Just a few days ago, I was walking on a nice sunny afternoon in Kitsilano here in Vancouver, and visited the Roots clothing store on West 4th Avenue.
As I was wearing my "Cross Border Shopping Deals" t-shirt, the customer service clerk in the Roots store asked me what the website was all about.
When I explained that I was the webmaster, and that the purpose of the website was to provide a forum for Canadians to exchange cross border shopping tips and recommendations, the Roots clerk introduced himself, and I had the pleasant opportunity to meet with Michael Budman, Roots Co-Founder, who was visiting their store from the company's head office in Toronto.
Mr. Budman explained that Roots has several company stores in the US, and their corporate policy is to make sure that prices in their Canadian stores are never higher than those in their US stores (Aspen, CO, Beverely Hills, CA, Park City, UT, and Birmingham, MI.)
http://canada.roots.com/Store-Locator/Store_Locator,default,pg.htmlMr. Budman explained that as a Canadian company, Roots strives to support local (Canadian) communities, and that is an important priority for them. The point he made is that when we shop locally, the economic spin-off supports our local communities which is a good thing.
Of course we here at Cross Border Shopping Deals fully agree, and our hope is that more and more Canadian retailers can follow Roots' "same price in Canada" policy. Sadly, many major chain retailers in this country are lacking in their efforts to price goods fairly here in Canada (versus the US).
The extent of this problem was detailed in the Maclean's Magazine cover story a few weeks ago:
http://www.macleans.ca/business/economy/article.jsp?content=20080806_54958_54958There comes a point where many Canadians cannot afford to accept considerably higher Canadian pricing, and this website is full of examples.
In the meantime, kudos to Roots and congratulations to them for providing quality products to Canadians at very fair and affordable pricing levels. We certainly endorse their endevours.
Henry Tenby, webmaster
www.CrossBorderShoppingDeals.com
