In a bid to spread holiday cheer (read: get folks spending), retailers are expected to offer steeper discounts earlier this year.

Driving the news: Many major shopping destinations started Black Friday sales two weeks in advance, experts told Bloomberg, and, per Square’s holiday retail report, Canadian retailers plan to offer shoppers an 18% discount on average (a higher rate than U.S. stores).

Want your late-night Big Mac order to arrive at least a little bit warm? Better tip your delivery driver ahead of time. 

Driving the news: DoorDash is testing a change to its service that will ask customers to add a tip at checkout and warn them that failing to do so could mean their delivery will take longer.

When new economic data from Canada, the US, and the EU all tell a similar story… we’d call that a trend worth noting.

What happened: A flurry of new jobs data is showing a sharp slowdown in hiring across Western economies.

Pros of Canadian currency compared to US currency: Comes in several fun colours, and features the majestic loon. 

Cons of Canadian currency compared to US currency: It’s less valuable, and dropping lower. 

Driving the news: The Canadian dollar was trading at around six-month lows at market close yesterday and runs the risk of falling as low as US$0.71 per Monex Canada analysis. 

Canadians are turning away from economic surveys, a development that’s hurting far more than just the feelings of the Stats Canada surveyors knocking on their doors. 

Driving the news: Stats Canada is struggling to get businesses and households to respond to its Labour Force Survey, a trend that could distort key economic data, per The Globe and Mail. The most recent response rate has fallen from 87% in 2019 to 70% in September.

Do you hear that? It’s the sound of thousands of hiring managers clacking at their keyboards, updating Indeed postings. 

What happened: All B.C. job postings must now include salary ranges, as mandated by the province’s recently passed Pay Transparency Act. Employers also can’t ask how much you made at your previous job, or punish you for sharing your income with your colleagues.

Forget ghouls, ghosts, and teenage pranksters; the scariest thing that haunted Halloween this year was the spectre of a recession. 

What happened: New GDP numbers show that Canada’s economy stagnated in August instead of growing 0.1% as expected. If GDP stays flat in September, as is now projected, the country will officially enter… *screams* something called a ‘technical’ recession. 

NHL rivalries are no longer the only thing stoking competition between provinces. They’re now also fighting for Canada’s scarce supply of workers.

Driving the news: Provinces are piloting new strategies to lure skilled workers in high-demand sectors like healthcare, green energy, and construction.

On this week’s episode of Free Lunch by The Peak, we sat down with Jim Stanford to talk about the wave of autoworker strikes in the US and Canada and what it means for the sector. 

As some Canadians prepping for Thanksgiving come face-to-face with $120 turkeys, the government is asking big grocers to do something, anything, to lower food prices. 

What happened: The feds announced that Canada’s five biggest grocers — Loblaw, Metro, Empire, Walmart, and Costco — committed to several actions that will lower prices, including price freezes for “key food products” (exact foodstuffs were unspecified) and price matching.