If I buy the veritas edge trimming plane... In CDN it's $180, in US it's $125. Know go to your fav currency conversion website and do the conversion, it's $13 CDN or $10 US cheaper to buy it in US dollars. I checked a few other items and found various differences in prices. But always the same result, the item was cheaper in US currency. I found that the difference wasn't consistent, therefore I can rule out a mathematical conversion bug in the website. Kinda sucks when a Canadian company sells at a higher price to its own country men than to the US especially Canadian made items.
I also noticed that the Lie Nielsen edge plane is cheaper or the same price as the veritas (depending on which currency you view it in). I think I'll buy the Lie Nielsen
Well, the Canadian dollar has been gathering strength lately. Maybe the Lee Valley prices haven't been adjusted yet to reflect that change. With fluctuating prices, there's always going to be one country price that is more expensive than the other. You're never going to get exact parity.
We price once per year, for each catalog, and hold our prices. We certainly try to forecast exchange rates as best we can. When we priced last summer, the US dollar was stronger than it is now. New product (being added now) is being priced at a working rate of 1.3 .
In addition - operating cost and fulfillment costs (including taxes) are different by country - just because it's convenient to order from multiple coutries, doesn't mean that pricing structures are as mobile. Normally, our US pricing (under a stable exchange rate) is a few percent higher than Canadian pricing - which reflects the additional processing work we perform to operate across the border, and the duplicate facilities and operations we have to perform.
Believe me - US consumers were not happy with the Veritas price increases they received this year...
It's also human nature that your reaction is YOU are being overcharged....the truth is - the US market is being undercharged - and we (Lee Valley) are absorbing the difference.
Overall - the US market has not yet seen the effects of the drop in purchasing power of the US dollar - few Pacific Rim suppliers have passed on price increases, having absorbed losses in the hope that the exchange differences would be temporary...that is starting to change now, with products priced in US dollars starting to increase in cost.
Robin, I hear you. As a small internet company that sells primarily in the US we price our product in US dollars. We have been unable to increase our prices because of competition. This resulted in over 20% reduction in our Canadian income after conversion. It is starting to hurt.
Yup - what people also miss is that we've also dropped our prices (overall) in Canada too - so US revenue takes a hit, and Canadian gross revenue also takes a hit, albeit a smaller one...guess that's what one calls making the worst of a bad situation ;)
Volume's doing just fine fine though (insert wry smile here) - this is the year of doing more work for fewer dollars...
Forgot to answer the plane point too - the edge trimming block plane is by far and away our least competitively priced plane ....so much so that a few months ago I asked our R&D department to redesign/remanufacture it - using ductile iron instead of bronze, and with a goal of improving the ergonomics/performance, and lowering the retail price by at least 1/3. We have other planes/products on the go right now which make this a lower priority though.
To the OP: that LV prices once per year actually saves them money, from a business standpoint, and that savings is passed along to you. If you expect them to alter their prices with every hiccup in the exchange rate, then you will see a rise in prices in both currencies. If is ain't broke...
I just had to reply to say that I think it's really cool of you to follow up like you did. From working with other companies (and not just ww'ing stores), the OP's comment would have gone unnoticed. But I really like the fact that you take the time to respond to customer issues...and even just some "run of the mill" inquiries--in the NG. It shows that this isn't just a business for you, but something you're personally interested in and passionate about.
And, as an aside, the same comments go for Steve Knight (C;
Perhaps you prefer that there are US-owned companies operating in Canada that sell to the US at _higher_ prices than they sell to Canadians. The result is that US retailers near the border can't compete with sellers in Canadian cities - cross-border shoppers prefer to drive and save. Free trade ain't fair trade.
Mike PS - As I understand it, Canadians pay for those drugs in the long run with preferred patent laws. Keeps the generics away longer. That's part of the deal that the govt made with the drug companies. Lower profits for a longer period.
I purchased your DVD this year on sharpening tools and want to thank you for an inexpensive and excellent tutorial. I used your techniques to sharpen my first set of chisels and was very happy that with only a little elbow grease and a couple of inexpensive water stones I could get a razor sharp edge. I used them to chisel out parts of my oak flooring this summer for a renovation in my home and hope to use them for some real woodworking this winter. You have a wonderful store,website and catalogue, which my Father-in-law drools over, and I hope you keep up the excellent work. You have some of the best products around. Thank you.
On Wed, 17 Dec 2003 07:52:03 -0500, "Robin Lee" scribbled:
Being an economist, I occasionally check the difference, just for the hell of it. A little more than a year ago, when the loonie was going down to $US0.62, Canadian prices at LVT were considerably lower than in the US. Now that the US dollar is tanking, Canadian prices will be higher until the next price adjustment. So we do win sometimes and the Yanks lose and vice versa.
LVT is stuck in the middle. They're losing on their Canadian-made stuff selling to the US, but they might be winning on imported stuff sold in Canada that is paid for in $US (depending on when they have to pay for it and whether they have hedged their currency risk). But, in the past, when the loonie that was dropping, they certainly took a hit. These are the effects of exchange rate risk, a real problem for any exporter outside the US.
One way of reducing that risk is to buy or sell futures contracts (or options on futures) in currencies. That way, you can be guaranteed a certain exchange rate in the future. Then you let the speculators take the risk.
True. For you Murricans, now is the time to buy all that LVT stuff you've been drooling over. Sorry, Robin, but it will increase your revenue, assuming you're not selling at a loss. :-)
Also, a number of Pacific rim countries, China being the prime example (and some Latin American countries), have tied their currency to the US dollar. So there might not be much of an effect on US retail prices, unless those countries give in to US pressures to revalue their currencies.
Luigi Replace "no" with "yk" for real email address
My apologies to you Mr. Lee. I should have email you directly as some had suggested.
Let me clarify why I said what I said. When I noticed the difference the first thing I attributed it to was the strengthening CDN dollar and weakening US dollar... But! I checked other items and found that the differences between the US price and CDN price were not consistent as they should be if it were simply due to rising and falling dollars. E.G. Part Number: 05P27.01; US price: 65; CDN price: 89; US to CDN conversion: 86. Part number: 05P27.02; US price: 74; CDN price: 99; US to CDN conversion:
Part number: 05P22.01; US price: 99; CDN price: 139; US to CDN conversion: 131. Part number: 05P25.01; US price: 159; CDN price: 219; US to CDN conversion: 210. Part number: 23P01.01; US price: 79; CDN price:
115; US to CDN conversion: 104. If these numbers make any sense... The difference ranges from $1 to 11 on the US to CDN conversion but the these conversions are not proportional to the part numbers over all price, therefore I ruled out currency rate fluctuations.
On a side note. After reading the descriptions a little bit closer on the Lie Nielsen and Veritas edge planes the Veritas appears to be a more improved and over all a better plane than the Lie Nielsen. I won't hold out for a gray iron version - if anything your admitting to the discontinuing of the bronze version will only increase its collectability in the future.
Any chance Veritas will be including a skew angle plane with adjustable fence anytime in the future?
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