I have been looking to buy a new LCD television and have been comparing Canadian prices to US prices and am completely offended. As an example, Sony's KDL46XE500 is selling for $999 in the US but sells for $1,599 in Canada. The Canadian price is 60% higher than the US price. The last time the Canadian/US dollar differential was 60% was in 2002. Come on Sony, time to stop ripping of Canadians.

Good question, but it's not as cut and dried as that.

Here's the breakdown on the TV example you used -

Sony KDL46EX500 $999 USD

$999 USD = 1000.49 CDN, as of right now. Almost perfectly at par.

But, allow, say 4% for the bank / cc company to perform the exchange... call it $1040 CDN.

Allow another 6% duty to get it across the border. It's not made in the USA so it's not part of NAFTA,

Which brigs us up to $1102.4 CDN.

So $1102.4 is the hard cost of the $999 TV purchased in the US.

The actual price difference is $496.60.

Now as to why the price is different, the cost of the TV as it sits in Canada has nothing to do with parity. The TV was purchased in US dollars when the exchange wasn't quote so strong. It will take months for the strength of the CDN dollar to be reflected in market prices.

Another factor is volume. Sony Canada has less clout with Sony Japan than Sony US. Sony US buys approximately 10 times the number of TVs that Sony Canada does.

Based on volume alone there are significant discounts, in favour of the US product.

So, not even allowing for ancillary costs, like gas, lunch, time, etc, you're paying $500 more for the TV in Canada, for a Canadian warranty. You're supporting Canadian businesses, and helping provide Canadian jobs.

I don't know whether it's worth it. That's your call to make. I wouldn't buy a Sony TV in the first place, but that's just me.