How Canadians save money when buying books through Amazon.com

If you’ve ever noticed the pricing on the back of a paperback available in Canada, you’ll notice that there are two prices listed; US and Canadian.

With the current exchange rate (1.064 USD -> CAD) I thought I’d run a quick analysis on purchasing four books from Amazon.ca and Amazon.com, and see which would be the best buy.

                    AMAZON.CA   USD         AMAZON.COM  USD
The Dip             $11.68      $12.39      $10.36      $10.36
Wikinomics          $20.48      $21.72      $17.13      $17.13
Getting Things Done $13.32      $14.12      $16.47      $16.47
Naked Conversations $20.15      $21.37      $16.47      $16.47      Saving (USD)
Totals                          $69.59 		        $60.43      $9.16

As you can see, on those four items, you’d qualify for free shipping, and save $ 9.16 in the process.

Now this method won’t work for everything, as some items Amazon.com sells are dutiable upon entry into Canada.

And, of course, prices fluctuate frequently on these online services, so your mileage may vary.

But this does stimulate some questions…why are Canadian booksellers still selling books at the Canadian price as marked on the book? Don’t they realize they’ll lose business by charging at this rate? Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to be competitive, or are the profit margins so slim that they have to use that price to cover their operating expenses?

Technorati Tags: Exchange Rate, Canada, Books, Prices, How To, Save Money, USD, CAD, amazon,

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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }

1 S. Tremblay June 5, 2007 at 12:51 pm: I am guessing that there are Canadian laws that would prevent them to do so. Plus they probably buy them at a marked down price from the CDN price so to make their mark they have to charge the CDN price. I’m sure it doesn’t make them happy. They’d rather sell at the lower price if they could.
2 Brad Grier June 5, 2007 at 1:18 pm: Not sure about the laws, but yeah, you’re likely right. They ordered the books months ago, at a specific price factoring in a specific profit margin.

Now the value of the dollar has changed, the printed price on the back of the book hasn’t and if they choose to compete against the USD price, they have to sell the book at a lower price, reducing profit.