Milking Inflation and Creeping Americanisation

When I was growing up, Canada was just making the switch from the Imperial to the Metric System. It was a bit of a struggle switching from pounds to kilograms, inches to centimetres, miles to kilometres and ounces to millilitres, but we made the shift. More or less. The shift was most noticeable in grocery stories and food products. No longer could you buy a gallon of milk, but rather you bought 4 litres of milk. It was something that I eventually took for granted, until yesterday.

I bought what I thought was a 500 ml container of milk at Superstore - you know, the little half litre carton that is perfect for whitening your coffee. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that half a litre was actually 473 ml. And that the 250 ml carton was actually 237 ml.

All of the smaller cartons were marked the same. 500 ml and 250 ml cartons were non-existent. Even though the price remained the same. What the heck?

I did a bit of research on the internet and discovered that a few other people had noticed this shift last year. But nary a news outlet had picked up on the story. What was going on? Why such a weird number?

A bit more research and I learned that a British pint is 568 ml and that a US pint is 473 ml. Ahhh... it all made sense now. We are slowly but surely being Americanized.

If ever you see the one litre carton magically turn into a 946 ml carton, you 'll know that the American quart has invaded our country. Oh... wait... it's too late. In some provinces, glass bottles of milk are 946 ml.

But was this just a Dairyland thing? Perhaps they were expanding into the US market and wanted to have use the product sizes with which Americans are familiar? So, I took a wander through the Island Farms website, a company that I thought was local to Vancouver Island. Alas, no. Island Farms is owned by Natrel, with head offices in Quebec. They too have switched to 473 and 237 ml cartons.




Actually, if you take a look around at other food products, you will see the 473 ml and 946 ml sizes everywhere.

V8 Splash Berry Blend - 473 ml.

Coffee Mate - 473 ml.

Almond milk in the tetrapaks - 946 ml.
 

Elmer's Glue (really?) - 473 ml

Rickard's Beer... not the regular cans, but the big ones - 473 ml.

Sunrype apple juice still has 1 litre tetrapaks... but their 4 gallon jug is 3.78 litres.


Which makes me wonder... is this a step backwards for Canadian independence? Or a step forward for Canadian marketing? Or both? Is one better than the other?

E-Books, New Books, Cheap Books, Free Books

My love affair with books started when I was a young child. I didn't have a lot of books, but the ones I did have, I loved... sometimes to death! As I grew older, I discovered the literary treasures within the local public library. There were so many books there! So much to read. So much to explore. Weekend trips to the library saw me stagger home with piles of books.

El Blanco - The Legend
of the White Stallion
(My favourite Scholastic
Book Services book!)

When I entered school, I was quickly seduced by the Scholastic Book Services. Twice a year, we would receive an order form and a paper catalogue with pictures and summaries of children's books. I happily chose book after book - within reason of course. My mother was quite happy to encourage my love of reading and so, over the years, my book collection grew.

The Hardy Boys. Science Fiction. Westerns. Historical Fiction. Mysteries. I loved them all. When I went to university, I could spend hours wandering the cramped stacks of the main library. All of my course textbooks I bought new at the university bookstore. I spent hundreds, probably thousands of dollars on textbooks. I could have bought used textbooks, as the bookstore had a buy-back program, but I always wanted new books. I loved that fresh, crisp "new book" smell... and the thought that no-one else had messed up the book with dog-ears, highlighter or pen marks.

As the years passed, moving became more and more cumbersome. I had a lot of books - both fiction and non-fiction. I also had a lot of bookshelves. Anyone who has packed and unpacked books, knows that they take up an inordinate number of boxes... and they are heavy! In the world of moving, weight = money. But I really didn't care.

Eventually, however, I outgrew some of my books and began to pare them down. I got rid of my university textbooks. I let go of paperback books that I knew I would never read again. Every year, I let go of a little bit more and it began to make a difference. Another big difference was the advent of e-books, an invention that I resisted for many years. I liked the feel of real paper in my hands. I liked being able to flip quickly through a book. I liked the tangibleness of a real book. But I also saw the benefits of an e-book reader, of having thousands of books at my fingertips.

Lawrence Books, Vancouver.
Best "haystack" in the West.

Fast-forward to today. Over the course of the past year, I have bought about two dozen books.

Most of them came from used bookstores. While I turned up my nose at used textbooks during university, I have since come to discover the joys of used bookstores. You never know what you might find! The books are cheap(er). And some used bookstores will even let you trade in your old books for credit towards their books. But good luck if you are looking for a specific book. That is rather akin to looking for a needle in a haystack... and you're not even sure the needle is in that particular haystack!

Luckily, there is something called AbeBooks, an online marketplace for used books. Used bookstores from around the world post their books online. You can search by title or author and within seconds you have access to the book you seek. You can find new books, old books and out-of-print books. Best of all, the prices are very reasonable, even with shipping and handling. AbeBooks is a great invention and has made it easy to find and buy a specific used book. The only problem with AbeBooks is that the book has to be shipped to you which can take a week or 6 weeks, depending on whether it is being shipped from Vancouver, BC or from Oxford, England.

