Speaking as someone who has imported stuff, quite a number of things have higher duties to Canada than to the U.S. Even if not, import processing costs typically need to be spread over a smaller number of units sold, sometimes it’s most cost-effective to re-import stuff that already was imported into the U.S. (and so may end up with double import costs and duties). And labour in Canada is more expensive (gotta pay for that extra u…), and again less efficient spread over a smaller number of units.
And frankly Canadians are used to paying higher prices. Everyone has a few scars from being hit by UPS/Fedex $40± brokerage scamcharges, or just stuff being weirdly delayed in customs, and so is happy to pay a convenience fee for dealing with a Canadian vendor. And so vendors happily charge more, since there’s less pressure.
That all being said, many companies also set list prices only about once a year and don’t change them when the USD/CAD rate changes. That means sometimes things become (or at least seem) less expensive in Canada, when the C$ has weakened. Or more expensive, when C$ has gone up; all until the next price reset. With the choppy C/U$ exchange rate in the past year, that can generate weird anomalies.
Things don’t seem as cheap if you take into account that Americans have to pay for health care, pay much more for university, and can be fired on a whim.
Some things are definitely cheaper there even after the exchange back to CAD. Other things need to be factored in like time and gasoline etc. Sometimes it ends up only being marginally cheaper. For example a 10" Lodge cast iron skillet is $20usd at Target, but that same skillet is $40cad at a local vendor.
I was buying/pricing stuff out for my kitchen about 3 years ago - mixers, spatulas, knives, vacuum sealers – all sorts of mixed goods. About 30 items altogether. It came to about $1000.00 CAD after shipping, exchange, and duties.
Priced the same - or lesser quality - stuff here in Canada, as low as I could find - and with just 8 items I was over $1000.00 CAD.
So, I ordered through the U.S. and saved myself a SHITLOAD of money, and often still do.
Economies of scale. The US is the 3rd most populous country, and the 2nd largest land mass. They’re also a key hub for manufacturing, distribution, and market channels. Plus they have significantly more abundance to sea ports than Canada. (For goods from china, Canada literally has Vancouver while the US has numerous ports all along the west coast.)
A lot of what you buy, even if it was manufactured overseas, tends to flow through the US. Many of our retailers are supplied via US distribution centres. All that adds extra costs for transportation and logistics. It also adds additional losses in currencies and differing tariffs rates.
On top of all that, the US can have orders up to 800$ arrive tax free which makes international shopping easier. Meanwhile Canada will milk you for gst, duties, and brokerage charges on almost everything.
I moved to the us this winter and am terribly disappointed about how expensive things are here. Sure, daycare, beer, cigars and gas are cheaper. But groceries and other items are through the roof! Just had a look at Costco yesterday. Most items regardless of type are exactly 10% more expensive here than in Ontario. McDonald’s is more expensive. A book is more expensive. Maybe I’m comparing an expensive part of the US to one of the cheapest parts of Canada when it comes to groceries but I wasn’t prepared about this!
Because they have a woefully inadequate social net, and can be bankrupted by an illness, or actually fucking die through hunger.
I’ll take our higher shopping bills, thanks.
Well they manufacture most of the stuff, we import them. They have better tax structure, a larger market and more business friendly circumstances. They are Mecca of capitalism.
Import taxes/fees(bond costs, distributor import costs)
The box has to be bilingual.
Transport of the item itself from production to destination(cost of fuel, transport fees etc) Americans have an amazing network of highways etc that actually work.
We tend to have more limits of artificial flavours, colours etc(except california) so higher costs for finding the comparable for the item.
Much more product competition(just look at cereal aisle flavours)
Better market overall, much more purchasing power, much more free flowing money.
That is pretty much true until you ever need to go to one of their hospitals (with no insurance) where they will potentially take every asset you have.
Most of the price differences are due to taxes, tariffs, economy of scale, etc…. but a portion of the savings are the result of more exploitive labour practices in the USA.
Retail shops, gas stations and restaurants. All frequented by Canadian travellers. All are typically staffed by min wage workers.
In many US states, the min wage is 7.25 USD/hour. Or roughly 9.24 CAD/hour.
Canadian min wage workers are making $3 to $6 / hour more than that. Ultimately that cost is paid for by consumers.
US has a lot more poverty, and a lot lower wages for many people (servers in MA make less than $4/hour before tips, for example). As a result, overhead for businesses is lower, and prices reflect that. Also, with a huge amount of low wage and impoverished people, stores still want to sell to them, and are price-competitive for this crowd.
Canada has higher minimum wages, and more tax on business and purchases, and that reflects in the final price. However, we also have less poverty, and less pockets of the country that feel like stepping into a third-world country like in the US.
If we want lower prices, we’d have to impoverish many people.
(Obviously this is not the only effect, but I would argue it is the most impactful)