't get any groceries with me. I didn't find Costco, Safeway or Walmart to be any cheaper than in Vancouver.

Not sure about food, but diapers, in particular, are much cheaper in the states than in Canada.

My understanding is the Vancouver store is the only one that regularly hit its targets.

This reminds me of Car2Go being relatively well-utilized in Vancouver compared to other parts of North America.

I live 2 hours from the border and our Outlet Mall parking lots are full of vehicles with Canadian license plates on the weekends.

There is no way the exchange rate makes it work out to actually be cheaper to cross the border to shop these days.

Does it?

Our dollar sucks

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