I have also purchased several e-books and one new book from Chapters/Indigo/Kobo this year. I read the new book and then passed it along to my mother who I thought would enjoy it as well. That is one of the perks of real books, you can actually share them with others. I have often re-gifted books that I have bought in the past. As long as I'm not too hard on the books, they look as good as new and no-one needs to be the wiser.

The ebooks were judicious purchases. I have a rather limited library on my e-book reader and I wanted to buy some of my most favourite fiction books so that I could take them with me easily. It's a great system but I sometimes forget what books are actually on my e-book reader. It's much easier to scan a bookshelf and see what I have than it is to tab through various screens on the e-book reader.

The end result is that I am happy to report that I am paring down my book collection. The net flow of books into and out of the house is improving. While I bought several physical books this year, I let go of many more. I have a vision of a future in which packing up our house will not be an onerous process... and reducing the books is part of that.

The only problem with this lovely scenario is that e-books, new books and even cheap books all cost money. And there are many, many books out there that I want to read. I have a rather substantial "to-read" list of books from all sorts of genres. My original idea was that I would buy them in the not-so-distant future... but now I am not so sure. You see... I have decided to rediscover the joys of my local public library.

Things are very different in public libraries nowadays. You can search their entire catalogue online, place a hold on a book, or request one via inter-library loan, all with the click of a few buttons. Today I spent a happy 30 minutes going through my "to-read" list and placing holds on several of the books. The rest went onto a virtual bookshelf in my library account. When I am ready, I can revisit them and request them as well. And all of this is free. Well... not really free... I do pay property taxes which means that my tax dollars are funding the library. But... I pay these tax dollars whether I use the library or not. And there is no limit, at least not one that I know of, to the number of books that I can request or borrow from the library. It's really a win-win situation. I get to read the books that I want... and spend $0.

The only problem with the library... and with AbeBooks for that matter is this... I have to wait for the book(s). Putting a hold on a book or requesting a book from another branch means that I have to wait several days, sometimes weeks for the book to arrive. And in some cases, the book is sooooo popular at that particular moment that the library doesn't have enough copies to go around. For example, the local library has 5 copies of Marie Kondo's book "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up" - the hottest decluttering book of 2014. I had read several news articles which offered glowing reviews of the book and decided that I would read it. I thought I might buy it... but then decided to borrow it from the library. I placed a hold on the book and I am #90 in line... that is correct - ninety... nine zero. People have a week to pick up a book that is on hold for them. They can borrow the book for three weeks. A few calculations... 5 copies... 90th in line... the earliest I might get it is 20 weeks from now... the latest I might get it is 72 weeks from now. At this rate, I will probably end up reading the book in 2016. I'll let you know how it goes.

All of this has made me realize that the main benefit of buying e-books and new books is the delightful feeling of instant gratification. If I want the book NOW... I can have it now... or within an hour if I drive to the bookstore. If I order a used book or request a book through the library, I will have to wait and counsel myself on the joys of delayed gratification. All of which makes me think that my book dilemma is really just a symptom of society at-large. We have become used to the idea of instant gratification. I can check my email on my smartphone, instantly. I can pick up the phone and talk to my relatives in Europe, instantly. I can book my own flights on line, instantly. I can take pictures on my camera, load them into my computer and view them, all in a flash. I can email them to my mother and even print them out on photo paper.

If we want something NOW... we can generally have it now. Gone are the days when you would ship away a roll of film to the Kodak lab and wait for a week until the photographs came back. Gone are the days even of one-hour photo-developing labs. Gone are the days when you would write weekly letters back home and consign them to Canada Post. Now, you can text, email, Skype... instantly. Some say that Canada Post is dying. Will libraries soon follow? There has been some angst around that in recent years and libraries are trying to re-invent themselves as community hubs, learning spaces or learning commons. They have jumped on the e-book bandwagon and you can now borrow e-books and even e-magazines through your local library.

Perhaps the real benefit for me in frequenting my local library is not saving of money... but rather rediscovering the self-discipline of delayed gratification. According to research at Stanford, children who could delay gratification grew into adults who scored higher on SAT tests, handled stress better, were less likely to be obese and generally had better life skills. Which begs the question... if we train our children to expect instant gratification, are we actually doing them a favour?

An Excuse for Extravagance - "Utilities Included"

In the course of my life as an independent person (i.e. not living at home), I have lived in apartments, condos and houses. I have been a tenant and a home-owner. As a tenant, it was always a bonus to pay rent which included utilities, things like heat, hot water and electricity. The apartment building that I used to live in had a boiler system and the rent included heat (radiators) and hot water. I could take as many hot showers as I wanted! Electricity was usually extra but when it didn't include heat and/or hot water, it was really a minor thing. Or so I thought.

