Life is hard in the Colonies

[emfrat]

The comments to this article on our Oz ABC website are in many ways more interesting than the article itself.
The rip-off has been going on for years - I can remember when the currency conversion seemed to be simply USD x 4, with no reference to the actual exchange rate.
I once bought a joystick locally, cost AUD 49.99 in a major retail chain. On the carton it said ten million sold worldwide, but the cost had been the same ever since they came onto the Oz market. You would think after ten million units, R & D costs would have amortised to near zero.
A couple of weeks later I was in a Maplins store near Motherwell in Scotland, and saw the same item, not in a sale, priced at GBP10, or about AUD17 at that time.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011 ... 243364.htm

No wonder us colonials are revolting!

MikeW

[Garry Russell]

I know a certain amount of excess profiteering goes on but it's not that straight forward

A lot of online stuff is from large warehouse servicing a huge worldwide market in places where the cost of living is low and the wages are low too.

High street shop exist in a smaller high cost area.

Difficult to make money when it's £1,000 per week rent for even a modest shop and there are the other costs too.

We all complain that it can be got cheaper from elsewhere but how many of us would like it if your local firm matched the on line prices and the wages paid to the staff that many of the lost cost base firm pay.???

It's said that firms should cut cost, a high percentage of that is wages...Would you like you wage cut by 60 per cent just so you're firm can match the on line price???

There seems to be a demand to live in a high wage society and pay low cost/wage society prices....Simpe fasct is if the prices do come down they so will the wages, except the wages would come down more than the prices leving everyone effectively worse off.

Also, why should the price of the joystick not be the same..it hasn't gone up so it is in fact cheaper in real terms. You mentioned development costs should be covered now, but why should a firm only make back the costs...what about their profit and the continued general development costs.

Yes, things need re balancing and over high rents is probably the main reason for high street pricing, never really mentioned as there is too much vested interest in high rents, but it can never match the levels on online.

Sadly, though we can't have our cake and eat it.

I'm not supporting high prices...just pointing out that it is not as clear cut as people think, and buying online will contribute to high street failure and the closure will not be popular.

Yes High Street prices are often too high, but on line prices are often too low often meaning many people are working very long hours for a pitence to get those low prices.

High Streets matching online prices won't improve the standard of living, it will cause it to drop.

[jonesey2k]

The same thing can go for stuff like Single Malt Whisky. People get ripped off totally by customs and excise and all that bollocks. Trying to get the stuff in some places of the world is really is like trying to get liquid gold!

[Filonian]

No wonder us colonials are revolting!

MikeW

Oh I dunno Mike - you are not too bad.

Graham

[TobyV]

The same thing can go for stuff like Single Malt Whisky. People get ripped off totally by customs and excise and all that bollocks. Trying to get the stuff in some places of the world is really is like trying to get liquid gold!

When I lived in the Uk i used to buy single malets in places like Frankfurt airport. Logically, it shouldn't be hceaper to purchase Scottish wisky that's been flown to Germany already because you are planning to fly it back to the UK, but perversely, it is. Stupid things like this actually have a significant carbon footprint.

If Mike W's joystick was manufactured in Asia somewhere (odds on it was) then it shouldn't be so expensive to ship it to NZ than it is to the UK (although this might be offset by a smaller market). This said, I live in a bizarre economic island where everthing costs far more than it should but somehow everyone is also paid a lot more so in the end it works out. I just don't understand how "we" manufacture everything you can imagine in this country (for "our" own market only) and somehow export things too

[emfrat]

When I left Scotland for Oz, it was very difficult to get Chivas Regal in the UK - it all went for export. On my first visit back, I got Dad a bottle in the duty-free at Sydney and it turned out I could have bought it cheaper in Tesco's.
I agree with Garry, it is not a simple issue, but a lot of the problem stems from plain greed of the local chain stores, many of whom are owned or partly-owned by USA companies. These days, things like graphics cards are readily available online, and are supplied from one central location - but if you look at the price comparison websites you see huge variations in pricing, from 40% off right up to full High St retail, with postage added. It's the same card, sourced from the same manufacturer, so why the difference?
Toby touched on a key point - an item designed for universal use should cost relatively the same in the local currency. If there is no need to modify it purely for Australia, then the 'small market' argument falls down. It would be interesting to hear from someone in South Africa, which is about the same distance from mainland US as Oz is, on what the prices are for things like the MS Office Suite and Adobe Acrobat. If something is retailed for USD85, and the Oz dollar is only worth 85c US, then I would expect to pay AUD100 - that is fair. Charging AUD 340 (85 x 4) is not.

ATB
MikeW

[Paul K]

When we lived in Australia, it was always the price of potatoes my mother complained about.