However, Canadian consumer products businesses always seem to be small shadow's of their American cousins. Examples?
- Jumbo Video versus BlockBuster
- Mr. Sub versus Subway
- Petro Canada (Sunoco) versus ESSO (Exxon Mobile) - Check out my post on the Petro Canada / Sunoco merger posted yesterday
Even Tim Horton's (founded out of Hamilton by the famous hockey player of the same name) was purchased by Wendy's a while back.
Now granted, there are some obvious general assumptions which apply which make it harder for us to "compete" on a comparable level playing field:
- The US has a 10x larger population than Canada, generally more demand
- Canada is geographically much bigger which results in a compound effect and lower population density
- We typically have higher tax, but enjoy more social programs
- American's have higher marginal propensity to consume (MPC) improving their GDP multiplier and demand curves
Note as well that it's not that the American's are targeting us per-say when they make an expansion onto our soil, but rather they are embracing globalization. Generally, the companies listed above have a presence in other countries as well as Canada.
Particularly in the Petro Canada / Suncor example, it's clear who's the bigger player as they will be retaining the Suncor name and CEO.
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