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The clock with the lavender plastic rim on the back wall of H&H Convenience is an hour and 18 minutes fast. This means nothing to Almaz Nebai. She tells time by the front door.

Starting at 4:30 p.m., it opens every few minutes. That lasts three hours. After that, every 20 minutes or so for another hour, then it tapers off until midnight.

A young Hispanic woman wants her regular small pack of Podium cigarettes, the cheapest at $6 with tax. A man in Docksiders and khakis buys two cans of Arizona tea and stuffs them into a backpack. An Asian woman in heels pulls money from her Louis Vuitton wallet to pay for two packs of DuMaurier. A middle-aged man wants a small Peter Jackson Light with his two cans of Arizona.

"If I get a dollar from the cigarettes, I’m happy," says Nebai.

"With Arizona, there’s not much profit, a few cents, but my customers love it. It’s good for you."

Times are tough all over, but "not much profit," that might as well be the theme song for Ontario’s convenience stores, which have been struggling to get by since the province banned the open display of cigarettes last summer. Between 45 and 65 per cent of corner store profits came from cigarette sales; since such "power walls" were banned that’s been cut by 30 to 50 per cent.

Dave Bryans, president of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association, expects a third of Ontario’s 10,000 convenience stores will be out of business in five years unless the province curbs illegal tobacco sales and starts letting proven, reliable stores sell beer and wine.

But, for now, shopkeepers like Nebai, earning just pennies per hour, make do selling what they can.

Cigarettes, snacks and drinks pay the bills, but not all of them. Since she bought the business in April and moved into the flat at the back, she’s been hunting for deals at Costco and Cash and Carry, clicking through Internet sites to find better suppliers. Rent is $1,600 a month.

A woman at Cash and Carry sent Nebai to Imperial Tobacco, so she gets some brands delivered. The rest she buys every morning, before she opens, whatever she is low on. Podium, made in Caledonia by Lanwest Manufacturing for sale off-reserve, comes from Costco.

With a diploma in accounting from Algonquin College in Ottawa and marketing courses from Seneca, Nebai has plans for this corner north of the Dundas West subway station. There’s a Slovenian deli next door, a Jehovah’s Witness temple down the street. Budget, Price Chopper and Shoppers are nearby. Houses on the streets behind her sell for just under a half-million. The store was Lee-Bee’s West Indian Grocery for years before a couple tried it as a variety store, then gave up and sold to Nebai. She inherited candles, ceramic frogs, hair extensions and shelves of Christmas decorations with the hardware, Pringles, canned spaghetti sauce and kitchen stuff.

Around 11 one morning, she grinds Van Houtte beans for a fresh pot, splits a pack of Hostess cupcakes on two napkins and settles down to talk.

"I loved Ottawa, but when I came here, I loved Toronto, too. It was my first time driving on a highway when I came here from Ottawa."

"I found this place online for a reasonable price. It’s a really good location, the main customer is from the subway, people back and forth in the morning and evening guaranteed approval payday loans. During the day, they come from the neighbourhood. There are a lot of East Bloc people living around here. Everyone is very nice, very nice. It was a struggle at first. I was sometimes shocked that nobody was here, but it’s picking up, slowly."

She and a friend left Asmara, the once-lovely Italianate capital of Eritrea, in 1985, when the 30-year civil war with Ethiopia was at its most brutal, walking for 11 days into Sudan. She was 25. "It was a terrible time. We were hiding from Ethiopian soldiers and Eritrean fighters. But the land around us as we walked was beautiful and we made a promise, my friend and I, that we would come back. She went to Sweden. She called me a few years ago to ask, `Remember the promise?’ But she is dead now, of cancer."

There’s not much room for sentimentality. A woman in a hijab and long skirt with no time to waste floats in looking for a toy for her son, who is 4 today. She leaves with Spider-Man and a long-distance calling card.

"I am so happy here," Nebai says. "There is hope for the future. I’m always thinking, planning the strategy."

