Why do books cost more in Canada than in the USA?

[Jeff Wisnia]

The current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars is very
close to 1 to 1, only a few cents difference on the dollar.

So why do the prices printed on the covers of books have the Canadian
prices listed as being about 40% higher than the US price?

Is it because of some sort of import duty, higher in Canada than the US?

A book jacket I just looked at said "Printed in China". The listed US
price was $10.00 and the Canadian price $14.25.

I'm obviously missing the boat here.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

[D.F. Manno]

Jeff Wisnia <jwisnia...@conversent.net> wrote:
> The current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars is very
> close to 1 to 1, only a few cents difference on the dollar.
>
> So why do the prices printed on the covers of books have the Canadian
> prices listed as being about 40% higher than the US price?
>
> Is it because of some sort of import duty, higher in Canada than the US?
>
> A book jacket I just looked at said "Printed in China". The listed US
> price was $10.00 and the Canadian price $14.25.
>
> I'm obviously missing the boat here.

One reason is that Canadian law allows a higher price. To adjust for the
exchange rate, importers can tack on a 10% surcharge. What was intended as
a ceiling has become a floor. [1]

<http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/blogs/insight/why-books-cost-more-canada-205637376.html>
--
D.F. Manno

[1] Which was a Paul Simon song back in the '80s.

[Mark Brader]

Jeff Wisnia:

>> The current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars is very
>> close to 1 to 1, only a few cents difference on the dollar.
>>
>> So why do the prices printed on the covers of books have the Canadian
>> prices listed as being about 40% higher than the US price?

Because they can.

D.F. Manno:

> One reason is that Canadian law allows a higher price.

It's not as if the prices of books were fixed by law.

In some recent years the Canadian dollar has risen above the US dollar
and then there is some grumbling about this sort of pricing. The stores
usually respond along the lines of "Lower population density, so higher
shipping costs relative to sales, and anyway the Canadian dollar was
lower when we bought those books. -- Oh, all right, we'll put them on
sale. For the next week you pay the marked US price but in Canadian
dollars, okay?" And the public goes back to sleep.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | "Common sense isn't any more common on Usenet
m...@vex.net | than it is anywhere else." --Henry Spencer

My text in this article is in the public domain.

[bill van]

In article <0t6dnXnKKZHEE2nM...@giganews.com>,

Jeff Wisnia <jwisnia...@conversent.net> wrote:

> The current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars is very
> close to 1 to 1, only a few cents difference on the dollar.
>
> So why do the prices printed on the covers of books have the Canadian
> prices listed as being about 40% higher than the US price?
>
> Is it because of some sort of import duty, higher in Canada than the US?
>
> A book jacket I just looked at said "Printed in China". The listed US
> price was $10.00 and the Canadian price $14.25.
>
> I'm obviously missing the boat here.
>

Most goods cost more here than in the U.S. The explanations are various.
They include tariffs, transportation costs, sales taxes and heaven knows
what. There's some truth to all of that, but most of us here think very
broadly that we are, as we have been more or less forever, being ripped
off, and that the ripper-offers know a good thing when they see it and
have no intention of stopping, and that Canadian politicians have in one
way or another been made dependent on the largesse of the ripper-offers
and also have no intention of stopping it.

There is a significant amount of cross-border shopping in U.S. border
towns from nearby Canadian cities, which ebbs and flows with relative
currency values. When the two currencies are close to par, lots of
Canadians go south to fill their tanks with gas, buy cheese, milk, TV
sets etc., expecting that even if they're charged tariffs on some of the
goods they bring in, they'll still come out ahead.

I've never bothered for several reasons, one being that Washington State
has never had low single malt prices, and since the state privatized
liquor retailing last year, prices have actually gone up as much as 20
per cent because of some insane system of state fees imposed on private
retailers.

bill

[N Jill Marsh]

On Sat, 27 Jul 2013 23:22:02 -0400, Jeff Wisnia
<jwisnia...@conversent.net> wrote:
>
>The current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars is very
>close to 1 to 1, only a few cents difference on the dollar.
>
>So why do the prices printed on the covers of books have the Canadian
>prices listed as being about 40% higher than the US price?

