Quote:

Originally Posted by hipswinger

but who are they being ripped off by in your opinion ?

Australian retailers with archaic business practices?

mate if i buy something for $1, i'm not going to sell it for $1.10.

what would you think is a fair margin for B&M retail ?

Are you sourcing your stuff from the manufacturer?

no.

So you're buying goods from an Australian wholesaler/ importer?

Is it possible you could go directly to the manufacturer?

fucking lol

http://www.fairimportsalliance.org.au/Home.aspx

Jeez , shame they couldn't put as much effort into looking after their customers.

Lol... the "abuse" of the LVIT. Who is abusing it? Me for buying cheap shizzle and getting it sent from o/seas?

Nuggets.

Quote:

Originally Posted by weekender

So you're buying goods from an Australian wholesaler/ importer?

Is it possible you could go directly to the manufacturer?

not really. when your selling branded product your stuck with the wholesaler.
Models will have to change as the wholesaler will be hurting as well, unless they go direct to market, which is kinda what is happenning now anyway.
It will go the same way as other industries....
ie Groceries, Petrol etc

Quote:

Originally Posted by weekender

Lol... the "abuse" of the LVIT. Who is abusing it? Me for buying cheap shizzle and getting it sent from o/seas?

Nuggets.

yeh i don't understand who's abusing it ?

"Online sales have to lead you to question the whole retail selling strategy. With the explosion of online sales, what happens to all these retail malls and shopping centers which are marginals? Huge changes are going to be taking place as people continue shopping online.... In the end what do you do with the retail space...This is going to be a huge question for retail in the next ten years. It's going to be the biggest retail change that we've ever seen."

"Landlords better start figuring it out pretty quick because they already have occupancy problems, rent problems and everything else right now. I don't think the CRE problems are fixed by any means. Those CRE debts are coming due and they will not be able to be rolled over. We've got lots of problems still coming up in the banking system, and the problem in the real estate issue is here for a long time."

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/mus...er-renaissance

Deja Vu...

"The advertisement also says that if the government does not want to impose GST on internet purchases -- currently exempt from GST and import duty if less than $1000 -- it should not impose it on domestic purchases.

"That means everyone is exempt from GST and duty charges for purchases less than $1000, or everyone has to pay GST and duty," the ad reads."

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nati...-1225981302010

Quote:

Originally Posted by sydney3000

"The advertisement also says that if the government does not want to impose GST on internet purchases -- currently exempt from GST and import duty if less than $1000 -- it should not impose it on domestic purchases.

"That means everyone is exempt from GST and duty charges for purchases less than $1000, or everyone has to pay GST and duty," the ad reads."

The technique of putting up a completely unworkable proposal, and then saying, "well, if you think that's unworkable, the only alternative is our proposal" is straight out of the playbook for Intellectual Dishonesty 101. If the retailers were actually serious about this, they would have done some work to identify how it would be workable for Customs to stop every single package delivered to Australia and hold it until the GST on the contents had been paid.

What happens if you buy a gift for a person overseas and they then send you the gift which they do not want? All I'm saying is that if they impose GST on purchases under $1,000, there will be legal workarounds. Regardless, the fact I purchased a book for $120 when it retailed for $350 here means that I'm dodging more than GST. I think most people would not bother shopping o/s for a 10% discount on goods under $1,000 anyway. This all seems like an expensive fuss because of retailers failure to react to new technology. Risk as always been correlated to profit and if these businesses are worried about their profit then it means they're not addressing the reality of the risk factor in their businesses. Suck an egg - the new face of Australian retailing is emerging and it's online you silly fools. Why the hell do I have to pay a retailers costs if I don't have to? Why must I suffer at the hands of businesses unsustainable operations? Talk about flogging a dead horse.

Those retailers are just going to lose sales not gain them from this stupid campaign.

Having a read of the comments on SMH a huge majority are people saying they will shop online more cause of this lol

Just spoke to a business owner who had a go at his wholesaler this morning who is blaming the business owner for the loss of sales. He's selling a product at an insignificant margin. I can buy 4 times the amount of the same product from eBay. Many lols were had when he admitted he buys a product he's selling from o/s for himself. Admittedly, the sale of this product is not his primarily line of business (he is a service provider).

