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Fanning the consumer flames

Just in case there was any danger of consumer unrest over book pricing starting to ease, the Bank of Montreal has released a new report pointing out that many consumer products – including books – are still priced higher in Canada than in the U.S. The Toronto Star talks to economist Douglas Porter, the report’s author:

“Retail prices in Canada have been painfully slow to respond to the historic run up in the Canadian dollar, creating a massive and unsustainable price gap for many goods between the U.S. and Canada,” Porter said.

Despite the continuing price gap, Porter said, “there are plenty of signs the to suggest the bulk of the discounting is over.

In other words, without further pressure, this may be as good as its get for Canadian shoppers.”

While some of the more high-profile items, such as books, cars and magazines have fallen in price, they’re still well above U.S. rates, he said.

Bestselling books are still 22 per cent higher, mid-priced cars 19 per cent higher, cordless drill 21 per cent and snowblowers 33 per cent, Porter said, based on a basket of 17 randomly selected items.