Be Me
The federal government is currently advising people to be more like me.
The strong loonie is making many prices in retail outlets unreasonable. The conservative government naturally doesn’t want to intervene in the free market however they are requesting retailers lower their prices to better reflect the actual value of the goods. So far only Zellers and Walmart have respond favourably, and even then in a somewhat limited way.
The government is thus turning to the people and suggesting they comparison shop to reward fair market value pricing. Recently when shopping for Wii accessories I compared prices at no less than 5 retailers before making my purchase…several days before the recommendation was made.
Could the plight of the price takers in Canada be over?
See, back in my economics class the prof would say “consumers are price takers” meaning that we neither set nor negotiate the price. That, while somewhat logical, never sat right with me. We posses free will after all. Well now it’s time to exercise it. We can comparison shop, wait for sales, clearance markdowns, and promotions. Make like it’s Buy Nothing Day every day until retailers follow government direction.
A consumer uprising, that’s what I’m suggesting but without the turmoil. For things you need comparison shop, for things you want wait until the price is on par or better than what the yanks are paying. Reward retailers like Walmart and Zellers who voluntarily follow the government’s request.
How far do we take this? Not very.
What? Yea, you read that right. See there ARE reasons we should pay more than our southern neighbours. For one shipping could cost more to bring the goods further plus tariffs and special printing for french and our funky way of spelling things like ‘neighbour’, ‘favour’, and ‘colour’ (my PDA and Friendster have a fit when I spell like a Canadian). Also our market is a tenth the size of the states.
So there are some solid reasons why we should pay more than our warlike friends however we should be paying less for many things than we are now.
Retailers claim it takes awhile to respond to currency fluctuations, the government responded in a well-reasoned way pointing out it’s a trend not a fluctuation and has been going on for some time. Personally I’d argue about 6 years. Not mentioned was also the valid point that Walmart and Zellers have responded so clearly it can be done.
Now granted Walmart has a whole international ad campaign based on dropping prices, ‘rollbacks’ they call it. And Walmart and Zellers both target, well, let’s say a more frugal market. That probably explains why The Bay, owned by the same people as Zellers, hasn’t responded. These particular business streams are profitable by selling inexpensive merchandise in large volumes, what they might lose in markup they make up in volume.
So be frugal and be proud.
