Thread: Did anyone hear on the radio today about importing goods?

I'll reiterate the instance where I was told that not only was the buy price of the ARB locker higher than I had an overseas quote for two of, but if I wanted a warranty then I had to have them fit it, total cost, $1900-. I told them that I'd seen the results of their work and no way would I let them put the cardboard box in my car let alone fit it.

Originally Posted by uninformed

Mike, the arb lockers sold in the USA are made here and shipped there. Arb are only sold in arb stores here so they are fixing the price.

So when Harvey Norman or such have sales and slash prices by up to 60% its simply exchange rate.....

Come on mate, its not the Aussie battlers campaigning government, its the big boys that are making big profits

My only experience is with the little boys and plenty of them. They are hurting. Looking in from the outside I would probably agree about the big boys. They manipulate the market to squeeze everyone else out. Our groceries are very expensive compared to the rest of the world and we mostly grow our own. Coles and Woolies have us and the primary producers by the nuts and they squeeze hard. Let's agree on that.

And the arb thing...they will fix the price in both countries at a level that gives them a profit. No use selling them at the US price here as there wouldn't be enough turnover to make it worthwhile. It's a delicate balance between how many you sell and your margin. The number they would sell at a lower price here is probably capped to the point where the $ turnover would not increase that much but their workload and therefore expenses would. It's very easy in business to drop your price, work your arse off due to the cheaper rate and make a heap less money.

One thing you have to consider with any pricing overseas is every country is different, be that on car parts, house prices, clothes, gas bills, wages etc etc etc, so comparing UK and Oz for example is not like for like.

If this rule did every come in then even with 15% tax and duty it will not make a lot of difference to pricing, and in fact would only make things worse for Australian business.

Prices here are probably the same all round for many different goods, however the people who make 200/300/400/500/600% profit are the ones who exploiting people.

A prime example is the Prop shaft Business bailey Morris in the Uk, my company was looking at supporting the brand here in Australia and promoting the product, however they offer very poor margins, and you have to purchase large amounts of stock, basically the man on the street here can buy direct at a better price than the distributor can, work that one out...

Originally Posted by mikehzz

Coles and Woolies have us and the primary producers by the nuts and they squeeze hard. Let's agree on that.

Don't shop at Coles or Woolies then. I don't.

Originally Posted by mikehzz

There is far less gouging going on than people realize. It only looks that way to those outside the loop. There isn't much gravy left on the train these days

If you are on the inside, however, you see gouging all over the place. I once worked for a company who imported a product from Europe for $4.00 per unit and, as a wholesaler, sold it to the retailers for $80 per unit. The retailers didn't make much money.
Not happy with that much profit, they then went to China to get them made for $2 per unit. This plan failed as the Chinese ones were of such poor quality, the customers returned them.
They paid their employees poorly as well but the corporate waste on junkets was astounding.

Lets all sell our beloved yet completely imported Land Rovers and buy the wholly domestic equivalent, oh yeah their isn't one anymore nor was there ever.

Fact is every body on the roads are driving imported vehicles, even the great "Australian" car companies have sent their profits overseas from day dot. We are suffering from the actions of our forefathers who quashed local manufacturing in this country, it's all the the result of our actions and their is very little we can do.

If a company was established creating a wholly Australian car, no imported toolings, materials, labor, engines and components etc... even the most basic of vehicles would cost well above what the average six figure income family unit would be prepared to pay for it, the specs would be spatial and most likely it would not cover Australian design rules. Everyone that has tried building such products in the past has been stopped by the unions, governments and the general public for generations. Saying so, I wonder where the great buy Australian made advocate Dick Smith's aircraft parts were manufactured, did they all have the made in Australia logo attached? I doubt it.

Welcome to the first stage of the global economy, it's just like communism but on a larger scale.

Originally Posted by juddy

[snip]

A prime example is the Prop shaft Business bailey Morris in the Uk, my company was looking at supporting the brand here in Australia and promoting the product, however they offer very poor margins, and you have to purchase large amounts of stock, basically the man on the street here can buy direct at a better price than the distributor can, work that one out...

When I started working again as refrig/air con mechanic here in the bush I approached one large multi-national business about becoming a local (area) supplier for their air conditioners.

My buy price would've been greater than the sell price of Harvey Norman or Betta
Thanks, but no thanks.

A rep from another company (wholesaler) approached me a little while later with, it turns out, a superior product and a discount where I can easily compete with the big guys with a reasonable margin.

I actually have an account with the manufacturer too as I'm the warranty service provider, but my buy price from them is 'trade' price, which just happens to be my retail price and the same price Betta retail the same units at.
The corporate office in Sydney wonders why I don't buy complete units from them ?

Would be interesting to know what profit margins people work on.