She’s been asking the Ontario Lottery Corporation for a terminal and might just get one this month. If she gets approved and there is a machine available, the security deposit runs from $2,000 to up to $6,000 for a full-scale Lotto Centre.

A key-cutting service, cellphone cards, movie rentals, maybe stamps although a store not far away already sells them and Canada Post picks its spots based on postal code. If she buys 60 DVD movies, a company will throw in another 1,000 but she needs a $100 Film Exchange Retail Licence to rent them. Her cut from the ATM machine is half the $1.50 service fee; if she buys it for $2,500, her cut is 85 per cent.

"I tried bread but I had to eat it myself. Perishables are a waste of time – people go to Price Chopper."

She tours the shelves, rating each item. "Bathroom goods are well-demanded. The house materials are really working well."

She brought a Zippo lighter display cabinet up from the basement and added cigarette cases to the stock because customers asked for them. If she gets the lottery machine, if she gets the cell phone card business (a $1,500 down payment, then $14 a month), if she can buy the ATM machine, if she can rent DVDs, if she builds up enough loyal customers, she might make it.

The store opens at 9 a.m., closes at midnight. "Sometimes, it can be like a prison." Then she smiles. "I didn’t marry, I tried to. Now I like not answering to someone."

Her sister and two brothers, one with a master’s in engineering and another with a degree in economics, wanted her to move to Germany to reunite the family, but she prefers Canada. After a refugee camp in Sudan, she had gone to England for surgery on her leg, gnarled with polio. A United Church in Ottawa sponsored her as a refugee.

"It is amazing. I never thought that I would live in Canada. We studied it in geography in school – lots of snow! – and now I’ve become a Canadian. I feel at home here. Everyone is from far away."

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Bank rescues spread in Europe on Tuesday and President George W. Bush gave assurances that a $700 billion bailout plan for the financial sector was not dead, giving markets around the world a boost.

The House of Representatives rejected the bailout plan on Monday, sending stocks to their biggest percentage decline in 20 years.

Bush, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and congressional leaders pledged to continue negotiations, but the earliest that Congress could start work would be Wednesday.

“There’s an overarching belief that at some point this week, whether it’s Wednesday or Thursday, we’ll get something passed by the House,” said Arthur Hogan, chief market analyst at Jefferies & Co in Boston.

Without the bailout plan, which would allow the Treasury to buy toxic mortgage-related assets from banks, credit markets around the world could remain frozen, which could lead to a recession.

“I assure our citizens and citizens around the world that this is not the end of the legislative process,” Bush said before the stock market opened.

The White House said Bush had “constructive” talks with presidential candidates Sen cash advance. John McCain, a Republican, and Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat, on Tuesday. Both candidates have urged their fellow members of Congress to pass the bailout package, which has overshadowed their campaign for the November 4 election.

Ireland unveiled a blanket guarantee for savings held by its banks, covering up to 400 billion euros ($575 billion) in liabilities, sending Irish bank stocks roaring up against a weaker sector trend. 

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What’s better than a credit card that gives points for free flights?

How about a credit card that gives cash rebates?

You can book your own flights during seat sales, often a better deal than using the card.

There’s nothing worse than waiting years to collect points for a airline ticket, only to find you still have to pay hefty taxes and surcharges. If you have points piling up, you may be happier with cash rebates paid once a year that you can use to buy anything you like.

There are more cashback credit cards on the Canadian market than ever before. Let’s start with no-fee or low-fee cards.

The CIBC Dividend Card has three tiers of rebates. You get 0.25 per cent on net annual purchases up to $1,500, 0.5 per cent up to $3,000 and 1 per cent over $3,000.

Scotiabank’s Moneyback Visa card has the same three tiers of rebates. It has an $8 annual fee, but gives you an 18.59 per cent interest rate (lower than CIBC’s 19.5 per cent).

