Preparing for a Canadian Border shutdown

[sin-n-dex]

I'm not sure how likely this is, because there's lots of rumours going around. But there's discussion of possibly shutting down the Canada-USA border (from our government).

This puts me in an awkward selling position since I ship to the US, and if ChitChats can't bring my parcels over they will be stuck in Canada until it's lifted.

So to prepare for this (and not alarm my customers), I'm selling as normal. Informing everyone of the courier (which is typical to do the day they purchase so they know why it's taking days to ship). If there's a border shutdown, I'll inform everyone promptly that this affects my courier (my packages could even be stuck with the courier if there isn't much notice given).

I'll keep funds available and be prepared to refund anyone who doesn't want to wait for this to be sorted out.

The good news is, I have lots of very good and quite reasonable customers that are understanding of the challenges of shipping to USA from Canada and using a service to offer domestic shipping rates that are competitive with other USA sellers. So I don't expect a problem.

In all fairness, I get a nasty message only a few times a year from someone who didn't read my notes, or who was right on top of the tracking and saw it took a few days between printing the label and reaching the post office. The last customer (that I wrote about earlier this week) has not contacted me since the tracking started to show up online (and he was provided with the courier's link as proof they were doing something with his package before it arrived in Niagara).

C.

[tamaralea]

I just realized I haven't heard anything about Canada.  How many cases do you have?  Do you have testing kits?

[andrew547]

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Canada shut their border with the US. We (in the US) are so far behind on this pandemic that it boggles the mind, and we are simply not doing the things we could and should be doing to stem the coming tide.

For example, Trump wanted to close our border with Mexico over the Coronavirus. Mexico has 12 cases. We, on the other hand, are in the process of going exponential. And we aren't even measuring, so we don't know the real numbers. If I were you (Canada), I would shut the border, citing the USA's complete lack of appropriate action at the federal level. It's just so bizarre. We are dangerous right now.

[mansons2005]

The effect this may have on eCommerce is yet unknown, but it appears to have spooked some larger concerns. Patagonia (the clothing co.) has just announced that they are closing all stores and shutting down their web site temporarily due to the current situation and the safety of employees and possible disruption of deliveries.

[sin-n-dex]

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@tamaralea wrote:

I just realized I haven't heard anything about Canada.  How many cases do you have?  Do you have testing kits?

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There must be testing kits but I don't know how readily available they are. We have 4 confirmed cases in my city and a bit more than 130 I think country wide (but I'm not sure... it changes daily). The prime minister's wife has been confirmed as having coronavirus.

There was a woman who went home two days ago with the flu, and the case reported today vaguely matched her description and where she traveled. Rumours circulated through the building that she was the latest case, but I told them to stop spreading rumours because the Department of Health would have notified our office if we were at risk because of a confirmed case the building. That never happened, so I'm inclined to believe she just had a cold.

C.

[sin-n-dex]

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@andrew547 wrote:

I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Canada shut their border with the US. We (in the US) are so far behind on this pandemic that it boggles the mind, and we are simply not doing the things we could and should be doing to stem the coming tide.

For example, Trump wanted to close our border with Mexico over the Coronavirus. Mexico has 12 cases. We, on the other hand, are in the process of going exponential. And we aren't even measuring, so we don't know the real numbers. If I were you (Canada), I would shut the border, citing the USA's complete lack of appropriate action at the federal level. It's just so bizarre. We are dangerous right now.

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If it happens, it could be to protect Canada from USA cases... who knows.

But as an eBay seller in Canada who ships from USA, I need to make sure I take care of my store and my customers. I have 10 days handling, so a considerable amount of disruption can happen before I am late on my shipping metric. eBay is necessary income for me, so I'm not going to stop listing/selling unless absolutely necessary. I have only gone on vacation mode for having vacations longer than 2 weeks, or in the event of me breaking my arm and moving into my new house (which happened at the same time).

C.

[southern*sweet*tea]

Trudeau's wife tested positive for covid-19.  According to CTV, Canada has 198 confirmed cases.

[andrew547]

Closing the border is different from shutting down trade, which is different from shutting down mail.

My thought is that if mail is cut off, we will have bigger problems than lost income, even if it is the only income we have.

[picknparley]

Sin-n-dex,  it sounds like you've got a great plan.  We just have to keep in mind that this is temporary. Hopefully in a month everything will look much brighter!  

I think if I got an impatient and unreasonable buyer right now it'd be less stressful to just cancel it and eat fees. 

Fortunately I think most buyers are going to be understanding.  

Most important thing right now is for everyone to be nice to everyone.  Watch out for your elderly neighbors - make sure they have what they need.  A month or so is a short blip in our lifetime. We can do this.

I know we all have to make a living, but these next few weeks are not going to be about money.  It's going to be about how well people care for each other. 

Hope you and your family stay healthy sin-n-dex.   

[picknparley]

".....We (in the US) are so far behind on this pandemic that it boggles the mind, and we are simply not doing the things we could and should be doing to stem the coming tide.

