Maybe they wouldn't need to make as much money if they stopped smoking crack?
WTF? Neither of those things have a snowball chance in hell of happening! The Aussie Govt isn't about to scrap GST and they certainly have no power to 'force' online retailers in other countries collect tax for them. I'm surprised that these retailers are still in business if these are the half baked ideas that they can come up with.There were two options to create a fairer marketplace - force online, offshore retailers to pay GST and duty, or eliminate those charges for traditional face-to-face stores.
If those dumb fuckers had half a brain between them they would look at what countries like NZ do differently - here we get charged GST on goods we import if the goods are worth more than NZ$400, in Aussie they don't get charged GST unless the goods are worth over AU$1000. That means that imported goods don't get GST charged on them in Aussie unless they cost over 3 times as much as is the case in NZ. If the Aussie Govt changed the rules so that any goods privately imported that were worth over AU$300 would get GST charged on them then that would help Aussie retailers tremendously. The retailers have to be as thick as pig shit to not be able to work out that they should demand that - why wouldn't the Aussie government be willing to consider charging more money?
I understand what is said about the size of the NZ market and it's buying power in comparison to larger markets, but what about this example.
Samsung 5 Series 40" LED LCD TV
Harvey Norman advertised price - $1698
Target America - $1563
Granted I did find them for about $1200 on sites offering special deals, but so have HN (I am still involved in this industry). So how come we can be so close on TV prices?
You are forgetting that Harvey Norman don't have staff or overheads, nor fuckwit customers who expect to look at the picture on the TV before deciding whether or not to buy.
Harvey Norman also don't have to pay their staff to answer the phone or spend time with customers who are just timewasters.
Maybe it's just a massive conspiracy and they don't do that for Tv's because the US ones run on a different voltage and wouldn't work here without modification.
Then again maybe the industry is right, and now we the consumer have no choice, there are no Mum & Dad appliance stores left anymore - you are forced to get your Tv from a national chain retailer such as Harvey or Noel, or Bonds etc.
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Keep on chooglin'
Powerseller NYC - $1237 incl free shipping within the continental US This with exchange rate comes to approx NZ$1650
I guess we get the "benefit" of large Australian chain stores like Hardly Normal and JB Hifi driving down prices effectively buying from the manufacturer for a population of 24m people
Edit: Damn you Woodman for stealing my idea![]()
I'll add that the company I work for is wholly NZ owned and we can also match those TV prices.
But who is bringing them into the country and do they have a monopoly? IngramMicro for example is a very large global operation and isn't just covering The shops here.
Anyone have a Honda car? They're actually a proper Honda subsidiary unlike the bikes. Be interesting to know if the experiences are any better. http://world.honda.com/group/NewZealand/index.html
Sorry forgot to expand. If it wasn't for the competition in pricing offered by the buying power that the likes of HN and Co have, do you think NZ pricing of TV's would be as competitive as it currently is? I highly doubt it. So it's about time that the importers woke up to the situation that NZ motorcycle retailers are faced with and realign their pricing, or make enough fuss to their head suppliers that unless things are changed their product will no longer be officially supported in NZ. Because that's what I'm hearing is happening...
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