Results tagged “recession”

At approximately 5:45 p.m. on December 21st, 2008, Torontoist received a phone call from Boy Reporter. "The parade's been cancelled." "What?" "It's been cancelled. Because of the wind."

At left, Gary Clement's National Post cartoon from Friday. At right, a CBC TV crew spotted on Canwest death watch outside the Post's Don Mills HQ the same day.

The current economic situation has not been kind to American retailers. With sales sinking and several wobbly chains going the liquidation route, the U.S. retail landscape might not be the best model to emulate at the moment.

As Maclean’s reported last week, alcohol sales at large Canadian retailers were up seventeen per cent this past October in comparison to October 2007, while the Globe and Mail reported in December that the sale of high-priced liquors, such as champagne and ice wine, were way down. This isn't surprising: when times are tough people tend to hit the cheaper bottles a little harder. But sales of inexpensive liquor aren't just up at retailers—in order to save money, more and more Torontonians are making their own booze or turning towards Toronto's on-premise beer- and wine-making establishments.

Graduating from university or college is supposed to be a celebratory event. Sadly, given all of the recent layoffs and hiring freezes in Canada, spring convocations probably won't be so merry. Although this annual passage into quasi-adulthood is often regarded as a struggle for grads with generic arts degrees and diplomas, even business students will suffer in 2009.

The Star says that an immigration crackdown has halved the number of exotic dancers in Toronto over the last decade, fuelling lap-dance inflation and forcing strip club customers to make hard choices between Froot Loops for the kids and throwing twenties at naked strangers.