About a week ago I wrote an unfair rant about Canadian home espresso machine vendors. At the time, I was frustrated after searching for a Canadian vendor for Gaggia machines and finding significantly lower prices in the US. Terry Macaulay, the owner of Gaggia House in Toronto, saw my rant and invited me to call him to get the scoop on the Canadian espresso retail business. It turns out that there are a number of reasons why things are different in Canada, but the two major ones that stuck in my head are scale and history. First, the US has ten times the population of Canada, thus there is a much larger market for an Internet based business like Whole Latte Love, and there are certainly cost savings related to being a larger vendor. Due to the smaller market, the vendors in Canada have traditionally been small specialty stores that do much more than just sell espresso machines. They provide advice on purchasing decisions, training and support, and they service the machines. These vendors love espresso, and would love to see more Canadians interested in espresso. One of the best ways to help make this happen is to support the Canadian coffee industry. It turns out that Terry's prices were very competitive, and I ended up buying my machine from him. I definitely recommend giving him a call if you are shopping for an espresso machine in Ontario.