The better example to use than Canadian Tire is Future Shop. Here you can (i) check store stock status (not always reliable if "in stock" but is if it is "out of stock") and (ii) order items via FutureShop.ca for pickup at your nearest (or any) store location. So (except during Boxing Day Week) you can order items on the Internet and have them in your hands within an hour or so. To build out on Larry's comment I often shop at US sites because an item is just plain not available from a Canadian site. In fact, one of the shortcomings of Amazon,ca is that it does not have the breadth of categories (such as electronics and PC hardware) that Amazon.com has. On the other hand Amazon.ca has John Batelle's popular book on Search whereas it is not available via Chapters.ca. Again Chapters just does not have the breadth of inventory to go into the "Long Tail" the way Amazon can. And now for the blatant, but purely viral, commercial: I was recently looking for a new Linksys product. Turns out the only Canadian retailer (online or offline) with the product was DirectDial.com. On further investigation I found it was run by one of my best former AST dealers; check it out when nothing else works for PC hardware and software in Canada.