Princess Auto wtf?

So my buddy and I are on a bit of a road trip to Mississauga lasterday and we stop briefly at the Princess Auto. I'm walking around looking at their fine selection of hunting and shooting related products. I'm quite impressed given the location. As I enter the game processing aisle and scan the area I see a good selection of grinders, stuffers, scales and other such equipment. Along beside me is a store employee ( prolly early-mid 20's) organising and repricing some items. "You make your own jerky and such" she say's? "Yes I most certainly do, but by the looks of it I can't afford to shop here" was my reply. We chat for a bit about hunting and some of our experiences, showing a few pics on our phones. She told me she has 10 deer mounts on her wall but no bears. What a great talk we're having then she must resume working.

I mentioned the price of some of the items because it seemed outrageous to me. The High Mountain Jerky seasoning package was $15.99. Then the young lady I had been chatting with reached up and removed a $9.99 price sticker from the same product, different spice flavour. She then repriced it at $15.99. "What is this, a $6.00 increase" I chirped? " Ya it seem's like a lot but it's because of the Canadian dollar" she replied.

Am I alone in thinking that Princess Auto has just put the screws to the customer big time? $6.00 Increase on a $10.00 item and existing stock on top of the fact. As I began to pay more attention I noticed many more employees with many sheets of new price stickers. I can't really grasp this, I try to understand this whole Canadian dollar scam and such but the amount of the increase on just this one item has me really wondering how much more screwing we're in for?

Any thoughts?

outback

The exchange rate not only effects the dollar, but the duty as well. You have to remember they convert the price to CDN and THEN calculate tax and duty.

So it cost me a $1.50 to buy a $1.00US item, then I pay tax on the sale( maybe $2.00CDN NOW), then when I get it to the broker, customs charges me upwards of 30 to 400% tax and duty on it. Everyone has to get their pound of flesh between the seller and you..
Sucks but that is the truth.

In the past 6 weeks. we have been getting price increase from all our suppliers that purchase product in USD. 60% seems a lot but that's what business is about, if you don't like move on type deal.
Look at used car, boat and such, lots of dealer from the states come to the Canada auction and take is all, 30c to the dollar., makes it really tough for our used vehicul dealer. Great time to trade in a vehicul thoughbut the price of the new went up too, I paid my truck 40G in 2011, the equivalent today is 48G (but 0% interest).

I am buying more and more in the US, some things I have shipped to my parents in Florida, but some things that I have shipped here there is practically no duty and I am paying less. More and more I am buying from the US and that is with our low dollar. Canadian companies are going to have to cut prices by 25% if they want my business.

I compare prices to Princes Auto US counter part.

in the past most things were the same price but if I see a big difference I get it here.

http://www.harborfreight.com/

Stop complaining and thank God for Princess Auto. Everybody with testicles needs to hit the place at least every 6 weeks. There's all kinds of junk in there you didn't even know you needed!

Search for Canadian made products online.You would be surprised whats made in Canada if you searched for it online.

What surprises me is that the last big increases we were forced to swallow was, according to the experts, to pay for the increase costs of transportation ( high fuel costs...$1.20 lt back then).

Well, fuel costs have receded ($0.80 lt) but the prices have NOT come down !! Silly to have expected them too I guess :)

Increasing the costs on OLD stock is really low...it was priced accordingly at the time they received it from the manufacture with appropriate retail mark up. Going back and changing it now is just greed.

I have noticed the same thing at a well known Ontario gun dealer. I had been following a certain rifle for a few months. Dealer had 4-5 of them in stock @ $930. for a few months. Checked yesterday and they were priced @ $1030. Highly unlikely he sold all of the ones that were priced @ $930. and got a new shipment in which were priced higher due to Cdn $ decrease. If I were to get serious about one of the guns, I would offer him the price I saw them listed at earlier or try to work $100 worth of extras out of him.

I am not willing to swallow the tripe about the US $ exchange. I have watched various retailers reprice stock that has been on the shelf well prior to the drop in the Cdn dollar.
This in many instances is simple greed masked behind the lame excuse of "... the low Canadian dollar has really impacted our bottom line..."
My response is along the same lines as greatwhite's ... I will shop south of the border!