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British Columbia's lowest paid workers got a pay increase Monday with a scheduled minimum wage hike at a crucial time for small businesses as they look for ways to continue operating during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Customers hoping to get out of putting on a face mask to visit stores demanding they wear one, could be out of luck.Experts agree with remarks Ontario Premier Doug Ford made on Friday, reminding Canadians that companies have the right to ask you to slip on a face covering or seek products and services elsewhere.“Any business has the right to refuse anyone.

  Look, no hands: Convenience shoppers prefer to tap and pay Cash is no longer king, having been dethroned by shoppers opting for contactless payments at the c-store level.  Fittingly, a primary driver is overall convenience, as shoppers seek quick and easy ways to pay, whether in store or at the pump, according to Convenience Store News Canada’s proprietary research report C-store IQ: A National Shopper Study.  C-Store IQ is the first convenience and gas specific study that delves into the wants, needs, perspectives and habits of Canadian consumers.  Of course, these days contactless isn’t just the word for tapping to pay with a credit card, debit card or mobile app—it’s a strategy to help combat the spread of COVID-19.  According to C-store IQ research, the definition of convenience, for most shoppers, is an experience that ultimately saves them time and effort: 41% of those surveyed said it purely comes down to having a “convenient” experience and 34% define this as a “quick stop/in and out.”  This need for speed extends to the checkout experience, where tap and pay rules.

Statistics Canada says retail sales in Canada posted their biggest monthly decline on record in March and warned that the drop for April will eclipse that loss.The agency says retail sales fell 10.0% to $47.1 billion in March as non-essential businesses began to shut their doors mid-month due to the pandemic.The drop was in line with economists' expectations of 10 per cent, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.Statistics Canada also says a preliminary estimate for April indicates a 15.6% drop for the first full month of the pandemic.The March decline came as sales plunged at motor vehicle and parts dealers, clothing and clothing accessories stores and gasoline stations, while sales at grocery stores soared.Excluding motor vehicle and parts dealers, retail sales were down 0.4% for the month.

In mid January the British Columbia government announced it was looking at a wide ban on single-use plastic grocery bags to put an end to a piecemeal, city-by-city approach to the problem of plastic pollution.

Canadian manufacturing sales posted their biggest percentage drop since the financial crisis in March and economists warned sales are expected to continue to fall in April as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the economy to a crawl.Royal Bank senior economist Nathan Janzen said Thursday that the economic data will also likely get significantly worse in April with containment measures in place for the entire month.“Beyond that, we could see some improvement in May already with social/distancing measures easing in spots, but the drop in activity in March and April is still likely to be staggering, and entirely unprecedented in modern measured economic data,'' Janzen wrote in a brief note.Statistics Canada reported Thursday manufacturing sales fell 9.2% to $50.8 billion in March, the lowest level since June 2016, as factories shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic or faced sharply lower demand.The average estimate by economists was for a drop of 5.7%, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv.In volumes terms, manufacturing sales fell 8.3%.Sales fell in 17 of 21 industries led by the transportation equipment industry which plunged 26.5% in March as Canadian auto assembly plants and several parts suppliers in North America cut production.

Provinces have been releasing plans for easing restrictions that were put in place to limit the spread of COVID-19.Here is what some of the provinces have announced so far:Newfoundland and LabradorNewfoundland and Labrador is now permitting outdoor games of tennis to resume, though players must bring their own equipment, and not share it.

Several underlying consumer trends have risen to prominence during the COVID-19 crisis, leading to a wave of new behaviours—from online shopping to buying local—that are likely to persist long after the pandemic is over, according to a new study from Accenture.