A brief filler piece on the Canadian Press newswire explains only part of the reason so many Canadian shoppers are headed south to do their Christmas shopping this year:
This is Black Friday in the U.S., but many Canadian retailers are a furious red at the thought of consumers heading south for bargains.
The Retail Council of Canada says there is a long list of reasons to shop north of the border.
It says retailers are a vital part of any community’s economy and it employs 10 per cent of the workforce.
It also reminds consumers that Canadian taxes — which cause much of the traffic south — help pay for health care and education.
The higher taxes are certainly a big part of the explanation, but even if you control for tax, Canadian prices are generally higher than their US counterparts. For example, a paperback I picked up at random from our coffee table (published quite recently) has a price of $7.99 on it. If you’re an American, that is. Canadians pay $10.99. The Canadian dollar is around US$0.98.
Nice little markup, eh? Add the 13% Hack-and-Slash Tax on top of that, and you know exactly why thousands of Canadians are willing to put up with long lines at the border to do their shopping in the States.
While it would be nice to support Canadian retailers, the facts are that with the high prices we have and then add the Highly Stupid Tax, we can save hundreds of dollars shopping in the States. I recently saved over $300 on a set of tires (and did not have to pay McGuinty’s new tire tax either) and another $200 on a camera while on a week long stay in the States. That’s $500 extra in my pocket to help deal with having to shell out at least $1000 extra in the coming year because of the HST (an extra estimated $600 on gas alone).
We are choking on taxes, hidden and unhidden. What does the government expect us to do? It would be interesting to find out how many public sector employees shop in the States as well to save money.
Comment by Anna — November 26, 2010 @ 12:36
The mark up on books makes up most of my outrage; the rest is down to Canada’s near monopoly book retailer.
If it weren’t for finger-pointing at the United States – Canada’s primary ideology (in the Gramscian sense) – we might have a revolution in this country.
Comment by Flea — November 28, 2010 @ 07:49