Originally Posted by lhbernhardt

Yes, prices in Canadian bike shops are an interesting feature of living in the Great White North that Americans just would not believe. Quite often the argument is made that you should not buy mail order in order to support the local business. But talk about gouging!

The main fault lies with the few distributors in Canada, mostly Quebec-based, which charge pretty much what the market will bear, not really competing, but using their "competitors'" pricing to justify their own. The lowest prices usually are found at Mountain Equipment Co-op, with some items selling for less than at REI, its US-based counterpart (although many manufacturers will not sell to them due to Canada's weak anti-trust laws) and at shops like Bicicleta or Campione, which work with their own import company, I think. I do believe that "the rents" are being extracted at the distribution level in Canada. Prices will only fall when enough Canadian cyclists start shopping at foreign mail order companies. And I'm doing my part; it's either MEC or mail order.

Luis