The Wal-Mart Ratio

Actually, I couldn't think of a better name so that's what I'll call it. I've decided to share this after reading on Orangefever his comment that Wal-Mart there was more expensive than here in Ontario. Anyway, after having looked for and bought tons of DVDs, I can tell you that Wal-Mart is one of the cheapest places around to get DVDs and games. DVDSoon.com used to be uber cheap too when they were relatively young (and the fact that they're based in Quebec helps somewhat too), but now their prices have gone up a bit, but are still pretty cheap compare to most places. But anyway, this blog is about the Wal-Mart ratio - and by that I mean the ratio of prices between Canadian Wal-Marts (well, at least the ones in Ontario) and the prices listed on their US website (www.walmart.com). As the extreme lazy bum that I am, I prefer to shop around online. Unfortunately, www.walmart.ca is as useful to me as www.wal-martchina.com is since they're both informational sites only and doesn't actually list products other than perhaps what's in their weekly flyer. So anyway, after having bought several games and DVDs from Wal-Mart, I've noticed a trend that might perhaps help you. This has worked for me for the most part (but I've only compared games and DVDs) and perhaps you can use it for the same items or even other items if you can confirm my finding. So what did I find? I found that to get the Canadian Wal-Mart price, you simply multiply the price listed on their US site by 1.2! Thus, an item that's USD$49.99 will be approximately CAD$59.99, give or take a few dollars. Neat eh? Well, I found it neat as that meant I can now compare Wal-Mart prices in the comfort of my own seat. But you shouldn't take this to be always the case as I have found exceptions, but I have found it to be quite accurate for guessimating.

Oh, in addition, 1.2 is less than the exchange rate, so it is more expensive in the states... Why? I don't know... Man, I can't believe I just wrote all that about freaking Wal-Mart and their Canadian price....