Canuck's, cars and growth

As you may know, the Canadian dollar is currently worth more than the Greenback. Aside from having various macro-economic consequences such as depressing the nature resource sector and hurting Canadian exporters, it has a number of less obvious effects. Inventories are bought and paid for when the transaction is performed, which is usually well before the goods are sold. This is especially true for cars dealership, who rarely practice anything like just-in-time methods.

So now there is a situation where cars in Canada are vastly more expensive then they are in the US. And with NAFTA, you can fairly easily move them from one country to another. All of which leads me a call from my brother-in-law, who is looking for a new toy, a previous loved BMW Z3. With the currencies where they are, it makes a lot of sense for him to look down here, so he gives me a call to get my zip code (to find local cars).

What does all this have to do with Renton? Well, it got me thinking about Zip codes and cities, and how they don't always coincide. And it brought to mind a fact that I recently learned, which is that if your mailing address says Seattle, that doesn't mean you're actually in Seattle! It turns out that Renton is annexing a number of local areas, including a location called West Hill. My grandmother recently moved to that area, and has always thought it was in Seattle. Her mailing address didn't conflict with that, but it turns out that she is actually in unincorporated King County!

To sum up, Renton is likely growing quite a bit in the next little bit, and if you have a good condition Z3, fire me an email. And don't believe what an address tells you....

Erick
(really in Renton)