Americans vs Canadian businesses/retailers.

WHY do we do this to ourselves ?

FYI … these are two DIFFERENT & DISTINCT COUNTRIES

The whole structure / premise of each country is VASTLY DIFFERENT

So just like there is nothing garnered from comparing Canada to France, Germany, or Japan

There is really no point in this exercise either …

Some things are more here, some things are less
Wages are horrible in the USA at the bottom of the food chain
Whereas in Canada most folks make $ 15 or so an hour … and have the benefit of paid vacation, sick days, and access to healthcare
Not to mention CERB during the recent pandemic

Comparisons are futile

I mean how would you like it … if someone was continually comparing you as a person to another family member
Someone who doesn’t even live in the same house
Say a cousin

Then you’d actually see how ridiculous doing this exercise is

PointsHubby wrote: ↑ WHY do we do this to ourselves ?

FYI … these are two DIFFERENT & DISTINCT COUNTRIES

The whole structure / premise of each country is VASTLY DIFFERENT

So just like there is nothing garnered from comparing Canada to France, Germany, or Japan

There is really no point in this exercise either …

Some things are more here, some things are less
Wages are horrible in the USA at the bottom of the food chain
Whereas in Canada most folks make $ 15 or so an hour … and have the benefit of paid vacation, sick days, and access to healthcare
Not to mention CERB during the recent pandemic

Comparisons are futile

I mean how would you like it … if someone was continually comparing you as a person to another family member
Someone who doesn’t even live in the same house
Say a cousin

Then you’d actually see how ridiculous doing this exercise is

This is a forum to discuss matters of shopping and deals. If something is no interest to you, guess what? IGNORE IT!!

But no, you had to get your rant out to make you feel better on a Friday. Feel better? Feel more superior?

You could have instead just let the thread die on its own.

blindemboss wrote: ↑ This is a forum to discuss matters of shopping and deals. If something is no interest to you, guess what? IGNORE IT!!

But no, you had to get your rant out to make you feel better on a Friday. Feel better? Feel more superior?

You could have instead just let the thread die on its own.

Listen I agree wholeheartedly …

But, this issue has honestly been beat to death on RFD

Comes up everytime there is a long weekend in the USA that involves a sale
(Which mean most long weekends )

So it’s not just Canada Day vs the 4th of July

But it’s … Memorial Day vs Victoria Day - US Thanksgiving vs Canada Thanksgiving … The Battle of the Black Fridays … or the value of Canada’s Boxing Day etc

I get it. I live practically right next to the border … and prior to the pandemic we were crossing all the time

Shopping can be attractive … but not everything is automatically cheaper … a FACT a lot of rookie shoppers assume

You still gotta know your prices

And not everything is rainbows & roses just cuz it’s America … it just ANOTHER DIFFERENT COUNTRY … be it shopping, food, culture whatever

Go for the whole experience … not just the shopping

You want to talk price comparisons … then ok … List an actual product / deal.

Otherwise a discussion like this is just old hash … reheated in a new frypan

Here’s an example from the past = black-friday-vs-boxing-day-canada-2057316/

GOOGLE … you’ll find literally tons more

PointsHubby wrote: ↑ Listen I agree wholeheartedly …

But, this issue has honestly been beat to death on RFD

Comes up everytime there is a long weekend in the USA that involves a sale
(Which mean most long weekends )

So it’s not just Canada Day vs the 4th of July

But it’s … Memorial Day vs Victoria Day - US Thanksgiving vs Canada Thanksgiving … The Battle of the Black Fridays … or the value of Canada’s Boxing Day etc

I get it. I live practically right next to the border … and prior to the pandemic we were crossing all the time

Shopping can be attractive … but not everything is automatically cheaper … a FACT a lot of rookie shoppers assume

You still gotta know your prices

And not everything is rainbows & roses just cuz it’s America … it just ANOTHER DIFFERENT COUNTRY … be it shopping, food, culture whatever

Go for the whole experience … not just the shopping

You want to talk price comparisons … then ok … List an actual product / deal.

Otherwise a discussion like this is just old hash … reheated in a new frypan

Here’s an example from the past = black-friday-vs-boxing-day-canada-2057316/

GOOGLE … you’ll find literally tons more

If you take that perspective, then there's NOTHING ever to discuss.

You can find any topic under the sun by Googling it. Discussed... ad nauseam.

Not everyone will have read every thread or even one thread about this topic here on RFD.

Not everyone is a Deal Expert or may spend very much time on here compared to others.

One of the things I hate about RFD and most forums in general, is the lack of civil discourse.
It's like road rage on the internet. Everybody has to be right or be rude to someone asking a simple question.
Who said Canadians were polite?

My point remains, if you're not interested, just ignore it and move on.

