Pity The Call Screener.

Today's edition of CBC Radio One's Cross Country Checkup asked a simple question:  Is it wrong to eat meat?  A simple question, but the kind that will get a lot of people going.  I would hate to have been the call screener today.  I'm sure pro and anti-meat callers of the most unpleasant sort wanted to have their opinions heard. 

Gas In Saskatoon, July 26, 2019.

Prices have been heading down as of late.  Gas in Saskatoon is currently 117.4 cents a litre at most locations.

I'll Feel Less Safeway.

In 2013 the Sobeys grocery chain acquired Safeway's Canadian stores.  I'm sure I was not the only one surprised when instead of rebranding them all Sobeys kept a large percentage in operation as Safeways.  (23 stores had to be sold off as part of the merger agreement.)  But now we are going to see a rebranding of some.  In Saskatoon's case 3 of the existing Safeways will be converted to the Sobey's run FreshCo branding.  FreshCo is the Sobeys equivalent of the Loblaw budget No Frills stores.  Sobeys says FreshCo stores will replace "underperforming" Safeway stores, with construction taking place in Saskatoon early next year.

The 3 stores to be converted in Saskatoon are at Market Mall, Confederation Mall, and on 33rd Street.  I only go into the 33rd Street store once in a blue moon, but I'm not surprised about the Confederation Mall store, since that mall as a whole underperforms.  Market Mall has the problem that its located in the middle of what is supposedly the oldest per capita population in Canada, the area having a large number of older residents in seniors housing.  Some of them buy little or no groceries, so it's hard to see how lower prices will change that.  One thing all three stores share is that they're smaller than the other two Safeway stores in Saskatoon, making them more suitable for a budget branding.

As for the other two Safeway stores the only thing I can imagine happening to them in the foreseeable future would be a conversion to the Sobeys branding.  The Mall at Lawson Heights store is brand new, having replaced the old Safeway space in the same mall last year, while the McOrmond Road Safeway is only a few years old.  The Lawson Safeway would need little more than some new paint and signs to become a Sobeys, as it has pretty much the same layout as recently built Sobeys stores.  The McOrmond store would need more work, unless of course they just changed the appearance.

Didn't Expect That One.

I just had YouTube show me an ad for the Israeli military manufacturer Rafael.  I wouldn't have thought people watching rock music videos would be a demographic they'd think to advertise to.  I'm certainly not in the market for antitank or surface to air missiles.

Don't Tell Donald.

This year is the fiftieth anniversary of the World Series of Poker.  The Main Event, as it came to be called as more games were added over the years, is down to the last three players.  And one thing we know for sure, the winner this year will not be an American.  Current chip leader Hossein Ensan is an Iranian who has lived in Germany since 1990.  In second is Halifax native Alex Livingston.  In third place is Italian poker pro Dario Sammartino.  The last American player was Garry Gates, who will have to console himself with the 3 million bucks of a fourth place finish.

This won't be the first time a non-American has won the big prize.  The first was Iranian born, London based Mansour Matloubi back in 1990.  Jonathan Duhamel became the first Canadian winner in 2010.  And Swede Martin Jacobsen was the last non-American to win, back in 2014.

So please, don't tell Donald Trump.  He'll just go on a big rant about foreigners taking over "America's game," stealing American money etc. 

Gas In Saskatoon, July 12, 2019.

So much for the downward trend.  Gas in Saskatoon has risen to 121.9 cents a litre at most stations.  I'm guessing it will go up next week.

Gas In Saskatoon, July 5, 2019.

A slightly more notable change to report this week.  Gas in Saskatoon is now 116.9 cents a litre at most stations.  Hopefully the downward trend will continue.

Mocking The Clickbait 17: You Failed Geography, Didn't You?

30 US Cities With the Worst Reputations(Saskatoon's ranking might surprise you)

As you probably know Saskatoon isn't a US city.  It seems their location tracking software needs some work.