Price Tracking for Clothing in Canada: Alerts, Wishlists and Fake 'Was' Prices

A clothing “was” price is a claim about the past. It is either a price the seller, or sellers in that market, actually sold or offered in good faith, or it is a number that makes today’s tag look kind. You cannot see the difference from one visit. You can see it from a short record: the same jacket, the same page, enough days to notice whether the crossed-out price ever stuck. This guide is that routine, using the Competition Bureau’s ordinary-price tests as the standard. It does not rank trackers, and it does not name a browser extension. A cash-back portal, if you use one, is an offer type. It does not validate a was-price.

Retailer wishlists and back-in-stock alerts

Start with the tool the store already runs. A wishlist, a saved item, or a back-in-stock note records that you wanted a size, and some banners email you when the price or the stock changes. The email is a prompt, not evidence. Open the page and write down the price yourself. If the page does not offer an alert, the calendar reminder is the method. Treat any email as a reminder to look, then log the number. A wishlist does not publish a price history.

If the banner has no alert, the routine is a calendar reminder and the same URL. Weekly is enough for a coat you might buy this season. Daily is noise unless you are inside a price-adjustment window you already started. The price-adjustment guide is that clock. Costco’s published window is 30 days, and only against the same channel. An alert from a different website does not prove Costco dropped the price.

Browser price trackers (offer types)

A browser extension that watches a product page is an offer type. It can fill the days you do not visit. It can also miss a sale, track the wrong variant, or stop when the page layout changes. This guide does not name one and does not rank them. If you use one, you still want your own screenshot on the day you buy, because a dispute with the store uses your record, not the extension’s.

The Amazon.ca household tracking guide covers that site’s strike-through help and returns. Use it for Amazon.ca. Do not assume an Amazon chart applies to a Canadian banner’s compare-at price. A portal click is a separate tab. Open it after you have decided the price is acceptable, using the order in the stacking guide. The portal rate is not a reason to believe the was-price.

Recognising inflated reference prices

The pattern is a high reference and a lower price that is on the tag most days you look. The reference might say “was,” “compare at,” “regular” or “after sale.” The Bureau’s guidelines, section 4.1.3, say all three are judged by the volume test or the time test. A reference that you have seen in force for a handful of days, with a lower price on the rest, is the pattern the chart draws with made-up numbers. It is a reason to doubt the percent-off, not a finding that a named retailer broke the law. Only the Bureau and a court decide that.

Off-price retailers often print a compare-at figure that is not their own past price. The Winners guide tells you how to read that sceptically, without inventing a markdown calendar. A compare-at that refers to other sellers has to meet the test for suppliers generally in the relevant market, which the guidelines say is often the area the ad actually reaches. A national website and a single store are not automatically the same market. Seasonal clothing can be judged on a shorter period. Section 4.1.4 says the nature of the product matters, and a seasonal product may be sold or offered for a shorter time. A winter coat is not a box of detergent. A shorter season is not permission to invent a regular price that was never offered.

Ordinary price rules in Canada

The page the Bureau now titles “Ordinary selling price,” checked 29 Sep 2026, says a business cannot invent a higher regular price to make a sale look like a bargain. It gives the example of advertising “$100, now $50” if the item never sold at $100. It describes two reference types: the seller’s own regular price, and a market price. The volume test on that page: more than 50 percent of sales at that price or higher within a reasonable period, usually within a year, before or after the promotion. The time test: offered in good faith at that price or higher for a substantial period, usually within a year. Good faith, on that page, means the retailer honestly believes the price is fair and expects customers to pay it.

The longer document is the 16 October 2009 enforcement guidelines, “Ordinary Price Claims,” subsections 74.01(2) and 74.01(3). The page that carries them says the Bureau is reviewing its guidelines after changes to the Competition Act. Use the guidelines as the Bureau’s published reading, and treat the “under review” line as part of the citation. In those guidelines, substantial volume is met if more than 50 percent of sales are at or above the reference price. The volume period is the twelve months before or after the representation, and it may be shorter given the product. The time test is met if the product is offered at or above the reference price for more than 50 percent of the period considered. That period is the six months before or after the representation, and it may be shorter. Good faith looks at whether the product was available in volume, whether the price was reasonable against competition, whether the supplier expected the market to validate it, and whether genuine sales happened or the price matched competitors.

The guidelines also say a comparison that fails both tests may still not be misleading if it is not false in a material way. Their clearance example: the sale is clearly a clearance, the ad refers to the original price and any interim prices, and the original price was offered in good faith. Generally, clearance is for stock the supplier already has. A jacket that arrives already “50 percent off” a price you have never seen is not that example. The hypothetical “regular $100, sale $50” in section 4.3.1 is the Bureau’s illustration, not a clothing price from a Canadian store.

A simple watchlist routine

Pick one garment, not a wardrobe. For ninety days, or for the weeks of the season if you will not last ninety, record the price once a week and on any day the page shouts. Columns: date, price payable, crossed-out price, size, colour, store. At the end, count the days the payable price matched the crossed-out price. The Bureau’s tests are about sales and about time offered, which you cannot see from a couch. Your count is a screen for whether the claim is even plausible. It is not a prosecution.

Before you buy, add the adjustment deadline if the retailer publishes one, and the return deadline from the holiday return guide or the ordinary policy. The best-time-to-buy guide says when categories tend to clear. It does not print discount percentages, and neither does this one, except inside the made-up chart. Example with made-up inputs: the chart’s jacket shows a “was” price of $120 that the drawn selling price matches only at the start, then sits at $72, with a short stretch at $58. Those figures are not a Canadian retailer’s history. They show how a line that rarely meets the reference looks next to a line that is the everyday price.