RobClubley

After our brief UK trip last week I think they must be.

Examples - ASDA:
shirts - 4 quid each or three packs for 8 quid. And the quality is better than Farmers' 30 dollar shirts.
White blouses - 2.50
Shoes for work - 15 quid and they're better quality and more comfy than the $100 ones I got here.
Wii games - 10 quid or 25 for the latest releases - $100-129 here
Wii remotes - 25 quid, or $110 here
Waterproof jacket, 12 quid
Antihistamines - 1.49 for a week's worth - $20 here
Denture tablets - 49p for 30 - $18 for 20 here
etc

Oh and at the current exchange rate a set of shocks for my car including 140 quid air freight, 5 days delivery, comes to $1100 (+ import duty)
Local price quoted last week - $1995 + GST, sea freight, 10 weeks delivery!!

Now I understand economies of scale and all that, but this much difference?
And compare the quality of the Warehouse cheap goods to ASDA, Tesco, Matalan etc and they are nowhere near as good. I have Cheap ASDA t-shirts that have lasted years, but my cheap Warehouse ones last for half a dozen washes.

Maybe I should stop being so cheap and buy better quality stuff, but in NZ you really have to pay to get it, and for the basics you shouldn't have to pay a fortune.

We need Wal-Mart to buy Woollies or New World.

zoglet

I would think economies of scale have a huge amount to do with it. BUT I also would expect the price of petrol,coffee and other imports to be dropping cos of the strong Kiwi dollar- and I don't see any evidence of that happening.

But if you think you are being ripped off-spare a thought for the poor buggers that have to make the shirts that you buy so cheaply in ASDA!

RobClubley

Agreed - but it's the same for most of the stuff sold here - made in China

Frenchy

Just out of interest Rob who do you use for your car parts?

Justcol

This ties in nicely with "being poor" thread.
I dont know why things are so expensive down here but i'm sure some one with
a knowledge of ecconomics can try to explain it
Most kiwi mates i talk to about the cost of things simply justify it with
the "we're so far away from everywhere else" answer but that doesnt cut it with me.
In the uk i never liked the way the big supermarkets moved in and killed small towns
The place we left literally died within a year of tesco and asda deciding to have a
supermarket battle in the area, each opening a huge new store.
This destroyed the small bussiness's who simply couldnt compete.
I also dont like the way kiwi supermarket prices bounce up and down so dramatically.
Thre must be a middle ground somewhere.
Market forces, competition and population size are all going to effect prices.

NakiMan

Looking at this from another direction...

In the last year the Kiwi Dollar has dropped over 20% against the Pound and other currencies.

Has the price of imported goods dropped 20%? Of course it hasn't

So who's pocketing all the extra profit?

Perry Groves

Better off doing a clothes shopping trip to the U.S.A. designer clothes a lot cheaper than U.K......

RobClubley

It varies. Awesome in Manchester for a lot of bits as even with postage it's often cheaper than NZ dealers.
Some stuff is reasonable from main dealers.
Then there's people like Autopassion in Christchurch, ECS tuning in the US, Dubshack near Auckland...

irnbru14

As the great Richard Till keeps telling us "Shop Smarter New Zealand..."

It is basically economies of scale and geographic location, we are a country with 4m ish people compare to 60m in the UK, so goods will cost more and there won't be as much choice, it's kind of a fact of life in NZ which you really just need to get used to, even though it is deeply frustrating at times to those of us used to shopping around and getting better deals as the choice is simply not there (see my several rants about furniture for example!).

Only having 2 supermarket owners means a duopoly is in place there, will be even worse if one of them gets controlling interest of the Warehouse!

It is harder to find what you want at the price you are happy to pay for it in this country compared to the UK. But it's not impossible, there are still options, and there are still internet companies who will deliver here for cheaper than buying in NZ or offer you stuff you just can't get here at all, so it is possible (see amazon.com; strawberry.net, even M&S will deliver out this way now!).

Stock up on stuff you regularly use when it is on offer and never buy anythign at full price in Briscoes

On some things you just need to bite the bullet though and pay what you have to pay to get what you want!

Oh and Rob, don't even get me started about the quality of guys clothes here compared to what you pay for them!! I do so long for a Gap, even a Next or an H&M to challenge that market....

lardyl

agree with all but that last sentence

Wal-Mart are often considered the enemy of free choice and competition - just check out what they have done in the states to put local operators and other chains out of business........they play a real game of hard ball and I'd hate them to take over NZ retail ..... maybe as a small player but perhaps not......

Bear in mind that there are very very few large NZ-owned business, especially in retail, our Aussie mates own most of them......someone once told me how many NZ companies employ over 100 staff and it ain't that many......

But then clealry someone is profiteering on us now the $$$ is strong (bit like petrol retialers when the oil price falls), but perhaps not as much as we might think as there are "commodity-like" issues in electricals, etc which we as consumers are not aware of........

zoglet

My understanding is that a lot of importers who have been hit by a lack of spending, are using the better exchange rate as a way of keeping afloat rather than passing on their savings to their customers. So while it may be cheaper for them to import from overseas, their lower sales have to be offset somehow- but then they would say that wouldn't they?

Robbo25

Hi Rob, just found Wii remotes with a quick surf for $63 inc. delivery ......

http://www.cdwow.co.nz/games/OFFICIA...WHITE/dp/25775

lardyl

for finding CD-WOW Down Under - used to be OK to deal with - are they still OK??

RobClubley

I didn't know they had an NZ site. I've been using the UK (Hong Kong based) one!
They still deliver worldwide for free and I've never had a problem with an order.

Am Loolah

Hubby often buys go-kart pieces from Europe and USA - cheaper including shipping than the few who can get the parts here! The mark-up on the parts here that he has found are huge.