One Canadian bookseller obviously gets it. Too bad he’s in Ottawa. Taken from the Toronto Star.
With the Canadian dollar worth more than the U.S. dollar, retailer Christopher Smith has a popular promotion. He’s letting customers pay the U.S. price on anything he sells that has both prices printed on it.
Suppose a book, greeting card or toy sells for $19.95 (U.S.) and $24.95 (Canadian). His customers can buy the product for $19.95 in Canadian dollars.”People have been saying to me, `When are the prices going to change?’ I’ve been patiently educating customers that it takes a while,” says Smith at his Ottawa bookstore, Collected Works.
“But you get to the point where you stop educating consumers and begin boring them. It became inexcusable when our dollar approached and then hit par with the U.S. dollar. Their eyes would glaze over.” Store traffic has doubled since he started the promotion, which runs till the end of this year. And he’s had lots of publicity – including CBC radio, where I heard him last week. “With books, it’s so easy to sit down before your computer and buy online. What could I do? It was better to sell a little of something than nothing.
And shame on General Motors.
with Jim on this one.
And maybe Diane Brisebois, paid head stooge of the Retail Council of Canada, can explain just how is it Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows cost more at Amazon.ca than it does at Amazon.com?
Let’s just not blame the publisher for this one, Of course I would also to suggest that when a publisher offers a “suggested retail price” it does not oblige any book retailer to sell at that publisher’s suggested retail price – operative word here being “suggested”.
But I would really love to hear the Retail Council of Canada’s justification for this little online retailing disparity – Just why does Amazon.com offer free shipping when its US online customers spend at least US$25 but Amazon.ca makes its online retail customers buy at least Cdn$39 worth of goods to get $6 worth of free shipping?
According to this Globe and Mail article Apple’s iPhone is rumoured for a January 2008 rollout date in Canada, but it is this reference to the alleged value of the iPhone that made my jaw drop:
It looks like Apple Inc.’s iPhone may soon be headed to Canada, although not in time for the holidays.
Molson Dry beer is giving away iPhones, valued at $800, as one of a number of prizes in a marketing contest. The rules note that the iPhones will only be available as of January 2008 on the wireless network of Rogers Communications Inc. While winners will get the cool new cellphones for free, they will need to pay for the service themselves.
Apple’s iPhone retails for US$399.00 so can I hear someone say price parity? Speaking of parity, just when will Canadian Apple stores drop their prices to reflect the power of the Canadian dollar? And don’t even bother trying to tell that doing business in the Big Apple costs less than the Centre of the Universe cause I know you are lying.
