It was a common occurrence when I was a young book-nerd, haunting bookshops around Toronto. The price on the jacket of a book I wanted would say US: $12.99 CAN: $19.99. Instead of the stack of books that I wanted, I would leave with one, maybe two if mom had the money and there wasn’t a book she wanted. I would scheme on the streetcar-ride home, wondering if there was some way I could make it down to the US to go on a book shopping spree, finally fulfilling my bibliophile fantasy of having a personal library in our little two bedroom apartment.
Of
course these schemes never were made into a reality. And while I now have too
many books between Canada and Germany, many have come from second hand shops,
prices in pencils marks on the titles pages, the official price (read: robbery)
forgotten along with the coffee stains on page 56 and marginalia added by past
readers.
There
are some concrete economic reasons that book prices vary widely between the US
and Canada. According to some industry representatives who were called before
the Canadian Senate in 2012, these prices were meant to offset the low Canadian
dollar in 1999 and despite any gains the dollar made in the intervening 13
years, the prices remained higher than their US counterparts. (Note: The
Canadian dollar, while it enjoyed near-parity with the greenback for a few
years, over 2015, it has dropped to an 11 year low.) The difference in price
was meant to allow these massive publishing companies to keep their profits
high despite the low value on the Canadian dollar, not allowing publishing,
printing and distribution costs to overtake their revenue. Also, many books
have to be imported into Canada, despite its robust national publishing
industry. This is of particular
concern for students and academics, whose books are already exorbitantly
priced. If they are not printed in Canada under a subsidiary (e.g. Oxford
University Press Canada), they are outrageously expensive.
The
last time there was public concern over the price differences of books in
Canada and books in the US, publishers stopped putting the American prices on
book jackets. Retailers also often covered them with stickers of their own,
rather than taking a serious look at the publishing industry, pricing and the
economics of books.
According
to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canadian regulations allow book “importers
to charge booksellers the price of the book in the country of origin, plus the
difference in exchange rates, and an additional 10 or 15 per cent,
depending on the country of origin, On top of this, American publishers can
levy a further 10 per cent on top of on books shipped into Canada for sale.
And, to make this almost a parody of pricing, there are additional duties
(sometimes up to 18%) to import books to Canada as they are classified as
consumer goods. Canada’s market is relatively small and the inability of
publishers to tap into an economy of scale. Even e-books follow this pattern of
being more expensive in Canada, despite their immaterial qualities.
Before
the current slump in the value of the Canadian dollar in 2015, prices of books began
to drop in Canada over the last few years as the market itself has been forced
to adapt to the overwhelming power of online shopping. Books are still listed
at a certain price (before taxes are added at the checkout), but online
retailers offer a discount for buying the books online as we bypass the service
workers and the physical store. Of course, as the dollar loses value, the cost
of books, like other consumer goods, are driven up.
This, in turn, has real world consequences. While we can’t eat books or use them to
power cars, they do have a significant value. What happens when children’s
families are priced out of affording books, as so many already are? How do we
foster a love of reading, academic engagement, and literacy when buying food is
difficult, never mind novels? While libraries are critical, they are massively underfunded
in places like Toronto, and non-existent on many Indigenous reserves where
poverty is pervasive.
Should
the prices of books be regulated, establishing an affordable price ceiling?
Should they be subsidized? Or should we allow the market to do as it does?
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