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In Reply to: Re: And Don't Forget ... posted by efc on April 14, 2007 at 15:37:37:
Canadian distributors of all types of equipment manufactured in other countries are the principal reason Canadians pay more. The expressed reason is that they have to obtain the electrical certifications, etc., for Canadian sale, and they must set up service facilities and the like. While there is some truth to these things, the bigger fact is the distributor has monopoly in Canada on an internationally know product and they work this for all its worth.A current example of gouging is Parasound products. Parasound will not permit a US dealer, e.g. Audio Advisor, to sell their products into Canada. Instead a Canadian distributor has exclusive rights: the consequence that the Cdn$ price of Parasound products is almost twice the US$ price -- a fact that cannot be justified by currency exchange, certifications, taxes or anything except the greed of the Canadian distributor.
It seems to me that if the non-Canadian manufacturer handles their own distribution here, or if the have multiple distributors in Canada, the price difference tends to be smaller, though not always.
Bill Bailey
___________________________________________
See my stereo config
Follow Ups:
Hi Bill...Thanks for your input. Your last sentence reminded of a study that I and my colleagues did on mutual fund fees. As you know, the management fees charged by Canadian mutual funds are significantly higher than the American counterparts. One would think that with competition, the fees would become smaller. In Canada, we have thousands of funds (i.e., more than enough). Still, the fees are kept high, and investors don't seem bothered. I guess we Canadians must be financially masochistic.
It is not necessary greed that make the Canadian price higher. Even if the basic item costs (sometimes different because of volume discount) are the same, actual cost of bringing in the same item into different countries are different. Say if you consider shipping the whole container compare to shipping a few cases, the shipping cost will be different. Then you need to maintain the same level of customer service with far smaller sale volume, everything add up to the cost.Paul Lam
P.L.C.Lam Consulting Inc.
The price you pay for free health care? We Americans are screwed unless we have health insurance. Our drugs are over priced too. ;-)
No...AbeCollins...These are two different issues. Our free healthcare is financed by taxes that we all pay. What annoys me is the fact that manufacturers/distributers seem to be able to charge unreasonable prices. By the way, "free" doesn't necessarily mean "good". When something is free, it will be expensive in some non-monetary way.
Pssstttt...efc...I'll meet you at the border in a remote area of Saskatchewan with the 9555. Will trade for Canadian prescription drugs.PS: don't tell the RCMP 8-)
PPS: If you're listening Alberto...it's a joke...honest...it's just a joke...please don't send me to Syria to be tortured...I'm not even Canadian :-O
Ha! Ha! That's a good one, radknee. I really hope that there is a mail-order house here in Canada who is willing to import grey-market stuffs to sell to us. It's not illegal as all duties and taxes will be paid. But it will cut down the greediness of the manufacturers/distributors.
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