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

Originally Posted by rick130

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 ?

Try buying CCA soft drinks... A mate who had a coffee shop worked out it was cheaper to go to coles/woolies when they had a special on, than buy from his local wholesaler.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Try buying CCA soft drinks... A mate who had a coffee shop worked out it was cheaper to go to coles/woolies when they had a special on, than buy from his local wholesaler.

The wholesale retail thing can be a nightmare.

Our family business (mentioned previously) distributed to shops from Jamberoo to originally as far south as Narooma but in later years only to Ulladulla.

We purchased Birdseye and Four and Twenty products with a minimum quantity of a "pallet layer"* which we had to pick up from the Petersville PLC warehouse in Alexandria. We had to refrigerate the stock and transport it from Sydney to our freezer rooms in Nowra and distribute it from freezer trucks to the shops up and down the coast. David's Holdings would sell exactly the same Petersville products, in single bags from their Jewel Supermarket in Nowra for a lower price than we could buy direct from Petersville in Sydney. How can small retailers and even small wholesalers compete with the big boys when there are those price mechanisms in the marketplace. Our shop customers would often buy from Jewel Supermarket and carry the product back to their store and re-freeze the thawed items for sale just so they could almost compete. The people suffering were the retail convenience customers who were buying re-frozen items and us to a lesser extent as our main product icecream wouldn't be saleable if purchased at Jewel so they kept buying that from us.

* A pallet layer, is the number of outers (a box that holds a number of retail packs called: "inners") that when removed makes a flat surface on the remaining part pallet. An outer may hold 12, 24 or 36 inner packets.

Originally Posted by isuzurover

Try buying CCA soft drinks... A mate who had a coffee shop worked out it was cheaper to go to coles/woolies when they had a special on, than buy from his local wholesaler.

Did the same when I worked for Movieland. Didn't havet to wait for sales though. Supermarket was always cheaper than our CCA account.

Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

Why are there mining companies putting projects on hold at the moment and is it because the price of the Australian dollar is too high, yet we are told that the mining boom is the reason for the high Australian dollar?
.

It's a bit of that. It's also a bit that the Aussie economy is seen as pretty stable and overseas investors are happy to buy up Aussie Government Bonds, which keeps up the exchange rate. The Boom helps with the perception of stability. If the boom does start to die off (and we're seeing lots of sackings and closures here in Qld), expect a pretty hefty fall in teh dollar, to somewhere between 60 and 80c. Bye-bye cheap imports.

Many of the posts in this thread have merit but one of the important points is that retailers of any description need to adjust their business model to suit changing times.
Another point that was raised in an article (think it was the Sunday Age) this week is that comparable retail space in Australia costs around TRIPLE what it does in the USA! Add to this the penalty rates applicable to workers who work in retail in this country FOR WORKING WHEN THE STORES ARE BUSIEST, and you have the true nub of the problem.

It is not immoral to shop anywhere in the world to save money.

What is immoral is that the owners of retail space are charging totally outrageous rental for floor space. It is a fact that floor space in a Westfield shopping centre say in Doncaster (Vic) is more expensive than space on Rodeo Drive in Hollywood or even the Champs Elysee in Paris!

It is also immoral for retail workers to expect penalty rates just because the store requires workers for a Sunday, Saturday or even Friday night when they do probably 70% of their trade.

This is from someone who HAS worked in retail for many years and now works whatever day he has to to make a living. I don't get penalty rates for completing business on a Sunday or even a public holiday. It's time that workers in this country started to realise that they are their own worst enemies in this regard.

Now I'll duck!

Yes you better duck then squawk
Penalty rates are for YOUR workers missing out on going out with their mates/famliy LIKE your CUSTOMERS at the busiest time!!!!!!!!!! Bet you have extra workers/ casuals for thurs night-sun , would that be to make extra money, or are you a modern ghandi/mother theresa just giving the same number of employees less work mon-thurs.
You dont want to pay penalty rates CLOSE!!!!!
OOpps!!!! thats your self confessed BUSIEST TIME so suck it up princess and pay to play, stop trying to scam extra profit at your employees expense.
Why do you think spotlights AWA was one of the most effective campaign tools against howards wankchoices push ??? 2c per hour more to make up for weekends at a flat rate.

Oh settle down dumbarse!
Apparently you don't READ well!
I said I WAS in retail for a very long time. I no longer am. I got sick of FRANTICALLY (sic) (if you don't know what that means, look it up if you have any idea how) trying to make a profit and yep.... 8 people lost their jobs because it was impossible to do so.
You obviously have a great problem with the idea of a BUSINESS PERSON making a PROFIT. A very basic lesson for you if you work for someone..... if they DON'T make a profit, YOU lose as well!
Just so you know, when I eventually did close my business, not only did 8 people who had worked for me for more than 5 years each lose their jobs, I lost my house and cars as well...... but then, that would just be a business person making amazing profits on the back of the poor down trodden workers and be just desserts for having a go wouldn't it?
Now I work for myself again, I employ no one and never will again. To write out pay cheques every fortnight and not be able to pay ME will never happen again.
I can virtually guarantee that I put in more hours than you Mr Frantic and yep, I probably make more than you too. My point was that I now work Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays.... whatever it takes to make sure that I make a living. I get paid the same no matter what day I work.

Sorry if your JOB keeps you from being able to play with your mates, but that's called growing up.... something you are yet to do by reading your post.

If you want to throw personal insults at people here, get your bloody facts right first and one of the best ways to do that is to actually READ what is written FIRST.

Originally Posted by wardy1

Oh settle down dumbarse!
Apparently you don't READ well!
I said I WAS in retail for a very long time. I no longer am. I got sick of FRANTICALLY (sic) (if you don't know what that means, look it up if you have any idea how) trying to make a profit and yep.... 8 people lost their jobs because it was impossible to do so.
You obviously have a great problem with the idea of a BUSINESS PERSON making a PROFIT. A very basic lesson for you if you work for someone..... if they DON'T make a profit, YOU lose as well!
Just so you know, when I eventually did close my business, not only did 8 people who had worked for me for more than 5 years each lose their jobs, I lost my house and cars as well...... but then, that would just be a business person making amazing profits on the back of the poor down trodden workers and be just desserts for having a go wouldn't it?
Now I work for myself again, I employ no one and never will again. To write out pay cheques every fortnight and not be able to pay ME will never happen again.
I can virtually guarantee that I put in more hours than you Mr Frantic and yep, I probably make more than you too. My point was that I now work Saturdays, Sundays, public holidays.... whatever it takes to make sure that I make a living. I get paid the same no matter what day I work.

Sorry if your JOB keeps you from being able to play with your mates, but that's called growing up.... something you are yet to do by reading your post.

If you want to throw personal insults at people here, get your bloody facts right first and one of the best ways to do that is to actually READ what is written FIRST.

Sounds like you should have got out of that business years before you did and then might not have done your house etc. If you were regularly unable to pay yourself then the business was in trouble.

Any business needs to be able to repay its borrowings in a timely manner; meet its accounts payable in a timely manner; collect its accounts receivable in full on time; pay a fair wage to all who labour there; pay statutory obligations (tax, super, compensation) on time; pay a reasonable return on the capital invested. If it cannot do this then it is not a business, perhaps a hobby, perhaps a disaster in waiting.