look, MEC is simply loophole in Canadian tax law. mec has a greater margin than the IBD because they have no middle man; they manufacture and sell all under one roof, therefore there is no third party involved in the product production chain. ie: Giant bicycles designs a bike (cost) > manufactured in china (that manuf takes 30%) > sell at IBD (store takes 30%) > consumer (buys at cost +60%) MEC designs a bike (cost) > manufacturer in china (that manuf takes 30%) > sell at MEC store (no margin) > consumer (buys at cost + 30%) Company x designs a cheap bicycle (cost) > manuf in china (manuf takes 30%) > sell at Wallmart (store takes 30%) > consumer (buys at cost +60%) however, since they are selling at relatively the same MSRP as Giant (or any other bike brand sold at IBD), that means they are pocketing an additional 30%. what is more this is their business model! all the products in the store work this way. its pretty brilliant really. PS, Wal-Mart could afford to design and manuf the items in their store in-house, but they choose not to. PPS, i buy stuff from MEC, so i'm a hypocrite. Also, I heard that people in the MEC office make a HUGE salary. I want dividends!