That's really old pricing.

>Is it because of some sort of import duty, higher in Canada than the US?

No.

>A book jacket I just looked at said "Printed in China". The listed US
>price was $10.00 and the Canadian price $14.25.
>
>I'm obviously missing the boat here.

Not really, book pricing became very complicated when the Canadian
dollar got so slow some years ago, and it's never recovered to
sensible practices.

My old books from the 70s/80s have the same price, there is no
differential, even from American publishers.

The pricing of books is somewhat complicated, but there's a couple of
obvious factors at work: one is increased shipping and distribution
costs, Canada is big and the population is small. However, the most
important factor is the period when the Canadian dollar was very low
compared to the US. There was a short period of a year or so when it
was effectively cheaper to buy books here than in the states, but that
didn't last long, the publishers reacted very quickly to that
situation, and started dual pricing books.

The price of printed books remains the same for the same print run,
and probably for the same ISBN/edition, and that price is set twelve
to fifteen months ahead of publication, so it makes some amount of
sense to estimate differences in currencies conservatively, so you
don't take a bath if the money goes wonky. You can always discount a
book, but raising the price from the printed one on the cover/jacket
is not legal - that's the only reason why airports don't gouge
travelers for reading materials.

It's not only US and Canadian prices, by the way, when I was selling
book it was the UK publishers that were the worst for doing this,
particularly with their nonfiction offerings, some of the price
differentials were beyond embarrassing, and I have even declined to
stock a book because of it. But people don't calculate
dollar/pound/euro exchange rates in their heads easily, so they seldom
complained about those prices, but the American ones were more than
evident.

I found some people to be really unreasonable about this, with very
little appreciation that the cost of the stock on the shelves doesn't
change instantaneously with the currency markets, and many people
expected to be able to purchase the item with American money for the
American price, in a Canadian market. Um, no.

That all said, and even though I am okay with a 10% padding or so,
publishers and distributors were incredibly slow to respond to the
changes in currency, and I think that this is one of the reasons why
the Canadian publishing industry suffered so badly a few years ago and
is in its death throes at the moment. Issues like this, as well as
the rise of the ebook and the demise of hand-selling, really hit the
market badly, especially the independents, and the publishers depended
upon the independent booksellers for much more than the income from
the would indicate.


--
nj"internym here"m

Send reggae, guns & numbers.

[D.F. Manno]

In article <SfCdnQPW6blzMGnM...@vex.net>,

m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:

> Jeff Wisnia:
> >> The current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars is very
> >> close to 1 to 1, only a few cents difference on the dollar.
> >>
> >> So why do the prices printed on the covers of books have the Canadian
> >> prices listed as being about 40% higher than the US price?
>
> Because they can.
>
> D.F. Manno:
> > One reason is that Canadian law allows a higher price.
>
> It's not as if the prices of books were fixed by law.

You cut out the part where I wrote "What was intended as a ceiling has
become a floor."

--
D.F. Manno | dfm...@mail.com
GOP delenda est!

[Bill Turlock]

On Sun, 28 Jul 2013 09:00:29 -0400, N Jill Marsh <njm...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>The price of printed books remains the same for the same print run,
>and probably for the same ISBN/edition, and that price is set twelve
>to fifteen months ahead of publication, so it makes some amount of
>sense to estimate differences in currencies conservatively, so you
>don't take a bath if the

>money goes wonky.

Money Goes Wonky is the name of my new band.

[Mark Brader]

D.F. Manno:
> > > One reason is that Canadian law allows a higher price.

Mark Brader:

> > It's not as if the prices of books were fixed by law.

D.F. Manno:

> You cut out the part where I wrote "What was intended as a ceiling has
> become a floor."

