Internet retail tax threshold 'probably irrelevant' Australia's Productivity Commission is re-igniting the debate about online retail, competition and taxation, with an issues paper published late last week. The paper, titled "Economic Structure and Performance of the Australian Retail Industry", launches the commission's inquiry into the industry, with a particular focus on …
Stuff is expensive here. Buying it in from the US or Asia is often cheaper by far more than 10%
Which is weird, because you would have thought that getting stuff in bulk would reduce shipping and unit costs. Either the stores are ripping off the public, or the suppliers are ripping off the stores. I suspect it's a bit of both.
I hear that it's common practice to have a legally enforced "sole importer/distributor" agreement here, which would explain quite a lot. That people use the internet to buy from abroad is not a surprise. What is a surprise is that it's not illegal yet, because the history of globalisation has shown us that it's fine to pick and choose where your raw materials and workforce are if you're a manufacturer, but try it as a consumer or retailer and you'll get the smackdown.
Steve Jobs Icon because I just checked the iPad2 prices and they're withing the bounds of reason compared to the US. In fact the 32Gb Wifi model is actually cheaper here!
Been a lot of deabte here about this (in AU) with people recounting stories of actually buying high end lounge suites direct from Italy and getting them shipped to Australia cheaper than the same lounge suite if purchased from a shop front importer/retailer, and we are not talking about 10-15% cheaper, we are talking 50%+ cheaper!
Somewhere along the line someone is making huge profits, the retailers here reckon it isn't them because a measly 10% is killing them...seriously if it was only 10% most people would buy locally due to better warranty. Even in Australia it is often cheaper to buy online. For instance the new Buzz Lightyear doll, retail at Woolworths $79.99, online shop on ebay from australian seller, $39.99+ shipping, brand new item.
Like the music and movie industry it isn't a lack of ability to compete with online sales, its a lack of desire to compete, so the call is to protect the industry against competitors, far easier to stop people selling stuff cheaper than you than to actually compete.
Anti-competetive behaviour is all it is.
Well Steve, just consider the retail landscape in Australia. In the last couple of decades it's been hit by a wave of consolidation, not just in the retail sector itself but the retail property sector too. You basically have three companies who between them own most of Australia's retail floor space (Westfield, Centro, and GPT). Most retail sectors are essentially oligopolies who want to stifle competition by potential upstarts. The best way to do it? Send retail rents skyrocketing by colluding with property managers. The big retailers are then "forced" to raise the prices of their products in order to offset "higher operating costs."
Moving from London to Perth, I was shocked. I thought I'd been living in one of the most expensive places on the planet. It turns out that almost everything in Oz is incredibly pricey. Despite a ~50% rise in salary when I came across, and lower income taxes, I feel like I have less purchasing power.
Check out the price inside Australia:
1.) Audio Equipement
Go to
http://www.pioneer.com.au/au/products/42/98/405/VSX-920-K/index.html
Look in the top left corner, that is what we pay in Australia.
The price to order by internet from USA is $259.00 USD.
2.) Computer Equipment
Price USA can land inside Australia from USA 16GB iPad 2's for $565 AUD.
3.) Just about everything else sold! - Example, Husqvarna 460 Rancher 20-Inch 60.3cc 2 Stroke Gas Powered Chain Saw
$1,200 AUD
or
$459 USD
Take your pick, it will always be cheaper even with 10% and international shipping to order from anyone OUTSIDE of Australia than the rip off artists (Retail Stores) inside Australia!
Retailers can feck off!
I recently bought a set of ski+binding and a new snowboard over the 'net. Buying them from the State and having them shipped over was still less than half the price of buying them here.
But if you point that out to the wholesalers/retailers, their reaction will immediately be "raise the price of buying stuff from overseas". Heaven forbid that they actually have to streamline their operations to bring down their costs.
The 10% GST is obviously why I can buy things overseas and have them shipped here for under half the price of buying them locally*. Not to mention the fact that many things I want to buy aren't sold locally anyway.
Before blaming the GST, they blames the fact that one Aus dollar bought 50 US cents. Our dollar is now worth more than one US dollar, and the prices are still stupidly high.
Gerry Harvey and the other retail moguls can just harden the fuck up and deal with the fact that they charge too much, offer too few products, and have sales staff that make you want to punch them in the face.
* For values of locally meaning "within 3000km"
The biggest rip off is the distributor, then the retailer.
Each region distributor charge different. Often you will find our distributor charges much more for whole sale price than retail price you can buy from overseas.
Then, the retailer will like to add another mark up (eg. 40% for some computer goods).
The end result? We'd pay more than double most of time to buy locally.
And half of time, the good stuff doesn't even sell locally, you HAVE to buy overseas.
Last Saturday morning: Myer in Bondi Junction, 10:20AM. I wandered the floor for 10 minutes (with my increasingly frustrated husband in tow - he hates shopping) and could not find a single Myer employee to sell me something. How do you stupid people expect to turn a profit if there is nobody in your stores to work the cash registers?
The last time I purchased something from hardly normal they screwed me around! I was after a top of the range vacuum cleaner, they had the best price so I bought.
Turns out they didn't have stock, said it would be in next morning, wasn't. It took two more days. Why the hell should I go to a shop purchase something and then have to come back at least twice to try to collect it!!!!!
It would have been so much easier to purchase on the web and get it delivered.
Yup, the harsh reality is that Aussie retailers are lazy, inefficient whiners who expect to be handed a living on a plate. I do a lot of diving. The moment you mention that stuff is expensive here compared to buying on the internet you get lots and lots of posts from retailers saying things like ‘if you buy from the internet we will go out of business and then there will be nowhere to get your tanks filled’. Their only response to conversations about the cost of things is to issue threats. Well guess what, there are lots and lots of dive shops in the UK and the US, all of whom seem to stay in business whilst selling stuff at reasonable prices. The Aussie approach is both short sighted and stupid. Sooner or later an internet retailer will come along and put all of these amateur operations out of business by offering reasonable pricing. And guess what? Supply and demand will ensure there are always people locally prepared to sell you an air fill.
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