Thread: Why are parts so overpriced in Australia?

Originally Posted by Rosscoe68

and yet the very same argument was used not long ago on this same forum for complaining about electronics and how we are "gouging" and with my figures it proves we aren't, and still i get customers that come in with ebay quotes $100 and sometimes higher less than i can land the product in my store and get upset when i wn;t price match.

Having 10 years retail experience in consumer electronics, and 10 years before that in auto spares, i know what the margins are, and i know that you guys are incorrect when you suggest you are being ripped off in australia by the australian agents. but again, you only care for your back pocket and the truth is irrelevent in this argument.

Please enlighten me on who's getting the $248 difference in service kits,thats not including frieght on the Oz bought ones. Pat

Originally Posted by Rosscoe68

indeed i do get rather uppety. when i look back on my own posts i chuckle at my short temper. apologies to anyone i may have offended.

Your right mate. Pat

Originally Posted by Rosscoe68

indeed i do get rather uppety. when i look back on my own posts i chuckle at my short temper. apologies to anyone i may have offended.

No offence taken, and I hope I haven't offended either. It gets a lot worse in the 'Soapbox'...

I walked into a large non franchised sporting shop recently with the intention of buying a piece of expensive equipment. The owner served me and absolutley refused to discount by even one dollar and became quite 'uppity' about me asking for a better price than what was on the price ticket. I walked out without buying and went home and learned how to buy on the internet. Cheaper and better service. Guess whose shop I am never walking into again.

Originally Posted by PAT303

Please enlighten me on who's getting the $248 difference in service kits,thats not including frieght on the Oz bought ones. Pat

well lets take a look at the process, its has been covered before, but anyhow.

sale from wholesaler to you
1 lot of freight, no import duties, no gst, no warehousing costs, no margin to cover local cost of goods sold (rent, electricity, phones, internet, wages, company payroll tax, company tax on profit if they actually end up making any)

sale via normal import channels ( varies from company to company here )
wholesaler, freight to container handler, container handler fees at country of source, container shipping fees, container handling fees at country of destination ( don;t forget australian warfies are amongst the highest paid in the world ) , customs fees for handling the import manifest, import duties and taxes etc, freight from the container yard to the local warehouse, warehousing costs, freight from the warehouse to the dealer, markup for the dealer to cover cost of goods sold plus making a profit.
so in freight alone there is 4 steps versus your direct freight 1 step, let alone all those otheres that take there small portion of the pie.

anyone gone into a landrover dealer and not seen an A1 showroom, do you really think that showroom and accompanying car yard and workshop doesn't cost 10's of thousands of dollars a month in rent alone, let alone wages, electricity, phones, cost of holding millions of dollars of cars in the yard plus probly half a million dollars of stock on hand. all that takes capital to hold and the bank charges money for those guys to use there capital.

all of which makes the economy turn over. all of which allows a few more fortunate souls to be employed and get a wage. and the govt gets income to pay for our essential services.

all of which if the govt allows small imports in with no gst or duties will snowball to be a national problem.

if only 10% of the nations consumers buy online, well then doesn't that mean a 10% drop in GST and company profit tax alone to the govt. let alone the drop in turnover for the shops and therefore reducing staff to cut costs ( oh wait, didn't alcoa recently do something to that accord due to cutting costs )

oh, and lets not forget the tradies who do work on or at the said businesses and are apparently " getting paid to much" according to another thread on here.

Originally Posted by Rosscoe68

... ( oh wait, didn't alcoa recently do something to that accord due to cutting costs )

Yeah, but that is due primarily due to low Aluminium prices at the moment - the lowest they have been in years - (the price of Aluminium has dropped by nearly US$200 a tonne in the last 15 months - about 10%), coupled with a high Aussie dollar - not that people aren't buying Aussie made Aluminium.

What Alcoa are doing is an entirely different kettle of fish. That plant has been proffitable for 40 years, and only in the last 6 months have they been in decline - as the price of Aluminium went down and the Aussie dollar went up. In 12 months time, they will probably be proffitable again, but the greedy bastards in charge may close the place down before that happens - so much for loyalty to your workers, that just doesn't exist, but this is a debate for another thread...

Originally Posted by Rosscoe68

oh, and lets not forget the tradies who do work on or at the said businesses and are apparently " getting paid to much" according to another thread on here.

Rosscoe68,

You don't have to own every bodies problems, the tradies have stood up for themselves. They did not take it so much to heart as you appear to be on their behalf

Don't blow a gasket.