'People just aren’t spending – they’ve decided  they want to keep that twenty dollars in their wallets'

By Pepper Parr

April 10^th, 2025

BURLINGTON, ON

I became aware of the change when I was at Costco with a chum on Wednesday. “ There are actually parking spaces” he said as we drove in.

The number of people in the massive shopping space was quite a bit thinner than my chum was used to seeing.

On Thursday I was having a late breakfast at a well-known spot at New Street and Guelph.  There was just the one person having breakfast.

When I left, there was a booth with four people.

The waitress said that it had been slow for several days. “People just aren’t spending – they’ve decided  they want to keep that twenty dollars in their wallets.

“The customers will come back – I just don’t know when – not until things change in the States.”

Restaurants are feeling the pain – “people are keeping their money in their wallets”.

New data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute finds nine-in-10 Canadians (91%) are concerned about the prospect of a recession in the coming year. Indeed, during this federal election campaign, this is one of the few questions that unify all potential voters, with at least 85 per cent of all partisans sharing in this concern.

With markets tanking, recovering, tanking, and then recovering again,  and job losses mounting, Canadians are also concerned about how their own finances will endure this period. Four-in-five (83%) are wary of their household finances taking a hit (83%). Fully half (50%) say that they or someone in their household are at risk of losing a job should this economic turmoil persist.

The weather today certainly didn’t help retail or the hospitality sector.

Uncertainty infects everything.