I can't believe the number of people reading the article online in the age, and 766 comments when I last looked. They really should have shut up

And here come the Greens with their "re-impose tariffs" agenda re-jigged slightly to look (slightly) less Neanderthal:

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1...pping-GST-call

Maybe the shop in Tokyo or California selling goods for export shouldn't have to charge GST for much the same reasons that Australian retailers selling goods for export don't charge GST?

nine lead today with the story again.... since when did nine news become a pseudo current affairs news with bias reporting? i thought they were the best of the commercial networks?

I don't know if you watched ACA. It primarily lead in favor of ACA and 9 bum-chum, Gerry Harvey.

Quote:

Originally Posted by autumn acid

I don't know if you watched ACA. It primarily lead in favor of ACA and 9 bum-chum, Gerry Harvey.

Yup. Don't forget who the biggest advertisers are. This is old but is indicative of where the media companies get their dollars... of course they're going to flog the shit out of the retailer's stance.

like i've said before its gonna get messy. Consumers think retailers are purchasing product for the same wholesale prices as OS retailers which simply isn't the case. So they think Aus stores have these huge markups. The fact is that we have average markups with exuberant fixed costs............

Employees will suffer first
Store owners
Wholesalers
Landlords will all go next.

in simple terms, the pieces of pie have been cut too thin for everyone to survive !

If retailers overseas can buy goods that are manufactured in asia anyway cheaper than retailers in Australia, that points to a problem with the Australian retailers supply chain, not taxation.

yep, the problems are located in this country.

on the docks, In the supply chain, at the retail outlets, in the pockets of rip off merchants like Gerry Harvey etc.

yep, tax will do fck all in this globalisation shift.

i buy off aus wholesaler for $10.
OS buy off same wholesaler OS for $5.

then add rent, payroll which are way higher than OS, and you have a lot businesses in aus that are way off the pace, without too many options.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dbb618

yep, the problems are located in this country.

on the docks, In the supply chain, at the retail outlets, in the pockets of rip off merchants like Gerry Harvey etc.

why do you think GH is a ripoff merchant ? 90% of his store is banded product ?

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/...cument&src=kgb

Shorten's favour to retailers
Robert Gottliebsen
Published 7:18 AM, 5 Jan 2011 Last update 10:14 AM, 5 Jan 2011

Last month Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten confirmed that local retailers could sell goods from outside Australia without paying GST, if those goods cost less than $1,000. The retailers said this was a tax rort but Shorten maintained that any changes to the current rules and enforcing the lower limit rule would cost far more than could ever be raised. In other words Shorten acknowledged that the loophole existed but announced a long term inquiry.

So the limit is going to stay for some time, and retailers should go for it. Myer and Harvey Norman both threatened to sell imported goods over the net from China to take advantage of the Shorten invitation, but they were half-hearted. Again Bill Shorten simply responded by effectively saying: ‘If you want to do that, go and do it. The consumers will benefit.'

Yesterday Shorten went further, saying local retailers' claims that the low value threshold was responsible for tough Christmas trade in Australia are exaggerated. Consumers are attracted to international online stores because they are convenient, he says, and because offshore retailers have embraced the digital economy and developed sophisticated and consumer friendly business models.

Of course Myer and Harvey Norman, plus a lot of other retailers, have a huge problem. If they went out and promoted heavily the ability to buy goods under $1,000 directly from China, over time they would slash the revenue of their stores.

Myer has long term leases in some of the best shopping centres in Australia. If selling goods directly out of China via the net using the Myer brand skyrocketed, then it would affect turnover in these major centres and make the company less profitable. It would still have to pay its rent.

For Harvey Norman it would be even worse, because Harvey Norman actually owns its centres.

Shorten is in effect calling the retailers' bluff. The whole issue reminds me of the arguments that took place at Fairfax as internet classifieds began to gather speed. The corporate strategy of the day was that the print product had to be protected so Fairfax did not take a blank sheet of paper and launch an internet operation against itself.

