[asylumdown]

yah the only time I buy from American stores is if I can't get the particular product in Canada. International shipping is practically a criminal racket.

Case in point - I ordered Dr. Tim's one and only live bacteria once in a moment of clouded judgement back when I started up my current tank. Shipping was as much as the actual product.

There was one other thing I got from the states a while back, I can't even remember what it was. I remember the shipping being almost as much as the product, and then two weeks later those little gremlins at Fedex sent me a second bill for the brokerage. All told, shipping, customs, and brokerage cost 115% of the thing I ordered (I don't remember the product, but I do remember the outrage at that number).

My sister owns a retail clothing store here in Calgary that opened up an online store last year. She gets it even worse because literally every single piece of clothing on the planet comes from Asia, but usually wholesales from the US. The cost to import it in to the States is baked in to the price she pays wholesale, and then she has to bring it in to Canada and gets double-dinged on textile tariffs because Canada doesn't care that it's gone through the US and already paid tariffs when they dip their fingers in the "it came from Asia so pay up" pot. Add in shipping and the exchange rate and I cease to be even the tiniest bit surprised that "Canadian" retail brands are an endangered species. Walk three feet across the Montana border and margins get cut in half for some products.

If our government really cared about keeping Canadian businesses competitive in an online world, they'd be looking real hard at the costs they impose on small and large businesses alike to get their products to market when every person with an internet connection can see what US retailers are able to charge for the same thing.

*sigh* rant over. sorry for the hijack.