Quinte Fishing

I have trouble understanding the value of our ( the US) dollar vs that of Canadas. Ok the way i see it is that you could turn 93 of your cents into 1 of our dollar in the states. Correct? The way I understand, that is a benfit to Canadians. Correct? If so thats awesome . What I dont understand is why things are so much more expensive up there than here. Does that offset the exchange rate? I see that things fishing related are much more expensive. Lures, boat related items etc........... Could someone help to explain to me the difference. I am no finance major trust me. Thanks guys

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U.S.C.G. Licensed Captain
Pure Fishing Ambassador

for 30 yrs it's always been the other way around we used to have as much as 1.20 in some cases to buy a dollar of your money. Gas is more expoensive here as well as many other items. I am no tax guru either but I think it boils down to TAXES our goverments pay/charge duties etc from things imported state side. I personally its great for travelling when our dollar is strong but on a whole it's not so good for our economy because it actually entices cross border shopping.....especially with Christmas on the final approach! Also manufacturing industry takes a big hit because U.S. contracts get pulled and head south of their border ....ie Mexico.


I'm not sure if it answers your questions but I think it boils down to a greedy cdn government!

ok, it makes sense. It's almost a double edged sword. For instance your dollar is strong and you can cross the border and come down to the big mall in syracuse and your dollar will stretch further. On the other hand that takes money out of peoples hands in canada. Small business owners must suffer the worse when this happens? It seems to me that when this was reversed in the past, i would hear of people buying beer and stuff in canada and it use to make for a cheap fishing trip

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Pure Fishing Ambassador

There are many factors to take into account whenever you see a price on products up here in Canada. Some of the distributors have arranged it that as a small business retailer we can not purchase products direct from the manufacturer as some of the US stores are able to. Therefore we have to purchase through distributors and they mark their percentages up and then there is the Customs Brokerage that decides that in order for us to get our products than we have to pay them for their expertise to get it cleared at the border and that fee is also tacked on to the goods purchased. We are already hit with 2 increases on the products and now we have to address shipping costs as well which is now a third increase. Let's just say that these 3 increases are only at 10% each for a total of 30% and we have yet to get the product on our shelf.

You can cross the border and save at least 30% and bring it back with you and we as a small retailer can not compete against that. You can cross and buy quite a bit of product and the minute a small business man crosses to try and get the same products we are taxed and need custom's brokers etc to get the product cleared. Now as a penalty if our distributor knows that we have crossed the border to get products that they carry then guess who will get the run around whenever they need more products and most likely we will not be able to deal with the same distributor.

Another disadvantage for the consumer is that if they purchase products such as Vexilar's etc and there is an issue with them then you have to send it back to the place of purchase as we will not be able to address any warranty issues. I know that there are some US residence that come up ice fishing here in the Bay of Quinte and they bring products up with them and sell them to some of the locals here as well as some businesses and feel that they are doing some good when in fact they are contributing to the problems and hurting the local businesses by performing these practices.

I know as a small business we have a lot of our savings and a huge investment in our businesses and such practices makes it difficult to conduct business as normal. As a small business retailer we do not mark many of our products up that is all done before we get our products to our store. The same is happening to car dealers and ATV dealers only now the manufacturers are threatening to pull the dealerships if the US sells to a Canadian. The hunting and fishing industry is too cut throat for this type of business and no attempts will be made to protect the retailers, then we have no option but to engage in a price war of sorts and lower all prices to a point where we will give items below cost to keep our customers here at home. All this proves is who will last the longest with what is in their bank accounts. If it wasn't for our other businesses to offset this one we would have a difficult time carrying on in this manner. Our other businesses are doing well with the Canadian dollar being strong that we are able to carry out an exporting business.

Hope this explains some of the situations that you see happening and you will see some businesses closing from these pressures. We have talked to our landlord in expanding to a larger approximately 3 times our present size and with the bridge expansion going over the Moira River from Bell Blvd. to Adam St. within the next year will be a huge asset. When our people researched this location we were aware of this infrastructure as well as the possibility of the large development going in across the road and further developing of this location. We are now gearing towards our expansion as well as importing from overseas that is where our future lies as we are seeing great returns in our other businesses.

The Euro dollar is still strong and in the very near future on items shipped in from Europe will be cheaper to purchase in Canada then the US. This has been reflected in our firearms industry at the present time when purchasing firearms from Europe such as Beretta, Benelli, Sako etc. it certainly will change. We will gain from our hunting business and slash prices in our fishing to reflect prices of the US. We have presently done that with some lures with more to savings to come in the near future. I guess in a way we have to be like Wal-Mart and slash prices daily.

Any products that are sitting in the store that was purchased at least prior to 4 months ago we will loose since we purchased at a higher rate then presently offered to us. This next year will tell the true story as to what will happen in our retail industry, we are prepared to continue in our growth and cautiously observe which direction the market is heading into.

Best regards,
Sam

Thank you Sam for taking the time to elaborate on this. I'm all for the lil man. Thats just the way I was raised. I was born and live in a small town. To me it doesnt matter whther it is my town the next town over or another country. I like giving my business to the smaller guys. I plan on having you hook me up with a few lures when I get up to tackle some quinte eyes. I look forward to meeting you Sam

Landshark

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U.S.C.G. Licensed Captain
Pure Fishing Ambassador

Hi Landshark,

Thanks for the response and I look forward to meeting with you. Send me an email when you are coming up to Quinte and I will have coffee on at the store and chat over some walleye locations during coffee.

Best regards,
Sam

Always a class act Sam.

Our dollar is not strong the U.S. dollar is weak. That's why our prices will not go down. I wish they would.

JFish

A fishing buddy purchased a new 2007 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer earlier this year. His price after incentives but before taxes was $45412 CDN. Anyone living in Rochester, NY can purchase an identically equipped 2008 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer for $28000 USD after incentives and before taxes. I contend we're getting ripped big time here in Canada even though the CDN dollar is above par with the US dollar.

its not the same difference on used vehicles....

i bought my gmc yukon earlier this year, and it was only $1,000 more than most of the american prices.....

on new stuff, its a big difference!

Few car companies just recently have been charged with price fixing to keep the prices lower in the US than here. The dollar reflects many influences to all the industries in Canada. Many believe it is a good thing that our dollar is higher but I beg to differ. The manufacturing in Canada is hit the hardest as we lose good paying jobs to be replaced by lower service jobs, temp jobs etc.. This has a huge ripple effect to the economy as the average joes income drops so does his spending power and his desire to shop on the Canadian side plummets with his now depleted buying power. Cross border shopping becomes very desirable as the dollar goes up so does his buying power, not to mention his lower price across the border. The taxes going up over the past few years to build surpluses in our governments coffers in excess of 15 + BILLION dollars a year. Then they say guess what average joe we will give you a tax break 1% here - 1% there WOW how generous of them to give us our own money back. The whole time these same people tell us the country is in great shape - but is it. When our dollar was at its lowest people were working, OHIP was great, economy was booming, social services at all time high,governemnt officals were not voting themselves 10-25 percent raises and most taxes were raised at acceptable levels. Dollar rises people losing great paying jobs, no pensions, no benefits, stores losing business, hydro rates at all time high, people losing or selling their homes, gas prices out of this world = which drives all other prices up. Taxes and hidden ones at that, greed from massive store chains, no government controls on gas, hydro, land taxes etc... has caused this sorry state of affairs. BUY CANADIAN AND THE SMALL GUYS NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER. Remeber when there was small independant gas guys the price was not all that bad but now! Sorry just my 2 cents and believe me I am thankful the government has not taxed that.

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Take a kid fishing, do not leave the future at home.