I have always wondered this too. Maybe it is just that they have more economies of scale or lower costs?

It simply comes down to population, market size, and buying power. Canada has 1/10 the population of U.S. and 1/50 of China. If the Canadian market grows 10%, the U.S. needs to grow only 1% to match. China needs to grow 0.2% to match Canada's 10%.

Sales promotions depend on the manufacturer. And each manufacturer only has a limited budget of market development funds or MDF to grow their markets across the world. Canada like other tier 2 or 3 countries is essentially non-existent in terms of consumer buying power and growth.

In China, you've got three mega sales dates: 6.18, 11.11, and 12.12 with sales that make Black Friday seem like a joke.

Let's pretend, you're a global luxury brand like Coach (Tapestry). The previous quarter results literally showed revenue growth in China was triple digits. How should you focus your efforts and MDF? China (1.4 billion), U.S. (300 million), Germany (80 million), etc.

Just because Canada is next to a large and influential market doesn't make Canada remotely close to being one.

Two distinct markets. Yes, in ways our markets are connected, but in many ways they're not.

Sometimes as demonstrated on these forums, over and over again, consumers think our markets are more similar than they really are. A higher Canadian price automatically assumes the Canadian retailers are "ripping consumers off" due to "low competition" when it's not the case at all.

Spinner wrote: ↑
Let's pretend, you're a global luxury brand like Coach (Tapestry). The previous quarter results literally showed revenue growth in China was triple digits. How should you focus your efforts and MDF? China (1.4 billion), U.S. (300 million), Germany (80 million), etc.

if you run Coach and you see revenue from China was tripled and from Canada was flat, why would you sell higher price in Canada and lower price in China?

smartie wrote: ↑ if you run Coach and you see revenue from China was tripled and from Canada was flat, why would you sell higher price in Canada and lower price in China?

Volume. Look at walmarts business model. Sell a tonne at a lower price.

kr0zet wrote: ↑ Volume. Look at walmarts business model. Sell a tonne at a lower price.

Luxury doesn't price their items based on volume

But let's talk about Walmart then: before they became giant, they didn't have volume, how could they grow up to today's dominant and volume? How could they provide low price with low volume when they were small or mid size?

smartie wrote: ↑ Luxury doesn't price their items based on volume

But let's talk about Walmart then: before they became giant, they didn't have volume, how could they grow up to today's dominant and volume? How could they provide low price with low volume when they were small or mid size?

Ummm walmart has always been about volume. sam walton would drive to suppliers and load up his truck so he could undersell his competitors by pricing below them but selling more than them. I read a story about him doing this with shoes, womens underwear, paper... anything he could get into his five and dime.

Luxury isn't above pricing items to push volume, they have warehouse outlets for that exact reason. They don't push triple digit comp increases without discounting product to push volume.

kr0zet wrote: ↑ Ummm walmart has always been about volume. sam walton would drive to suppliers and load up his truck so he could undersell his competitors by pricing below them but selling more than them. I read a story about him doing this with shoes, womens underwear, paper... anything he could get into his five and dime.

Luxury isn't above pricing items to push volume, they have warehouse outlets for that exact reason. They don't push triple digit comp increases without discounting product to push volume.

I don't think it's that easy, then why not canadian companies just load up stuff and sell for cheap, so we don't need this thread.
One example for Walmart, they developed a better logistics system and they can easily manage inventory. Toyota, they develop just in time system to make cost low, this is what we don't have and that's part of reason why we have this thread, from my observation (could be wrong)

1: US government economics policy is to encourage competition vs Canada government policy is to focus on stability. So US encourage disruption and we encourage establishment. Just look at how many banks in US vs Canada

2: American's mindset is entrepreneurship and Canadian is 9-5 employees. So Americans thinking they are the smartest person in the world ( often they are not) and they can do better than others, but Canadians care job security and think only government can make changes

Because of those, Americans have more innovation and generate efficiency to lower than cost and willing to compete, but Canadians worried too much negative consequences and rather like status quo.

Americans are all about win, Canadian are about finding consensus. In business, if you don't have desire to find efficiency and beat your competitors, you will never want to go extra miles and just keep it as is

smartie wrote: ↑ if you run Coach and you see revenue from China was tripled and from Canada was flat, why would you sell higher price in Canada and lower price in China?

You wouldn't. You take the MDF money to expand the sales channels and advertising in China so more people buy Coach. That means Canada gets zero discounts.

kr0zet wrote: ↑ Volume. Look at walmarts business model. Sell a tonne at a lower price.

Coach sells for a higher price in China and a ton more volume.

That's why nobody cares about Canada. We want low prices and can't move the volume. Then we cry about why prices are high. We're lucky to even have access to those products.