When are companies going to adjust to the dollar?

[TheZoof]

Hey all!

I was just looking at the top of Blu-ray.com and noticed some good prices on some great movies! I was about to order them up and then of course I realized these are US prices.

I click the little Canada sign and sure enough all the ones I wanted to buy aren't much of a deal at all and in fact are almost 50% more in a lot of cases.

It isn't just amazon.ca that is guilty of this but most of the stores.

Sure we do get our deals but when are the retail pricepoints going to be adjusted to reflect the actual dollar of the two countries.

US dollar vs CAD dollar are almost on par...


/vent

[thecardman23]

agreed! i deslike amazon.ca very much for not offering us as greater deals as the americans seem to get ALL THE TIME with amazon.com. anyhow, i wont complain cuz between sig, bbv and dvdng (plus the trade forums here) i get everything i need sooner or later.

p.s - i think this thread should go in the discussion area or sometin

[tony_tony_chopper]

do you mean CANADIAN companies charging the same prices in CANADIAN dollar as US companies in US dollars ??

because if thats what you are talking about, i can safely say, never

one simple fact, Us population 300 millions, Canada population 30 millions, same reason why prices are cheaper at walmart, more they buy , cheaper it is

the only good thing that comes from having a parity dollar is buying goods from the US internet stores and shipping them here

[danman227460]

No. Last year when the dollar was on par, the games dropped to 59.99 which was in line with US prices.

The excuse they use is that they buy stock from a retailer at X price. So they sell it X price. If the dollar goes up and their new stock is at Y price, they will sell it at Y price. So they have to wait for their current stock to deplete before ordering more which means that the dollar could go down by the time new stock is needed which means no change in pricing.

So we might see some deals when the dollar hits but I doubt it.

[Jimbo976]

The dollar would have to stay close to par for an extended period of time before the studios started giving better MSRP's in Canada which would lead to lower actual selling prices here. It isn't really amazon.ca's fault - the pricing is set by the studios. They did this to some degree last time the dollar was near par but this time around it's only been for a short number of weeks.

[Fishy]

Just get that damn "Amero" going and we'll all be paying the same price.

[Steve46]

I would love to see Amazon CA be more competitive.

Import duty kills many of the deals. I might have to make an exception for The Prisoner though. Amazon US has it for $40 cheaper.

[risingstar]

Originally Posted by Steve46

I would love to see Amazon CA be more competitive.

Import duty kills many of the deals. I might have to make an exception for The Prisoner though. Amazon US has it for $40 cheaper.

This is how bad it could get buying imports... If you order a $20 item and they ship it via UPS, you will have to pay a brokerage fee of about $35, plus an additional 33% in customs and tax charges... Let's not forget all those pesky shipping fees... At the end of the day, your $20 item could cost you $65. It's insane.

The better half's sister went through this more than once when buying her coconut cream oils so we could smell her coming from a mile away.

[Jimbo976]

Well it's not quite that bad if you know what you're doing. The key thing is to avoid ground based services with courier companies like UPS and Fedex. Those are the cases where brokerage fees come into play.

Amazon.com standard shipments to Canada come to your door by Canada post. There are no duties or taxes of any kind on these shipments. Amazon.com started adding an "Import Deposit Fee" last year though which is roughly equivalent to PST+GST on the order total. This is on top of their shipping fee which is $8 US for the 1st item and $3 each for every item after that. Sadly with the shipping fee and import deposit fee in some cases it is still actually cheaper than buying in Canada.

Before the import deposit fee was added, Amazon.com was a much cheaper way to buy Blu-rays in Canada than anything locally in almost all cases.

[risingstar]

Originally Posted by Jimbo976

Well it's not quite that bad if you know what you're doing. The key thing is to avoid ground based services with courier companies like UPS and Fedex. Those are the cases where brokerage fees come into play.

Amazon.com standard shipments to Canada come to your door by Canada post. There are no duties or taxes of any kind on these shipments. Amazon.com started adding an "Import Deposit Fee" last year though which is roughly equivalent to PST+GST on the order total. This is on top of their shipping fee which is $8 US for the 1st item and $3 each for every item after that. Sadly with the shipping fee and import deposit fee in some cases it is still actually cheaper than buying in Canada.

Before the import deposit fee was added, Amazon.com was a much cheaper way to buy Blu-rays in Canada than anything locally in almost all cases.

There are lots of ways to save on costs, if you don't mind getting creative. I do my best to try and take advantage of whatever means I have at my disposal. For example, you could arrange to clear customs yourself by picking up the item at the UPS or FedEx depot. At that point, there is no brokerage fee.

It's sad because you could send items worth $200 US to Americans without any trouble whereas Canada gets all huffy and ouffy over any items (sent via UPS and FedEx not standard USPS) worth over $20. They should really change that.

P.S. Boo on import deposit fees. That blows.

[movieking]

I've given up on Amazon.com due to that stupid import fee that they now deduct at the time of ordering. It totally kills the overwhelming majority of deals.

[king_patrick_7]

I used to buy EVERYTHING from Amazon.com... then they added the extra fees and it wasnt such a great deal anymore. Amazon.ca's prices are still way to high as well.

Also $ is almost at par, lets see the $59.99 new games again!

[blurai]

Originally Posted by king_patrick_7

I used to buy EVERYTHING from Amazon.com... then they added the extra fees and it wasnt such a great deal anymore. Amazon.ca's prices are still way to high as well.

Also $ is almost at par, lets see the $59.99 new games again!

almost? When i checked xe.com this morning the canadian dollar was 4 cents over the us dollar

[risingstar]

Originally Posted by blurai

almost? When i checked xe.com this morning the canadian dollar was 4 cents over the us dollar

lol... wouldn't that be nice...

It's only been bouncing around 95-97 for a week now.

[Jimbo976]

Originally Posted by blurai

almost? When i checked xe.com this morning the canadian dollar was 4 cents over the us dollar

It has not crossed over this time around yet but it may in the next few weeks or months.

[risingstar]

Originally Posted by Jimbo976

It has not crossed over this time around yet but it may in the next few weeks or months.

Staying on par would be great. The economy will learn to adapt just like it did when it jumped from 60 to 70 then 70 to 80 then 80 to 90 and so on.

[blurai]

according to XE.com (which is updated 'real' time as it was slightly lower earlier today)

1US dollar = 1.04196 CAD

You still get *** though...i bought something on ebay and got charge an exchange of 10% above the US dollar...and that was yesterday

[Gannet]

Originally Posted by Jimbo976

The dollar would have to stay close to par for an extended period of time before the studios started giving better MSRP's in Canada which would lead to lower actual selling prices here. It isn't really amazon.ca's fault - the pricing is set by the studios. They did this to some degree last time the dollar was near par but this time around it's only been for a short number of weeks.

This time the dollar is seriously in trouble. The national debt is $12 trillion and we're looking at trillion dollar deficits for the next few years. Hyperinflation isn't even out of the question now. Keep going down this road, the dollar will lose its status as the world's reserve currency within a few years. Just like the pound sterling did before.