Rediculous prices at Bigals Canada

Same reason as cars cost 20% more, because we'll pay more...that's what Toyota said anyway. Shipping is a big killer, Ebay's a winner for prices. MOPS (mail order pet supply) in Ontario is reasonable, www.aquariumplants.com has pretty good pricing but there's some of that "Canadians pay 1.5*" stuff as well. That said those are the two best Canadian mail order co's I know of.

We pay more up here because the products have to be shipped and there are duties and taxes to take into consideration. Furthermore when companies do their mark-up on products they don't mark up based upon cost... they mark-up based upon cost plus all associated shipping costs etc.

Furthermore when Big Als probably bought that stock the Canadian dollar was trading around 0.80USD instead of the current 0.95USD So there was exchange involved too.

And yes... it does suck!

It can really depend. Where are the original items you mention (the CoraLife) manufactured and where are the second items manufactured. Duties and taxes are different per country of original manufacture. Teh same thing goes for exchange how many hands did it go through till it reached Big Als? We forget that so much that we use is manufactured in one country... sold to a wholesaler in a second country and then shipped to a third country for the end user to purchase. In all of that there are duties, taxes and exchange that is included in the prices and thus the mark-ups

It helps if you have discount codes:icon_mrgr
I just bought some stuff there and saved an extra 10%

rodney said:

It helps if you have discount codes:icon_mrgr
I just bought some stuff there and saved an extra 10%

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Can you please share w/ us, where you got the discount code? Thanks.

KnaveTO said:

It can really depend. Where are the original items you mention (the CoraLife) manufactured and where are the second items manufactured.

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Let's use some common sense here. If Coralife would have a manufacturer that makes products about 90% more expensive (115% minus 28%) then Coralife would be bankrupt pretty soon.

KnaveTO said:

Duties and taxes are different per country of original manufacture. Teh same thing goes for exchange how many hands did it go through till it reached Big Als? We forget that so much that we use is manufactured in one country... sold to a wholesaler in a second country and then shipped to a third country for the end user to purchase. In all of that there are duties, taxes and exchange that is included in the prices and thus the mark-ups

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Again, if you use some common sense then you know you can't explain a 28%-115% price difference because of this, neither the fact that they can't compete online with their "brick and mortar stores" like someone paged me.

Again, may I remind all of you that we're dealing here with a HUGE difference and not some peanuts that can be explained by exchange rate, duties, shipping, different manufacturer, etc. :icon_mrgr

obet_07304 said:

Can you please share w/ us, where you got the discount code? Thanks.

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Sure, I got the code from a podcast I sometimes listen to, the code i know is, like I said for a 10% discount. If anyone is interested pm me for it

Could you ask someone here in the USA to buy it for you, and you pay for the product & S&H? Maybe if it is sent to you as a gift various government-inspired add on fees wouldn't apply...? Just a thought.

I agree its crazy and maddening all at the same time. I agree that in the distribution networks there are some additional shipping costs in getting products to Canada.

That said, across many different hobbies/needs the Cdn prices seem to routinely be high, to me this has to be caused by the distributor relationships. I think (pure speculation) that a lot of distribution agreements are North American wide, an American acquires the rights, seperates the CDN rights to a CDN distributor and now we have two middle men...thus higher wholesale prices...pure speculation, but its a pattern that seems pretty strong.

At least you guys have free health care.

*coughs up blood* :icon_neut

AlGee said:

At least you guys have free health care.

*coughs up blood* :icon_neut

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It's not free. They pay for it everyday they work.

JDonner said:

Let's use some common sense here. If Coralife would have a manufacturer that makes products about 90% more expensive (115% minus 28%) then Coralife would be bankrupt pretty soon.



Again, if you use some common sense then you know you can't explain a 28%-115% price difference because of this, neither the fact that they can't compete online with their "brick and mortar stores" like someone paged me.

Again, may I remind all of you that we're dealing here with a HUGE difference and not some peanuts that can be explained by exchange rate, duties, shipping, different manufacturer, etc. :icon_mrgr

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it's funny how you mention common sense 3x on here, well common is important but do you think big al got to the position of where they are just by common sense? I'm sure there's a reason behind the high price of this item weather it be duties, shipping or whatever. If you still have strong feelings about this issue maybe you could contact Big Als and figure out what's the deal, rather then insulting people that are trying to help you.

HTH

It's not free. They pay for it everyday they work.

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The very applicable word there is work... for those of us that pay taxes it isn't free... I will let you draw your own conclusions about the individuals that get their money from the welfare rolls.

As for Al... he got to where he is from an excellen business accumen and fullfilling a niche market. Canada is on the tail end of distributorships. And yes frequently we do have an extra middle man in there. The rare occasion that we get the jump on the US we screw up and frequently negotiate a Canadian Exclusivity contract. Americans almost invaribly negotiate a North American contract. Thsi does lead me to wonder if Mexicans also have a rather unusually higher price for certain products.

Lots of online competition in the US keeps prices down.

MOPS, Petsandponds and JL aquatics all have generally better prices than Als. Customer service at MOPS is very good.

I've looked a few shops in Mexico...didn't see too much by the way of plants or newer hardware. I probably wasn't in the right store, but the prices were fine...

Regarding free quality healthcare, while its cheaper than it is in the US due to its involuntary nature the quality if lower and the wait times are high. Personally I think the free health care in Canada is a bit of a myth, several imported Americans have commented that our system really isn't much different than the US. I can't comment on that, but I know for serious health issues the American pay system is far better!

Newsweek had this article about the weak US Dollar,
and commented how Canadian car prices are pegged
to an OLD Dollar exchange rate, which explained why
their prices are often 33% higher in Canada. perhaps
other manufactured imports are influenced the same.

i dont buy from big als unless i have to i buy mostly from j&l aquatics.

Also, are you comparing apples to oranges? Converting the $120 Canadian price to US dollars gives you about $123.30. Also, the US version is on sale ~ normally is $70 instead of the current $60. So, it's $70US and $123CA (about) ~ not a %115 difference anymore and a lot closer to the $40-or-so difference of the other example you gave, which would make sense when you think of shipping costs being calculated by weight/bulk and probably being the culprit re: the price difference.