Can someone tell me why???

Just another side to the same story.

Cattle are currently selling for around $2.30 / kg. Based on a 600kg cow, that is a cost of $1380 paid to the farmer.

By the time it is transported etc, and ends up in the shop, the cost to the consumer is, on average, somewhere around $10 kg. (Taken over all useable product).

This means that if you were to buy a whole (useable portion) cow at the supermarket, it would cost you $6,000, or 430% mark-up.

Now, while there are a number of people involved in getting that cow from the farm gate to the bbq, that sort of mark-up is just plain crazy.

IMO, the biggest factor in this scenario is transport costs. There would be 3 or 4 separate trips required to deliver it to you. But someone is making an absolute fortune out of this, and it isn't the guy in the floppy hat that gets up at dawn, and relies on Mother Nature to be able to survive.

Ask any farmer if he would be happy to accept another 50% for supplying the raw product, and just wait for the stampede to your door.

The same formulation can be applied to most other products. The point is, if a product is manufactured, (grown, built etc) in Australia, then the laws of reasoning dictate that that product should be cheaper here.

We should not have to pay more for a product that is Australian made. Especially when that same product can be bought over seas for much less than we can get it for.

I think the major problem with all of this, is that a very small amount of people are making the majority of the money, and that is not filtering down to the people that are doing the work. If net profits were reduced by 1% across the board, and those funds distributed amongst the workers, and reflected in the shelf price, then most of this argument would be solved.

I accept that there are economies of scale, but price gouging Joe Public has become an acceptable past-time for many major companies.

To take a single product as an example: Facet electronic fuel pump, made in the US. There is no suitable pump made in Australia. My regular trade supplier would supply me the half dozen or so I need every year. Last time I ordered one the salesperson told me the part number had been superceded. I got a chinese no-name pump in an ACA box for more than I used to pay for the Facet pump. So I found a thriving on-line retailer (in Australia) who sells the Facet pumps EXPRESS COURIERED TO MY DOOR for less than I used to buy them locally. My trade supplier was told about my displeasure and asked to convey these thoughts to the management. Did their service improve over time? Not really. They don't seem to understand the service standards thay made their company a local leader.

I check online now for most things worth more than a few bucks, and deal locally only if quality, price and speed of delivery standards are met. Who loses? Retail staff. Who wins? The delivery companies. Welcome to the digital age.

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Originally Posted by TerryO

Mick the reason why you can only buy Thai tuna and crappy US oranges, as you put it, is not because some exec at Coles or Woolies decides who eats what from where it is because we as a nation in general are to stingy to pay the top dollar for good food.
We want to buy cheap and pay as little as possible so the shops sell cheap product. If enough people wanted the good stuff and were prepared to pay for it then it would be on the shelves, its called supply and demand.

While it is not the only reason basically it is quite simple, not enough demand for the good stuff that costs a high price then there is no reason for a shop to buy then supply the good stuff so they buy the product that the majoirty of the market over time has shown it is prepared to pay for.

cheers,
Terry

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Terry, interesting you should mention Coles. Have you noticed product lines are disappearing in Coles and are being replaced with Coles own brand (packaged in Australia from local and imported ingredients). The effect on this household is I am buying less from Coles and frequenting farmers markets and boutique grocers.
I see a lot of shoppers around who are tight arses with no taste but that might be just where I live. I do, however, associate with people who appreciate quality and there is a sizable market for the finer things in life. If no one locally will supply these things then the market will have to source them elsewhere.

To relate another recent experience. I lost my windscreen mount for the satnav. I bought the satnav from Officeworks so that was the first place I went for a replacement. "We don't stock that sort of thing." they told me. "But can you get it in?" I asked. "No. Would you like to purchase a new satnav?" was their reply.
Not happy with this I treked all over Melbourne and phoned lots of stores including "Dick Smith". None were prepared to order them in for me.
So I turned to the internet. Dick Smith on-line had them advertised for $40ea plus postage but I was unnable to order them. When I phoned the Dick Smith wharehouse they advised me there were none in Australia and they would not be able to get any in for me until after christmas. I then turned to ebay and bought some from UK at $27ea inc postage and I had them in my hot little hand early december. Better service and 3/4 the price even with 10%. GST.

