Zellers Reduces Canadian Prices To Match Strong Canuck Buck

It’s quickly becoming the major pet peeve of Canadian consumers – customers here paying higher prices than our American cousins despite the surge in the Canuck buck.

Many have been solving the problem by simply getting into their cars and heading down to Buffalo or Niagara Falls, New York, taking all those strengthened loonies with them. But now one nationwide chain on this side of the border is making an effort to get you to stay – and spend – your hard earned money with them.

Zellers has confirmed that it will immediately be lowering the prices on a wide range of items throughout its stores across Canada, to more accurately reflect the strength of the buck. Some examples: a bottle of Windex that was $3.99 is now on for $3.49. A 7-megapixel Sony Cybershot camera that had been selling for $169 on Thursday is now priced at $129. Huggies diapers were $20. Now that same package can be yours for $17.99.

Not all the items are reduced – you won’t get any deals on a big screen TV.

But Zellers spokesperson Hillary Marshall notes most of the changes are on everyday products you’d buy all the time, and not just on the big ticket purchases you might only make once in a while.

How do they arrive at the new price tags? “We buy merchandise through vendors … and we’re able to go back to them and say, ‘hey, wait a second here, the Canadian dollar’s performing so well, you’ve been reaping the rewards of that soaring loonie and we want to share in those profits and we want to be able to pass along some of those profits to our customers,'” Marshall tells CityNews.ca.

Is it a sales gimmick? Yes. But it’s one that just might work. Experts believe it could force competitors to reply in kind, creating a chain reaction of price lowering across the country.

For most, it couldn’t come soon enough and should have come sooner. Analysts say Canadians are paying as much as 20 per cent more on some items, even though our currency is higher. And while stores like Wal-Mart are offering video games at U.S. prices, this is the first time cuts have been done across the board.

Customers like that idea. “I’ll definitely think about where I shop from now on and …  possibly … go to Zellers instead of some other large name distributors,” concedes shopper Christine Krubnik.

Still, you shouldn’t expect instant price adjustments everywhere. The trickle down theory applies to this move. But by putting pressure on the stores where you shop, you can make that trickle move a lot faster. 

Marshall admits if the dollar falls they may have to reconsider those cuts, but as long as it’s soaring above the loonie, the lower price will remain the law – even if they don’t use that slogan anymore.