Being a Canadian, I have seen pricing discrepancies between the US and Canada marketplaces for years. Several years ago when I was doing consulting primarily for US customers, an American dollar would turn into $1.30 Canadian. It was pretty sweet. (As the Canadian dollar rose relative to the US dollar, the profit margins tightened up an awful lot.)
So here we are in 2008 with a much smaller exchange rate. Today, for example, my bank is giving me $1.0161 Canadian for a US dollar. The posted exchange rate on the web is around 1.035.
I configured a Dell laptop today on Dell.com and it came to a total of $1879 USD. Using 1.035 as the exchange rate, that would be $1944.76 CAD.
I configured the same laptop on Dell.ca and it came to a total of $2214 CAD. That’s roughly a 14% difference on the same laptop specs. Thanks for the gouging, Dell.
Similarly, I configured a ThinkPad T400 that costs $1364.90 from the US Lenovo site. That’s $1412.67 CAD.
In Canada, Lenovo charges $1585.25 for the same configuration. That’s roughly an 12% markup! That sucks, Lenovo.
OK, so what about Apple? Surely of all these companies it must be gouging customers wherever it can… Nope, only a 1.5% difference between the US and Canadian prices after factoring in the exchange rate.
|
US Price |
US Price in Canadian $ |
Canadian Price in Canadian $ |
Difference |
Markup |
|
| Dell E6400 | $ 1,879.00 | $ 1,944.77 | $ 2,214.00 | $ 269.24 | 13.8% |
| ThinkPad T400 | $ 1,364.90 | $ 1,412.67 | $ 1,585.25 | $ 172.58 | 12.2% |
| MBP 15.4" | $ 1,999.00 | $ 2,068.96 | $ 2,099.00 | $ 30.04 | 1.5% |
What’s the deal Dell and Lenovo?
I’m curious – is it across the board gouging or are there particular components that are much more expensive on the Canadian site?