Driving to Montana to shop

[normtwofinger]

Alberta residents still do not have to pay Washington State sales tax?

[ken0042]

^^ I have found it is really "YMMV." Some places you just show your Alberta D/L and you are good; however most are recording the number now. You have to wonder if having your D/L number as well as being able to see your date of birth- it is worth it to save a few bucks on a $100 purchase.

Then there was Lowes; I would have bailed if I didn't know my wife was clothes shopping next door. I've had mortgage applications that have asked for less information than what they needed to enter me into their computer as tax exempt.

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by Barbecue

[BigNumbers]

Originally Posted by normtwofinger

Alberta residents still do not have to pay Washington State sales tax?

Yes - But at the retailers discretion (eg: you can't FORCE them to do it).

I found at the big box / outlet malls 95% of stores did it in 5 seconds, and then a few regular big box stores it was a big form and not worth it (echoing Ken's experience)... Then there are the places that don't know about the exemption - We were at a high-fashion ladies clothier downtown SEA for my wife and they didn't know about it, so they wouldn't apply it - which sucked on 6 to 7 figures worth of clothes.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by stazzy33

Sure!

K, I'll take 6 cases of snack size serving Cheez-its. The 45 packs. .

[Regulator75]

Originally Posted by Reaper

K, I'll take 6 pallets of Cheez-its. The 4500 packs. .

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by Regulator75

They're tiny little crackers not blocks of cheese. If I was going to chow down on a block of cheese I'd have a side of oat bran so I could poop before Christmas.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Reaper

They're tiny little crackers not blocks of cheese. If I was going to chow down on a block of cheese I'd have a side of oat bran so I could poop before Christmas.

Maybe look at what the arrow is pointing to.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

Maybe look at what the arrow is pointing to.

I did. The woman is powering down a block of cheese not Cheez-its.

[Regulator75]

Perhaps the block of cheese is just the appetizer?

[4X4]

Anyone know what the limit is for alcohol? I was at a walmart in Idaho, and 2-4s were $15, so I bought 5. I came home with 3 1/2, and they waved me through. I googled it beforehand, and it said that the limit was 24. So was that border guard just being nice, or is the limit higher than 24?

[MoneyGuy]

Originally Posted by ExiledFlamesFan

I don't see the appeal of driving 5 hours to go to Walmart or Target.

Unless it's on a motorcycle. Am I right, Slava?

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Reaper

I did. The woman is powering down a block of cheese not Cheez-its.

And there is a box of cheez-its in the back of her chair.

[Reaper]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

And there is a box of cheez-its in the back of her chair.

Nothing gets by you.

[Buzzard]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Anyone know what the limit is for alcohol? I was at a walmart in Idaho, and 2-4s were $15, so I bought 5. I came home with 3 1/2, and they waved me through. I googled it beforehand, and it said that the limit was 24. So was that border guard just being nice, or is the limit higher than 24?

Being nice for sure. 24 beers is the limit. Like others said, they have bigger fish to catch out there.

I read an article a while back that due to staff shortages, CBSA was directing officers to be less of tax collectors and more of a policing role, especially during peak crossing times.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by BigNumbers

Yes - But at the retailers discretion (eg: you can't FORCE them to do it).

I found at the big box / outlet malls 95% of stores did it in 5 seconds, and then a few regular big box stores it was a big form and not worth it (echoing Ken's experience)... Then there are the places that don't know about the exemption - We were at a high-fashion ladies clothier downtown SEA for my wife and they didn't know about it, so they wouldn't apply it - which sucked on 6 to 7 figures worth of clothes.

100,000 to 1,000,000 in clothes, that is one hell of a humble brag.

[Derek Sutton]

Originally Posted by 4X4

Anyone know what the limit is for alcohol? I was at a walmart in Idaho, and 2-4s were $15, so I bought 5. I came home with 3 1/2, and they waved me through. I googled it beforehand, and it said that the limit was 24. So was that border guard just being nice, or is the limit higher than 24?

The limit is 24 beer or 1 liter of hard alcohol/ person. Duty is paid based on alcohol content. Brand name beer is about 3-4% so the duty is not worth the paper work most of the time. Is works out to about $3 or $4 per 24 pack. This will let you know how much you could be charged, they can also charge you with a "retailer equalization fee" or some BS charge.

http://www.canadiandutycalculator.ca/

[nik-]

Go to Tulalip outlets outside of Seattle instead. I pretty much loathe outlet malls, but that place is awesome and yes the stores there drop the tax no problem. Obviously a farther trek than Montana.

http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=71

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by Derek Sutton

The limit is 24 beer or 1 liter of hard alcohol/ person. Duty is paid based on alcohol content. Brand name beer is about 3-4% so the duty is not worth the paper work most of the time. Is works out to about $3 or $4 per 24 pack. This will let you know how much you could be charged, they can also charge you with a "retailer equalization fee" or some BS charge.

http://www.canadiandutycalculator.ca/

I haven't paid duty on beer yet, but any time I was there for the day and bought a case they told me the duty would be more than what the beer costs here. I have always replied with "Yes, I know. It's beer I can't buy in Canada so I'm willing to pay for it." So far no officer has ever called me on it. I'd be curious to know how much that retailer eq fee is.

The only time I was close I had my beer on the same receipt as about $200 worth of groceries. The officer commented that there was more junk food than groceries (I guess implying GST) and I said something along the lines of one person's junk is another person's groceries. As he scanned the 3 foot long receipt up and down he must have realized how much effort it was going to take. Most officers say something nice like "I'll give you a break" or "have a good evening", this guy stuffed the receipt into my passport and pretty much flung it at me and said "just go."

I wasn't sure if I should be happy or a little scared.

[Regular_John]

Originally Posted by stazzy33

So the girlfriend and I are going down to Whitefish for the long weekend. We are only spending two nights there (which I don't think is enough time but oh well). Besides stopping in Kalispell to do a bit of shopping are there any other must see/dos while we are down there? We are taking the road to the sun to get to Whitefish, but besides that, we don't really have any other plans.

Going to the sun road is in a word, spectacular.

We did the full drive twice in four days, and went back up to Logan Pass on the free park shuttles on a separate trip. Speaking of which, the drive itself, is stunning and absolutely worth doing, but parking at Logan Pass is a nightmare.

If you can park your car at Saint Mary on the West side or Avalanche Creek on the east side and use the free shuttles operated by the National Park. They run every 30 minutes and allow you to really take in the scenery without dealing with the cluster fata of parking at Logan Pass. All three times we were there (passing by twice, visiting once) the parking lot was full with multiple cars circling the lot and flagging down anyone walking around to see if they were leaving.

So yeah, drive Going to the Sun Road, but don't plan on parking at Logan Pass. You can however park in quite a few road side turn outs to snap pictures, so you really don't miss to much by not going to the visitor centre.