Instead of dropping its Canadian prices, a U.S. magazine publisher has quietly removed the American price for its magazines — leaving only the Canadian price on the cover.
You go, Hearst Magazines! What the market will bear!
The hyperbolic reaction ranges from calling the move a “shell game” (The Star headline) to commenters on CTV.ca calling for “a boycott.” Yeah, that’ll teach them! After watching Canadian purchases of Esquire dry up, they won’t know what hit them!
But here’s the key part of the CP story:
But despite the loonie being at or near parity with the U.S. greenback, the Canadian magazine prices remain up to 30 per cent higher than what Americans pay for the same Hearst Magazines publications.
“At or near.” Somewhere up there anyway — we don’t really know. Our petrodollar is so volatile, we have no idea where it might be by the end of the next week. But although we are a fiercely sovereign country with a free-floating currency that is worth alternately more and less than the US dollar, could we please have all prices pegged to yours? Thanks.