It Never Fails.

We worry whether we'll have enough candy for Halloween.  When it's all over we still have some left.  Like I need any more sugar. to eat.

Infestation.

With this being Halloween season some folks have decorated the outside of their homes.  One thing I've noticed this season is that a lot of people have black plastic rats as part of their decorations.  I'd love to have a chunk of that business given how many I've seen in the last few days.

Gas In Saskatoon, October 28. 2013.

I've decided to make a minor change.  For the next while at least these posts will be done on Monday instead of Friday. 

Gas in Saskatoon is currently 114.9 cents a litre at most locations. 

Ugh.

I've got a bad feeling about the upcoming week.  I suspect I'm going to spend much of it cold and sore.

Odd Choice.

Safeway has long been a fixture on the Canadian retail landscape.  But its future became unclear when rival grocer Sobeys announced its acquisition of the chain earlier this year.  The federal Competition Bureau has now approved the 5.8 billion dollar sale, but one of the conditions is that Sobeys will have to sell off some of its assets in Western Canada, including both Safeway stores and its existing Sobeys, IGA, and Price Chopper stores.

Yesterday Sobeys announced the 23 stores it will need to sell off.  The single location to be sold in Saskatoon is the Safeway located in the Centre at Circle and  8th shopping plaza.  It's a decision that's sure to leave many Saskatoon residents with questions.  That location is in one of Saskatoon's major shopping centres, and does lots of business.  It has been renovated in the past few years, and also includes a gas station that just opened last year.  If there was a Saskatoon Safeway that seemed doomed to disappear it was the other 8th Street location, located in the Cumberland Square Shopping Mall.  That store is small by modern Safeway standards, has no room to expand, and needs some reno work.  More importantly it is located immediately across the street from a Sobeys.  Of course it is possible this store will simply be closed by its new owners.

Who might buy Centre Mall Safeway?  There wouldn't seem to be any obvious candidates at the moment. Canadian grocery retailer Loblaws already operates a Real Canadian Superstore grocery on 8th Street. Perhaps a chain not already operating in Saskatoon would be interested, although operating a single store might not be the most efficient way to go.

Even with the sales Sobeys will see its holdings increase by 190 stores.  Whether any of these will stay as Safeway stores, or will be rebranded as Sobeys or some other name, it still unclear at the moment.

Loblaws itself is in the middle of buying the Shoppers Drug Mart chain.  The deal is currently under Competition Bureau evaluation.  And it's a big deal, worth 12.4 billion dollars in cash and stock, which should be an indication of how major a brand Shoppers is in Canada.  Besides health care products Shoppers sells various other products, including a considerable amount of food products, which presumably means we'll see Loblaws brands appear on Shoppers shelves if the sale goes through.

Bulk Dump.

Talk about easy.  I've barely gotten out of bed, haven't left the house, yet I've already entered 7 bills at Where's Willy.  I also entered them at my Canadian Money Tracker account, which I really only use these days if I run across a CMT marked bill.  They're all 2004 series $20s, which adds to the fun.  Hopefully they'll all get hits before they get pulled from circulation, as the intent is supposedly to replace older bills with the new polymer $20s as soon as possible.

Gas In Saskatoon, October 11, 2013.

Regular visitors from Saskatoon might have noticed I missed posting about last week's gas price change.  That's because none of the stations seemed to be able to make up their  mind what the actual price was.  There was way too much difference to state "the" price.

That's not a problem this week.  Gas in Saskatoon is currently 119.9 cents a litre a most locations. 

Those Things, Those Whatchacallems.

If you've watched even a bit of US TV lately you've probably seen the ads for Burger King's new SatisFries.  They're a crinkle cut style French fry that apparently have less fat and calories that other fast food fries.  But you won't be eating them in Canada.  Here you'll be eating GratiFries(and MagniFrites in French speaking Quebec).  "But they look the same," you might say if you've seen both Canadian and American ads. And they are the same.  But apparently the different branding is because focus groups found Canadians liked the GratiFries name better.  Go figure.  They're a product developed by Burger King with Canada's McCain Foods, who make one third of the world's French fry products.

I haven't had any yet.  I did have some of BK's Poutine With Bacon today for lunch.  No, you don't want to know what my blood pressure is.

And speaking of fast food differences if you're an American looking for your Popeye's chicken fix keep your eyes open if you're in Southern Ontario.  Ads during the Major League Baseball playoffs alerted me to the fact that the chain, which I've seen ads for a lot on some US TV channels, has set up franchises in Canada.  Only in Ontario at this point, so I won't be making their spokeslady happy and chowing down on some anytime soon.  Their Canadian website is here.

Thank You Dodgers.

No more annoying Tomahawk Chop nonsense to insult our ears.

It's Slow.

Over the last 24 hours certain Internet sites have been sluggish for me, or haven't come up at all.  Can I blame the Tea Party for that, since US government servers might not be getting proper attention, resulting in problems?  Or should I blame the rush to sign up for Obamacare, which has apparently caused problems for the US government website involved?  Or is it actually Grand Theft Auto V's fault, since the online gaming portion of the game went active yesterday, and was expected to suck up a lot of bandwidth? 

I know it's not my fault, so I have to blame someone, right?

Theme Song.

This may be an appropriate song for the first week of October given the mess Stateside.

Tea Party supporters, I hope you enjoy a bunch of government services you need being screwed up because you support slitting your own throats.