Online Store

[Jackymc 0]

The way I understand it customs charges for hockey gear to Canada is just tax which I don't believe is even added to the cost of the order by a store unless the customer is in the same state. So really there isn't that much of a difference until you look at the shipping costs.. and thats where it really differs with hidden brokerage fees by UPS and FedEx.

[Jason Harris 31]

Whats up with all these tariffs and stuff ? I thought Canada and the U.S. were supposed to have a free trade agreement.

It's not tariffs between the US and Canada. According to the Salming Canada distributor, there are a lot of tariffs on hockey products that are not made in Canada, whereas the US only has tariffs on skates, jerseys and maybe bags.

Countries enact tariffs to protect their industries, and hockey is apple pie to the Canadians. So the government created tariffs to try to prevent production from going offshore, by theoretically making the costs equal. However, I read yesterday that the labor cost for the footwear industry in China is $0.39 per hour. Granted, that's the footwear industry, but I'm sure it's ballpark. So, unless the tariff were a few hundred percent, it obviously is cheaper for companies to send the production elsewhere.

When that product finally arrives in Canada, the tariffs are added. And Jackymc may be correct that VAT and GAT (or whatever they are) are added also.

[shute 4]

message sent to me from sogaduch - hey bud im curious do you know how much it costs to run a business and also what margin you need to make a profit. just gotta say think about it, it costs alot to run a hockey shop and the first few years you dont make any money at all because your paying off your debt

my reply

Yes i do know how much it costs to run and business what what kinda of margins i need in order to make money. I used to be a manager at the second largest sportchek/coast mountain sports combo store and i currently a manager at a larger big box office retail company. trust me i know better then most about how the numbers work. in that note i know all the ins and outs and know that if i did open a store it'll make money in less then half a year. i also said that i would open one IF i won the lotto so there wouldn't be any debt to pay off, no doing things the mom and pap way in some little store in the middle of no where. heck if i didn't have to follow company rules and had EVERYTHING my way i could of increased either the bottom line by 20% or decrease the price on everything by 20%. Also to note i wouldn't have the same buying power as sportchek or the brand name so even if you decrease the bottom line by a VERY one sided, VERY worse prices another 15% i could still make an extra 5% extra on top of what that store was already making. trust me i could slash all sportchek prices by more then 10% on top of that which would be HUGE and still be :lol: all the way to the bank. If I ever won the lotto… WATCH OUT!!

[shute 4]

oh ya in case anyone was wondering even when i was working for sportchek i would stil buying stuff from US websites except for a mession pro deal that i got for my D1 which ended up being half price.

[NuggyBuggy 0]

trust me i could slash all sportchek prices by more then 10% on top of that which would be HUGE and still be :lol: all the way to the bank.  If I ever won the lotto… WATCH OUT!!

If you really could make that kind of profit, why don't you ? I know you wrote something about not wanting to go into debt, but that sounds like a cop-out to me. If you could make those kinds of margins over top of one of the bigger sports stores in Canada, you'd be able to pay back the loan in no time, so it would seem like a no-brainer to put your money (or in this case, the bank's money) where your mouth is.

[shute 4]

ah and which bank is going to give me 5 mill to open a big box office store? are you going to give me 5 mill to open on? also 5 mill in interest =..... like i said before IF i won the lotto...

[althoma1 575]

I'm in Toronto, Canada and have bought equipment online several times. As previously stated by others the US stores in general are much cheaper - I did manage to find a good deal on a shaft a few years ago at CycloneTaylor.com and they still have good prices on a few things (like the Nike Apollo), but in general they are priced much higher than US sites and so are other Canadian based sites. The reason for this has already been stated (tariffs).

I find the cheapest way to get equipment off the net is through ebay - you can buy from individual US sellers and ask them to ship via USPS. If you avoid Fedex and UPS you can avoid the ridiculous brokerage fees - why should I have to pay $40 for them to tell me how much tax I owe? That's how I ended up getting my current CCM Vector Pro skates last year - I paid about $230 US with shipping and they were $699 at the LHS. They were marked as a gift so I didn't even end up paying tax. These were new and in the box and I knew they were in my size as I had already tried on Vector 6's at the local SportCheck (I just grabbed some to try on from a box and put them back when I was done - I didn't waste any sales person's time). The only problem with ebay is you can't always find what you're looking for or your size, but it's definitely something to check. I just got a new Carbster helmet from ebay for $20US - same price as HockeyGiant.com, but shipped via USPS to avoid the brokerage fees (ended up costing about $40CND with shipping when it would have been about double that with the brokerage and shipping fees through HG)

Before I knew better I did buy a pair of roller hockey skates about 4 years ago through HG for $199 (they were priced at $600 CDN so it was a good deal) and was hit with brokerage fees, duty and taxes by UPS. Now I avoid anything from the States shipped via UPS or Fedex like the plague and look for things either in Canada or from the States with a USPS shipping option. The deal would have to be unbelievable for me to purchase something shipped from the US via UPS or Fedex.

The other way to get cheap equipment in Canada is to wait for specials at the Big Box stores like National Sports and SportCheck (now both owned by the same company). There are usually big ones in August where they'll have a $600 pair of skates from last year marked down to $199 CDN as well as some other great deals - which are great as long as you get there early and don't have to have the latest models. There's also a big National Sports Clearance store in Toronto where they have big discounts on equipment that's usually 2 or 3 seasons old. Personally I like top of the line equipment at middle of the line prices or less so I don't mind not having all of the newest gear - I new 3 year old model of something is often much better than a bottom of the line model from the current year and priced about the same (although that's not always the case).

Just my 2cents on buying equipment in Canada.