When I go across the border I usually stop in at Dollar General or Dollar Tree and Tops, Target etc. I get a whole bunch of small things like Sierra Mist which can't be bought up here, and other goodies I look forward to, then I go and get my bigger ticket more expensive items like auto-parts etc.
When I get to the border, because we cross so much as we live so close the officers ask what I bought and I speak slower than normal, and say well I went to Tops for some Sierra Mist pop, ummmm.... The Dollar stores.... ummmm... Cheese Cake Factory to eat ummmm... and usually by this point he says "No Alcohol/Tobacco" I say no, and get waved through. I never withhold information or am untruthful about my purchases, I just list the smaller ones first and take a while as though I can't remember and by this point the CC officer gets impatient and wants to get back to his Double-Double and waves me through!
It has worked 9.9/10 times and saved me a ton in Duty!
When I get to the border, because we cross so much as we live so close the officers ask what I bought and I speak slower than normal, and say well I went to Tops for some Sierra Mist pop, ummmm.... The Dollar stores.... ummmm... Cheese Cake Factory to eat ummmm... and usually by this point he says "No Alcohol/Tobacco" I say no, and get waved through. I never withhold information or am untruthful about my purchases, I just list the smaller ones first and take a while as though I can't remember and by this point the CC officer gets impatient and wants to get back to his Double-Double and waves me through!
It has worked 9.9/10 times and saved me a ton in Duty!
