I have had an on-going battle with Canadian retailers. For months I have been arguing with Pier1 about a mirror that we wanted that was selling for $200 US and $280 CDN. They gave some stupid reasons in that it costs more to ship stuff from Texas. I asked them what the price was in their Alaskan store. Alright I will admit it, I was asking for trouble; and this was back in the summer before the Canadian dollar had broken parity. People thought I was somewhat crazy, but I insisted that this would become a huge issue the moment that the dollar reached parity.
I was right.
Now the Canadian dollar is hovering around $1.10 US and Canadians are still getting screwed by retailers. Things are still 30% more than the same item in US dollars. Just pick up a book or a magazine and its obvious.
Yet perhaps all that is changing. I am currently planning on a cross border shopping day down to Syracuse. -For the record I don’t think its wrong to hurt the Canadian economy, but rather the best thing to do to smarten up the Canadian retailers that are screwing us.-
Anyway, I am starting to do a bit of research of items that I may like to purchase and the cost differential. So just out of curiosity I checked on the LCD TV I am longing for both from BestBuy.ca and BestBuy.com. Low and behold, SAME PRICE! This just goes to show that some research may prove worthwhile. That and at least some companies are making an effort.