falling canadian dollar may affect our kimchi supply

wolfy

canadian dollar has fallen almost 20% from the height. if it keeps falling, kimchis supply could be affected.

agree/disagree? share some insight

tomsiu

Not falling of Canadian dollar. It's up rising of US Dollar. All other currencies are falling including Euro, Yen, Won, RMB, Australian dollar etc.
HK$ peg to US$ = also up rising.

Jason15

Its quite possible, although I sure hope not. Better eat more before the price soars.

oppa

Maybe a little.   They'll still come because MM is illegal in korea.

pcboy

It depends on the countries that consume Kimchi and where they can make the most bang for their bang.
Well they say that the falling dollar is great for our exporters, but bad for importers so likely the scenario is the cost of kimchi will go up or the garages try to keep prices the same by surrendering a bigger cut to the Kimichis but you can only do that so long. You can see price going up in other markets - cost of the new apple products and app purchases

bobbycox

This is why neither Emma nor Cathy are back yet.  Got it.

oppa

Dollar is down compared to won.  Don't think kimchi care about day to day exchange rates

Ben2009

Canadian dollar is down from near parity with USD to $0.80 to the dollar. A drop of 20%. This means that Kimchi MM's are earning 20% less for the same amount of work.

Kimchis typically earn $1000-1500, so the income loss due to currency exchange is very significant as it translates to $200-300 income loss each day. Over a year, that is almost $100k lost (at high-end of estimation).

This is very bad because either garages will start increasing prices, or Kimchi supply will dwindle. They may opt for other work destinations such as US cities or Australia.

Keepers won't be willing to reduce their cut. Under the current breakdown for a typical $140 transaction (MM gets $90, K agent $10, keeper $40), the keeper would need to halve his income to compensate for the MM's 20%. I can't imagine any keeper would agree to it. In fact, I've heard many of them grumbling about rising costs in recent years (such as increasing rental expense) and wanting to increase prices for quite some time already.

Hopefully the Canadian Dollar will recover soon, however given the current economic outlook, it seems unlikely. The glut of oil on international markets mean that the commodity-driven Cdn$ will continue to be weak, with no relief visible in the horizon, unless a major war breaks out somewhere. However, that is not something any of us can conscionably hope for, no matter how much we want affordable pussy.

oppa

The falling dollar is one factor but not the overriding factor.   

Cathy@ZP was working in LA before and she was not busy at all.  So even with the falling canadian dollar, cathy would be losing out on a lot of money.  Luckily, cathy made a lot of friends in toronto which keeps her here.

client base, dollar, garage quality, law enforcement policies, are all factors.  

I would definitely not hunt in the US.   Those guys don't tolerate this business at all and actively dismantle and shut down both MM and wolves.   MM&agent can come to Toronto and not worry about law enforcement at all.   So definitely a huge advantage for MM to work in Canada.

I think Toronto is still a top kimchi destination.  and it helps that yonge and finch is koreatown and makes them feel at home.

aznlover

It's much more dangerous being an MM in the United States and the competition is also more fierce.

So there are benefits coming to Canada instead even if our $ is slightly lower.