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Old August 24th, 2011, 07:57 AM
kmoose kmoose is offline
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Canada / US Price differences

I made a comment in another thread about Royal Canin's price differences...typically their food is 40% higher priced in Canada than the USA. This is PetSmart to PetSmart.

So I thought I'd add a couple that I've seen and see if all brands face this problem:

Royal Canin Medium 25 6 lb - $12.99 USA (Petsmart), $20.99 Canada (petsmart)
30lb - $42.99 USA $59.99 Canada

Iams Adult (Green Bag) 15lb - $14.99 USA (Target) $22.99 Canada (WalMart)
Merrick Cowboy Casserole 15lb - $26.99 USA (PetCo) $39.99 Canada (PetValu)

If you go to PetCo's website www.petco.com you can price a lot of foods including some of the higher end brands like BlueBuffalo, Merrick, Merrick BG, Innova, etc as well as the standard fare. The products are usually Identical, often made in Canada!, and there is anywhere from a 25% to 50% markup in Canada. The Royal Canin is the one that got me thinking as the last 30lb bag I bought in the USA was stamped "Made in Canada" and had the identical package including the English, French and Spanish writing on it, and both Metric and Imperial Weights, that you get here.

Thoughts? Personally I buy food whenever I am in the states but not everyone lives 20 minutes from the border.
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Old August 24th, 2011, 09:08 AM
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thoughts....I won't go into a petsmart store, we have one being built right now in our city and I refuse to go in it, not only do they sell live animals but they have breed discrimination.

I do know that I go cross border shopping and will buy my dogs treats states side at a much better price
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Old August 24th, 2011, 09:26 AM
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How much of the difference is due to taxes?
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Old August 24th, 2011, 09:42 AM
kmoose kmoose is offline
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Those are pre-tax prices. To add insult to injury the state tax in Buffalo/Niagara Falls ranges from 7.5 to 8.75% depending on county, and in Ontario we pay 13% sales tax on top of those prices. So add another few percent into the price difference.

Plus there is no duty on dog food made in Canada or the USA being shipped to the other country under NAFTA.
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Old August 24th, 2011, 09:43 AM
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Wow, if those are pre-tax, that's quite a difference!
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  #6  
Old August 24th, 2011, 09:46 AM
kmoose kmoose is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Melinda View Post
thoughts....I won't go into a petsmart store, we have one being built right now in our city and I refuse to go in it, not only do they sell live animals but they have breed discrimination.

I do know that I go cross border shopping and will buy my dogs treats states side at a much better price
What is Breed discrimination?

I don't mind one of my local Petsmarts, the other is horrible. We have PetValu (expensive!) and Global Pet Foods (don't like these stores - food snobs) as well.

Also we have a Bark and Fitz, which is a high end food and accessory store. Yet their prices are lower than Global, they do a buy 10 get the 11th free on ALL brands, and even though they are boutique they are hardly food snobs and very helpful. I get my Canidae and now Merrick from them (when I don't buy it stateside) , and used to get my Acana/Orijen there as well. Plus my dog gets groomed there for perhaps the best price and workmanship in town! I highly recommend them.
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Old August 24th, 2011, 09:47 AM
kmoose kmoose is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by hazelrunpack View Post
Wow, if those are pre-tax, that's quite a difference!
And remember the Canadian dollar is worth MORE than the US dollar, if only marginally.
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Old August 25th, 2011, 04:18 AM
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Kmoose, they don't allow any bully breeds in their stores, their groomers, daycamp or pet hotel.
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Old August 25th, 2011, 08:45 AM
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I wonder if buying power "volume" has anything to do with it.

Even if the food is made in Canada, there's 10 times more Americans than Canadians. So a store buying 1000 bags of food will get a better deal than a store that buys 100. This is why wall mart rules the world - volume. But even walmarts have different prices based on location in the same country and across differenet countries.

Not sure at all if Petco is a franchise or if Petco buys all the food from the same place. But even if they buy from the same place there 'must' be other factors influencing the pricing.

I guess what i'm saying is, is that there must be a "real" reason for this large price difference....and it's impossible that the answer is greed because there is always someone that will work for 5-10% markup and these price differences are way more than that.

