Canadians Fuel Valley Economy - Valley News Live - KVLY/KXJB - Fargo/Grand Forks

Canadians Fuel Valley Economy

  The latest statistics show an additional 45-thousand Canadian cars headed into the Valley at Pembina, during the past year.

  The total number swelled to 370-thousand Canadian cars this year, compared to 325-thousand last year.

  They don't keep track of exactly how many people are in those cars.  But, officials say it's clear that Canadians are spending a lot of money in Grand Forks.

Kevin Dean, City of Grand Forks: "The November sales tax receipts, which reflects September sales showed about 2-million dollars in sales tax receipts. So, there's a lot of business going on in the retail sector in Grand Forks. We know a lot of its coming from outside of Grand Forks.

  On Black Friday, many of the people I spoke with waiting in line for the midnight opening of Best Buy were from Winnipeg. Canadians shoppers say they can get much better deals on electronics here.  And today as every day, Canadian shoppers are still in town. They also site better deals on groceries, clothing, and more selection... especially shoppers who are looking for big and tall sizes in clothing.

 Canadian Shopper: "Sizes. My boys are big boys and I can find the sizes I need for them down here."

Canadian Shopper: "And also I'm tall. So, the clothes here are a lot taller. I can get more clothes here."

  However, the days of getting a big number of Canadian shoppers down here for the Black Friday weekend could be numbered. Canadian shoppers tell me that Winnipeg retailers are beginning to catch on, and they've just started doing their own Black Friday deals in Winnipeg.