BMW Canada response to CD-ROM price e-mail

["Edward R. Walker" <erwalker@xxxxxxxx>]

I thought my fellow Canadians would be interested in BMW Canada's response
to my e-mail regarding the $130 Cdn cost of the Mobile Tradition CD-ROM.

>Hello! Unfortunately, a simple calculation of the exchange rate is not how
>prices for most Canadian goods are derived.  Factors such as much higher
>distribution costs(fuel, warehousing, tolls, distance between towns,
>trucking taxes and licenses), dual translation costs in most cases for
>Canada (sometimes not even the product itself, but the advertising
>pamphlets, order brochures, instructions, proof-reading, adhering to legal
>requirements), the German mark exchange rate, and the potential of sale in a
>market of only 30 million consumers with considerably less per capita
>disposable income than in the US, all lead to higher prices up here, for
>everything.  Some Canadians have found ways around the pricing situation by
>buying directly from the USA, and all that does is drive the price up here
>even higher, because that sale counts in the USA's figures, making their
>market appear even more monumental than it already is. Unfortunately, it is
>a dilemma for which there is not a feasible solution, other than for
>companies up here to charge less and absorb the loss, and there would be a
>few shareholders who might not like that idea.  Thanks for writing.  
>Internet Coordinator
>BMW Canada Inc.
>website: bmw.ca
>e-mail: custserv@domain.elided

While most of what is said is true, I do not believe that it justifies a 
price of approx. double that in the US.

Ed Walker
'80 323i
'72 tii

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