Sale @ EMS

[Shawn B]

EMS has sale on ice tools and crampons. Mens gloves/mitts are ok. Womens gloves and mitts are super good prices. Bd ice gloves for $60 if your hands are small.

[granite_grrl]

Has anyone had sucsess ordering from EMS? Is it like MEC where it seems they won't ship half their stuff outside of Canada?

[chossmonkey]

Has anyone had sucsess ordering from EMS? Is it like MEC where it seems they won't ship half their stuff outside of Canada?

I think the deal with MEC is that too many Americans were oredering from them and all the American companies selling gear were getting cranky because MEC was often selling (and still does) the same thing for much cheaper. Sometimes much, much, much cheaper than places in the States. Most people don't realize, but prices are pretty much fixed in the States. Gear manufacturers normally won't sell to companies that deaply cut the prices. You will get slight fluxuations in price, but other than for REI and their rebate, you won't normally get highly discounted prices unless the gear is on sale.

When I first found out about MEC I would order lots of FIXE hardwear from them beacuse it was way cheaper than ordering from anywhere in the States, even directly from FIXE at their "wholesale" price. Back then the prices would be cheaper in Canadian Dollars then I would get the $1.50 CND : $1 USD exchange. It was SWEET!! It was almost like getting hardware for free.

Even now for Americans it can still be cheaper in CND than USD to buy gear from MEC. But most of the time it is not worth the hastle. I could be wrong, but I think the big hang-up with Canadians ordering gear from the States is finding companies willing to ship it here.

Now that I'm living in Canada and I have to live by the CND all the gear seems expensive again, especially with the tax I could normally skip when mail ordering in the States.

[martha]

Gear companies have seperate price lists for Canada and the US. They don't just take the american price list and convert it to canadian dollars. the lists are made on an 'average' dollar exchange for the past 12 months and they stay fixed at that price for 12 months. Often the price lists reflects what the company knows the gear will sell for in Canada. Some companies even make the prices lists the same dollar for dollar.

Most companies also have 'minimum advertised price rules' that Retailers must adhere to. Generally, retailers are not allowed to advertise any price that is more or less than 10% of the 'SRP - Suggested retail price' This of course prevents price wars and keeps the market stable. However, what price they sell the product at that is NOT Advertised is entirely up to them.

What MEC likely does, is advertise their prices at the bottom end of what they are allowed to do. thus making it look like other Canadian retailers are robbing us when simply that is not the case.

for companies who buy large amounts of product and receive discounts for doing so, it is in their best interest to still sell at the SRP because they increase their margins by doing so.

the problem with buying items from the US is that you have to pay GST/HST when it comes across the border, and if the product is made outside of North America, you must also pay duty. Most compaies find the brokerage issue on border crossings to be a big enough pain to just simply not ship into Canada. Also, some gear companies do not allow Canadian retailers to ship to the US and Vice Versa... again protecting the markets in the respective countries.

Many of the 'rules' you see on the retail end are actually enforced by the wholesaler. The way that wholesalers can 'punish' retailers that do not adhere to their rules is to simply not sell to them.

[Ken P]

[quote="granite_grrl"]Has anyone had sucsess ordering from EMS? Is it like MEC where it seems they won't ship half their stuff outside of Canada?[/quote]

I've only ordered T's and hats but have had good luck.