That was left to others, led by Seek, who have now made a fortune.

I think that Bill Shorten is doing the retailers a favour. They need to learn from the mistake of the newspapers and have an internet importing operation that is not shackled by the need to protect the legacy business. But I don’t think they are going to accept the challenge because it will affect short term profits.

Meanwhile if you want to understand just how important the internet has become in gift and similar shopping go and talk to your local gift retailer. They will explain that time after time customers are coming in and looking at their goods and writing down the details of what they want to buy. They then go to the net and buy the item at a much lower price. The trouble is that nobody knows exactly what the customer does when they leave the shop without consummating a purchase.

Given another year or two, internet shopping will be a major blow to Australian retailers – unless they are courageous enough to tackle it head on and occupy the space thanks to Bill Shorten's concession.

And of course shopping centre owners are going to need to be very skilled to maintain revenues if they find that customers are coming to shopping centres and enjoying the coffee and social atmosphere, but then using the shopping centre to discover what they want to buy on the net.

In addition, many people are finding that it is too time consuming to look around stores. Often the required goods aren’t there. The internet cuts the time and cost.

If the source is in Australia you may pay the GST but the Post Office delivery system has become so efficient it takes only a couple of days for the goods to arrive if you buy online – shorter than if you have to wait for the retailer to get stock into the store.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hipswinger

why do you think GH is a ripoff merchant ? 90% of his store is banded product ?

most of the products are 100-400% over what you can pay online, simply put all products for some reason are massivly over priced in AUS, even itunes sell digital media at different prices here than overseas, previously i'm guessing it was cause our $$ was so shit, but now with parity to the USD they don't wan't to pass the savings back to the consumer and are happy to pocket the change.

Gerry doesn't really care about the 10% he's pissed people are dogging his stores in droves. He isn't really a retail magnate, he's a real estate magnate, the majority of the stores are franchises, if the franchisees can't get customers they can't pay rent, leaving old Gerry with a few hundred million dollars of empty property.

I'm working for a online payments company and this "story" is better than any advertising we could have paid for

The real problem lies more on the wholesale side of things, particularly importers and distributors. If wholesale prices can be reduced, there should be a corresponding decrease in prices in stores as the profit margins won't need to be so big to compensate for slow sales. At the very least, some retailers ought to renegotiate prices with distributors to take advantage of the stronger dollar.

Quote:

Originally Posted by legal-affairs

And here come the Greens with their "re-impose tariffs" agenda re-jigged slightly to look (slightly) less Neanderthal:

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1...pping-GST-call

Oh Bob

Quote:

Originally Posted by baax

Oh Bob

Quite. And the point that the Greens (and a lot of the commentators) are missing is that is not about prices, it is about making online shopping less convenient. Paying 10% more for my Amazon/Juno/whatever order is no great drama (won't be happy about it, but I will still save money) - having to get to a post office to pay that money and pick up my parcel is a bigger issue, for me.

If it was just about price, why would you run a PR campaign that highlights just how much cheaper things are online?

Some of the comments here are priceless.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/mon...-1225981236682

Quote:

Originally Posted by hipswinger

why do you think GH is a ripoff merchant ? 90% of his store is banded product ?

GH is also hurting from his adventures in Ireland, and wants Australian consumers to pay for the losses racked up via his O/S loss making operations.

I even buy my soap online. I love this castille soap !! I found this great site for vitamins , soap, health stuff. I go Into my local health food store and they usually don't have what I want anyway, but can get it for me within 10 days. ! I do keep trying !! I go online , half price is not unusual and DHL tracking and delivered usually in 4 days . They must do a deal with DHL because it's only $12 from the US . My DHL delivery man rings first. How good is that !!

Btw www.iherb.com And if you quote this referral code RAF840 you get $5 off your first buy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by big eddie

If retailers overseas can buy goods that are manufactured in asia anyway cheaper than retailers in Australia, that points to a problem with the Australian retailers supply chain, not taxation.

