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Old 05-25-2011, 11:48 PM   #56
UFO
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Quote:
Originally Posted by gars View Post
If they don't decrease their profit margin, and their competitors do, they will lose business. If they decrease their profit margins, and their competitors don't, they will take business away from their competitors.
If it's as simple as that, I'm going to open up a gas station and sell gas $0.05 less than everywhere else and profit

If they don't decrease their profit margin, and their competitors don't decrease their profit margin, then all businesses will reap extra profit because they know what price the market can sustain for a certain product. The decrease in product pricing that we MAY see as a result of HST is so small, that it is easily offset by things like increasin labour costs, inflation, energy and fuel costs, and to the consumer any savings will be more or less invisible and only theoretical, just like your example of how businesses like to sell things at lower profit margins to gain a competitive edge.
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