Are you still buying in the USA? Why?

[gobytron]

Originally Posted by Reef Supplies

With our dollar being at par, the only reason you should be buying in the US is if there is a product you can not find here OR if your buying large amounts. We have a couple of suppliers in the states whom we deal with on a monthly basis and we need to buy $5000+ to make it profitable. We try to keep the shipping/duty/brokerage cost between 8 and 12% of the total sale.

As a hobbiest you cant possibly be saving money from buying US, can you? Check out this site, it is pretty accurate http://www.thefinalcost.com/shipments/calculate/

On 2 occasions this weekend we were asked to match a US retailers price. Both times we were actually cheaper when calculating the TRUE cost of the US item delivered to your door. 90% of the time UPS will be handling your US/CA border brokering. If you buy a $200 item you need to add $25 just for brokering, then you have shipping, Disbursement fees and Visa fees. Visa charges about 2.5% conversion fees.

Being Sunday, I'll be back and forth all day so my replies will be delayed.

Please discuss

Ray

Spoken like a vendor...lol
I cant help but think of books...
I'm an avid reader and it's so irritating to see the USD price 30% lower than the CDN. Even after nearly 2 years of parity between our currencies.

The reality is, in my experience, any difference in price that might equal savings to the end consumer is just eaten up by vendors and retailers.

Not saying that's not fair practice, lord knows Id run my business the same way and would relish the extra margin after struggling to compete with US companies for so long when all we really had going for us was our cheap dollars.

But to say were better off buying Canadian...I just dont see it.

You are better off if we all buy Canadian, and as an extension of the canadian hobbyist community we are certainly better off supporting Candian vendors and retailers but lets at least look at both sides of the coin.

It's no cheaper, and just like books, mysteriously any difference in prices to the end user are simply non existent...dollar parity or not.