00:00As prices rise, fewer Canadians are visiting the U.S. to stock up.
00:05Canadians took around 39 million trips to the USA in 2024, but recent
00:10figures show that we're visiting less.
00:12What do these rising prices mean for Canadians going across the USA?
00:15U.S. inflation in late 2025.
00:20The most recent figures show that overall consumer price index has been increasing by roughly
00:253% each year, with an increase of 0.3% from the previous month.
00:30U.S. inflation isn't doing much better.
00:32It's around 3%.
00:35U.S. prices are rising fastest.
00:37Groceries increased by 2.7%.
00:40While the cost of proteins and drinks jumped by over 5%.
00:44Restaurants are rising.
00:45Restaurant costs went up by 3.7% and even the cost of used vehicles went up by a price
00:50of approximately 5.1%.
00:51The Canadian dollar versus the U.S. dollar in 2020.
00:55The Bank of Canada claims that the dollar hovered between
01:000.69 to 0.73 U.S. dollars between 2024 and 2020.
01:05Figures from mid-December 2025 put conversion rates
01:10at around 0.72 U.S. dollars or approximately 1 U.S. dollar.
01:15For 1.377 Canadian dollars.
01:18Tariffs, trade rules and
01:20price pressures.
01:21U.S. tariffs added quite a few cost pressures.
01:25The inflation in Canada remained at approximately 2% during the fall of 2025, even as the economy
01:30adjusted to cope with trade conditions.
01:33How often Canadians are still going south?
01:35They took around 39 million trips to the United States, although travel
01:40during 2025 looks different.
01:43Crossings by car in June fell by around 30 million.
01:4532.3% and August figures fell by 29.7%.
01:50Changing expectations around deal hunting.
01:53The recent increase in prices, especially
01:55with restaurant meals and consumer goods, is changing how Canadians think about shopping down south.
02:00The idea of automatically saving when making the trip doesn't hold up anymore.
02:05Reduced incentive for stock-up trips.
02:08There's also the fact that any big seasonal
02:10hauls don't seem worthwhile anymore.
02:12It doesn't seem that way, once you factor in tax and
02:15gas, along with the exchange rate.
02:18How sensitive are Canadians to price changes?
02:20A 1% rise in the real exchange rate is apparently enough to reduce Canadian trips
02:25by roughly 1.6%.
02:28It also causes overnight car trips to fall by 1%.
02:301.8% on average.
02:32Extra focus on promotions instead of everyday pricing.
02:35That's not to say that Canadians aren't going over at all, but quite a few of them
02:40are waiting for specific sales instead of relying on standard shelf prices being lower.
02:45Growing interest in Canadian alternatives.
02:48Rising U.S. costs have encouraged Canadians to
02:50focus on what local stores can offer before going south.
02:54But it sure is more
02:55appealing than going all the way south.
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