WILDLY varying locker prices

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Originally Posted by dbongard

Ahhhh....tall poppy at its very very best.
Rather than get the facts straight it makes for a better story to knife one of the last Aussie manufacturers square between the shoulder blades.

That's OK, once I and over 1000 other fellow Australian ARB employees, and countless other Australian suppliers and subcontractors lose our jobs due to the sad state of Australian manufacturing and the virtual absence of support for Australian made products from the consumer base and the Australian government, we can all spend our days sitting around typing up smart arsed comments on internet forums about subjects we know nothing about.

-daniel
AIR LOCKER

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Well said Daniel and good on you for stating facts rather the spreading hear say. ...as the old saying goes never let the facts get in the way of a good BS story.

Seriously if ARB was building air lockers in China then why would they bother making them here for our tiny market? They would just import them here as well and make more profit and would that stop anyone from buying them here? No it wouldn't, as a nation we hardly ever show favour to our domestic brands, we shop on price in the vast majority of cases so often Australian icon businesses end up going to the wall once someone starts importing a similar product that is made off shore in low wage, low tax economys.

As for why do things cost more here in Australia? There are a number of reasons that are often ignored or simply misunderstood, A shop front is a shop front no matter what country you trade in and real estate here in high population areas where a shops potential customer base is located usuallly is very expensive compared to many countrys around the world, labour costs and Taxes are extremely expensive here compared to most countrys and we have a tiny potential market with only 23 million people. So to recover initial set up and on going costs if you not selling in quantity because of a small population then you must sell on margin to keep the shop front open and on top of that we have huge distances to truck items from place to place.

Add that all up and you have higher on going costs then most other first world countrys with a much smaller market. Compare us to the USA, we have a population and a potentail customer base of 23,000,000 people living in a land mass that is roughly 70% of the US and the Yanks have 330,000,000 potential customers and some of the lowest wages for working class Joe's anywhere in the English speaking world.

The UK is roughly 1/37 of the land mass of Australia and has over 60,000,000 people so even their economy of scale far outweighs ours.

If you stop and think about it no wonder most things are expensive here, its just a shame that more people don't understand how our domestic economy works.

We have a very high standard of living compared to just about every other country in the world, remember where the lucky country aren't we? Yet ask most people about how expensive things are here and they will complain bitterly, yet I bet they would complain even more if they had to take a substantial wage cut so everyone else could buy cheaper the product the business they work at manufactures so others would stop complaining about its cost.

And if you think the answer is to smply buy it from overseas directly then there will be no manufacturing base and fewer shop fronts here and fewer people will be employed. Then watch what happens to wages, so what do you want employment and high wages or cheap products and fewer jobs?

There is a an old saying that is often ignored in this country about not being able to have your pie and eat it at the same time.

Obviously this is a topic I have an opinion about.

cheers,
Terry

Daniel and terry O why are ARB not learning from the lessons ford . What annoys people is that we can buy and import an AUSTRALIAN made product cheaper than out of the local store so what happens is a lot of peolpe say bugger getting ripped off and go and buy something similar but cheaper. I did not mind paying about $10/shock more(than buying the same from the U.S landed here) to support the local store with the OME's but as has been pointed out a $400 difference between an airlocker that has to be shipped to the other side of the globe and back again and the one from the shop across the road from the factory makes me and from the sound of it several others say "fluffy duck" the ARB locker and get somthing else.
Ford did this mistake with their convertible that they sold at around 2/3 the aussie price even with the currency converted.

Hi Frantic,

again how many lockers would a ARB franchise shop have to sell to pay the average Australian employee's wages and insurance and other overheads per week if they sold them at the prices you can buy one from in the US?

The answer is they couldn't sell enough of them in a week to keep the person employed and the shop front open because the market is so small and there simlpy isn't the demand so they have to sell each and every item with a greater margin just to cover the costs.

It might still be the case as well that a company like ARB in Australia also gets some sort of Tax break or Governement incentive for the items they manufacture here and export. If they do then that would also make it far cheaper to buy a locally manufactured item from OS.

You are trying to compare apples with oranges so to say, your buying from the largest free market in the world with soe of the lowest costs and then comparing the price to one of the smallest with some of the highest.

If you want things cheaper here then its simple just increase the population by between 100% and 500% and watch the prices of many items (not property) come down dramatically each time the population doubles.


cheers,
Terry

To the ARB apologists, I fully support and agree with your manufacturing issues in Australia, and I dont think its tall poppy syndrome at all with the negative views. You cannot expect people to pay more because make it domestically. It has never been this way with economics, and never will be. Governments can improve the situation like they do for local made cars by making bmws very expensive for us, but what is your answer, run another awareness campaign? You need to be competitive in your own right, all the time. If someone makes a cheap rip off, then your price may be higher if its better, but for the same product EXACTLY including shipping to the usa and back again, thats rich.

One question I have is, do they Aussie shops pay the same W/S as an american shop?

