Canada-U.S. goods price gap shrinking: report

Stupid article. Is this common sense blurb worth a page? C'mon. Where's the beef?

This may be for overall products but take out the things that are in the same price range and you get a hell of a deal in the US. I typically go over and get deals like: milk $1.88 ($4.29 in Canada), energy drink $.99 ($2.00 ON SALE in Canada), Beef Jerkey $2.10 ($6.99 in Canada), Ocean Spray $2.00-$2.50 ($3.99-$4.99 in Canada), clothing is MUCH cheaper in the US and sales in the US are typically a higher percentage off and happen more often. Now I typically visit some of the discount stores for those deals (Biglots rocks for snack foods) but you can go to Walmart in Canada then go to Walmart in the US and see the difference on the exact same items.

My girlfriend is a seamstress and discovered a fabric store chain in the US where she saves about 50-75% over the same items at the Canadian fabric (land) chain. Material costs on most things are cheaper in the US along with gas prices and workers wages so of course it is cheaper to buy from there. Makes sense for me living fairly close to the border.

I buy everything in the US. Only a retard would buy local when you can get the same thing in the US for half the price. This country is fucked up. Especially when it comes to auto and gas prices. Open your eyes Canada before it's too late.

An Electric power bar selling at Home Depot in the US sells for about 10 bucks and in Canada it sells for 24 bucks at The Home depot in Canada. Home Depot is ripping off Canadians. This is just one example of price gouging by American Companies in Canada. Perhaps if they are going to treat Canadians in that fashion then Canada would be better off without them. We are ruled by that great American Eagle like it or not. They set the prices and Canadian Conpanies just follow suit and rip of Canadians as well. It's the smaller priced items which count the most. A few screws for 2.95 is certainly a ripoff. But their marketing strategy is "everyone has a couple of bucks to spend on a 10 cent item when they really need something."This would make a Hog sick!

I Lived in the US for 5 years and have moved two month ago to Toronto. The cheapest store for me in the US was Walmart. I used to buy a set of 3 underwears for 5.99. The same set cost $17.00 in Walmart Canada. Why? is it because Walmart is an American Company and it costs them a lot for transportation?
I used to pay 300$\year for insurance. Now I'm paying 2500\year. This is a rip off. You can't save money at all.

My Dad always said retailers keep their prices at the 'threshold of pain'....ie, the highest price they can charge without you walking away from the purchase. Canadians just pay whatever they have to and accept all excuses as to why we should pay more. I'd love to buy local, but get most of my stuff 30-50% cheaper (for clothing and food) in the u.s. I'm not buying local to go broke, and will continue to do all my shopping there if it means I can keep more of my hard earned money.

All I hear is shop local. Why should I support a business when it doesn't support me. I will pay some what more in Canada if the prices are close but most of the time they aren't. Give me reasonable prices to shop local and i will change my habits

Wouldn't it be ironic if all of you lost your jobs because the service or goods you offer is no longer needed because Canadians chose to buy from the U.S.? Does it cost more to live here in Canada, of course. It was recently announced our Healthcare just doubled in cost in the past 10 years. That's an inflation rate of 7%. Someone has to pay. Do I like it, of course not.
Someone mentioned the price of Milk. The government taxes us all a lot more on milk, poultry, pork, beef and wheat products to ensure the farmers can earn a decent living. Without these subsidies, the very large farmers would lower their prices, squeeze the middle or small farmer out and then rasie prices back again. Because of our vast land, it is simply too expensive for our farmers to provide the same product at the same U.S. cost because of the transportation to the nearest centres that feed only 1/10 of the people compared to the U.S. So yes, that means the large farmers are earning a very good living while the others are scraping by.
Now that the Wheat Board will be disbanded, just watch what happens to te smaller growers. They will all go bankrupt because the large growers will sell their product at a lower price to push the little fella out. Give it 18 months.

the can am quad bikes, made in quebec are more expensive in quebec than they are in the states, even after they move them to the states, so the freight is no excuse. their 1000x side by side is about 14 thousand in the states, the same one is about 18 thousand in canada plus insane taxes, it sounds like a lot more than eleven percent to me, and for a product that is made in canada, needless to say, i will not buy any products from can am or any other canadian company that sells for less in the states than they do in canada.

look at the oil patch, we have all the bitumen that we could ever want, what do we do, we want to build a pipeline so that the american refineries will refine our resource, provide jobs for americans, not canadians, mark it up and rip us a new a$$hole at the pump, instead we should build refineries all over the west, move the oil by pipeline or train and refine the product in canada, give jobs to canadians, lower the fuel price for canadians and sell fuel to the americans and make more money for canada, the lower energy cost would also boost our economy and drive the unemployment rate down, it would be like the roaring 50s after the war. WE CANADIANS AND OUR POLITICIANS ARE MORONS WITH NO BACKBONE.

I live close to the boarder and go shopping twice or three times a month. I buy my gas and some groceries and save a lot of money. The thing that bothers me the most is the automobiles are about $10,000 and then more cheaper. Every time I cross the boarder I notice trucks and trucks of new cars going into the U.S and on the other side same thing, trucks and trucks of new cars coming into Canada. This bothers me because cars made here are selling a hell of a lot less in the U.S and cars coming in are much, much more expenxive in Canada. Plus we have to pay more taxes for these cars.
How the hell can that happen?
This is among all the other things mentioned above in other posted remarks.
Wake up Canada, stop taking your own people to the cleaners. You are already on TAXES.

