Canadian Retailers Pricing in USD

[CorsiHockeyLeague]

Originally Posted by calf

then your only worry is the FX rate when you take the money out of the business (or if you have to fund the account), rather dealing with the FX rate for each transaction that has or may happen.

I don't think this is quite right? They have to report their income in Canadian dollars on their T2.

I guess if they don't ever convert into CAD, the forex thing is less of an issue though, so that makes sense. But presumably they have to, yknow, pay overhead and such... I dunno.

[calf]

Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague

I don't think this is quite right? They have to report their income in Canadian dollars on their T2.

I guess if they don't ever convert into CAD, the forex thing is less of an issue though, so that makes sense. But presumably they have to, yknow, pay overhead and such... I dunno.

Yeah, you have to deal with Canadian dollars at the end of the day, so the FX calculations have to be done at some point.

What I'm more getting at is that if you're making your purchases in USD, and, say, you want to make a 20% margin on top of your cost to (hopefully) cover your overheads, making your pricing the same currency as your purchases is easier than constantly re-pricing, changing price tags, etc for everything as the rate fluctuates. You just manage your margins and FX exposure at a higher level, than at an individual product level.

[calf]

FTR - I'm just going based on that letter the owner wrote...I have no clue exactly how he would operate his business.

The way I'm looking at it is he bought 10 versions of Dungeons & Dragons and a bunch of other games for $10 last year at 0.85, and sells it for $15 USD. He has to replenish his stock as 7 have been sold, but now he buys it, and they still cost $10USD, but the exchange rate is now 0.65. He's not going to charge different prices for each box. But he does have to raise the price to re-coup his costs on the new order. So, he could go and change the price tag for each item that was re-ordered, or, could just charge in USD. Of course this assumes his items sell quickly and he is consistently re-ordering on all of his stock. If most of his items were purchased years ago, like I'm reading, then yeah, just charging in CDN for his big sellers is fine and probably more fair than upping the price for FX for something purchased at par 5 years ago.

I'm thinking of how it works at the grocery store, where we see the prices jump every so often, partially as a result of changes in the FX rate.

[corporatejay]

I can't be the only one who just heard of The Sentry Box today, can I?

[Aegypticus]

Originally Posted by mikephoen

The box is huge store, but the products they sell are also quite bulky. Say they sell 5 copies of Settlers of Catan every week. That's 260 a year. Since mid 2013 that's 650 copies. Try to do the math of how much space 650 copies of Settler of Catan takes up. It would fill an average house top to bottom.

The part about 650 copies taking up an entire house seemed super wrong to me, and since you said we should try to do the math, I did.

Settlers of Catan on Amazon.com
Product Dimensions: 3.1 x 11.6 x 9.4 inches

So how much space does 650 copies take up?

If we laid out 24 copies on the floor 1 layer thick in a 6 box by 4 box rectangle, it would take up an area measuring approximately 3' 10 1/2" by 4' 8 1/2".

650 divided by the 24 copies on the floor means we'd have to stack the games 27 high (for 648 copies). That means the total height of the stack would reach... just under 7'.

So 650 copies would take up a coat closet in an average house, by my reckoning.


Anyways, on topic, what really bugs me is how the price of purely intangible goods has gone up. Look at the pricing on games. Fallout 4 is still $80 on Steam. I understand a company trying to maintain profit margins on a physical product with a certain cost of manufacturing, but for things like this I think they're pricing themselves out of the market. Each extra copy of a game that someone downloads from them costs as close to 0 to distribute as to be almost completely negligible.

Maybe if we were used to paying 80 bucks for a brand new game like the poor Aussies we'd accept it now, but 60 bucks has been pretty standard in Canada for a long time now. I've certainly balked at buying ANY new games lately. Instead I'll wait until the same thing goes on a deep discount.

It's a lose/lose. The seller gets a lot less money than if they had priced it reasonably in the first place, and I have to wait to play.

I could be totally wrong and maybe just as many people buy games on release at the higher price point because they just can't wait, but I'm certainly not one of them.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I can't be the only one who just heard of The Sentry Box today, can I?

[troutman]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

I can't be the only one who just heard of The Sentry Box today, can I?

It is an international treasure, and really under the radar for most people.

Check it out - there is nothing like it. You can spend hours browsing. You will be enchanted and horrified at what you can find.

[REDVAN]

If you guys don't like getting gouged by a store- don't shop there. It is really quite simple.

I'm almost 100% certain you can find everything you want online these days.

[nik-]

They're definitely not putting any of that extra exchange money towards their website.

That #### has been a disaster for way too long.

[My2Cents]

After reading this thread I just thought I would mention how awesome CP really is. It seems every niche topic that comes up has someone who is directly involved in it to shed some light on the topic. This really is a remarkable site.

[GGG]

Originally Posted by REDVAN

If you guys don't like getting gouged by a store- don't shop there. It is really quite simple.

I'm almost 100% certain you can find everything you want online these days.

But the you have to pay for it in U.S. Dollars

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by troutman

It is an international treasure, and really under the radar for most people.

Check it out - there is nothing like it. You can spend hours browsing. You will be enchanted and horrified at what you can find.

Go on a weekend/after hours at opening gaming time.

Just kidding, it's pretty cool that they have that sort of thing available for their customers.

[driveway]

Originally Posted by PsYcNeT

Sentry Box sucks. Everything they sell can be had on Amazon or Ebay for 30% cheaper. Brick and mortar is awful for niche products.

3.5 MM 4 for $90? #### off.

Who the hell is still playing 3.5? Pathfinder dude.

[corporatejay]

Originally Posted by driveway

Who the hell is still playing 3.5? Pathfinder dude.

What are you guys talking about?

[Wormius]

I find it odd that for something like board games which are usually little more than paper and plastic could not be manufactured and distributed from inside Canada, instead of getting dinged by exchange rates and shipping.

I am hopeful that someday with the growing popularity of 3D printing that people will be able to order a board game design and reconstruct it at home.

[Mickey76]

The Sentry Box is really something, my wife and I were in Calgary a few months ago and stopped in for the first time on a Sunday afternoon. It was full of people gaming, people painting (I have no idea what) and the selection was amazing. We browsed for a few hours and neither my wife or I are really gamers. I will say though she squeezed my arm a little tighter the first time we walked past a gaming table.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by Mickey76

people painting (I have no idea what)

Probably WarHammer mini's. TSB has pretty much the largest collection for-purchase I've ever seen.

[driveway]

Originally Posted by corporatejay

What are you guys talking about?

Dungeons and Dragons.

[cDnStealth]

It kind of irritates me that Sentry Box charges in USD because it's kind of deceiving when you look at a price tag. I don't purchase much from them or any local store because it's so much cheaper to buy online. I think those places exist more for people to meet others and have a place to play.

But I think it's crazy to pay those kinds of prices. Just look at what they have Catan priced at. $73 for the base game? $37 for the 5-6 player expansion? At this moment you could order the base game plus the 5-6 player expansion on Amazon for $73 with free shipping. It's pretty damn hard to justify spending extra money just to have it now.

[Ducay]

They're also taking that 40-50% bump in currency on their margins baked in the USD pricing. Free money and they're letting you take on their Fx risk on sales; especially when, I imagine, a huge bulk of that stock was bought when Fx was near par to start. I imagine they'll flip back to CAD pricing as soon as that becomes advantageous, and collect on the backend.