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Perhaps calling us lazy was going a little too far. But Bank of Canada deputy governor John Murray touched a sensitive nerve this week when he chastened shoppers for failing to comparison-shop south of the border when the loonie is at or near parity.

A few short months after leading an unprecedented backlash against retailers for charging significantly higher prices for goods in Canada than in the United States, consumers seem to have become complacent at the checkout.

"The call of consumers and the media has died down substantially in the new year," said Kevin Groh, spokesman for Wal-Mart Canada.

But it may not be laziness that has drowned out calls for better deals. Experts say time constraints, savvy retailers and our own ignorance of persistent price disparities may be stopping consumers from demanding lower prices.

Last September, when the loonie reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time in three decades, consumers were "incensed" over the fact that some items were still much more expensive here, Mr. Groh said. Many retailers, including Wal-Mart, the Hudson's Bay Company and Indigo Books &Music Inc., responded to demands by lowering some prices or offering temporary discounts.

Now, consumer demands for lower prices have largely disappeared even though Canadians are still paying too much for many consumer products, according to Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns.

How much Canadians pay for some products - particularly books and cars - has been reduced substantially in recent months, Mr. Porter said, and such concessions may have convinced the bulk of consumers that the prices they pay here are similar to those in the United States. Those products represent flashpoints in the consumer's mind, since they're easy to compare. (Many publishers, though, have stopped displaying the U.S. price on books, greeting cards and magazines, Mr. Porter noted.)

And Canadians don't have significant time to devote to comparing prices of consumer goods. In an era when many people bear the weight of extremely demanding schedules, it makes sense that some will swallow higher costs, said Michael Pearce, a business professor at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

"There are those of us who will trade time to save money and those of us who will trade money to save time," he said. "It doesn't mean they're accepting that things are as they are with a great big smile. It just means in the grand scheme of things, 'I guess I'll worry about something else.' "

As well, record-high gas prices and the headaches of cross-border shopping are probably deterring Canadians from bargain-hunting or boycotting the Canadian branch of a chain that offers better deals to U.S. customers, Mr. Porter said.

"There is a time cost. Sometimes there's a gas cost, actually going from store to store," he said.

What's more, people may not even realize that better deals are available in the United States, said Michael Mulvey, assistant professor of marketing at the University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management.

"I think they only clamour when they know they're not being treated fairly," Mr. Mulvey said. "They don't fully appreciate there are differences in prices."

Since consumers aren't complaining, the stores won't bring prices down, Mr. Porter said: "They're charging what the market will bear. They're charging higher prices because they can get higher prices."

And many Canadian shoppers simply accept what the price tag tells them.

"You know what they say about Canadians: We're so nice that we don't want to argue," said Eleanor Friedland, vice-president of the Consumers Council of Canada. "I don't think we're any more willing to accept [high prices] than any other country is, but sometimes you feel there's nothing you can do about it."

Ms. Friedland said Canada doesn't have a strong culture of activism, and in order for prices to change consumers will have to speak out.

"I would like to see Canadians become more active in the issue," she said. "People can do something."