The TD Rebate Visa suits low spenders. It has just two tiers: 0.5 per cent on purchases under $3,000 a year and 1 per cent above that (up to $25,000 a year).

RBC’s no-fee Rewards Visa Gold and Rewards Visa Classic cards give you financial rewards. You can pay down an RBC mortgage, loan or line of credit, or contribute to a registered retirement savings plan or education savings plan.

Financial rewards are popular, accounting for 18 per cent of total gift certificate redemptions, says RBC spokeswoman Jackie Braden. People like to pay themselves first and get related tax benefits or grants.

BMO has a no-fee cashback reward option on its Mosaik MasterCard, giving 0.5 per cent on purchases and 1.5 per cent at Shell gas stations. (With the premium cashback option at $49 a year, you get 1 per cent on purchases and 2 per cent at Shell.)

Monty Loree, a blogger who writes about credit at www.canadian-money-advisor.ca, helped me find other cashback cards that looked enticing.

Citizen’s Bank lets you earn points for its financial products faxless payday loans. It donates 10 cents to non-profit initiatives worldwide each time you use the card.

At a cost of $45 a year, Citizen’s My Visa Rewards Plus card has a low interest rate of 11.25 per cent.

Capital One’s Cash Back Platinum Plus MasterCard, aimed at big spenders, gives you 1 per cent on purchases up to $10,000, 1.5 per cent up to $20,000 and 2 per cent on $20,000 or more.

It has a $59 annual fee and a variable interest rate of prime plus 15.05 per cent (equal to 19.8 per cent right now).

MBNA’s Premier Rewards Platinum Plus MasterCard gives you a 1 per cent rebate on all purchases with no limits. The annual fee is $29.

Finally, American Express has a Costco cash rebate card with three tiers: 0.25 per cent on the first $2,000, 0.5 per cent on the next $3,000 and 1.5 per cent on any amount over $5,000.

The maximum rebate is $500 a year, which requires $37,000 in spending.

While the Amex card is free, you have to pay for a Costco membership every year ($50). It’s the only credit card accepted by Costco stores. You can juice up your rebate by an extra 0.5 per cent when you carry a balance on the card.

Next week, we’ll look at the best deals in travel and merchandise rewards.

Ellen Roseman’s column appears Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. You can reach her by writing Business c/o Toronto Star, 1 Yonge St., Toronto M5E 1E6; by phone at 416-945-8687; by fax at 416-865-3630; or at eroseman@thestar.ca by email.

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Ontario’s energy regulator has given Hydro One the conditional go-ahead to build a new high-voltage transmission line that will carry wind and nuclear power from Bruce County to Milton.

The 180-kilometre line is expected to cost about $635 million and will run alongside a high-voltage line already linking the Bruce Power nuclear plant in Kincardine to a switching station in Milton.

The controversial project, expected to affect about 350 property owners along the route, has been touted as the largest expansion of Ontario’s transmission system in the past 20 years.

"I’ve always thought of this as a three-legged stool, and we got one of the legs," said Gary Schneider, project director at Hydro One.

Environmental and citizen groups doggedly protested the proposal, arguing the costs were too high and permanently boosting the existing line with new technologies would be sufficient. Some contended Hydro One wanted the new line to justify expansion of nuclear power.

The Ontario Energy Board disagreed, ruling the project was in the public interest "in regard to its impact on price, reliability and quality of electricity service to consumers." It found economic benefits of the line would exceed its expected cost.

Schneider said the next leg of approvals is an environmental assessment, a draft of which will be released Monday for 30 days of public comment, then revised and formally submitted to the environment ministry in early November.

"We hope that, in early 2009, we get a decision," said Schneider, adding the third leg of approvals involves acquiring the necessary land rights, as the new line will require a 60-metre widening of the existing transmission corridor no fax payday loan. "We’re hoping to start tabling those offers to landowners in October."

Owners who don’t accept the offers, set by a third-party appraiser, will be forced into a land expropriation process. Schneider said he hopes it doesn’t come to that, but added it likely will for some.