I go to the states with my daughters about 3 times a year. One thing that I have noticed is that even if we stay in a hotel for 2 nights. It's still worth it. The cost of the goods is so cheap. (for Example: The filters for my Lenox furnace are 5 inches thick and they cost $45.00 up here, at Menard's they only cost $17.00 each. I need at least 6 for the year and last time that I went down, I bought every one on the shelf (5). It would have cost me $225.00 up here. There $85.00, A savings of $140.00. Well worth going just for these, but of course we buy much more. Last year I bought BMX bikes for my grandsons at $45.00 ea at Walmart. Up here at Walmart they were $149.00 ea. Go figure.

Everything in Canada is a ripoff compared to the US. Even when something is made locally so there is no shipping or border taxes, it is still triple the price of same or comparable item in the US. Canadians are being gouged! Even when our dollar was worth more than the US a few years ago we still had to pay the "Canadian Price" on the books, which is much higher. Messed Up!

Are they kidding price gap shrinking. Fortunate I am only 10 min to the boarder. No line-ups for I live in a small town the price of gas a savings of 30 cents a litre. Auto parts in many cases less then half the cost of Canada. Infact we have a station that charges $179.9 a litre. Another small town not to far from where I live. I first thought it was a joke. Even when are dollar was a lot less you could still find many bargains in the USA. Gouging is one thing though some of our prices are legal theft.

Totally ripped off in Canada! Our wall oven went for a crap so we decided to look for a double wall oven. The oven here was $2,700 at Sears here, in the US we got it for $1100. It was the same brand and model and made in the same place, Quebec! We got a canadian made oven in the US for more than half the price, WTF! Same goes for lumber, our grade A lumber in the US is about a third to half the price of the shit wood with knots, sap and cracks that we have here.

I shop in the US all the time for gas, groceries and everything else. We get ripped off here for everything even for our own canadian products.

Love my Country, hate my Government! Over taxed and over priced!

I have been living in Phoenix for the past 3 years, I am in Canada for a visit this week. Yes Canadians are being ripped off, the price differential is huge. I don't buy the excuse that we are a small market compared to the U.S. 32 million people is not small, and distance to the markets is not greater here than in the U.S.

Mr. Harper,
I am a proud Canadian but this A** kissing has got to stop.
We Proud Canadians need someone with Ba**s to stop this gouging and start to protect this country. The U.S. has increased the amout that Americans can bring into the U.S and our Government refused to do the same. Furthermore, You are killing us with your taxes and you want more. You send millions to other countries to help them out but forget about your owen people that need help here. Taxes increase at will, Gas is controled by your taxes, Pentions for the elderly increses by 0.005% in three years for those who have served and worked in this country to its limits. Foreigners come to this country and after a very shot time, get more of our hard earned money than your own citizens. We do have the best country in the world but our government sure stinks with a lot of their taxes and policies. Too bad Jack had to go so early, because I really think this Country would have changed a lot better. Justin Tr****u is coming and he will have the B***s his father had. WAKE UP AND TAKE CARE OF YOUR PEOPLE AND OUR GREAT COUNTRY. Sorry I won't be around to see the Justin era.
Mr. Harper your some what good, but not enough for this great country of ours. WAKE UP!

Yea I agree with every post here everything that sells in canada is the biggest bloody ripoff I just built a brand new high performance engine for my camaro and I priced all the parts I needed thru local Canadian distributors and would have cost me in excess of 5 grand!!!!!!! I got everything I needed and a whole bunch more straight out of the US for a mere 2 grand bought a whole bunch of clothes, shoes, hats, and some nfl jerseys too for a fraction of what they would of cost up here in Canada. Now I just get everyone I know including my parents to just buy what they need from the US and just watch how much money they save. It makes no sense why everything is double to triple the price for everything up here. People need to start opening their eyes and seeing just how much they are being ripped off!!!! I for one and many others refuse to pay these incredible prices Ill go where the best deal is and thats nowhere in Canada!!!!

I was in Walmart Ogdensburg last weekend. As I went into the front door there was a HUGE display of Molson Canadian Beer. The sign said $19.99 for a case of 30. 'Nuff said!!!!!

Peter, and anyone else who doesn't understand...we are NOT a**kissing the USA!
Do people realize that they are our closest and best trading partner? To boot, they have the exact same language and culture as us, so we don't have any language/cultural barriers to cross! We, as Canadians are the luckiest country on earth, (besides the USA) BECAUSE we LIVE right beside them. They have a large land mass AND 3 times the population of Canada and therefore WILL be HUGE on an economic scale! Enjoy that we live so close!!
Lastly, to anyone who cares, the reason everything is so very much more expensive in Canada is because stupid Canadians have decided they NEED our messed up (my words) health care system. IF you want CANADIAN health care, you WILL pay for it one way or another. For anyone who is a patriotic Canadian, YOU continually rave to Americans that we have this wonderful health care system, so QUIT complaining about the high prices of everthing!! You are speaking out of BOTH sides of your mouth and sound stupid!

I think most of the problem is most big stores in Canada are owned by the U.S.

Little wonder big company's in the U.S. want to start up stores here. They charge us double what they charge there own people. Our Govt. goes right along with it too. The more we pay the more taxes our Govt. makes.