Manufacturers are erecting barriers to cross border shopping trying to protect high prices in Canada. By restricting where dealers can ship goods, they can make shopping from Canada more difficult.
These non-tariff barriers protect high prices Canadian by telling dealers not to ship to Canada. Amazon.com has been strong lately in refusing to ship brands like Sony to Canada. All the best deals are in the US. Canadians continue to be hit with high prices.
Impulse buyers are always at risk of spending too much. Determined Internet shoppers can find vendors willing to ship to Canada. As well there are agents on the US side of the border who will trans-ship goods to Canadian destinations for a small fee. Sometimes bargaining based on the US price works.
The rise of the Canadian dollar has exposed the canard that things cost more in Canada because of the dollar. The new lie is cost of doing business in Canada. The real story is profits: Canadian branches, distributors and dealers are raking in record profits.
They don’t want Canadians looking at the US price on books, music or electronics.
Canadians have free access to the Internet and can research the lowest price, which should be the Canadian price. But it isn’t. I checked a set of Shure headphones: at Future Shop $399 and $269 on Amazon.com. Obviously I don’t care what sale Future Shop puts on until their price is the same as the US.
Profit margins at US owned Future Shop are being fattened along with Walmart and Home Depot. The amazing thing is Canadians can research prices on both side of the border for the same chain like Home Depot but are asked to pay the higher price.
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