The new line likely won’t come into service until 2011.

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VIENNA–After hours of wrangling, OPEC on Wednesday agreed to revise its complex output targets and said the move would effectively cut supplies by half a million barrels per day.

Ministers of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had been widely expected to stick to existing production allocations, which have been in place all year.

But some voiced concern about a growing surplus of oil on the market and prices on Tuesday sank to a five-month low below $102 a barrel, around 30 per cent below a record hit in July above $147.

OPEC President Chakib Khelil said Wednesday's decision amounted to a cut from the group's actual July output.

“I think if you do your own calculation properly, it will be a lowering of production by about 520,000 barrels per day,” Khelil said.

His estimation of how much output will be removed from the market derived from amounts OPEC members were really producing, rather than agreed limits.

OPEC's new production ceiling is 28.8 million bpd, compared with its earlier target of 29.67 million bpd, ministers said.

They seized the opportunity of Indonesia's decision to suspend its membership to the group to adjust targets and give allocations to Angola and Ecuador, which have joined over the past two years.

The producer group's output targets have long been opaque and analysts interpreted the decision as keeping existing allocations intact, while calling for tighter compliance.

“The communique is much as expected,” said Paul Horsnell of Barclays Capital. “However, it also talks of strictly adhering to quotas, when we might have expected the trimming back in coming months to be done more discreetly.”

Others agreed the surprise was that OPEC has made public its intention to remove supply above agreed limits.

“The statement is clear as mud, but really what it says is members should keep to quota, which basically means Saudi Arabia should stop the additional barrels that it has provided over the summer, which was somehow expected,” said Olivier Jakob of Petromatrix. “I would say it's only half of a surprise because they have made a formal announcement.”

OPEC was estimated to be pumping roughly 790,000 bpd above target, the bulk of which came from Saudi Arabia.

The leading exporter announced unilaterally at a specially convened meeting in Jeddah in June that it would pump 9.7 million bpd, around 750,000 bpd above its agreed ceiling.

The kingdom said it was responding to strong consumption and a senior Gulf source said on Tuesday he expected it to continue producing at around 9.7 million bpd if demand held steady.

“The market is fairly well-balanced and we have worked very hard since the June meeting to bring prices to where they are now cash advance. I think we have been very successful,” Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi told reporters on arrival in Vienna on Tuesday.

He has yet to comment following OPEC's output decision, which was announced at around 3 a.m. (0100 GMT) on Wednesday morning following a meeting that did not begin until after 10 p.m. on Tuesday because of Ramadan fasting.

Ahead of the conference, most OPEC ministers had seemed broadly happy with the oil price and had indicated there was probably no need for urgent action, although they said there was a risk the market could become oversupplied in the future.

Iran and Venezuela have traditionally taken the most hard-line position.

They have big-spending populist governments and need a high oil price, but had said around $100 a barrel was reasonable as a strengthening U.S. dollar compensated for the negative impact on oil producer earnings of falling oil prices.

The other surprise of the night was that major energy producer Russia, which attends OPEC conferences as an observer, sent a very senior official.

“Broad cooperation with OPEC is one of Russia's priorities,” Interfax news agency quoted influential deputy prime minister Igor Sechin as saying. “OPEC is one of Russia's key partners on the global oil market.”

In the past, Russia has agreed to trim production in line with OPEC output cuts to support prices.

OPEC will further review its production policy at a meeting in Algeria in December.

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) _ Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off a revamped line of iPods on Tuesday and trumpeted a truce with NBC Universal that means the TV network will begin selling programs again on iTunes.

The iPod announcements were largely expected, and investors were less than energized, sending Apple’s shares down $5.36, 3.4 percent, to $152.56 in afternoon trading.

The iPod upgrades Jobs revealed Tuesday in a theater in San Francisco include two slick new Nano models, oval-shaped devices that Jobs said are the thinnest iPods Apple has ever made. A $149 version comes with 8 gigabytes of memory (enough for 2,000 songs); a 16-gigabyte version (which holds 4,000 songs) is $199.

