I am a huge Amazon shopper. In fact, I worship Amazon.com a little too much and it scares me. So, imagine how thrilled I was when I saw this headline in the Financial Post late in 2013:

Amazon Canada expands shopping list, adds some grocery, auto goods

yeah, well the auto goods, wasn't exciting, but wow! Amazon Canada was actually expanding. Now, having said that, if you live in Canada you have come to expect that whenever Canada tries to "copy" something from the US - they usually end up being their poor younger cousin, but I was hoping that with a name like Amazon this would not happen. But it did.

With the exception of most books, anytime I have gone on Amazon Canada to order anything - most lately Hello Kitty slippers as well as black mary jane skechers, the results have been dismal and embarrassing. Either the item is simply not available on their site at all or there is a selection of 3 items -whereas the US version will have pages and pages.

This is beyond frustrating and if I try to go to the US site, it appears as though many of these items are either "not available for shipping outside of the US' or they charge a huge amount of $$$ for shipping (when Amazon Canada offers free shipping). I know the US Amazon is doing this so that the US site does not shoot the Canadian site in the foot, but wow!!!! this sucks big time.

I cannot believe that in 2014 - a huge conglomerate like Amazon cannot get its act together in Canada. Actually I can - I have seen this kind of disastrous thing happen over and over again in Canada. Target made a HUGE production of opening stores in Canada last year. Now, I love the Target store in Plattsburgh, New York so again, I was excited, only to fall into the Canada cannot do it anywhere near as well as the US. The Target stores are a disaster here - they are expensive, they offer very little variety and have basically kept that stupid Canadian flavor.

Please, please US retailers, if you are going to expand in the Canadian market - then how about doing it right? If I want "the Canadian" flavor I will go to Tim Horton and while we are at it, hey! Amazon Canada, if you want to stay in business how about getting your act together?

Here is a link to the Financial Post article:

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/10/30/amazon-canada-expands-shopping-list-adds-some-grocery-auto-goods/