Canadians are buying product way off the real retail prices?

I'm not going to weigh in on the merits of what our taxes pay for or which healthcare system is better. Instead I'll just say this: Whether I buy something in the states for $500 or the same in Canada for $2,000, I still pay 13% taxes on it (at the time 15%). Taxes are not the same as retail prices; they are established rates. When I import I still pay taxes at Customs...I just refuse to pay for all that unnecessary mark-up when Canadian retailers are charging customers too much.

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Originally Posted by Nice Sass

I have had so many different perspectives on this that I could comment at great length so I'll try to be brief: I've mentioned this on SC before - I used to work in the Customs realm and saw the true value of goods that are being imported to Canada for sale here, and the markup is INCREDIBLE. When there are sales the stores are continuing to do just fine, believe me.

When Bath & Body Works opened a store in Windsor I questioned why their prices were so high compared to the US and they said that it was because of the "exchange"...well, we're sitting pretty comfortably with the exchange rate right now and have been since that store opened, so a 40% difference in price is not exchange driven. I also know how much companies pay on average for brokerage and shipping, and that's not it either. It's simple economics - supply and demand. Canadian society has become accustomed to paying more, so we do. Supplies are more limited here (definitely less selection than in the states, as well as less competition), so we pay more. For that reason, I will NOT shop at B&B Works in Canada, and will continue to buy their products in the States; at least honour their coupons and I'll consider it.

I watch the prices on various staples, and if there is a HUGE discrepancy then I purchase in the states; minimal and I purchase in Canada. It was actions like these (Canadian consumers speaking up) that caused Best Buy Canada to adjust its electronics pricing two years ago with the change in the exchange rates, and consumers need to continue to speak up to create more change.

Another example: For $495 we purchased the exact same nursery furniture set in the states that we could have purchased at Toys 'R Us here for $1,970. There is absolutely no justification for that price difference and I refuse to be gouged.

That's probably too long already!

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Agreed most part...many thanks

When our dollar is on par with their's I think we should be paying for stuff at the same rate, but there is a lot more than goes into it though, like where the product is coming from ie if it's an american product, it would be more expensive in canada since it has to come over here etc.

Stuff has always been more expensive here, I see specials on products in the states all the time that we never have. Also they have more people than we do so maybe that factors into it. I am not economist, I won't pretend to be.

However, as others have pointed out we have a really great health care system, my aunt in the states had to pay for every time she had 3 of her kids for the care that she got in the hospital, imagine paying for that here. And I find people are a lot less...uptight, not the right word but you know what I mean, in Canada.

Like you said, Canada is a much smaller market than the US. Thats why the arrival of WalMart back in the '90s was greeted with so much anticipation. Huge buying power for the North American market.

Factor in shipping and storage charges and yup it adds up.

And yup, how many people here would like to pay around $3K a day for a hospital bed on a surgical unit? Not talking ICU here, just where you get your appi or gallbladder out.

Um. I think so of us are missing the point here... retail prices have NOTHING to do with taxes (for our healthcare). You pay 13% tax (or you will be once HST comes into effect), no matter what you buy. To say we have health care and therefore our retail prices are 3 to 4 times more expensive would imply that the government is on a conspiracy to drive up prices JUST to collect more taxes (which I highly doubt).

Funding for healthcare comes through taxes and sales taxes dont make that much compared to your INCOME tax, PROPERTY tax. (if you make 50k, you will pay around 9k - 10k of taxes). You would need to purchase a whooping 77k of stuff to pay ~ 10k of taxes (13% sales tax) for that.

So please people, just because we have healthcare does not justify why we pay 3-4x the price of Americans!

And on shipping and storage charges. Does a ten hour shipping justify a 3-4x increase in price (say from GTA to Buffalo)? ($500 product - $1500 in Canada! a different of 1000. 1000 to ship it to us?!) The border tax will be ~300 or so if you dont sneak it in (thats still a $700 difference).

I am more inclined to believe it has to do with our lower population and lesser demand. (and yes we do spend less and buy less but how do you know if it is not a symptom of the high prices here? A lot of Canadians drove down to the States on Black Friday just so they could shop their hearts out - I'm sure they would have done the same here if they could.)

We also have less competition here (and more monopoly). Futureshop and BestBuy are the same company - why bother competing with itself? Why do all the gas stations offer the same price? Why compete when they can gang up to make you pay higher prices..? Even all the supermarkets you think you are shopping in different stores are actually all owned by Loblaw Companies Limited (look up the stores they own if you want to see for yourself)... (their lastest addition being the Chinese supermarket TnT).

Well anyways have a look at this: http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/G...-Canada-105932
I'm happy there going to be some new competition in town ^^ (you can see how the 3 major companies tried to stop this new threat to their profits..)

Will make some comments based on all the gr8 points...but just a heads up////USA congress approved an Universal Health Care System for Americans....so according to most of you...the product price in USA would be higher in near future?!?

Honestly I dont think so

sameu - people were not saying that because we have a good healthcare system we should be paying more for items, I think we were saying (at least I was) that I am weighing the pros and cons, we pay more for some products, but americans pay more for healthcare and in the long run healthcare if more expensive. Healthcare is a very important factor for most people and without the healthcare that we are our country wouldn't be running as nicely.

Been 2 wks since last post but I gotta ask.......has anyone ever tried to go backwards with the prices?
What I mean is that if you buy something say for a dollar..but the store got it for say .50c...and the wholesaler got it for ..say .25c... and say the producer produced for 12.5c...but bought the raw materials for....see what I mean....how far back can it go and whats it really worth???? ...I sometimes wonder myself into a quandary...:shrug:

This is so true, but more so for lower priced items like clothing than higher priced ones I think.
Next time you are in an owner operated store and see something that is exactly what you want/need and won't find anything similar at a lower price anywhere else try saying "I really like this, but I'll have to pass because it's just too expensive for my budget". You'd be surprised at how often they will knock the price down. This even worked for me on an orthopedic dog bed that was already discounted at Pet Value.