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

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

Wardy1, then you are better than a lot of businesses going bad. One Sydney AULRO member was working for a graphic design business, the owner didn't pay superannuation for over a year and put the business into bankruptcy overnight owing wages and leave to the employees, but started a new graphic design business the same day took the customers with him and left the employees skint.

Non-payment of super contributions and ATO PAYGO instalments should bring charges of theft and an automatic gaol sentence of a couple of years at least for directors and possibly executives. No excuses, no first offender slap on the wrist, no suspended sentences, no short non-parole periods.

This money belonged to someone else and they have a duty to ensure it is paid in a timely manner and not diverted into other areas.

As to Phoenix companies, there should be stiff legislation about these. When I worked at Tutt Bryant Industries we had one customer, one of Qld's largest earthmoving and plant hire companies on COD for parts and service due to their slow and erratic payments. One of the director/proprietors even got a knighthood from JBP. This firm put itself into bankruptcy as late as possible on a Friday afternoon. The following Monday the same machines, same operators, new company name freshly signwritten over the weekend, operating on the same jobs. Tutts didn't lose a cent but a few others got badly caught, including big yellow.

Originally Posted by wardy1

Yep, I guess a business which at the time was turning over in excess of $3million and made good profits for 9 years out of 12 was a hobby then Charities and Nfp companies also make profit some years but as they have volunteers a loss means less work gets done

I give up yup

Just one other thing..... I never dudded anyone either. Except...The only one who didn't get paid was me. Every creditor and every staff member got paid. Yes they had to wait, but this mongrel bastard small business operator still paid up....... every cent!

Hindsight is 100% but as you said you would have been better re shaping the business 2-3 years before the crunch. Do you honestly think cutting your 5 staffs total wages by 15-20% which would have given you less per week than 1 employee earn't would have done anything more than extend the time till you had to close?
I go to the newly developed stock lands and on 1 new level alone are 7 or 8shoe shops along with Kmart and a new Myers opening soon this is on top of the 2 original shoe shops on the mid level and another couple out on the original ground floor who have been there a long time. Little bit of oversupply me thinks. Talking to a mate whose daughter works in one confirms this selling 3 pairs with 2 staff=daily loss. Don't think penalty rates are going to make one iota difference
My parents didn't "dud" anyone either the only ones who suffered where us as they had to sell up to pay the bank to avoid bankruptcy. That is what happens when the developer sells their land lower than cost next door to maintain cash flow , ditto for retail.

Originally Posted by rick130

He also does the same things to any tradies or business supplying goods and services, and his latest lurk is even ignoring court orders to pay bills owing.

There is a very good piece of legislation in NZ about court orders and bills. It's along the lines of, pay up or your business is deemed insolvent and wound up by the companies office.

One outfit in particular has until 5pm today to settle invoices or this will happen. They are based right across the road from a property developer who had his business wound up for exactly the same thing.

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

And you actually think that the Chinese workers locked in at Foxconn making iPhones or workers at other factories making product for World brands are actually increasing their standard of living. Wrong, those slave labourers are bolstering the profits of multinational companies and allowing their CEOs to take home millions of $ in salary. As soon as the workers start demanding and getting higher wages, the multinationals move the production to another cheaper developing country.

Its not improving the lot of everyone just yet, but there is a growing middle class in China, and that will eventually drag along the rest of the country. Europe has had 2-3 centuries since the industrial revolution, it'll take a bit of time in Asia too, and it certainly wasn't all peachy and nice in England back then! The Tollpuddle Martyrs were transported over here just for forming a union, if I remember my history.

Africa is perhaps 50 years behind Asia (some Chinese money these days is being invested in Africa due to the relative cheapness of their employees).

Some companies probably do behave like you're saying, but if they do leave, they leave behind a better skilled workforce than when they started, with Chinese entrepreneurs ready to invest in their own companies.

The earlier comments about landlords and rents are certainly relevant, as it gets passed into prices. My wife bought a sewing machine at the weekend from a bloke who used to have a retail shop, but closed it down because of high costs and now makes more profit by importing and selling directly on ebay. This is a new business model made possible by the Internet and its only going to get bigger, particularly with the NBN improving broadband. Everyone is happy except the landlord who no longer gets a big rent for a small space.

Originally Posted by Brian Hjelm

Non-payment of super contributions and ATO PAYGO instalments should bring charges of theft and an automatic gaol sentence of a couple of years at least for directors and possibly executives. No excuses, no first offender slap on the wrist, no suspended sentences, no short non-parole periods.
....

If I stole your wallet of $100 on the street, you can guarantee that I'b be locked up and have to front court probably doing time in gaol. These shonky business owners can steal tens or hundreds of thousands from their employees and the federal Government will likely front up with their redundancy payouts.

The system stinks.

Why shop online?

A busy person that works long hours and maybe a good portion of their weekend as well, then doesn't have the time to spend in going to retail shops and be pressurised into a decision.

After dinner, with some free time to shop online, a choice can be made, a careful search can usually give a number of desired items to choose from.

A win win situation, both for the seller working from home without the overhead costs and for the buyer who gains more time by not needing to travel to find what they need.

There are disadvantages in the seller not meeting their client and they must be trusting in that they don't become a target for fraud.

Likewise the buyer after paying for their purchase, needs to have faith in the seller doing the right thing, first in describing correctly the item and then does send the item.
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