For example, Trump wanted to close our border with Mexico over the Coronavirus. Mexico has 12 cases. We, on the other hand, are in the process of going exponential. And we aren't even measuring, so we don't know the real numbers. If I were you (Canada), I would shut the border, citing the USA's complete lack of appropriate action at the federal level. It's just so bizarre. We are dangerous right now....."

Foolish doomsday talk. Especially that last statement.  Some people will do anything they can to criticize and add fuel to the fear fire that they seem to thrive on. Instead of complaining what are you doing to help yourself, your family, your community?  Come on, stop with the negative hype.  No, I'm not saying this isn't serious, but I refuse to be a part of the hype problem and CHOOSE to be a part of the solution. 

[chapeau-noir]

Guess I could work for Deliveroo or DoorDash - my bike has a trailer and I have a strong set of lungs.  Albertson's is hiring delivery people and I actually saw a Safeway truck in our little dead-end road (no one in my road is elderly or ill, so I hope that neighbour is just being cautious instead of having to be quarantined).  There may be some opportunities there for people needing work to make ends meet right now.

Failing that I'd either go on a bike tour or clean out the basement. 

[chapeau-noir]

Crud - that was for the 'what if the post office closes down' thread.  But I'm up near the Canadian border so it sorta fits.  We get a lot of business here from visiting Canadians.

[picknparley]

Ah, so you're in a cold climate, too.  I'm in Wisconsin and we still have snow on the ground. I kinda figure (hope) any germs I pick up are gonna freeze up and fall off!!  Stay healthy - spend more time in a snowbank! 😄

[andrew547]

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@picknparley wrote:

".....We (in the US) are so far behind on this pandemic that it boggles the mind, and we are simply not doing the things we could and should be doing to stem the coming tide.

For example, Trump wanted to close our border with Mexico over the Coronavirus. Mexico has 12 cases. We, on the other hand, are in the process of going exponential. And we aren't even measuring, so we don't know the real numbers. If I were you (Canada), I would shut the border, citing the USA's complete lack of appropriate action at the federal level. It's just so bizarre. We are dangerous right now....."

Foolish doomsday talk. Especially that last statement.  Some people will do anything they can to criticize and add fuel to the fear fire that they seem to thrive on. Instead of complaining what are you doing to help yourself, your family, your community?  Come on, stop with the negative hype.  No, I'm not saying this isn't serious, but I refuse to be a part of the hype problem and CHOOSE to be a part of the solution. 

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There is a failure of imagination here, but it's not mine.

[sin-n-dex]

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@picknparley wrote:

Sin-n-dex,  it sounds like you've got a great plan.  We just have to keep in mind that this is temporary. Hopefully in a month everything will look much brighter!  

I think if I got an impatient and unreasonable buyer right now it'd be less stressful to just cancel it and eat fees. 

Fortunately I think most buyers are going to be understanding.  

Most important thing right now is for everyone to be nice to everyone.  Watch out for your elderly neighbors - make sure they have what they need.  A month or so is a short blip in our lifetime. We can do this.

I know we all have to make a living, but these next few weeks are not going to be about money.  It's going to be about how well people care for each other. 

Hope you and your family stay healthy sin-n-dex.   

---

I have an update on the shopping situation here in Ontario...

I went out to Walmart tonight (around 9pm) because I thought I was out of brown sugar and thought I could pick up a few more cases of Pop (my cart was full at lunch, so I got everything I could then).

At Walmart, the shelves were empty, some whole isles were empty... not much dairy, no meat or bread, no dried pasta, not much canned soup. Stuff that I like (in the International isle) had a fair bit of stock, so if I'm looking for something weird for my cooking I can probably find it. No brown sugar. No sugar or flour period. Seems like my fellow shoppers also bake from scratch. I hadn't thought getting sugar would be so difficult. (I bought white sugar two weeks ago when I first realized we would have a shortage of food).

Feeling dejected about not getting my sugar, I headed over to The Great Canadian Superstore which is part of a chain in Canada. The Superstore doesn't have the best prices, but it's huge, with lots of stock on the shelves (no toilet paper I might add). When I got to superstore, the shelves of common stuff were well picked over, but I did find brown sugar. I picked up a few cans. Basically if you can live with brand name prices, you might get it tonight... if you wanted any "no name" or "supermarket brand" stuff, forget it, those cans are 25-50% cheaper and are completely sold out.

In produce sections, cheap stuff and common stuff was all gone, but if you wanted something like leeks, mangos, papayas, no problem. Bananas - forget it, it was an entire isle of bananas and it was empty, even the boxes down below were empty and there's always extra stock (when we don't like what's out, we sometimes look down below to see if we can find something better).

My main concern though is my partner. He's not doing well and I fear he has the flu or something similar. I haven't seen him since before his symptoms started a few days ago. He has a compromised immune system and is very susceptible to whatever is going around. I'm very worried about him.

C.