I once bought a set of slot cars and they were shipped by sea, I believe..just over 2 months to arrive.
When your country is as large as ours and there are only 33 million people, we do not have anywhere the purchasing power to have many of the specialty store like what is available in the country south of us so we are forced to go south to buy what we need.
Out dollar has been at par for a very long time and the only reason vendors tell us that why we pay so much more is volume. Even with the multi national chain. I think profit margin as well.