In this day and age, if any Canadian business could buy cheaper and sell cheaper to get this type of prices difference (Royal Canin Medium 25 6 lb - $12.99 USA (Petsmart), $20.99 Canada (petsmart) you can bet your sweet dog paws they would.
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Old August 25th, 2011, 09:03 AM
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Just an FYI... if you go to Petsmarts website (for those of you who do shop there), you can print the page showing the price and then take it to a local Petsmart and they will match it. The reason is because they do not have a Canadian website. It automatically redirects you to the American site, but it doesn't tell you that.

Anyway, I know this is true because I just did it yesterday. I wanted to get Nookie an Easy Walk harness. It was marked down on the website from $29.99 to $17.59. I called my local Petsmart to see if they had it in stock. The lady said yes and it was $28.99. I asked why such a huge difference from their website to in-store and that's when she told me the site was American. She then told me to print the page showing the website price, take it in and challenge the store. When I got there the cashier had no idea what I was talking about and told me the stores are completely different than the website because the website is American pricing and there was no way they could match it. I asked to speak with the manager. He said "Ok, but he's not going to do it"
The manager came out, looked at the paper I had printed and said "Yep, we'll match it" without a hesitation
So Nookie got his Easy Walk harness for almost half the price

With all the vet bills we have, we need to save where ever we can
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Last edited by Rgeurts; August 25th, 2011 at 09:13 AM.
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Old August 25th, 2011, 09:11 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Melinda View Post
thoughts....I won't go into a petsmart store, we have one being built right now in our city and I refuse to go in it, not only do they sell live animals but they have breed discrimination.

I do know that I go cross border shopping and will buy my dogs treats states side at a much better price
They don't do that here in Edmonton, at least not at the southside store. I see Pitties, Rotties and even spoke to a guy last night that was there picking up his Presa Canario who was just groomed (impressive looking dog!!!). Although, Nookie almost got eaten in Petsmart, when he was a baby, by a mad Pittie. You could tell the guy that owned him was probably not the most repsonsible of owners. Poor doggie
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"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole" - Ok... whoever said this has never had a sick or special needs baby. They ARE our whole life!

R.I.P. my sweet, handsome Thorin. You are missed dearly Dec. 25, 1999 - Mar. 4, 2012
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Old September 26th, 2011, 01:30 PM
The Ricardo The Ricardo is offline
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I also live in Edmonton Southside and own a Cane Corso and have never had any issues with bringing him into Petsmart. Also have seen Pitties and couple Amstaffs around.

Maybe its a US thing because of legislation in your state?
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Old September 26th, 2011, 03:52 PM
pattymac pattymac is offline
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i'm going to have to try that Rgeurts!!
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  #14  
Old August 4th, 2013, 06:39 PM
vokaho vokaho is offline
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Can i ask how much tax you have to pay when you are crossing the board?
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Old August 4th, 2013, 07:36 PM
pattymac pattymac is offline
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Depends I think, on what it is. You pay all the taxes, pst and gst or hst. I think groceries are exempt though. Cat and dog food in Ontario is taxed so no doubt you'd pay it. I would imagine if you're within your limit on what you can bring back without duty then there'd be no tax. I haven't crossed the border in like 10 years...too much hassle anymore.
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Old August 4th, 2013, 09:05 PM
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Word of advice as far as bringing dog or cat food over the border.

You could potentially be S.O.L. if you got up to the inspection booth with your purchase of domestic dog or cat food but, you don't have your pet with you.

CONDITIONS OF IMPORT

Personal importation of pet food from the United States may be permitted if the following conditions are met:

(a) the country of origin of that product is the United States;

(b) the person, on entry into Canada from the United States, was in possession of the product and was accompanied by the animal to which it is fed;

(c) the person legally imported both the product and the animal into Canada; and

(d) the product is fed only to the animal that accompanied the person into Canada.

e) the pet food must be commercially prepared and processed pet food either wet or dry and it must be in its original packaging and the label must clearly indicate the list of ingredients and the origin of the product.
[/U]

Basically, you could be greeted by a CBSA officer who is having a grumpy, crappy day and doesn't think twice about passing it along.

Buyer beware.

http://airs-sari.inspection.gc.ca/Ai...ns.aspx?lang=1
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