We stopped at the grocery store in Canmore for supplies. We normally get a half gallon of milk and it cost about $2.29 The equivalent Canadian 2 liter jug was $3.89. And there was a 25 cent bottle deposit, some kind of reclamation fee and the gst (sales tax).
All tolled that jug of milk cost $4.45. Accounting for the dollar value and larger amount of milk, the cost is $2.95 for a half gallon, 66 cents more.
But you can get that deposit back, right? Mr Ram thought he could. He poured the new bottle of Jameson’s he had bought into his shorter travel whiskey bottle and went back to the liquor store to return it.
“Why did you bring it here?” the puzzled clerk asked. “You need to take it to a redemption center.” She looked up the nearest center – it was 3.8 km away. “Well I’ll just go there I guess”
“Oh but they’re closed today.” It was Monday.
The one bottle return center in Canmore is closed Sunday and Monday. Their hours of 9:30 to 4:30 makes them about as accessible as a doctor’s office.
So for me the bottle deposit is really just another tax.
The milk bottle and the Jameson’s bottle both were tossed out.
