Canadian Dollar and Prices
The media is making much of how the Canadian consumer is not getting the savings of the higher value of our dollar passed on to them. There are a number of factors in play here.
It takes time for the savings to get passed on since in some areas, prices are only set once a year (or every few months). Also, goods bought by suppliers months ago, cost the importer the old price - more than it would cost the supplier today. So, they still need to sell at a price related to the old cost, the old dollar value. Some products, which were produced with the 2 different prices printed on them, will still have the prices relative to when the product was produced - different than today's value. So, these products will normally still be sold at these prices. Eventually, new production of these products will reflect the new prices - but it will take some time. There is always some lag of pricing catching up to current value. It has always been like this. There is more lag when the dollar jumps quickly.
If you are buying products that move quickly (like fresh produce, computers, cars...) you are already, or will be very soon, seeing price reductions.
Books are products that may have been bought by suppliers months ago, but some stores are now selling books at par with the American price marked (instead of the marked Canadian price)
So, don't believe all the bad news the media is giving you. Prices have either come down for consumers, or will within the next few months.
It takes time for the savings to get passed on since in some areas, prices are only set once a year (or every few months). Also, goods bought by suppliers months ago, cost the importer the old price - more than it would cost the supplier today. So, they still need to sell at a price related to the old cost, the old dollar value. Some products, which were produced with the 2 different prices printed on them, will still have the prices relative to when the product was produced - different than today's value. So, these products will normally still be sold at these prices. Eventually, new production of these products will reflect the new prices - but it will take some time. There is always some lag of pricing catching up to current value. It has always been like this. There is more lag when the dollar jumps quickly.
If you are buying products that move quickly (like fresh produce, computers, cars...) you are already, or will be very soon, seeing price reductions.
Books are products that may have been bought by suppliers months ago, but some stores are now selling books at par with the American price marked (instead of the marked Canadian price)
So, don't believe all the bad news the media is giving you. Prices have either come down for consumers, or will within the next few months.
