We could get US prices if we simply submit and join the US as the 51st state.

Until then, many products are sold in Canada by another layer of middle-men representing Canada to the US.

The US corporation buys for a 300 million market; the Canadian subsidiary buys for a 30 million market, and often not from the source but from the US parent or US distributor. And there is often less direct competition (not always) by the time the consumer is engaged, discouraging lower prices.

I don't have a problem when prices are approx the exchange range plus some sort of "Canadian Business/Social Tax" -- but today that means, something kinda sorta maybe about 20-40% higher, currency-for currency. That is, something selling for US$299 maybe sells for Can$359-419 ... $399 being an ok place. But then retailers drive that it US$249 ... do we ever see Can$329?

And too often we see US$599 translated to Can$1199. Yikes.

What makes zero sense to me is amazon.com vs. amazon.ca where the identical disc (not solitary examples but many) turn up at US$19.99 and Can$31.99 respectively. No wonder folks buy direct from the US instead of through the local subsidiary.

Arrrgh. :confused:

And I hope as many people as possible continue to buy from the US until the retailers up here get their brains working again.

What makes zero sense to me is amazon.com vs. amazon.ca where the identical disc (not solitary examples but many) turn up at US$19.99 and Can$31.99 respectively. No wonder folks buy direct from the US instead of through the local subsidiary.

So right Poet the .com disc is shipped from Canada. The good news is that I have ordered 10 HD DVD discs and not paid PST/GST or brokerage fees. I will not buy from a Canadian retailer till they get their brains screwed on right as jvillian said. Well put.

I don't have a problem when prices are approx the exchange range plus some sort of "Canadian Business/Social Tax" -- but today that means, something kinda sorta maybe about 20-40% higher, currency-for currency. That is, something selling for US$299 maybe sells for Can$359-419 ... $399 being an ok place. But then retailers drive that it US$249 ... do we ever see Can$329?

And too often we see US$599 translated to Can$1199. Yikes.

I desperately (and I mean desperately) try to keep my hard earned money in Canada to support the Canadian job market, Canadian business, basically just Canadian. But it is exactly what you have described that makes me send my money elsewhere. It's a terrible shame and waste but the more this happens, the more Canada will see revenues flying out the window because of some unknown currency exchange gouging. It seems to be somehow an accepted practice to screw us over on the goods and services, but there it is and it too makes me confused (and irritable).

Cal

Cal,

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I am in a similar situation as David who posted earlier. I am looking at a camera lens sells for about $1450 in Canada and I can get it for about $1,000 in the states including next day air and brokerage fees... The more we do it the more likely prices are to come down here IMO...

Cal,

I wholeheartedly agree with you. I am in a similar situation as David who posted earlier. I am looking at a camera lens sells for about $1450 in Canada and I can get it for about $1,000 in the states including next day air and brokerage fees... The more we do it the more likely prices are to come down here IMO...

Let me guess: Canon 17-55 f/2.8 IS? ;)

Sigma 50-500, A.K.A. the "Bigma"... :)

Dayum! Never thought of that lens! Too big for my tendonitis wrist.

Going back to topic, even the head office of several major electronics manufacturers charge their Canadian subsidiary differently. I remembered when a certain company's cost (cost, not wholesale) is the same as US street price! Yikes!

There are very few places in the world where you can get items cheaper than in the USA. Think of any electronics purchases and the relative cost compared to any other country and notice that just about everyone (world wide) pays higher prices. The US arm of most electronic companies and car companies are the ones for the most part who set the prices on a global scale. If you decided to buy the item in the USA they are not losing any actual global market share you are just shifting the purchasing point. The prices are not governed by cross boarder shoping especially when you have a tiny population in Canada (California size.) Also, with the added expense of bilingual packageing which have to meet the strict Quebec language laws its a wonder that these manufacturers decide to bother with us at all. I worked in the computer printer business for years and the toughest part of marketing in Canada was the Quebec issue. Our US parent would ship us the product and we had to open each box and replace all the liturate to make in compliant in Quebec. Even though most products came with french language on it still did not past the Language police.
Also, remember that in the US that logistics of moving products is easier than in canada and other economies of scale help to drive prices down. Not an excuse, but people need to evaluate every aspect of the equation as to why prices are the way they are. We should be so lucky that we do have the opportunity to bring things in from the states so easily. Imagine trying to do that from the UK where there dollar is worth much more than the states and the still pay sometimes 50% more.

I just spent a few days in the States, and all I could think of while wandering through Best Buy, etc was "These prices are worse than what I pay in Canada." This was specifically noticeable with regards to video games, CDs, and DVDs.

I went down expecting to find bargains, but I think you can do better up here if you keep a close eye on the weekly sales.

