Broad Shoulders

you will find that some of the brands that they sell with have trade limitations on geographies they are allowed to sell to, so that could have some impact. I know that my Roland Drums that I bought here ($6k), were $3.5K in the US are not allowed to be sold outside of the US as this is a Roland imposed embargo. Even in the UK the same drums were $4k, yet no one would ship outside of the country. It allows them to maintain higher margins in profitable geographies such as Australia

Wol

I think the relative costs in Oz and abroad are not too relevant. After all, the exchange rate can alter the cost by a huge amount from one year to the next (and don't we know it at the moment). What goes around, comes around.

But the slapdash attitude talked about in the article, the lack of interest in providing what you want as opposed to what they want to offload, is the thing.

Such as only selling trousers with long legs - "we will shorten them at a cost". Such as offering shoes at a different size than the ones you wear - "they will fit in time". Such as offering a different book to the one you request - "We would have to put ourselves out and order that one you ask for". All three examples I have encountered in the last week, and this week's no different to any other!

Broad Shoulders

Sorry, but that's bollocks! What goes around does NOT come around when it comes to Aus and retailers. That example I gave with my drums was 5 years ago when the exchange rate was $0.66, the exchange rate has been flirting with the $0.90 mark for at least 6 months now and the price of those same drums is still the same exhorbitant price.
The same can be said for the digital SLR I have been keeping my eye on for the last year (and there are no international trading embargoes set by Canon). It comes down to pure retailer greed in Aus

Wol

Thanks for the polite reply.

I did add the qualifier "too".

I agree with you that Australian prices are usually far higher than elsewhere because of the lack of effective competition - and the attitude of taking what the sellers have at the time. But the exchange rate used when comparing obviously does modify things when it changes dramatically: the cost in terms of each countries' earning power doesn't alter but the comparison between the countries does.

Swerv-o

Ah, I hadn't considered parallel importation problems, and associated licencing issues. Though I don't really think they should apply to one off consumers.

So, what do we exactly get out of our Free Trade Agreement with the USA then? It would be nice if we were Free to trade with them, but they seem so unwilling to sell to us.

What annoys me is that the your drums were probably made in China, from steel that's original ore was probably dug up in WA, and now they won't sell the finished product back to you!


S

joydot

in 10 years time we'll all struggle to remember that once upon a time we didnt go online immed when looking to purchase. i work hard for my dosh and it goes to whoever best meets my needs (needs being far from static). the web has begun to sort the wheat from the chaff and ultimately we will all be better off...

bcworld

...in Aus though we'll probably still be leafing through pdf virtual catalogues and going to the store to buy!

Devlin

Very true!...I guess with a market of 300+ million people they don't think it's worth the bother for the odd international customer.

cresta57

That futuristic shit will not happen for at least another 30 years in Queensland

JackTheLad

And their websites will close at 7pm each night.

JTL

bcworld