This. If your wholesaler is selling to you at more than the consumer retail cost in the states, perhaps you should ditch your wholesaler and import directly yourself. Pretty simple.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitey1981

Some of the comments here are priceless.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/mon...-1225981236682

Quote:

Originally Posted by comment hungry muppet

Hardly Normal has the audacity to complain about level playing fields when they were leading the charge to destroy Australian manufacturing by procuring their stock from cheap overseas manufacturers and then telling everyone and sundry that protectionist tariffs and the like are destroying competition.I REMEMBER Hardly Normal, I remember.

Manufacturers, suppliers and retailers have been increasingly sourcing products and labour from overseas to cut costs and beat rising overheads. But consumers are facing similar problems in their day to day lives, with huge mortgages/rents and rising costs of living. Yet when the consumer does the same thing, taking advantage of importing to save some money, industry cries foul?

It'll even out eventually. Either the dollar will drop, or the companies that can't roll with the punches will fail or move on. This should be seen as a chance and a challenge to improve business models and supply lines, rather than a chance to whinge about how the system is so unfair. Gerry Harvey and co. are making a fool of themselves. Sif you call your customer base unaustralian. Way to get people on your side.

oh lol!

"finding an open cashier or someone to assist me in a department store is like trying to find a meatball at a vegan conference."

courtesy of the telegraph comments

j-rod harvey, lol

Quote:

GERRY Harvey has declared he will step back from the big retailers' campaign to have the GST imposed on overseas online purchases, saying he is hurt by an avalanche of criticism directed at him and feels that getting involved was ''suicidal''.

http://www.theage.com.au/business/ge...106-19hkq.html

Quote:

Originally Posted by BumblingBee

j-rod harvey, lol

That's a bit harsh, to j-rod.

J-rod is the master of the backpedal, whereas Gerry Harvey seems to be finding the backpedal very difficult:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/gerry...107-19i3u.html

This "campaign" is nothing short of hilarious.

You would think Harvey would have someone, who isn't blowing him 24/7, tell him how out of touch he is with reality?

http://www.smh.com.au/business/gerry...107-19i3u.html

All this exercise has done has underlined how much better pricing is online.
I can assure you the retailers that aren't a part of this campaign but will be hit hard are burning pictures of Harvey and his mates.

I reckon this will the year EB Games takes a massive hit eg. new PS3 game in the States $70, new PS3 game in Australia $110.
That's $40 that everyone that didn't know about before this will certainly be aware of.

I'm even considering getting a US BluRay player so I can take advantage of all the new release pricing, which shits all over Australia's.
Australian retailers have been fucking us over for far too long, it's nice to be on the other side of the equation for once.

yep, I'm going to get a US bluray player next time I'm in the States.

It makes sense - the Star Wars BR Set has been announced today for $89.95 US (pre-order on Amazon) and I shudder to think what price 20th Century Fox will try to gouge out of consumers here.

I'll bet at least $200.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...pf_rd_i=507846

You know that most blu-rays aren't region protected anyway right?

yeah, but the hardware is a lot cheaper too. JB HiFi are selling an LG model for $308 on sale at the moment, the same one can be got from best buy in the USA for $216.

As you go up the quality scale the price differences get bigger.

Most of them are, some of them aren't.

http://regionfreemovies.com/

Quote:

Originally Posted by Whitey1981

All this exercise has done has underlined how much better pricing is online.
I can assure you the retailers that aren't a part of this campaign but will be hit hard are burning pictures of Harvey and his mates.

I reckon this will the year EB Games takes a massive hit eg. new PS3 game in the States $70, new PS3 game in Australia $110.
That's $40 that everyone that didn't know about before this will certainly be aware of.

I'm even considering getting a US BluRay player so I can take advantage of all the new release pricing, which shits all over Australia's.
Australian retailers have been fucking us over for far too long, it's nice to be on the other side of the equation for once.

before you get any electrical items make sure they work here,. We are 240v they are 110v. A lot of appliances can be either. But it wouldn't be nice if you were stuck with a 110v BluRay player.