Indigo Books & Music stores are seeing improvement in their general merchandise sales to offset the declining book sales but still lost $5.5M in their Q1. Just like in the states Canada's #1 book store chain is feeling the impact of the new digital format consumers are flocking to. They sold their e-reader the Kobo earlier this year to a Japanese firm for US$315M. And they've significantly increased their general merchandise categories and even upgraded their DC to accommodate growth of its general merchandise business. They've also opened two new smaller store formats which appear to be doing well. Their superstores, Indigo and Chapters, same store sales fell 0.9% in Q1. (Source canadianbusiness.com)

A wave of fake currency ($20's and $100's) is passing through the Okanagan and Thompson Valley, prompting an alert from police in the Vancouver area. "The typical modus operandi is for the passer to make an inexpensive purchase and pay with a large denomination, in turn receiving a large percentage of change back in authentic currency, leaving the bogus bill in the till," said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Dan Moskaluk. The RCMP has received 23 complaints about the passing or attempted passing of counterfeit bills in the past two weeks, he said Friday. The incidents involved bank notes in $20, $50 and $100 denominations and occurred in West Kelowna, Penticton, Kamloops, Okanagan Falls and other communities in the southern Interior. (Source vancouversun.com)

Canada's economy unexpectedly lost 30,400 jobs in July in a third disappointing month for the labor market, indicating tepid growth. The jobless rate climbed to 7.3 percent from 7.2 percent, with layoffs across a range of industries. The biggest job losses were in wholesale and retail trade and in professional, scientific and technical services. (Source yahoo.com)