Visit to the States

I visited Atlanta, GA in the States last summer. Southern America is a wonderful and interesting place to live in, especially the beach time. However the most interesting thing that amazed me was the goods prices. Although we have an almost-equal currency with our southern neighbour, people in the States obviously are enjoying lower prices on almost everything, sometimes half of ours. I bought several bottles of best wines. Plus, can you find some red wines that are marked $2.99, $3.99, or $5.99 in Calgary? No, no way. Those kinds of wines are charged $9.99 roughly in Calgary. Cost more to cook beef with cheap wines in Canada, right? How about vehicles? Like everybody else, I certainly agree that living in the States would be much less expensive than in Canada, as everything is cheaper with an equal currency. How come? Hope ECON 250 will answer it.