Prices Getting Rediculously In Canada

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Man, I was just in my local music store. $15 for one pair of Vic Firth sticks. $700 foe a Supra. $848 for a 6.5×14 COB! WTF!!!!
 
Man, I was just in my local music store. $15 for one pair of Vic Firth sticks. $700 foe a Supra. $848 for a 6.5×14 COB! WTF!!!!

Soon the ppl will beg for a North American Union, or so corporations hope.

Doesn't AYOTTE make drumsticks?
 
Peh. That Supra is a bargain compared to what we'd pay in Europe. :) 290 CAD cheaper if it's the 14 x 5 you're on about. I'm pricing a German megastore that ships all over Europe.

Sticks work out pretty much the same. Not sure what the other snare is.
 
I'm just comparing these prices with fairly recent purchases I have made. I got my 6.5×14 hammered brass for $530 and my 6.5×14 Acro for $360. I guess chrome and imperial lugs are worth $340 now.

The COB I was referring to is a Ludwig chrome over brass. By rights my hammered brass should be the more expensive drum.
 
Soon the ppl will beg for a North American Union, or so corporations hope.

Doesn't AYOTTE make drumsticks?

Being canadian, the actual currency situation should theoritically have no impact on the price of purchasing, say for the sake of this post, a Dunnett titanium snare drum and a great set of sabian artisans for example.

Thing is, I have a feeling some local companies may also be tempted to increase their prices in an effort to "protect" their US distributors, which is perfectly understandable in a business-relations context, the US probably being the biggest market for canadian products.

Otherwise, would canadian retailers not turn out a good profit selling locally manufactured drum-related goods to the US market ? Unless the ressources used in the manufacturing process are also traded in USD, therefore weakening my hypothesis.

But since the vast majority of us canucks don't get a raise when the $CAD tanks, so should the wages now be 33% cheaper in a canadian factory compared to their equivalent in an american one, therefore decreasing cost of production (say sabian versus zildjian), if I am not mistaking.

Since we do not get paid more, I guess our purchasing power as consumers decreases as well since we now have to deal with canadian companies valuating their products in USD and then canadian retailers having to reconvert the msrp's into canadian pesos. Sort of a double-whammy for us is it not?

I am truly interested in this topic, if we could get an insider to chip in that would be great ! My financial basis are a bit flimsy, please be kind.
 
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You've never been shopping in Australia.
Supra 402 in my local shop is $950. Two gears ago that was equal to $1000 US. Now its 'only' $700 US.
Vic Firth sticks were $22 a pair, but ironically as the $Aus got weaker over the last year, the price has dropped to $15 at some shops. Gretsch Cat Jazz $1499 (always with hardware - shell sets not available)

The biggest difference seems to be that no-one discounts much in Aus. US shops advertise prices up to 40% below retail, but in Aus you're lucky to get a 10% discount in a 'special' sale.
 
One more thing.
Brady snares cost more here! ~ $1500
Its cheaper to buy one from a US dealer than anywhere in Australia.
Even though they're made in Western Australia.

Similar to the Canadian situation with Sabian, etc.
 
With prices like that buying bulk online or coop with other drummers might work out.
 
To my mind charging $700-800+ for a spun shelled Ludwig drum is nothing short of a gouge plain and simple. Once you are tooled up to produce those shells (and Ludwig has been tooled up for quite a while now) how much does it cost them to produce a snare drum? I'd be surprised if the cost is $100. Probably less than that. I mean c'mon- it's a metal tube with a few simple components strapped on it. Is anyone really going to argue that it is intrinsically worth more than, i don't know, say $250 maybe? It's a very simple product by modern production standards.

My girlfriend had a job interview with one of the cellular providers here in Canada for a sales position. One of the tidbits of information she walked out of it with was this: a new iPhone or Samsung, which up here you might get for $300 or so with a 2 year contract, and which is probably around $6-700 to buy outright, actually costs that provider about $14. Sometimes they get rebates that bring their cost down to $10.
 
In the mass produced drum market, the actual cost of production is fairly small compared to the street price paid. It's all the other costs that stack it up (marketing overheads, distribution, duties, retail margins, etc, etc). Ultimately, local pricing is decided more on the basis of market conditions than any tracked relationship to manufacturing cost. No different to any other global brand business.
 
The more they charge the less they sell, simple. You see the same adds over and over. More supply than demand should equal more discounted sales but some people won't budge. Guess they'd rather keep it then.
 
In the mass produced drum market, the actual cost of production is fairly small compared to the street price paid. It's all the other costs that stack it up (marketing overheads, distribution, duties, retail margins, etc, etc). Ultimately, local pricing is decided more on the basis of market conditions than any tracked relationship to manufacturing cost. No different to any other global brand business.

Truth. It never ceases to amaze me that people slag the manufacturer for retail pricing.
 
I wasn't slagging Ludwig. It more reminds me of lobster fisherman back home. They struggle to get a fair price for their catch, yet sometimes lobsters are 14 bucks a pound in the supermarket. The middle men make the killing. In the case of my cell phone anecdote, the manufacturer is making less than 10 bucks per phone.

I just cruised eBay and the same thing is happening in the US. Seems like prices have gone up 20% in the last couple of years.
 
Re: Prices Getting Rediculously In Canada (and Australia)

With prices like that buying bulk online or coop with other drummers might work out.

Over the last few years, more and more Australians have indeed been buying books, drum gear, shoes, etc. direct from overseas. Even with high postage costs (especially from the US) these things often work out around half price.

The net result is that dozens of bookshops, music shops and clothing shops have folded in Australia over the last five years. I spoke to someone in a local music shop about this. The wholesale prices are very high - he could personally buy a Selmer saxophone from a US retailer and get it shipped to Australia, pay duties etc. for cheaper than the wholesale price his shop would have to pay. He doesn't do that, but he doesn't sell many Selmer saxes either.

One of my students ordered a Gretsch kit and a K Zildjian pack from Germany last month, saving him $500 compared to buying locally, and also cheaper than shipping from the US.

However - In the last year the Aussie dollar has dropped by a third, so buying from overseas is getting dearer. More people are buying local again, and the shops are recovering. But the prices are still much higher than they should be...
 
Had relative go to Switzerland in the 80's and asked him if he could find me some cheaper Paiste sound edges.

It was actually cheaper to buy in the US.

Go figure.
 
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