Canadian Personal Finance Blog

OK, yes I am on vacation, but today is a quiet day so here is a good rant for you.

For those of you not aware, the major thoroughfare between Windsor, Ontario and Montreal is a highway called the 401 (pronounced four-oh-one), and on this highway every 70 km or so there are gas stations/rest stations. When I was younger these places were notorious “clip joints” where a bowl of soup cost $4.00, but about 20 years ago that changed and they are now mostly franchised fast food establishments (who don’t jack their rates up, surprisingly). The trick they pull now is that they DON’T take INTERAC (direct withdrawal), but there are “White” ATM machines there (you know the ones that charge you $1.50 on top of your banks $1.50) for you to get cash from. Nice to see we the consumers are getting the short end of the stick as usual.

The other thing I noticed was the average price of gas on the section of the 401 that I used on Sunday was about 94 cents a liter (for regular that is). Interesting the prices didn’t change and I went over 450 kms down this highway (and stopped a lot thanks to my kids). We also stopped on Division Street in Kingston, where the Petro-Canada there had their gas at 88 cents a liter? A six cents a liter difference? Man, this is criminal.

As I have said before I am not sure how organized crime can continue on, when “legitimate” businesses are bigger thugs and crooks than the CROOKS are!

Good vacation so far other than that, mind you –C8j