Well that explains it well. Thank you Mark.
First, I was not looking for apologies for your price. Just wanted to understand it better. I used "assuming" because I was only guessing and was looking for a bit of education on it. Sounds like the snowmobile and boat business down in the US.
I really did not mean to evoke the terse response that I received nor was I trying to be rude. But I'll accept it as is. I do think your firm does great work. The internet is a double edged sword. Its easy to see prices but not so easy to see why. Perhaps firearms in the US are too cheap!
I don't mean to be snippy but I get this so often (and usually we're outright accused of ripping people off and price gouging... another favorite term)... anyway... the whole issue of "why is the Canadian price so much higher than the US price when currency is only..." comes up weekly in one THREAD or another and after a few years of answering them I guess my answers can sometimes get snarky... especially when I've been having a particularly stressful day
... so for that I'm sorry.
There is never going to be parity with the US pricing... because the currency exchange rate (while it does play a factor) actually plays only a small factor in what makes up the Canadian price for someone like us (an importer). Most dealers have absolutely no control over any of it... they buy from a Canadian distributor/importer who sets wholesale pricing at whatever they want and who add their distributor markup in... then the dealer pays another round of shipping costs and marks up the product so they can pay their costs... they are unaware of what the original currency costs were or what import costs were.
For us we import everything ourselves so we do see the effect of currency... but there is a lag time... currency can take anywhere from 1 week (in some rare cases) to 4 or 5 months (when old stock takes time to sell off) before the currency changes work their way through the supply chain. Ultimately though the bulk of the difference in pricing between US and Canada is the result of export costs, import costs, customs charges, overhead costs (which in Canada are MUCH higher than the US) and the need to make a profit on a much smaller volume of sales than US dealers have to work with. An average US dealer will sell 10 to 20 times (minimum) more than an average Canadian dealer annually... they can afford to work on 10% margins (and less)... especially when they have very little internal paperwork to do (compared to Canada) and they can even drop ship so they never even touch the merchandise themselves (just have it shipped direct from the Distributors warehouse to the customer's door).
Even if the currency is at PAR my costs and overheads don't change... the difference between US and Canadian pricing is NOT currency... you're paying for our services... that's the point I wish people would understand.
I'm never going to be able to be "price competitive" when compared to the price that Brownells will sell you a small part for... but when it comes to major parts and accessories, or firearms, we have a track record of being able to 'get' stuff that no-one else can and for that you pay for our services... simple as that.
If people want to pay US Prices for goods I'll be happy to charge you the same US price you see advertised elsewhere... you pay me in US dollars... and you figure out how you're getting it out of the US and into Canada (legally) on your own.
If you want us to export it, transport it, clear it through customs, register it and process it for sale then you pay us in Canadian dollars with our markup added to cover our costs for all of those services and our profit built in. Not an unrealistic expectation on our part
Mark