Globalisation has hit my industry, manufacturing and services. It is now hitting the retail industry. The retail sector should stop complaining and look upon this as a wake up call.
I can hardly wait until globalisation hits the governent. Let's outsource our polititians.

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Originally Posted by Tombie2

People the solution is simple....

Move :D

Don't like the situation? Leave!

Go live in the good ol' USA...
You should be able to get a cheap house at the moment too!!!!!

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Originally Posted by TerryO

I agree with Tombie if you think the grass is greener on the other side and we you can't stand being ripped off by crook greedy Australian businessses then jump the bloody fence and move somewhere else.

Then in twelve months when your brought your cheap fridge and lockers at the local shop report back and tell us how good things are over there and if your right then we will all move to.

Simple really isn't it...

cheers,
Terry

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Don't need to shift, buying on line delivers the benefits that people are after. A reasonable price and service for a product.

The pendulum will swing, the Aus $ will drop and we will once again be subject to the local retailers/wholesalers margins. Our Primary products will be more attractive to the O/S buyers. The whole cycle goes around, as they say in the markets buy low, sell high. At least we can get into the buy low part of the cycle.

I don't know about outsourcing politicians....just the out part would be good enough.

For what it's worth it's not just Oz. :(
I used to live about 15 minutes drive from Cowley (it's on the edge of Oxford for those who don't know the area) where Rovers were built.
If you ordered a new Rover in Europe - Germany for e.g. - with U.K. spec, went over for a long weekend, picked up your new car & drove back home you still saved a bucket load of dosh compared to buying one in Oxford! I think similar went for all the everyday marques built in the U.K.
CD's, fashion (off the shelf - jeans were a particular favourite) & new car prices were the pet 'Ripoff Britain' subject in the press as I recall.

I agree with everyone here who says we're in a world economy now, like it or not. The world is, in effect, one big market place thanks to the internet. (there's a fascinating book about the global economy, titled The World is Flat. I'd recommend it if you're interested in this subject).
As a prime example of this new world market, the chap who inspected our last rental house in the U.K. (on behalf of the owner - part of the handover process) took his notes on a dictaphone. He e-mailed the file to someone in the U.S. later that day, and had the typed report by e-mail when he arived at work the next day. For less than it would have cost him to hire someone in the U.K. to do it, too.

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Originally Posted by slug_burner

The pendulum will swing, the Aus $ will drop and we will once again be subject to the local retailers/wholesalers margins. Our Primary products will be more attractive to the O/S buyers. The whole cycle goes around, as they say in the markets buy low, sell high. At least we can get into the buy low part of the cycle.

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Agreed, I have seen the cycle a number of times in my life and it is only now that it is having this kind of impact because now we have international internet shopping with quick reliable delivery.

This arguement wouldn't have been happening fifteen years ago, all we would have been discussing on our old exceptionally slow and often unreliable 28 kb dial up accounts on ICQ was how terrible it was that Aussie jobs were being lost as Aussie factorys shut down because they couldn't compete against cheap imports because our dollar was so high.

At least this time we can hassen the decline of our local manufacturers and retailers by directly buying OS and not buying local.

cheers,
Terry

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Originally Posted by TerryO

At least this time we can hassen the decline of our local manufacturers and retailers by directly buying OS and not buying local.

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What local manufacturers?
Which ones have we got left?

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

What local manufacturers?
Which ones have we got left?

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Those being propped up by government subsidies, I suppose.

Some defence projects

Some car manufacturing

LPG industry (tanks, valves, small electronics)

About 10% of the food products.

Roofing, building materials and rain water tanks

Some Clipsal products?

Doesn't leave much choice does it.:(

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Originally Posted by Mick_Marsh

What local manufacturers?
Which ones have we got left?

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Yeah your right apart from ARB building lockers here (for now) the only other thing now made in Australia is paper clips in an old weatherboard factory out back of Maitland I believe.

I was told the last major thing built here was five very unreliable and underperforming Submarines that spend more time in dry dock getting repaired then they do in the water plus they cost four times more then if they had brought them from the designer already built. Maybe the Australian Government should learn from everyone and start buyng its defence gear online as well, who knows they might get a good deal if they haggle. ...come to think of it no wonder you would buy anything locally made when its cost so much and is so inferior.

I think we got all the other manufacturers last time around the dollar hit parity for more then two days. Lets see if we can help send broke these two factorys that are left in the next month or two. ;)

cheers,
Terry