Prices in Canada vs the U.S.

[dirtdog]

The federal government is apparently proposing legislation where it will investigate price differences for the same product sold in Canada vs the U.S. and if the price difference is large and cannot be explained, they will expose the offending organization, or something like that. There will be no fines or penalties or refunds for customers or anything like that - just moral suasion - according to the radio report.

Here is a recent experience that will be hard to top.

We decided we would get a shuffle board for the family for Christmas, so I began shopping around and identified a shop in Hamilton that had a quality brand I was familiar with. Went down to the shop and they had one model in stock which happened to be a 9 foot entry level model. It was priced at $6395 plus tax!

That seemed a bit steep, so I went to the manufacturer's web site and used their dealer locate function to find a store in the U.S. I used a Windsor Ontario postal code and got a Detroit area store. Called them up and asked what their price was for the identical model. He looked it up and said it was $2295 U.S. - about $2600 Canadian! (This is not a typo)!

I told him the price I saw in Canada and he was flabbergasted.

So I called the manufacture and said if they were finding they weren't selling many shuffle boards in the west end of the GTA it may be because of the price. They too were shocked when I told them the price of their equipment and said they would investigate. I gave them my contact information and said they were welcome to get back to me, but at the price I was being quoted it was highly unlikely I would buy their product even though it was my first choice. Didn't hear back from them.

Continued to investigate and found an equally good product also made in the US at a store in Buffalo. It was a 12 foot floor model for just over $2000. Picked it up, brought it back to Canada without incident and wondered why we bother to shop in Canada when there are these kinds of price differences.

[scouponer]

Wow that is so ridiculous

[torontogal12]

Holy smokes! Good thing you did your research