The new models acknowledge the incredible appetite for iPods — Jobs said Apple has sold 160 million iPods since their introduction in 2001. But Apple has to work hard to differentiate them from the iPhone, Apple’s cell phone/iPod/Internet device that threatens to cannibalize some of the demand for iPods.

Jobs also showed off three new versions of the iPod Touch, which is much like an iPhone except that doesn’t make calls. An 8-gigabyte version of the new model will sell for $229; a 16-gigabyte Touch will be $299 and a 32 GB model will be $399.

Apple hopes the 32-gigabyte unit will appeal to people who download a lot of games and other programs, and wouldn’t be able to store them all on an iPhone, which maxes out at 16 gigabytes. Jobs said people have downloaded a "mind-blowing" 100 million applications for iPhones and iPod Touch devices since Apple began offering the programs online two months ago.

In the deal with NBC, the television network is coming back to iTunes, a year after pulling out in a dispute over the prices Apple charges for shows it sells on the online service faxless payday advances. At that time, programming controlled by NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., made up an estimated 40 percent of the video downloads on iTunes.

At the height of the spat, Apple said NBC had sought more than double the wholesale prices for its shows, which would have resulted in shows selling for $4.99 each. NBC disputed that, and said it wanted only to be able to sell programs at different prices.

But with its muscle in the market for digital downloads, Apple appears to have won the battle. NBC’s programming will sell for the same prices as other TV shows available on iTunes. High-definition shows, a new addition for iTunes, will sell for $2.99 each. Shows in standard definition cost $1.99. Some older shows are available for 99 cents apiece.

Jeff Zucker, NBC Universal’s CEO, said in a statement that the partnership with Apple is "terrific news for everyone who loves television and the ease and convenience of Apple’s iTunes."

Appearing thin but energetic, Jobs kicked off the event by flashing a message on a screen behind him: "The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated."

Jobs borrowed that line from Mark Twain in reference to obituary preparedness on Jobs that was accidentally posted by Bloomberg News and then retracted. News outlets regularly prepare obituary material on famous people.

Questions about Jobs’ health swirled after he appeared gaunt at a recent Apple event. Apple has since said Jobs, 53, a survivor of pancreatic cancer, suffered from a bug and is better.

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The price of gold fell Tuesday amid a broad retreat in commodities led by oil, as the damage caused by Hurricane Gustav appeared less severe than expected.

Gold for October delivery was down $24.60, or nearly 3%, to settle at $806.60 an ounce on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The precious metal hit a session low of $797.40, down 23% from its mid-July peak of $983.90.

"The massive commodities sell-off that resumed on the heels of a weakening Gustav on Labor Day accelerated overnight," Jon Nadler, Senior Analyst at Kitco Bullion Dealers, wrote in a note to clients.

The price of oil, meanwhile, tumbled nearly $10 a barrel Tuesday morning. By midday, crude had recovered some ground but remained near a 5-month low.

Lower oil prices put less of a strain on the U.S payday loan. economy, which has been burdened by high energy prices.

Signs of a stronger economy helped the U.S. dollar gain ground against other major currencies. Economic weakness in Europe and Japan also helped buoy the greenback.

A stronger dollar undercuts the appeal of gold for investors looking to hedge against inflation. And a more robust greenback makes commodities priced in dollars more expensive for overseas buyers.

On Wall Street, stocks rose in early trade as investors cheered oil’s retreat, the stronger dollar and a bright spot in the financial services sector. But the broader market went south as technology and commodity-related shares tumbled.  

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Vivendi (VIV.PA: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), armed with a fresh contract with The Rolling Stones and its new Activision Blizzard gaming venture, kept its 2008 profit goal as it posted a rise in second-quarter underlying earnings.

