With the Canadian dollar now as good as at par with the U.S. dollar, can we expect the Canadian Cover price to move much, much closer to the U.S. cover price?
After all, it doesn’t cost that much more to ship a truck load of magazines from Milwaukee to Ontario for Canadian distribution to warrant the current 30 odd percent price difference, does it?
While I haven’t confirmed the following, someone has told me that the Canadian copies of MR now or will come without the U.S. cover price being shown, so that Canadians don’t realise the price difference. Can someone confirm this?
And what will happen to the cover price when, as the “experts” predict, the Canadian dollar goes above the U.S. dollar? Of course, I’m picking on MR as this is their forum but it really applies to all Canadian prices in general, which are always way higher than U.S. prices, even back in the 1970s when the Canadian dollar was at and above par with the U.S. dollar.
Roger, I have wondered the same thing. Whay does a double cheeseburger at Mac Ds cost 41.39 here and $.99 in the US? Our “universal” medical and the resultant taxes are to blame IMHO. But this is outside the realm of this forum, isn’t it?
You may want to try to send an e-mail directly to the Kalmbach staff in regards to your query. You will probably get a faster response that way. I don’t think any of the forum members outside of the Kalmbach staff could answer this question.
Just pay the US price in US dollars, you might get a funny look at the store but it is the advertised price in US dollars. I’m going to try it at my local hobby shop when the new one is out.
Since the Canadian dollar just reached parity a few days ago, I would imagine it will take a few months for prices on US products to start to drop. As David wrote, there’s still customs and duties to pay so the price will never be that same. There’s also no long term reason to think the Canadian dollar will maintain parity or even go above the US dollar. The last time this happened was in 1976 and it took a long time for the Canadian dollar to rise again. Just like gas (petrol) doesn’t change everyday with the price of oil, manufacturers will not change prices until they see a consistent trend.
Our health care has NOTHING to do with it. Americans pay far more for “health care” than we do. Their insurance rates are far higher than ours and do not offer universal coverage as ours does. Their insurance companies can refuse to cover “existing” medical conditions, our cannot.
There is no duty on magazines.
Taxes are only applied on the retail price and are not included in the advertised selling price.
The only “extra” cost, if any, to Kalmbach is the cost of the truck to take the bulk mailing shipment from the States to Ontario for the Canada Post bulk mailing and the slightly higher postal rates to Canada for subscriber copies.
Well, as mentioned elsewhere, there is no duty on magazines. Shipping, that cost varies widely on a lot of factors.
The real issue is how the magazines are delivered to the retailer. If they are purchased directly, they pay whatever it costs in US dollars. But a lot of retailers are stocked by jobbers. If the jobber can’t make money, he won’t carry the magazine. So they are priced to keep him and his customers happy, or lose the sales.
A long time ago (late 70s) a hobby shop owner told me that with the shipping and exchange, it wasn’t worth selling magazines. But they didn’t want to charge more than cover price, because they would lose sales to other stores. They used the magazines to bring people in, who hopefully spent a few more dollars on the profitable items. Any mags that didn’t sell, they were stuck with.
Im still waiting for the price to drop,I did send an email to the magazine asking just this question but they never got back to me. The dollar has been steady between 90 cents a year back and increasing til now.So even at 90 cents to the dollar its still way off in price.
As for buying the magazine with US dollar…!!! lol I tried that approach with Chapters and others…no go.they wouldnt accept it!
And you are right the magazine is only now showing a price of 7.25 CDN so no one will see the huge gap.
I’d stay away from that McDonalds, they obviously have some serious fines to pay off
Do you even know what a real Big Mac looked like? Not the 61 cent version they pass off in the ‘extra value’ meals. The farmers that grew the beef probably didn’t even get that much.
The real money is in the McCain fries and Coca-Cola they peddle at vastly inflated prices.
I even remember when these"hamburgers" were 15 cents and that’s what they are worth today, I talked to a manager of a certain “burger chain” and he told me they make 3 cents on a burger, since when did potatoes cost more than meat?? (potatoes are $25.00 a ton-2000lbs) and watered sugar costs a$1.50?? I think Model Railroader is a far better deal. If everyone ordered a burger and milk the store couldn’t open the next day, for lack of profit.
I don’t expect MRR to fall in price because of our dollar being at or above the USD. Although it is bad for Canadian industry, it is great for the hobbiest who watches the markets. I ordered a Kato locomotive that was going for $99.99+ tax and S&H at certain online hobby shops from Canada. I got the thing for $93.69 shipping and taxes included from a place in New Mexico or Arizona. Not sure exactly what VISA’s exchange rate was, but our dollar was slightly above the USD (talking 42 one hundred thousandths)and VISA is usually pretty close. Either way, watch for deals from the states!
Back in the 1970s, the Canadian dollar was worth US$1.10 and the Canadian economy was booming. There were jobs everywhere. Quit on Friday and have a choice of two, three or more jobs on Monday. Don’t believe what today’s manufacturers will tell you. those of us who were around the 1970s know that it was a time of boom. Anyway, these days there’s far, far less manufacturing in Canada and the U.S, of A for that matter. Almost every consumer product we buy, as well as ships, steel and many, many other manufactured product is produced “off shore”.
When our dollar was worth US$0.60, there was high unemployment, now our dollar is almost at par, very low unempolyment. Doesn’t that say something? So, how can a high Canadian dollar be bad for industry when the economy is booming?
A Business Economics refresher would be a good idea for those who think a high valued Looney is a good thing for Canadian manufacturing.
The Looney is only rising because of the uncertainty of the US Dollar. Would not want to be selling Canadian manufactured goods right now. Anyone checked the price of lumber lately?
Canada is facing the same problem that many markets around the world are facing right now. With the dollar depressed the cost of foreign goods are rising and the cost of American goods declining. This market helps US manufacturing at the costs of the cost of other nations. With the current global ecomomic challenges many other nations will be forced to follow the US Fed and lower interest rates to stimulate economic growth. This actions will weaken foreeign currencies and strenghten US funds.
All of the glabal markets are out of whack right now and the correction is coming. I don’t know when and I don’t know how painfull it will be but the corrections are coming. Too many people are diving into gold and to preserve value.
Most companies will not reset their pricing schedules until the markets become more predicable. If they make the changes today, they exposed themselves to a great deal of risk.
Not only that, but they place CDN$0.02 worth of ice in that cup so that you get much less of that insanely expensive sugared water than you tell yourself you’re buying. Sugar water that costs five or six times what gasoline costs. [:O]
