If you read my earlier post about J.Crew’s opening at Yorkdale, you would have noticed my complaint about the new online prices. This is still something I’m trying to make sense of. After all, I had assumed that adjusting the prices to reflect what’s sold at the Yorkdale store would mean that it would include duty. But no, this was not the case at all.
Total charges to purchase a dress from the J.Crew website (in Canadian funds)
J.Crew marks its products up approximately 18-20% for the Canadian store. For example, the Ruthie dress is $118 in the US and $138 in Canada. One would expect that, if purchasing from Ontario, the dress would total $155.94 plus the $9.95 (US) shipping. No. Instead, the total cost is $192.40. I’m still wrapping my head around this final cost. I can understand the extra charges if I bought in US funds. For example, if I decided to buy something from the US Banana Republic site, where prices are listed based on an exchange rate where $1 Canadian = $0.96 US (obviously out of date), I’d be charged for duty. In fact, I did this as a test. The Sharon knit sheath dress is listed as $134.90 Canadian on the US site ($130 US). The final charge for the dress is $205.24 after the $44.80 taxes and $26.05 shipping ( the dress is $155 on the Canadian site (about an 18% mark up) plus 13% tax. Shipping is free, since it’s over $50.)
Banana Republic prices for the same dress – US (top) vs. Canada (bottom)
This extra cost is not good for the vast majority of Canadians who want to buy J.Crew. Right now, there is only one store, at Yorkdale in Toronto. And that store only sells women’s clothing in regular sizes. If you’re petite, a guy or pretty much anyone who doesn’t live within a reasonable driving distance to Yorkdale, you’re stuck with the high charges (at least there will likely be a men’s store soon. No such luck for petites. And I can’t argue size discrimination in this one, can I?). J.Crew customer care was of no help either. All I got was the new prices were set to reflect what they’re charging at the store. And the guy I first spoke with had to have his manager come to the phone to speak with me.
Crate and Barrel includes duty in their Canadian prices. Where it says “taxes and duty” only includes sales tax!
As much as I love J.Crew (I have quite a few pieces from them in my closet and will still make purchases), I wish that they did more research when it comes to online pricing. Perhaps they should even apply duty to all their Canadian prices like Crate and Barrel. Or, like Coach, charge the same amount. The only reason I can think of for the “double charge” that makes even any kind of sense is that the Canadian prices absorb some of the shipping costs. After all, they are charging a flat rate (but that’s really misleading, since the “flat rate” was made possible by price hikes to absorb the costs. You could even say it’s a lie). Maybe in a year or so, when there are more J.Crew stores in Canada, we’ll actually have a Canadian site like Banana Republic. Of course, I’ll likely then be complaining about the lack of specialty sizing.
