The Conference Board of Canada reported September 29 what B.C. retailers already knew: consumer confidence in Canada slipped for the fourth consecutive month in September.
“The economy is picking up but consumer confidence remains challenged,” London Drugs president Wynne Powell told Business in Vancouver the day before the Conference Board’s report. “All retailers are finding that you have to work very hard to have the customer spend money today.”
The Conference Board’s consumer confidence index fell 1.2 points to 78.1, a full 18.5 points below where it was at the start of the year.
Unlike many retailers, Powell does not believe that B.C.’s controversial harmonized sales tax is causing much of a negative impact on sales.
“Eighty-eight per cent of our prices did not change when all the taxes are included,” he said. “The reality is that from our customers’ perspective, the HST is just business as usual. It’s just a name-change because they were paying the same taxes before in most cases.”
Powell estimated that 11% of his products rose in price after the HST came into effect July 1. Items such as diapers went down in cost because they are HST-exempt.