On the grounds of irrelevance, because it's not as if the prices of books
were fixed by law.
--
Mark Brader, Toronto | Subway Emergency Instructions...
m...@vex.net | * Do not pull the emergency cord. -- MTA, NYC

[Jeff Wisnia]

By gosh I think I got it! (My Fair Lady)

[D.F. Manno]

In article <H6ydnZUCQL5BwmjM...@vex.net>,

m...@vex.net (Mark Brader) wrote:

> D.F. Manno:
> > > > One reason is that Canadian law allows a higher price.
>
> Mark Brader:
> > > It's not as if the prices of books were fixed by law.
>
> D.F. Manno:
> > You cut out the part where I wrote "What was intended as a ceiling has
> > become a floor."
>
> On the grounds of irrelevance, because it's not as if the prices of books
> were fixed by law.

It's not irrelevant if you read the fucking cite.

[Mark Brader]

D.F. Manno:
>>>>> One reason is that Canadian law allows a higher price.

> It's not irrelevant if you read the fucking cite.

Okay, you have a fucking point -- to the extent that "exclusive
distributors" are involved in the process. But the law does not
fix the price of books sold at retail.
--
Mark Brader | "You wake me up early in the morning to tell me
Toronto | I am right? Please wait until I am wrong."
m...@vex.net | -- John von Neumann, on being phoned at 10 am

[Wally Sevits]

On Sun, 28 Jul 2013 04:07:10 +0000 (UTC), D.F. Manno
<dfm...@mail.com> wrote:

>What was intended as
>a ceiling has become a floor. [1]
>

Paul Simon has told me, among other things, that the leaves that are
green turn to brown; that giraffes are insincere; and that papa looked
down and spit on the ground every time the name was mentioned.

But I can't match on price ceilings or floors. Please remind me.
--
Wally Sevits

[Hactar]

In article <bkhdv8pemeuujise5...@4ax.com>,

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/One-Man%27s-Ceiling-Is-Another-Man%27s-Floor-lyrics-Paul-Simon/E915E88268CB975F4825698A000B4A7D
http://tinyurl.com/k8hqrsa

There's been some hard feelings here
About some words that were said
There's been some hard feelings here
And what is more
There's been a bloody purple nose
And some bloody purple clothes
That were messing up the lobby floor
It's just apartment house rules
So all you 'partment fools
Remember : one man's ceiling
is another man's floor
Remember: one man's ceiling
is another man's floor

There's been some strange goin's on
And some folks have come and gone
And the elevator man don't work no more
I heard a racket in the hall
And I thought 1 heard a fall
But I never opened up my door
It's just apartment house sense
It's like apartment rents
Remember : one man's ceiling
is another man's floor
Remember: one man's ceiling
is another man's floor

And there's an alley
in the back of my building
Where some people congregate in shame
I was walking with mv dog
And the night was black with smog
When I thought I heard somebody
Call my name



--
-eben QebWe...@vTerYizUonI.nOetP royalty.mine.nu:81
LIBRA: A big promotion is just around the corner for someone
much more talented than you. Laughter is the very best medicine,
remember that when your appendix bursts next week. -- Weird Al

[Xho Jingleheimerschmidt]

On 07/27/13 20:22, Jeff Wisnia wrote:
>
> The current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars is very
> close to 1 to 1, only a few cents difference on the dollar.
>
> So why do the prices printed on the covers of books have the Canadian
> prices listed as being about 40% higher than the US price?

Books are more valuable in Canada, because Canooks know how to read, eh.

Xho

[Xho Jingleheimerschmidt]

On 07/28/13 11:15, Mark Brader wrote:
> D.F. Manno:
>>>> One reason is that Canadian law allows a higher price.
>
> Mark Brader:
>>> It's not as if the prices of books were fixed by law.
>
> D.F. Manno:
>> You cut out the part where I wrote "What was intended as a ceiling has
>> become a floor."
>
> On the grounds of irrelevance, because it's not as if the prices of books
> were fixed by law.
>

Nevertheless, the law most certainly can create anchor points which make
collusionless collusion much easier than it otherwise would be.

Xho

[danny burstein]

And we get a darkhorse candidate taking the lead with only
two days left in the month...

--
_____________________________________________________
Knowledge may be power, but communications is the key
dan...@panix.com
[to foil spammers, my address has been double rot-13 encoded]

[art...@yahoo.com]

And what else is there to do in Churchill in January? Even the polar bears are reading Fifty Shades of Grey Cup.