Originally Posted by
rodric
here in Canada???
Oh that's right, retailers haven't passed on any of the cost reductions, just padding the profits, which leads me to cheer anyone that heads for the border and shops in the US.
You watch, the dollar will eventually swing back to say 1.10 (not for a while) and when it does, everyone including supermarket chains will be crying as they raise prices to compensate for the rise in exchange. Pathetic!
I spoke to one restaurateur who freely admitted that even though his liquor costs had come down he was not passing the costs onto the consumer. Even the LCBO here in Ontario has reduced prices but not proportionally.
They had a story on the news today about a brand new Lexus RX350, fully loaded, there was a cost savings of $18,000 by buying in the US. Those are big ticket items that are not easily corrected at retail, if they dropped the price of a new car that much what would a used one be worth and most would have loans or leases extended beyond the reduced equity.
Fun stuff, as I get paid in USD I find it particularly bothersome! However I will be buying everything in the US now, maybe even plane tickets! :-)
A couple of things...
First, with regards to the cars, many of the manufacturers are preventing CDN's from going south to purchase by nullifying their warranties (i.e. Ford, Subaru, Jaguar, etc.) if the car crosses the border. The automakers want to make sure that they can continue to bleed the CDN customer for every cent. Their attitude is if you want a car with a warranty, well then you will pay the unreasonable difference.
Second, any savings you enjoy buying from the states would be quickly eliminated by customs and their ridiculous and often unjustifiable duties and taxes, especially on big ticket items such as cars. OT - anyone understand where they come up with the duty amounts? I just had to pay $17.43 in duties on $45.00 worth of gifts sent to us from the US...