Chapter 14 Blog

http://www.canada.com/nanaimodailynews/news/business/story.html?id=c51386a6-2f5d-426c-9c4b-846e802ef3f6

Summary:

The article talks about how people don't know or don't care about the extra transaction fee they have to pay for using their credit cards. Montreal merchant, Tony Fargnoli, explains that 90% of his sales on thanksgiving were paid on debit or credit cards. People don't realize that everytime they use their debit or credit card, they have to pay a transaction fee to the card company, and lately Visa and Mastercard had been boosting the fees. Derek Nighbor, senior vice-president at the council, says that, the premium cards makes things hard. The fee right now is 2%, but they add .2 - .6% to the fees. Retailers would have to increase their prices to fight the fees.

Connection:

The connection between this article and chapter 14, is the use of credit cards. Many people do not know, but banks charge a series of charges such as, transaction fees or annual fees to card holders and interest rates, annual fee charged to each merchant, and the bank also deducts a percentage of the discounts you get from using credit cards. Credit cards can be useful for merchants who do not have enough money in their bank account, because a credit would offer a credit line for the customer, where he/she can still use money even if they do not have money in their bank account up to a certain point.

Reflection:

I think that credit cards are very useful, and the bank is making money off of us. First, we deposit money into banks, then we have to pay charges for the credit card. Then we get annual fees charged on us. Finally, some banks would charge us transaction fees whenever we use their credit cards. I think that what the banks are doing is just to make some money for themselves. We use their credit cards, but it is our money. We should not be charged with transaction fees when the money we're using is just our own. I think that the banks are just too unfair, they charge us fees on using our own money. But of course, they hold our money, so we can't complain too much.

Chapter 12 Blog

http://www.canada.com/harbourcitystar/news/story.html?id=68a5083a-f7f0-49af-a30e-f2aa7750335c

Summary:

This article talks about how BC Hydro is trying to make everyone help in conserving energy. BC Hydro has partnered up with more than 500 retailers within the province to try to convince everyone to help conserve energy. Every October, BC Hydro would have a Power Smart Month. They hope that customers would give energy efficient products a chance. They have offered a special instant in-store discount on specialty compact fluorescent light bulbs and Energy Star lighting fixtures. They're trying to attract more customer to use these energy conserving products. Some of the retailers that are taking part are Costco, London Drugs, Zellers, Home Depot, Illuminations, Save on Foods, Walmart and Thrifty Foods.

Connection:

The connection between the article and chapter 12 is the cash discount. They're trying to use cash discount to attract more customers. BC Hydro uses cash discounts to attract more customers to switch to energy efficient products. This would attract more customers to buy from BC Hydro, because everyone likes discounts. The participating retailers would have benefit the most from this. They can use discounts to attrat more customers. The retailers would have their revenue reducted slightly, but can also increase it greatly due to the high amount of consumers.

Reflection:

I think that conserving enegry is a big thing. Even though I don't help much with conserving energy, I think that it is definitely an important thing to do. Energy conservation will greatly affect our future. We should start conserving energy, if we haven't started. I think that starting to save energy now, will greatly benefit our future generations, and of course we want our kids, and their kids to have a good life to live. If we use too much energy now, we'll just teach our future generations to do the same thing, and this world will run out of power sooner than we'll think.

Accounting 12 - Chapter 11

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/story.html?id=728a00b3-77a3-4d66-80c5-703d63118480

Summary:

Studies have shown that 2 out of the many major cities in Canada have house prices that are overpriced by atleast 7% and up to 20%. This article was researched by researched at UBC. It showed how the house pricing in Canada had rose drastically starting from 2001. The house pricing many major cities in Canada, like Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Ottawa etc..., have been continuing to raise over time. Now that the prices are so high, there are many houses that are unsold or empty new housing. This is caused by many things, the first is obviously the increase in price, the other thing is that The employment rate, especially in Victoria (3.2% scoring at the lowest rating in all of Canadas major cities.), have been dropping. There are 4200 new jobs created locally so far this year to try to up the employment rate. Studies have shown that, many of these emptied out houses are bought by investors or merchanters, who want to make big money when the market goes up, which in time causes so many unsold or unoccupied houses.

Connection:

The connection here in the article is the supplies they have. They have their sale prices so high that no one is buying them, which in a long run, kills their income. Because the prices are so high, and no one is about to be ready to lose some money, the supplies just keep piling up. Soon they will have a hard time to keep track of them. The studies have shown that, some cities have to lower their prices by as much as 20% to have a balance in house prices and rents. If the price of the houses drop, then they will make less profit or might even lose money, but little amounts of money is better than to pile up supplies that are unused and just sitting there wasting.

Reflection:

I think that everyone in Vancouver knows that buying a house in Vancouver costs a fortune. Because of the employment rate dropping, I think that house prices should drop as well, or else they will no longer be demands. If a house costs so much, I would rather just live with my family instead of going out to buy a house for myself to live. It is just not worth it. I think I would consider to live in Edmonton because the house price there is 8% underpriced. But unless I go there for a job, or for school, i would like to live in Vancouver more.

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