Wilester

Having a population of 4 Million would cut alot of mustard with me tbh - Like i have said before i would gladly pay more for a better lifestyle..

I cant recall One post here saying 'Come to NZ and get Rich'

Stormer999

Nah you sometimes have to pay for what you want. Is all the stuff made in PRC like the UK clothes and goods nowdays? or is local labour used? Could it really be about volume sales being lower and margins needing to be higher do you think? Competition must surely set the profit margins?

Stormer999

Hay Wilester do I class as a 'Happyclapper'..........like it..

Leither

The title off the thread is 100% Pure Rip-off NZ and there are numerous people who live in NZ who have testified to this and given various illustrations but you still insist on trying to pick holes in it and compare to where you live to illustrate how crap the UK is. That may be your perception but it's not reality for most people.

Perhaps you will find this useful:

The median wage for a male worker in NZ, excluding any benefits such as tax credits etc is NZD20/hour. The average worker works 38 hours per week, giving an annual median salary of NZD 39,520. This assumes that people are paid 52 weeks per year (which I'm not sure they are but someone can correct me if I am wrong). After tax and ACC that would leave the average male worker on the median slary with a take home annual salary of NZD 31,620.

The median wage for a male worker in the UK is £531(with a shorter avarage working week), or £27,612 annually. After tax and National Insurance, this would leave an annual take home salary of £20,734.

Now the mistake a lot of people on forums such as this make is to compare prices or salaries using the exchange rate of the day, or some other random rate if it suits their purpose. The only time the exchange rate is important is if you are transferring money from one to the other.

Otherwise, if you are living in a place what is important is how much money you have in your hand after taxes etc. and what it can actually buy.

Looking at the price of the All Black shirts given in the example above, a worker on median salary in NZ could buy 176 all black shirts if they were so inclined to spend all of their take home pay on AB shirts.

A worker in the UK on median salary could buy 415 shirts. Who is being ripped off? You can use this to look at the price of any commodity and you will find that in the majority of cases, NZ is more expensive than the UK in relative terms.

Of course a lot of people like to stress that petrol is [B]much[B]
cheaper in NZ. Really? According the the NZ AA, the price of petrol in NZ is currently NZD 1.829 per litre for unleaded 95. The worker on median salary could buy 17,288 litres. My local garage is currently selling unleaded at £1.129per litre. The UK worker on median salary could buy 18,365 litres with their annual salary. I think that knocks the price of petrol myth on the head

Look beyond the headline figures and see the reality.

One last thing: when I was in NZ in 2002, the rellies kept pointing out how cheap petrol was at NZD 1 per litre. The exchange rate at the time was NZD 3 to £1 so petrol was 3 times more expensive in the UK as we were paying £1 per litre at the time. It looks like NZ petrol inflation in the last 8 years is approximately 83% compared to 13% in the UK. Obviously the prices fluctuate but that is still a vast difference.

mcuddy1

Well there an't no competition in NZ. They rotate the specials so overall it's the same which ever store you use, as people will not visit two or three stores for a complete weekly shop.

Most of the branded sports goods come from Asia,China etc now you would expect those to be cheaper due to NZs special relationship with China.

How long have you lived in NZ?

Genesis

I find shopping in NZ quite reasonable. When things have big 30-50% off I buy large. I never buy (or rarely buy) meat unless it is on its sell by date and thus very, very cheap. I buy the cheapest milk in town and never ever pay the silly money for soft cheese in the stores again unless it is really discounted. NZ is only a rip off generally unless you let it be such. I realise there is less competition here but I play them at their game and in the main buy their loss leaders. Sure I sometimes have to buy summat not on offer but that is rarely. I never buy wash powder in the supermarkets because it is hugely cheaper in the Warehouse. And anyway all this talk about things being cheaper in the UK..we live here and have to accept it, just like I have to accept the crap driving. It is not going to change for us. Mind you its nice to moan now and then innit..ccos we are brits..its what we do.

Bo-Jangles

That's a brilliant way of looking at it! Save to say I've developed a business plan today, I'll be hopping on a plane with an empty suitcase once every six weeks to stock up on ABs shirts and merchandise in the UK and then I'll open a market stall outside Eden Park.

I'll bet that more ABs shirts are bought by tourists than by locals as they wander through the ABs store in Queen Street without a care in the world or thought that they could get the same shirt at home for half the price.

As for the demand debate, if the blasted shirts sold for the equivalent of fifty quid each in NZ, I am sure the demand would rapidly increase.

DennisBergkamp

i'm sure when i was in NZ the few stores i tried to get an AB top, they were sold out. The price i was quoted was $100.

I ended up getting the training top for $15 in Warehouse
It had the silver fern on, so it'll do

Stormer999

Thanks for the simple answer mcuddy1..."Well there an't no competition in NZ"
that is the simple bit that I have been missing. In the UK we have very astute little Asian businesses on nearly every street corner so if there was a matter of overcharging then they would very quickly be undercutting to pinch sales. Hence I could not understand where and how the excess profits were kicking in. Anyway I am not in NZ yet so I don't need an AB shirt yet my Welsh one will happily suffice.
p.s nearer my emigration date anyone needing a cheapo NZ shirt from Uk...............................................; )

JohnThePom

Exactly, which is why median wage analysis is missing the point. Every individual on the forum has different personal circumstances.

In my opinion the biggest mistake that we're all making is pretending to be logical and objective.

WP

Leither

Median wage analysis does not miss the point. If comparing prices between 2 places to work out what coutry is comparitively more expensive then median wage analysis and purchasing power of median wage after taxes etc. is the most logical and accurate measure of true costs unless you can suggest another method.

Of course everyone has different circumstances and when evaluating whether or not one would be better off financially in one place compared to another then median wage abalysis would be pointless. That would be a case of looking at your take home salary in each place and working out the purchasing power in each place.

mcuddy1

Ok you put a lot of energy into getting value for money, but I reckon most people just go to one store and buy what they need. Alas paying through the nose.
If you want to succeed in NZ I think you have to change your mindset as Genesis has done and shop selectively. Also make things yourself without the purchasing of convenience foods, hard habit to break.

When I first arrived it never bothered me but after two years it got up my nose.

JohnThePom

I thought you were trying to prove that people's individual testimonies regarding NZ being a 100% Pure Rip-Off was 100% Pure accurate by citing general statistics relating to the median income of the country.

Of course you might have a different point. I'm not sure that I know what the point of this thread is any more, or that there even IS a point to this thread (other than just arguing for the sake of it)!

I think you'd have to be pretty hard-core to be suggesting that absolutely everyone in NZ is ripping everyone else off. I think you'd be just as unreasonable to suggest that people got ripped off in NZ but didn't get ripped off in the UK.

No one that I'm aware of has ever argued that NZ doesn't have higher prices compared to income, generally speaking. Neither has anyone claimed that people don't get ripped off in NZ.

So what is the point being made and what the hell is everyone arguing about?

BEVS

Am Loolah

The median wages point is an interesting way of looking at it, and indeed whether you are being ripped off with prices in NZ. But obviously you are going to have less take home pay as there is no "Free Pay" in NZ, you are taxed on the first dollar you earn. That's got to make a difference surely? Then one could argue that you are being ripped off in NZ tax wise compared to the UK? Or just indeed argue ...

As you were ...