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Canadian Dollar Hits 99.99 US Cents!
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I haven't had to call support for awhile now, but I recall having to speak with an American for phone support. I think Canadian and American servicing is the same.
First their dangerous lead in Zamboni technology, then the pervasive encroachment of Tim Horton's and their nefarious Timbits on our soil, and now this? The United States will never be safe until we deal decisively with that bunch of candy striping pinkos.
Sorry, this thread would be remiss without some loosely Canadian Bacon style xenophobia.
But is the Timbit on par with the Krisky Kreme mini?
Is Second Cup's Large Chiller matching Starbucks Grande Frappuccino?
Will Lowes equal Canadian Tire?
Will Jack Bauer stop Canadian infiltrators in this season's 24?
(psst: Keifer Sutherland and Elisa Cuthbert are Canucks.)
No, not really. As I've said, prices are set in the market where the goods are sold, unless the maker doesn't need to complete, because they've got a monopoly. Prices aren't "unfair" or "illegal" just because they're more than you want to pay. Econ 101. Adam Smith. You could look it up.
I would not expect the Canada prices to really ever come down. It is the price Canada pay for inflation. When the CAN dollar was weak it drove all the prices up. Now that it is stronger the inflation is there and they have to deal with it.
I have to say Canada right now is a good example of how inflation can suck. Even when the currency becomes strong it is not going to effect the prices. Like IJ said early in the strength of the dollar does not really effect the US citizen that much. Right now the only problem will be inflation might get out of hand and the fed will take action. They did during nixon times.
I believe Greenspan told Nixon either he (Nixon) get inflation under control or IO(Greenspan) would" Guess what Greenspan got it under control by pushing the intersted right sky high and yes drove the US economy in to a fairly big rescission to save it from run away inflation (13% at the time)
I have to say Canada right now is a good example of how inflation can suck. Even when the currency becomes strong it is not going to effect the prices. Like IJ said early in the strength of the dollar does not really effect the US citizen that much. Right now the only problem will be inflation might get out of hand and the fed will take action. They did during nixon times.
I believe Greenspan told Nixon either he (Nixon) get inflation under control or IO(Greenspan) would" Guess what Greenspan got it under control by pushing the intersted right sky high and yes drove the US economy in to a fairly big rescission to save it from run away inflation (13% at the time)
Second Cup's Chillate > any Starbucks frozen drink.
But Starbucks' hot drinks are still better.
This is going to have an effect on Canada's manufacturing sector, that's for sure. But Canadians have to remember that it's not so much the loonie doing well as the American dollar doing poorly. This may be an opportunity for the manufacturing sector to reduce costs by incorporating better technology that will now be available at a better price. Hopefully the federal government will keep up tax breaks for new machinery to bolster this.
Calling prices "unfair" is an expression of consumer sentiment, one that behavioral finance is more concerned with as it affects the purchasing decisions made by the consumer. Alan Greenspan (former FOMC chairman) calls the subprime mortgage lenders "egregious." The FOMC's response to mortgage default "fears" and possible spillover into tightening of consumer spending is to reduce rates. Now this situation isn't unfair or illegal by your classical definition as there's no monopoly ... caveat emptor, but Smith is dead, consumers are not rational and Bernanke is obviously worried about consumer sentiment.
Yeah, unless they ever want to take a vacation outside of Vegas and Disneyworld (say, to one of these far away lands where our money buys less and less - Toronto, for example!).
Or unless one of us - gasp! - would like to relocate or retire to a foreign country and our life savings suddenly is worth a fraction of its current value.
As I mentioned earlier in the thread, that isn't really the case.
It's true for the pound and, to some extent, the Euro that their recent strength is based on US Dollar weakness, but the Canadian Dollar has been gaining against *ALL* major currencies, just not as dramatically (or as symbolically) as it has against the US Dollar...
Quite right, it's a gut reaction -- which doesn't have any other meaning, really. Some people in countries where currencies have become relatively strong over the last year are now expecting an automatic discount. It doesn't work that way, because that's not how goods and services are priced. If I make widgets in the US for sale in Canada at $10 Canadian each, I'm not going to lower my price to Canadians to $7 each simply because the US dollar declined by 30% in value against the Canadian dollar. I might lower the price a little to gain competitive advantage, but not by much, because $10 is still the going rate for widgets in Canada.
Hehehehe
Tim Hortons pwns Krispy Kreme any day of the week.
Dunno about the rest of them. But I got nuthin but love for my homies livin' life in the frozen north.
Tim Horton's Iced Cappuccino for the win.
As far as I'm concerned I'm ready to take a trip to the US for a shopping spree.