Having said all that the proof is in the pudding, and ARB are a very successful company, its also nice to see an Aussie company doing so well in north America.

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Originally Posted by frantic

Daniel and terry O why are ARB not learning from the lessons ford . What annoys people is that we can buy and import an AUSTRALIAN made product cheaper than out of the local store so what happens is a lot of peolpe say bugger getting ripped off and go and buy something similar but cheaper. I did not mind paying about $10/shock more(than buying the same from the U.S landed here) to support the local store with the OME's but as has been pointed out a $400 difference between an airlocker that has to be shipped to the other side of the globe and back again and the one from the shop across the road from the factory makes me and from the sound of it several others say "fluffy duck" the ARB locker and get somthing else.
Ford did this mistake with their convertible that they sold at around 2/3 the aussie price even with the currency converted.

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While I don't like the fact that an Australian made locker from the US is cheaper than from AU, the huge price difference seems to be recent - and due to the currency changes, as Daniel mentions.

When I was looking at Dana 60 (Salisbury) Lockers a few years ago, I could get one for US$675 or AU$1000 (driving a hard bargain). With exchange, shipping and GST the prices were almost identical.

The US prices don't seem to have changed, just that our $ has gone up.

This topic while it might be about ARB Air Lockers this time could be about just about any Australian business that either manufactures products or provides non face to face services.

Why do Banks and many other businesses have their call centres in India or other similar third world country country? Simple, the wages and on going costs are far lower so they export the job. I bet if you ask the people who used to answer the phones here what they think of cheap imports and labour you would have an interesting conversation.

Most everyone feels like you do Phantom until they lose thier job to a cheaper import or overseas service provider and as the economies of the world further converge because of technology and cheap transport more and more jobs will be lost here in Australia and many other countries. The only way to beat this here in Australia is for people who work in many jobs to work for the same wages as paid OS and for the Government to cut taxes and Super, Workers Comp etc to the same levels as OS.

How would you feel about that?

Does this cheap labour and imports affect me? No I run a business that less then half a dozen people in the whole of the country do and I won't be replaced anytime soon.

cheers,
Terry

You make a very valid point Isuzurover and one that I overlooked, that being the case once the Lockers that are in stock in the US are sold out then chances are prices will go up if our dollar stays strong.

If that happens and the Yanks stop buying our exported ARB products because they become to expensive then that would have a far greater negative effect on the factory here being able to survive then it they stopped selling Air lockers here all together.

Still how cheap would it make Detroit Lockers that are made in the US?

Everything has a knock on effect and a on going strong dollar will hurt our exporting businesses more then most people realise and in turn could cost Australian manufacturing jobs quite quickly.


cheers,
Terry

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Originally Posted by TerryO

This topic while it might be about ARB Air Lockers this time could be about just about any Australian business that either manufactures products or provides non face to face services.

Why do Banks and many other businesses have their call centres in India or other similar third world country country? Simple, the wages and on going costs are far lower so they export the job. I bet if you ask the people who used to answer the phones here what they think of cheap imports and labour you would have an interesting conversation.

Most everyone feels like you do Phantom until they lose thier job to a cheaper import or overseas service provider and as the economies of the world further converge because of technology and cheap transport more and more jobs will be lost here in Australia and many other countries. The only way to beat this here in Australia is for people who work in many jobs to work for the same wages as paid OS and for the Government to cut taxes and Super, Workers Comp etc to the same levels as OS.

How would you feel about that?

Does this cheap labour and imports affect me? No I run a business that less then half a dozen people in the whole of the country do and I won't be replaced anytime soon.

cheers,
Terry

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Ok so where does this end for people in countries like Australia? We want our wealth, we want cheap stuff? So we need other people to make it for us. So that leaves one question. What can we do here that we can earn an income from, because human labor making stuff will never work. No one wants to loose their job but things do and will change, thats the one thing which does not change.

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Originally Posted by TerryO

You make a very valid point Isuzurover and one that I overlooked, that being the case once the Lockers that are in stock in the US are sold out then chances are prices will go up if our dollar stays strong.

If that happens and the Yanks stop buying our exported ARB products because they become to expensive then that would have a far greater negative effect on the factory here being able to survive then it they stopped selling Air lockers here all together.

Still how cheap would it make Detroit Lockers that are made in the US?

Everything has a knock on effect and a on going strong dollar will hurt our exporting businesses more then most people realise and in turn could cost Australian manufacturing jobs quite quickly.


cheers,
Terry

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The US market is ~10x the AU market. I am sure ARB will do whatever it takes to stay competitive over there.

Yes of course they will - it is just how the global market place works. They will seek to maximise sustainable profit in every market they play in. If there is an inefficiency in the market that individuals( ie import your own from US) or smaller businesses can take advantage of then those individuals and/or small enterprises should do so. ARB or any other manufacturer then have to respond to that market behaviour to maintain their competetivness - IF they see it as eroding their profits in any significant way. Otherwise they probably dont care.