Taxes and other levies in Canada

[MediumRare]

Seaegg's post reminded me of an unpleasant experience while I was in Vancouver 2 weeks ago. Although I grew up in Saskatchewan, I've been living in Europe long enough to (normally) forget about all the taxes added to the shelf price- here you pay what's shown unless you can haggle out a better deal. VAT is included in the marked price (except some online shops, like Staple's German site).

So we went into this store (call it LD ) to buy some CDR's- the price seemed OK even with PST and GST coming on top. But there was this little sign saying that the management thought it important to show the levy going to the recording industry and this was 21 cents per disc for computer media. I thought "OK, that's good to know". But then they added this to the shelf price at the check out. The box of 10 had an end price 50% higher than the shelf price. I find this practice misleading at the very least, if not outright dishonest!

Is this normal procedure in Canada or a speciality of LD ?

G

[shaun]

LD is not following governement legislation on the duties imposed on blanks. The duties are collected at the border/importer/manufacturer level..not by the retailer.

Haven't seen anyone try that in Ontario...even with the cuthroat businesses in downtown Toronto who use every technique in the book to get you in the store.

[Spazmogen]

I've not seen many happy people getting a deal from London Drugs. The cheapest place is still BB or FS or Tiger Direct.

I am not aware of ANY OTHER company in Canada that does that to the consumer. Adding the Levy at the cash. It is to be handled at the wholesale level. Not the retail level.

I've not bought cd-r's in Canada in 2 years. I buy mine in the USA when I go down to Florida. I've still got 130 or so left. I seldom use them anymore (music etc) now that I have a 4x DVD+R drive. I bought 3 spindles of 50 of +R's from Tiger Direct .ca back in November for $14.99 CDN each.

So much for the levy.

[dolphinius_rex]

LD is not following governement legislation on the duties imposed on blanks. The duties are collected at the border/importer/manufacturer level..not by the retailer.

Haven't seen anyone try that in Ontario...even with the cuthroat businesses in downtown Toronto who use every technique in the book to get you in the store.

Sorry Shaun, but you're wrong on this one

London Drugs is not doing what the CPCC wants, but they are excercising completely legitimate rights. Some Radio Shack locations also do this, as does my own workplace (which will remain nameless). Besides, you're immediatly assuming that London Drugs is not importing their own media, which is a bit of a jump, given how much media they go through.

When it comes down to it, London Drugs was the ONLY retail store who opposed the Canadian Levy on CD-Rs before it came into place. Staples, Futureshop, Bestbuy, Walmart, and Zellers (who all NOW officially oppose the levy) all took the stance that it wouldn't affect them because of their volume of sales). Now Walmart and Futureshop, and sometimes even Staples have been known to sell their media for below their cost, in order to attract more business... but many smaller computer stores don't do this sort of thing, or avoid it as much as possible (for obvious reasons). So these types of retail locations generally sell their media illegally without the levy (either by importing it directly, or purchasing it illegally from a distributor willing to take the risks of being audited by the CPCC).

What London Drugs has done, is basically sacrificed their CD-R sales in order to create awareness of the situation. Sadly they are one of very few companies that actually follow the law in Canada.

[MediumRare]

I've not seen many happy people getting a deal from London Drugs. The cheapest place is still BB or FS or Tiger Direct.

London Drugs is not doing what the CPCC wants, but they are excercising completely legitimate rights.
...
When it comes down to it, London Drugs was the ONLY retail store who opposed the Canadian Levy on CD-Rs before it came into place.

My point is not so much the price that LD charges- they have to do their calculation based on their own costs and desired (or tolerable) margin. If they opposed the levy, more power to them. My peeve concerns the prices they show on the shelf. They could just as well mark their purchasing price and say "we make a profit of 21 cents per disc" and add that at the checkout. Surely there must be a regulation as to what the shelf price includes ?!?

Here in Germany, a liter of gas costs ca. 1.05 Euros, 80 cents of that is taxes of one form or another. Some filling stations will tell you that with a sign on the pumps, but they won't post "Gas 25 cents /liter" and add "ecology levy 15 cents/liter, other taxes 65 cents". They'd have an injunction slapped on them faster than you can say "cease and desist"!

G