The tables have turned. I am now a landlord with three rental units. All of them have electric baseboard heaters. All of them have electric hot water tanks. I had no idea how expensive a BC Hydro bill could be!

When we moved into our current house, we asked BC Hydro to put us on the Equal Payment Plan. Over the course of a year, we would pay a fixed amount every month. Since we had just moved in, BC Hydro used the previous owner's electricity consumption as their baseline. Our monthly payments were $250. Gulp.

We set about tightening our belts by spending money on energy efficiency upgrades. We put extra insulation in the ceiling, installed programmable thermostats and replaced most of the GU 10 halogen spot bulbs with LED versions. We made sure that all of our other light bulbs were curly CFLs. We turned down the heat to a cozy 18 degrees Celsius in the living areas and kept our bedroom at a brisk 15 degrees. We wore sweaters and wooly socks. We washed our clothes in cold water. We dried our clothes on the clothesline outside or on clothing racks inside.

It made a difference. Over the course of the next year, we watched as the discrepancy between our Equal Payment Plan and our actual electricity usage grew wider and wider. After twelve months, BC Hydro owed us almost $1100. Bonus! We received a nice fat cheque in the mail from BC Hydro and our monthly payment plan dropped from $250/month to $155/month. But could we continue the trend? Five months into our second year, we are about 20% below last year's usage. And BC Hydro is taking notice. They are set to reduce our monthly payment to $143. That is good news for us!

You see, electricity rates are always rising. The infrastructure of BC Hydro (dams, hydro-electric plants, transmission lines) is aging and needs to be updated. Demand for electricity is rising. As a landlord, I am concerned about the electricity consumption of tenants whose rent includes utilities. Not just my tenants. All tenants.

Every household, every person can make a difference when it comes to conserving electricity. If everyone in British Columbia conserved electricity, demand would not be so high, rates would not rise so sharply. It's pretty obvious. Ultimately, conserving electricity is not only good for us, it is also good for the environment. In BC, we are lucky to have access to hydro-electric power, one of the cleaner formers of electricity generation. Not so for Alberta which relies on coal-fired power plants to generate its electricity.

Still... I have visited folks whose rent includes utilities. Lights are left burning all day, regardless of whether anyone is home or not. Baseboard heaters are cranked to 25 degrees Celsius while windows are left wide open. Space heaters run day and night. These tenants have no incentive to save electricity.

Despite the fact that their extravagance directly impacts hydro rates and therefore directly impacts me.

Despite the fact that their extravagance increases the demand for more electricity which means more dams, more power plants, more transmission lines, more environmental damage.

We all pay for increased electricity consumption - in the short term and the long term. Some costs are far-removed from us, like the flooding of rivers in the north-eastern corner of the province. Other costs are nearer and dearer to our hearts. Perhaps the truth is that we are only motivated to change our habits when something affects us directly. Directly in the pocketbook. And the sad truth is... if we don't pay for something... we aren't hit in the pocket book, at least not directly... and we are less motivated to make a difference.

The Never-ending Cost of Stuff

Stuff. It's such a catch-all word. It can mean many things in many contexts. "Did you get that stuff, I sent you?" "Did you see that stuff on the floor" "When are you going to get rid of that stuff". The word "stuff" can mean anything from virtual documents or photos to the concrete objects of our world.

Today, I'm looking at "stuff" in the sense of the things that we buy - concrete physical objects that inhabit our home or yard. We all buy stuff at some point in our lives. We pay good money for our stuff. But the truth is, we don't just pay for it once... we pay for it over and over and over again.

Kicking Starbucks to the Curb

I like going to Starbucks at 5:30 a.m. I like the ambiance. The music. The comfy chairs. The decor. I like the fact that very few people are around at that hour of the morning. I can sit down in a quiet corner, plug my laptop into a wall outlet, connect to the free wifi and work away contentedly for several hours. My morning Starbucks visits are very soothing... but also fairly expensive.

Kicking Sugar to the Curb

Yup, it's early January and 'tis the season when New Year's Resolutions pop up like daffodils in the minds of millions of well-intentioned folks. The most common resolution is to "lose weight", which is usually a combination of "eat less" and "move more". Some people want to quit smoking. Others want to drink more water or spend more time with family.

All of these are praise-worthy resolutions and almost everyone starts off with the best of intentions. Yet only 5% of people succeed in their resolutions, which is a pretty sad figure. Yet every year, despite the failure rate, scores of people make more well-intentioned resolutions. "This year it will be different". For some it is... for many it is not.

Spiritual Pilgrimage - Shop Local

Several years ago, I read a book called God of Surprises. The author wrote about his experience on the famous pilgrimage route through northern Spain, affectionately known as the Camino. It's official name is the Camino de Santiago de Compostela - The Way of St. James of Compostela. It turns out that the Camino de Santiago has many, many routes, although the most well-known one begins in southern France and ends at the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in northwestern Spain. I did a bit more reading on the Camino and met several people who had hiked the route. It was a spiritual experience. It was a struggle. It transformed lives. It sounded fascinating to me.