Currency Fluctations

[Noonie]

Some of the online stores located in Japan price in US$. Can someone explain how this pricing works, in particular when an online store is located in Japan? Assuming the price of buying the tea within Japan hasn't changed, it seems unfair that when I'm buying tea from Japan I'm paying more because I live in Canada and our dollar has decreased against the US$ in the last 1-2 years. The CAD$ hasn't changed as much against the Yen as it has against the US$ (I just checked a 2-year chart of FX rates).

I completely understand why I would pay more when buying from Den's or other US vendors, but vendors in Japan?

For those living in countries other than Canada, US or Japan, I'm not sure how your currency is impacting cost of tea...but please share your experience as of late.

Thanks!

[Frisbeehead]

Typically the vendor will convert it based on your own currency's exchange rate, not through the US dollar first.

So, they would convert directly from JPY to CAD. On the site, they typically only show the USD because it is most popular, but that is only to judge the pricing. For actual orders, I believe they just exchange it directly at whatever rate the CAD is to JPY.

Something I have noticed too is that the exchange rate is always changing, so you may use google to find the pricing in CAD but the vendor might charge you something else. This happens to me as well, and I am in the USA. When I order from Hojo or some other site that doesn't show the conversion, I use google to convert it first to check the price. Then usually the price they send me is a little more, simply because maybe they are using a different conversion or because the rate changed or something.

[pizzapotamus]

In the same period Yen vs USD has to have changed though? Otherwise there'd be an easy arbitrage triangle changing around between CAD, JPY, and USD. So what you're paying relative to a US customer hasn't really changed.

Now of course a vendor is likely going to be quicker to update their USD pricing when the Yen is strong vs the USD than than reduce their prices when the Yen is weak and they do need to build in a little buffer to account for fluctuations so generally the best deal is paying in JPY when one can but this applies to people with USD as their native currency too.

Edit: Not to say that some vendors who price in USD don't give very fair prices.

[Kevangogh]

This highly depends on the vendor and their site. Many site's do not have shopping carts sophisticated enough to vary the currency rates so the set the prices in dollars and leave it at that price.

In our case, our site prices are based on the Japanese yen and the currencies are updated every 2 hours. We currently have 10 main currencies we deal with, including the Canadian dollar. Regardless, they are not "exact" because there is always a small spread between quoted and what you actually get, plus the currencies are fluctuating by the minute, but they are pretty darn close.

If you purchased a particular tea from us 2 years ago, the US dollar price back then was way more than it is now. The price of the tea in Japanese yen has not changed the entire time.

When the yen was strong 2 years ago, tea was expensive. When the yen is weak like it is now, it's a bargain. Japanese green tea prices right now are a real bargain compared to 2 years ago.

[Noonie]

Thanks for the responses.

Kevin - I agree with all that you said with respect to your store's pricing (I placed an order a couple of days ago).

However, on Thes Du Japon's site, as an example, the pricing is in US$ or Euro. So the same tea I bought from them back when our dollar was stronger against the US$ is now 30% higher (I checked the order I had placed). However, if the price I'm seeing would be adjusted to CAD based on its conversion to the Yen (not the US$), then maybe the prices would be lower...but on a straight US$ to CAD conversion I would be paying CAD42+ for Shizuoka - Hon.yama instead of the US$32 price quoted (I paid around CAD30 when I bought 1-2 years ago).

[bankung]

However, on Thes Du Japon's site, as an example, the pricing is in US$ or Euro. So the same tea I bought from them back when our dollar was stronger against the US$ is now 30% higher (I checked the order I had placed). However, if the price I'm seeing would be adjusted to CAD based on its conversion to the Yen (not the US$), then maybe the prices would be lower...but on a straight US$ to CAD conversion I would be paying CAD42+ for Shizuoka - Hon.yama instead of the US$32 price quoted (I paid around CAD30 when I bought 1-2 years ago).

You have the "secret" choice to buy directly in JPY. Try it out

[pizzapotamus]

Heh, I didn't want to name names but Thes Du Japon was the site I was thinking of for just setting the price high relative to the Yen and not worrying about needing to adjust it.... Their prices in USD are just flat out a bit high. If you're into lightly steamed tea they got a great selection and the owner seems very nice but the prices when not in yen....

Thankfully you can still pay in yen

[Noonie]

I also didn't want to call out names, but I had to make the point.

Next time I'll look for the Yen option, thanks.

[sherubtse]

Assuming the price of buying the tea within Japan hasn't changed, it seems unfair that when I'm buying tea from Japan I'm paying more because I live in Canada and our dollar has decreased against the US$ in the last 1-2 years. The CAD$ hasn't changed as much against the Yen as it has against the US$ (I just checked a 2-year chart of FX rates).

Of course you could buy from Canadian-based vendors and skip the currency concerns. Here are a few to consider:

http://www.momotea.co/

https://www.chadoteahouse.com/

http://camellia-sinensis.com/en/tea?country=JP

Because of the state of the Canadian $, I have not bought from 2 of my favourite vendors (Mellow Monk & W2T) for quite some time.

Best wishes,
sherubtse