Cover price differences irritating as the loony gains ground

People are beginning to notice the strength of the loony and starting to ask questions about the spread in prices between Canada and the U.S. for magazines and books. Writing from the Canadian Booksellers convention (Book Expo) in Toronto, Jack Knox of the Victoria Times-Colonist says that where the relative prices are printed right on the front or back cover, like magazines, books and greeting cards, consumers are starting to get steamed. And they won't call up the publishers of U.S. magazines; they'll get annoyed at the corner store.

The June 11 issue of People Magazine, the one that asks what went wrong with sweet little Lindsay Lohan, retails for $4.79 in Canada but $3.49 in the U.S.

Forget what went wrong with Lindsay. What went wrong with the calculators at People?

Of course people in the magazine industry know that they don't even bother to use calculators. U.S. titles coming into Canada, generally simply add a buck or two, so that Canadian buyers get no advantage at all from their strengthening currency. (It should be pointed out that they did so to their apparent detriment when the Canadian dollar was below 70 cents U.S. But kept on "dumping" their product into this market to the real disadvantage of Canadian publishers.)

"We don't understand it, either," says Bruce Cran of the Consumers Association of Canada. You would think goods imported from the U.S. would retail for less now, but it's just not happening. "We're getting no benefit at all."

The newsstand guys are already taking some heat from retailers and it will only get worse when and if the C$ hits par. Should be an interesting conversation. Or maybe U.S. magazines are such a commodity that people will grumble and pay rather than use their market clout and find a Canadian alternative.