The owner of Universal Music Group, the world’s biggest record company, and France’s second biggest mobile operator, SFR, said it could fund recent deals without a rights issue and no acquisitions were pending.

Those deals include buying SFR buying fixed-line operator Neuf Cegetel and the formation of video games giant Activision Blizzard ATVID.O, which brought together its World of Warcraft online role-playing game with partner Activision Inc’s best-selling “Guitar Hero” franchise.

“We used less cash than expected to make our acquisitions. We can continue Vivendi’s expansion with the current balance sheet structure without tapping the market,” Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy told a conference call quick payday loan.

Levy had said in a newspaper interview in April that the group might need between 1 billion and 2 billion euros.

He told analysts on Monday that Vivendi was not eyeing any major acquisitions “in the next months”.

The company, whose best-selling artists include British soul singer Amy Winehouse, said it still expected 2008 profit growth similar to the 8 percent of 2007 on a like-for-like basis.

It said second-quarter group earnings before interest, tax and amortization (EBITA) rose 3.2 percent to 1.36 billion euros ($2 billion), slightly short of an average forecast of 1.39 billion from a Reuters poll of seven analysts. 

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Microsoft has agreed to buy Greenfield Online, owner of popular European price comparison website ciao.com, for about $486 million to boost its Internet search and e-commerce business in Europe.

Microsoft, whose $47.5 billion bid to buy Yahoo earlier this year failed after a long battle, said on Friday the acquisition — the latest in a series — should help it build a more consumer-friendly, results-oriented search engine.

“We call it ‘instant answers’,” said John Mangelaars, head of Microsoft’s consumer and online business in Europe. “I hope it’s getting very clear that we’ve very serious about EMEA,” he added, speaking to Reuters by telephone.

Internet search is dominated by Google, which has 62 percent of the global search market and 79 percent in Europe, according to Web usage tracker ComScore.

Microsoft has a 2 percent market share in Europe and 9 percent worldwide, behind both Google and Yahoo payday loan. In Europe, Microsoft is also outranked by online auction site eBay and Russia’s Yandex.

But Mangelaars said buying ciao.com was an important step in Microsoft’s attempt to distinguish itself by providing search results more useful to consumers, particularly shoppers, than those thrown up by a Google search.

For example, results of a Microsoft search for a particular camera model could include which prices were available from which retailers, and maps of where those retailers were, rather than just links to the manufacturer’s and retailers’ websites.

The acquisition follows those of Norwegian enterprise search company Fast for about $1.2 billion early this year and shopping-and-auction site jellyfish.com for an undisclosed sum last year. 

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AnnTaylor Stores Corp. reported an almost 8% decline in second-quarter earnings amid a weakening economy but reiterated its full-year profit outlook as the women’s clothing chain reaps the benefits from tighter control of inventories.

The New York-based retail chain said Friday that it earned $29.3 million, or 51 cents per share, for the three-month period ended Aug. 2 compared with $31.7 million, or 50 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

The earnings per share rose in part because there were 5.8 million fewer shares outstanding in the latest quarter than in the year-ago period.

Revenues declined 3.6% to $592.3 million from $614.5 million in the year-ago period. Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, dropped 10.8% from a year ago. Same-store sales are considered a key indicator of a retailer’s health.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters (TRI) expected earnings per share of 49 cents on $622.9 million for the period.

"We delivered a very respectable second-quarter performance, despite the impacts of significant macroeconomic softness and a deteriorating consumer environment, both of which continue to weigh on the retail sector," Kay Krill, president and CEO of AnnTaylor (ANN), said in a statement fast cash now. "Our relentless focus on inventory management and expense control, along with our share repurchase program, enabled us to deliver earnings per share that exceeded year-ago."

AnnTaylor said that it continues to expect earnings per share to be in the range of $1.80 to $1.90 per share for the current fiscal year. The projections are based on total net sales expected to be unchanged to down slightly. Same-store sales are expected to be down in the mid-single digits for the year. 

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