Thread: Canadian members?

I am thinking of a website for all things bellydance,geared to Canadians. I make all our troups costumes at my studio, and usually buy sequins, beads, some costume things, fringe,, etc. in bulk.
I usually cannot find them on Canadian sites, so I order from anywhere in the world,and do have access to a lot of suppliers.
If there are Canadians out there that have difficulty obtaining supplies, would you like it if you could order your shiny things right here in Canada?
I would be interested to know what your biggest complaints are!

My biggest complaint about buying from outside of Canada is the higher shipping costs and waiting for customs. I would be willing to pay a slightly higher price to buy within Canada but the price would have to be comparable to what I would pay (with shipping, of course) from elsewhere.

To be quite honest, price is one of my biggest factors when shopping for costume supplies (or anything else for that matter). I've noticed that some Canadian bellydance retailers charge alot more for things that I could get elsewhere, even when you take shipping into consideration. I'm not sure why this is, maybe Canadian importers get hit with hidden costs I'm not aware of?

I would love the have access to good quality, reasonably priced costume supplies within Canada.

Thank you. The high cost was always my complaint too. I did find that buying in bulk was a way to get the price down, but I end up with more than I need of everything!
Shipping within Canada is not that great, pricewise, but given that, I should be able to pay less for the supplies, which may work to our advantage.

Funny you should post this! I was just about to post a whiny inquiry into the fact that when I factor in the costs for materials and my time, it is cheaper to custom order from egypt if the costume maker has a cheap shipping policy. I was wondering if anyone else experienced this too.

Where I live materials such as beads and sequins are a ridiculous price. I can get fabric cheap at the local Fabricland but to get a match for a dress recently I had to pay $18 a metre from a canadian online supplier and that didn't include shipping!

So yes, I would LOVE any canadian sources that could offer the deals and variety the US stores have. And without the hastle of getting stuff through the border would be awsome.

Good luck with this and keep us posted.

Yes, sequins and beads are hard to find at a good price where I am and the color selection is usually very limited.

Beaded fringe I usually order from Horus and Isis because it's so expensive everywhere else.

Rhinestones and rhinestone trim, and good quality stretch velvets in a nice selection of colors is also hard to find and very expensive locally compared to US suppliers.

I'd like to wish you luck with this as well!

Canadian retainers have to pay customs, so some of that will get passed on. Plus Canada Post is super expensive. Still, it can be cheaper than getting hit with customs yourself everytime.

It's not bellydance-specific but CosplaySupplies.com - costumes, accesories, wigs, footwear, craft supplies and more has some beads, rhinestones, trims, makeup etc., and is a Canadian retailer.

Awesome link, Maral, thank you!