Rage against lack of parity pricing pays off
There has never been a better time for Americans to buy The New York Times … in Canada.
Come again?
That’s right, the venerable American daily is a better deal in Toronto than it is in New York, selling for $1.40 here and $1.50 (U.S.) there, even though the loonie has plummeted to about 84 cents (U.S.).
Canadians raged when the loonie shot past parity with the U.S. dollar and yet prices for books, magazines and other goods remained higher here in Canadian dollars than they were in U.S. dollars.
That rage is paying dividends in some cases, because items remain better deals here even as the loonie falls.
But there doesn’t seem any real rhyme or reason as to what publications are selling for more, less or the same in Canadian dollars as they are in the States.
The New York Times seems to be one of the best deals around with Canadians paying $0.33 (U.S.) less for the paper on newsstands in Toronto than their counterparts in the U.S. But that’s a bit of an anomaly. Most American magazines continue to charge more in Canadian dollars than in American, while others, notably The New Yorker and GQ Britain, sell at parity north and south of the border.
Other books and magazines no longer list both prices on their covers. Harper’s and Rolling Stone magazines, for example, used to list both the U.S. and Canadian prices on their covers but dropped the U.S. price listing last fall when the loonie was worth more than the greenback.
"The current state of book prices is kind of all over the map," said Christopher Smith, owner of Collected Works – an Ottawa bookstore that, this time last year, allowed customers to purchase books in Canadian dollars but at the listed U.S. price.
"Because of last year’s debacle over the rising loonie and the consumer backlash that ensued, many publishers and distributors in Canada realigned their prices on new releases," he said guaranteed cash advance loan."The consumer is actually now in an advantageous position, but this is for new releases only."
But even a new release such as Stephen King’s Duma Key, a current bestseller in Canada, is selling in paperback at local news stands for $12.99 (Canadian.) In the states it’s selling for $9.99 (U.S.)
Other sectors are coping with the loonie’s ups and downs in similarly confusing ways.
This time last year, angry car buyers went so far as to file class-action lawsuits against Canadian dealers alleging collusion to inflate car prices in Canada while inhibiting cross-border shopping.
Still, as of yesterday, car prices between the U.S. and Canada remain out of whack.
A 2009 Mustang selling on a dealer’s lot in Buffalo, N.Y., starts at $19,735 (U.S.).
The same car selling across the border in Niagara Falls, Ont., starts at $24,799 (Canadian.) With the conversion, Canadians are still paying $1,096 (U.S.) more for the same car, and that’s before taxes.
"Until we start to think about the importance of consumers, we will continue to have these conundrums of higher prices for fuel, food, cars and magazines," said Dan McTeague, the Pickering-Scarborough East MP who has recently attacked Canadian gas companies that have been slow in adjusting prices at the pumps to match the falling prices of crude oil.
"You can’t say that when crude goes up we see increase within hours, and when it decreases they hold it for months."
But, as Smith explains, those who actually adjusted their prices to reflect the strength of the loonie are now being ill-served by its falling value.
"They bowed to pressure from both inside and outside the industry and now potentially are finding themselves in the same bind as last year but from the opposite end."
Filed under: online by Specialist