Dave confirmed what I believed to be true about the Canadian Dive gear market...on an item per item basis Canadian dive shops are going to be more expensive right off the bat due to the distribution model. Let me explain the difference between one step and two step distribution.
If I am a shop and I can buy direct from the manufacturer, it is one step distribution.
If I am a shop and I have to buy from a "distributor" who in turn buys from the manufacturer, it is two step distribution. Most distributors in the business segments I work in tend to work on a minimum 20% margin and prefer 30 to 35%. This is what they need to add to cover their warehousing, shipping, management and profit. Since there is another player in the equation, the end pricing you see as a consumer is always going to have a significant "gap" from what you see from a shop which does not have the extra step.
The other things which can create this larger gap are that some of the price lists Canadian retailers/distributors see have wonky exchange rate calculations. Sometimes the price list is based on an exchange rate from a time when there was a much greater gap...what many Canadians don't realize is that when we had a really weak dollar, many manufacturers were signigicantly subsidizing the Canadian pricing as they couldn't pass on the "true" cost or we would have seen massive retail price increases. Now that the exchange rate is closer, we're seeing more realistic pricing. Costing on this type of product is usually only adjusted once or twice a year. It is way, way too hard to change it from a pure accounting and logistics point of view...think of how many different people and departments are involved in setting a price list from the manufacturer to the distributor to the diveshop...coordination with multiple computer systems, accounting departments etc becomes a nightmare all down the line...it isn't a few keystrokes from anyone.
Also much of the time buying is done way in advance of shipping but payment is made well after the goods are received.
Many people don't realize all the different factors which make doing business in Canada so expensive and what makes some avenues of consumer goods look really out-of-line. Our transportation costs are significantly higher than the US. Our warehouse costs are higher. The dollar fluctuation and GST add another level of problems. Business taxes tend to be higher. Minimum wages are higher. Each of these is a piece of the puzzle.
Sometimes it becomes way to simplistic to not realize that the general retail playing field in Canada (not just scuba) can have some significant handicaps if you are doing a direct comparison to a US retailer.