U.S.$

[Samw]

Originally Posted by trilinearmipmap

I favour buying from a Canadian store when the item is available within 10% to 15% of the cost.

One barrier to buying from the U.S. is the cost of customs brokerage plus shipping, especially when you are buying a single item like one light bulb.

It might make sense to arrange a group order of drygoods on a regular schedule, say every 3 months, from the U.S., if anyone is interested.

Well, it wasn't much of a barrier in my case because it saved me 29% off for 1 bulb after taking brokerage fees and shipping into consideration. If I bought 2 bulbs, I would have saved 32%. The additional savings for multiple units wasn't that much because the shipping cost and brokerage fee was low relative to the cost of the item (1 bulb).

However, in the case of the $7 PCI extension card that I paid $14 to ship. It would have been cheaper to buy that locally if it existed locally (which it didn't). Luckily, I didn't have to pay a brokerage fee (and thus no tax) on that item.