Currently living in Montreal, Canada. Was in my local B&O shop over the weekend and was shocked at some of the recent price hikes (not sure how I missed it over Christmas but apparently the changes took effect in Nov 08). On average the price hike is about 20%. There were some surprises though.
Beolab 3s, which is what i was in the market for, jumped 38% from CAD$4,000 to CAD$5,500. I am also now finding price differences of up to 10% between B&O stores in the same country (previously unheard of) with some products more at store 1 and less at store 2 and vice versa.
Of course, much of the price hike is being blamed on the CAD/USD exchange rate which has dropped over the last year back to 'normal' levels of about CAD$1.00 = USD$0.82 (Canadian stock is sourced from Chicago). However, prices didn't go down when the CAD dollar was on par with the USD and now that we are back to typical I would think the margin has simply returned to typical, so I'm not sure I buy the argument that this is the source of the hike.
I'm interested in hearing from other members both in Canada/US and internationally about the impact of recent prices changes to them locally and tips they might have for getting the best deal.
Thanks.
Paul.