I'd suggest picking up an iPhone if it weren't for the disastrous data plan rates Rogers and Fido offer....
I remember actually that, when I was a kid, some of my family members coming down from Toronto (to Detroit) for shopping in the US... I remember them picking up an NES, and for whatever reason, it was a good buy to get it in the US at that time.
Because it was like with Mac products: even with the poor exchange rate, they avoided the markup.
Which is the one good thing about a weak dollar for Americans - we'll be seeing a ton of Canadian tourists (at least in the Northern states) and probably a lot more European and Asian tourists (like Disneyworld needed anymore!).
I'm not much of a cross-border shopper to begin with, but the post 9/11 border security is keeping me away from day or overnight spending sprees. A report on CBC last night compared today's wait times at the border to be the same or longer than ten years ago, with less than half the volume of Canadians crossing south.
I won't criticize--you guys do what you need to be safe--but that will slow down whatever tourist bonanza the northern states are hoping for.
Besides, my passport is expired, and it'll take destinations far more exotic than Disneyland (or Buffalo) to wait in THAT line-up.
To answer the previous question, yes Apple maintains offices and personnel in Canada. If you are a consumer calling Applecare you'll reach an international call centre, but if you are a major corp/gov't account you'll have a Canadian system engineer going to your site.
All Apple product in Canada other than AppleStore has to go through one of three distribution companies, they take their mark up of course, and there is an additional freight cost. The Apple Canadian products mostly have individual Canadian part numbers and different package contents because there are English and French versions, and Apple has to comply with different packaging, CSA approval (for anything that plugs in), DOT communications regulations approval (for anything with a radio or a laser in it) and instruction manual regulations in Canada than in the US. This is a real cost to the distribution in Canada.
All Apple product in Canada other than AppleStore has to go through one of three distribution companies, they take their mark up of course, and there is an additional freight cost. The Apple Canadian products mostly have individual Canadian part numbers and different package contents because there are English and French versions, and Apple has to comply with different packaging, CSA approval (for anything that plugs in), DOT communications regulations approval (for anything with a radio or a laser in it) and instruction manual regulations in Canada than in the US. This is a real cost to the distribution in Canada.
The Canadian economy is up, but the US dollar is at it's lowest trade-weighted value since the inception of the Federal Reserve Index nearly 40 years ago. Parity and the resulting coverage and general reaction has more to do with the latter than the former, and Canadians shouldn't panic about potential service sector hits, that's all I'm sayin'.
Yeah, but the US Dollar being down is just coincidence - that's all *I'm* sayin'.
For example, a 6 month chart of how the Canadian Dollar has done against the Euro:
I don't disagree on either point. You don't have a "Location" (and to be fair, neither do I), but if you were up here in Toronto hearing what I hear or knew people from some of the manufacturin' 'burbs like Oshawa, you'd think the sky was falling.
Edit: pulled the IMG
With reference to foreign pricing for Apple products I'm not unhappy with the price of the iPhone in the UK. £269 including tax strikes me as being fair with the remaining small difference from the US price being reflective of the additional costs of doing business in the UK.
A lot of people will look at American pricing, do a straight currency conversion and scream about exploitation without factoring in tax (there's always a tax - it's just we're used to seeing it included in store prices here ) and other barriers specific to the British marketplace.
Of course I don't know enough about Canada specifically to comment overmuch - but I hope our friends in Canada don't have to pay too much over the odds in real terms
A lot of people will look at American pricing, do a straight currency conversion and scream about exploitation without factoring in tax (there's always a tax - it's just we're used to seeing it included in store prices here
) and other barriers specific to the British marketplace. Of course I don't know enough about Canada specifically to comment overmuch - but I hope our friends in Canada don't have to pay too much over the odds in real terms
^^^I'm guessing you're not a British Nikon user.
Apple has been a bit more fair than most. No, really. You may think every company rips off UK citizens, but I don't find that to be the case with Apple.
Apple has been a bit more fair than most. No, really. You may think every company rips off UK citizens, but I don't find that to be the case with Apple.
I do remember from my retail marketing days for a Canadian national chain, that for coast-to-coast campaigns, we had to regionalize ads that featured large physical items like appliances and mattresses. Distribution was centered in Ontario, and provinces on either coast saw incremental product price gains that were directly attributed to shipping costs. More so in Vancouver than Halifax.
Could be the 49th parallel gives a convenient landmark to apply these costs.
Although there is an Apple warehouse in Markham, Ontario, and a laptop is somewhat smaller than a twin sized mattress and box spring.
And that type of cost are never incurred in America. A product from a Japanese company that's made in Thailand is more expensive in Japan than America. I just don't get it. Is it due to localization of the marketing across that massive island country of Japan?