Why don't Canadians voice opposition to US corporations overcharging Canadian consumers?

Question

According to this article, Canadians are paying more for a whole range of retail products, including cars and video games, despite the Loonie becoming equal to the US Dollar. Worse than that, these US companies are ripping you off and making extra profit.(see article)

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080611/bmo_consumers_080611/20080611?hub=Canada

According to this article, the reason for this price gap is that Americans are ancy about prices and the companies don't want to lose the US marketshare. Canadians get taken advantage of for no other reason than they are okay with paying more for the same things.

I want Canadians to speak up and the next time you get a U-Haul, or a video game, look at the price gap. ASK: Why am I paying 9 more dollars???? Write a complaint letter, speak up and don't take this BS.

Answer 1

This has worked to some extent in the price of books, but there is a long way to go, agreed.

Answer 2

First of all, Canadians generally aren't complainers.

Second of all, corporations have the freedom to charge whatever they like.  I, as a consumer, have the right to shop wherever I please.  I trust that companies charge a price that takes into consideration all of the various costs plus a profit margin.  If I don't like the charges from a particular company, I will choose to spend my dollars at a different company.

To be honest, I would be pissed off if you contacted me at my corporation to tell me what YOU think WE should be charging.  You have no idea of the costs involved in running a corporation that is not your own. You are welcome to comment on the quality of our goods or service if they have not met your needs or expectations and we will take those comments into consideration.  We have set our prices to take into consideration all of the various factors and have set a price that makes a modest income.  

I can think of at least 100 reasons why prices in Canada should not -- will not -- can not be the same price as the US.

1.  Their population is 10 times larger.  More consumers to spread out the fixed operating costs (those that do not increase/decrease whether you make 100 or 1 million widgets).

2.  Legislation is different in Canada.  There may be additional permits, licenses, and other various hoops to jump through in order for Canadians to get the same product.

3.  Exchange rates fluctuate on a daily basis.

4.  Labour costs are completly different.    

5.  Raw products would cost a different amount in a different country.

6.  There are transportation costs

7.  There are Customs and Duties and all sorts of other tariffs involved in getting goods into either country.

When , and if, you do start your own company and start importing/exporting, you will find that the only way to charge the same price for the same product on both sides of the border is to either charge one country too much or the other country too little (which means you get a lower profit margin -- in some cases, NO profit).  It will be your company, and you are welcome to run it in any fashion you see fit (assuming you are following the law and paying taxes accordingly).

Answer 3

I strongly agree that Canadians pay far more for the same goods as US buyers. They say it is caused by the smaller buying power of a smaller consumer base. Bat pucky! Greed! Greed!

Why don't we complain? We're sheep! Oh, and it would do no good anyway.

Answer 4

Canadians have been accustomed, for as long as I can remember, to seeing two prices on many items, books and magazines being a good example. US price 7.95, Canadian price 9.95(or worse). This was because the US dollar was worth more than ours for a long time, until recently. So we're used to the concept. When our dollar became worth more, I think it took a while for it to sink in that we shouldn't be paying more than US prices. And once we realize it, there are only so many choices of what to do about it. In some stores you can negotiate, in others not. Retailers, of course, claimed that they had ordered and paid for things at the old exchange rate, and that it would take time for the new exchange rate to have an effect on prices. Whether that's true or not, I don't know, no doubt it's true in some cases.

Many retailers woke up to it early. Wal-Mart changed a lot of their Canadian prices, so did some car dealers. I suspect most of us Canadians are just protesting with our wallets. I know I am. Some retailers were dumb enough to leave the tags on that gave both prices. I just didn't buy anything like that, but let's face it, we have fewer choices in retail than you do in the US, and if you need something from a store and it's the only one in town, what exactly can you do? I commented a few times in stores when I didn't buy something but didn't get a huge response.

Answer 5

I disagree with you completely. If you ever go to Niagara Falls, NY, take a look at the traffic on the Rainbow Bridge on a weekend morning. It's full of Ontario plates coming over to hit Target, Wal Mart, etc... because they are getting their goods at a lower cost. They avoid paying the GST, and with the two countries dollars so similar in worth, they are getting the deals of a lifetime!!! The US border patrol doesn't hassle them, "do you have anything to declare? Oh no, ok, go ahead" even though we all d**n well know they're trunks have about 18 shopping bags. Don't believe everything you read.  

Answer 6

agree with you overall and in mnay items we simply pay too much.  (hence so much cross border shopping).

but there are some legitimate reasons why pricing is higher in our market... numbers of units sold "nationally" on any widget is about 1/10th that of the US market so our buyers dont get the highest volume discount pricing from suppliers.  Also historically the dollar has been signficantly below US par so prices were adjusted accordingly. As with all businesses... prices tend to go up fast and come down slowly and even tho dollars are at more or less par even now it takes time to work though the system.  We have seen prices on cars, books and that sort come down but your right we still pay a premium.

We probably dont mind much as we get pay back in charging US $120 per brl of oil and $1 for a bottle of water .

.  

Answer 7

I think you misread the article. It doesn't state that the "US Companies" are ripping them off. It states that the Canadian retailers are ripping them off.

It also states that to benefit, Canadians should go to mom and pop stores to negotiate better prices and use comic books as examples.

From actually reading the article, it seems that the US consumer demands that their retail market be competitive and that the Canadian consumer doesn't. I would guess that the Canadian consumer is complacent because of the high GST they have to pay anyway.

Edit:

To freeside, I don't buy the 1/10 of the population argument. Nations don't buy goods. Distributors, retailers and consumers buy goods. If your argument would hold true, then Delaware would have the same prices as Alaska due to the fact that they have about the same population. However prices in Alaska are much higher. 80-90% of the Canadian population live close to the US border, why shouldn't the prices be the same on either side of the imaginary line (excluding taxes). It has to do with expectations and competition based on those expectations not on population.