Also, with the added expense of bilingual packageing which have to meet the strict Quebec language laws its a wonder that these manufacturers decide to bother with us at all. I worked in the computer printer business for years and the toughest part of marketing in Canada was the Quebec issue. Our US parent would ship us the product and we had to open each box and replace all the liturate to make in compliant in Quebec. Even though most products came with french language on it still did not past the Language police.

Also, remember that in the US that logistics of moving products is easier than in canada and other economies of scale help to drive prices down. Not an excuse, but people need to evaluate every aspect of the equation as to why prices are the way they are.

I've actually done translation work for packaging, video dubbing etc 'thanks' to Quebec issue. I know for a fact how much the production cost. I deal with it virtually every day. Still it doesn't warrant the (near) doubling of the price.

Why the HD DVD movies are 70% higher than in the US?
Why HD DVD players are close to 50% higher than in the US?
why my lens be $1,000 more than in the US? (about 50% more)

the additional cost of translation, box manufacturing, manual translation (and printing) are NOT that expensive.

PS: when the translation doesn't pass the language police is because they don't hire people like me to do the project management for the re-design of the box and/or the translation. The language law is VERY SIMPLE once you read the actual printed regulations. Too many companies want to play it cheap and in the end they spend more $$ because either their sales got delayed (storage, insurance, loss of sales) or they got fined by the vendors such as Best Buy, The Bay, Sears, etc.

Changing Canadian retail prices to reflect a more powerful dollar only works if the retailer/mfg in Canada is buying from the US in the first place.
It is very difficult to do it overnite. Depending on your business, there can be a lot of paperwork, logistics, etc. just in changing over systems.
Also, if we are talking about a manufacturing concern that makes goods in Canada...shifting to US production will mean lost Canadian jobs. Lost jobs cannot easily be replaced, and may mean a loss of efficiency and productivity for the Canadian mfg.
Finally, remember if we all keep buying in the USA on a very very large scale--then their dollar currency will increase in value and our dollar will depreciate.

Our dollar is increasing against the US greenback because of the global demand for our dollar, driven in part to the relative strength of our economy (resource-intense out West, especially) vs. the USA (driven in part to the enormous deficit they continue to pile on.)

M

Changing Canadian retail prices to reflect a more powerful dollar only works if the retailer/mfg in Canada is buying from the US in the first place.
It is very difficult to do it overnite. Depending on your business, there can be a lot of paperwork, logistics, etc. just in changing over systems.


M

Not as difficult as you alluded to. Again, I've worked on the inside of various companies and they actually get price protection and/or price adjustments from their respective head offices. There may be a month delay, but that's the maximum.

2 things:

I agree with what prufrock said. I go down to Lowes in Plattsburg, NY and all I can think while I am there is, there are NO bargains here. Great store, nice and clean but very little I could not get cheaper in Montreal.

Except Kingsford charcoal, way cheaper in the USA.

What added expense for bilingual packaging? Most intelligent importers or manufacturers went trilingual for the North American market ten years ago. English, Spanish and French. If your company is still repacking to include French, then I guess you also have no clue how to market your product.

I just got back from NYC and had two things on my shopping list that I could buy down there. The first was a new ceramic top a stove....the old top somehow got cracked. It was $200 in the US and $400 in Canada so I bought one in the US. The second was a trailer hitch and electrical connection which was about the same price so I didn't buy that.

I guess you have to look at each item individually and decide.

it's all fine and dandy to think about Canadian economoy if we have that much money to throw around but also consider this:

we make less than Americans
we're taxed more than Americans
we pay more for various items than Americans

ain't it fun?

Don't forget that Canadian oil gas fields are also owned by foreign companies - a majority of them. How about that, eh?

I fully agree that there is a big difference in prices between the two countries, especially with the dollars being near on par, but I also believe your blaming the wrong companies. It's not the retailers fault, they still want to make a profit on these products. The lack of cost reduction comes from the companies themselves.

I have access to the cost price of many, many products through my membership in Direct Buy, and have been keeping a close eye on the cost price for some electronic products, such as Tochiba LCD TV's and Panasonic FP, and the cost prices have not come down to match the rise of the Canadian dollar.

Meaning the retailers cannot lower their prices until the manufatures lower theirs. And that doesn't seem to be happening, at least not all of a sudden.

That's what I believe anyway. So, call your favourite manufaturer and demand that they lower the cost of their products.

Norm

It's not the retailers fault, they still want to make a profit on these products.

Several messages ago we were talking about discs from amazon .com vs. .ca. I think it is quite fair to "blame the retailer" in this instance.

On the plus side, I was pricing Bourne Identity on HD DVD and noticed that the bestbuy. com price was US$24.99 and the bestbuy .ca price was Can$26.99. I can handle that and would certainly NOT swing by Buffalo to get this disc (or send for it in the mail).

But US$19.99 vs. Can$31.99 for the same disc from the same vendor?!? :mad:

If we are talking about products from Asia, then our dollar has held steady, it is the US dollar that is falling and the price we pay has nothing to do with the us.