I am depressed

Dublinflyer

I was in the us a few weeks ago and we decided to visit one of the outlets for a bit of shopping. Well, when I we I mean her

Anyway, much to my delight there was a Fry's Electronics store so I left herself and decided to pay it a visit. It was huge! However, after walking around for a few minutes I started to become very sad. I expected for there to be a price difference but it just seemed to be massive in some of the areas. As an example I got a Samsung 250Gb SSD for $79.00. USB keys were next to nothing, $5 for a 32Gb one. PC cases were mostly less than $50 and some of them were pretty cool looking. TV's were so cheap and as it is just before the superbowl there were a lot of discounts on the big ones, up to 60". I could go on but I think you get the idea. It just goes to show that we are still getting ripped off this side of the world.

Skalragg

The fact that the current exchange rate between the dollar and the euro is a big factor in this, you are right though the price difference is quite big. One thing about US is that the tax is not included on the display price, even when added electronics are a lot cheaper there. The same discounts apply when in canada

An example of the price differences.... I am planning to get a new macbook pro with retina... $1350 CAD ....1300euro here.... its cheaper for me to get a return flight to canada and buy the macbook. Which is crazy...

Luck100

That's a crazy price for a Samsung 250GB ssd, even for the US. I've always heard Fry's has some amazing specials but I never lived near one (back when I live in the promised land of cheap shopping...).

Dublinflyer

Yea I agree with you on the exchange rate but there is still a huge difference. The prices I mentioned are what I paid, inc tax. Even the clothes price difference is so big. I have been to the us so many times before but for some reason the prices just really jumped out at me this time.

Dublinflyer

Luck100 wrote: »

That's a crazy price for a Samsung 250GB ssd, even for the US. I've always heard Fry's has some amazing specials but I never lived near one (back when I live in the promised land of cheap shopping...).

I know, I had to look twice. It did not look like it was a special but they were the last two on the shelf so maybe it was.

Luck100

VAT at 23% is a big chunk of the difference. Sales tax in the US varies state to state, some places it's zero and others maybe 5%. The other part of it is currency - most of the manufacturers deal in dollar cost base, so they need to charge a bit of premium in their euro prices to cover their currency hedging costs and risk.

Luck100

Dublinflyer wrote: »

I know, I had to look twice. It did not look like it was a special but they were the last two on the shelf so maybe it was.

I really hope you didn't leave them behind!

Dublinflyer

Luck100 wrote: »

I really hope you didn't leave them behind!

I certainly did not