Will make buggerall difference, i will still buy most of my stuff online/overseas. the price difference is too large for gst to make any meaningful difference to where i spend my money.

for example, bought my old man a leatherman wave for christmas. went to traditional retailer in shopping centre, they wanted $275.

a quick google found me an aussie online retailer who had it for $99 (with free shipping). turns out they ship their products direct from the US, but cause its an aussie company still had gst.

Just checked amazon.com I could have also bought it from the US, for $72 delivered. But it was pretty close to christmas so I figured getting local might get it here a tad quicker. It ended up being shipped direct from the US anyway, and only took 4 days.


Have seen a fair few articles on this in the news the last few days, and another theme that seems to crop up is the lack of customer service. I always do my research online before making purchases, for example i bought a lcd tv at the start of the year. It is amazing how little the sales staff at harvey normal knew about the product. The sales style they have probably works on someone completely uninformed, but having done a bit of research the amount of misinformation the sales staff were trying to sell me was to be quite honest insulting.


*edit: and on a slight tangent, its interesting to note that on the same news day there is articles claiming that jobs will be lost, but there are also articles about how desperate the mining industry is for workers. I think average wage in the mining industry is around 100k, if I was a displaced retail worker I know where I would be headed.

umm... but they're legally obliged to charge GST on any purchase made in Australia, whether online or in person, aren't they?

If you buy something over the counter AND you're a tourist from overseas AND you want to go through the pain, I believe there is a process whereby you can go to the tax office to reclaim the GST money paid IF you can prove your purchase. But that's nothing to do with the retailer. And I could easily be wrong on that given I'm definitely not in that category!

i'm torn on this one. have also bought stuff online from overseas and it's cheaper for sure. sometime it's half the price.

i agree that a lot of retailers take the piss but one of the issues the retailers have is that they have to order more than $1000 worth of stock and then they get stung with imports, duties etc.

a mate recently bought a $7000 piece of audio kit from the states, the cost to land that in oz was $6000 and the box was 1.3mx.5mx1m go figure. but that's where the markups occur.

I heard on the radio the other day (not sure if it is true but no reason not to believe it and I didn't ctach who was saying it, it was ABC local radio) :

....... 25% of the value of all retail sales in Australia are made through either Coles or Woolworths (or a Coles or Woolworths owned company)

0.05% of retail sales values are made online with overseas companies < $1000 of value (so no GST or customs duties on import)

If you want a parlimentary enquiry have one into the lack of competition in the retail sector (and banking sector), not into online sales of < $ 1000..........


The Government argument's seems to be the 10% GST (and presumably also the customs duties) would raise less tax than the cost of collecting it, so what is the point.

No doubt this ratio will change and GST and duties will then be charged.

Interesting that the Australian Retail Association is not supporting the call for GST to be levied and are actually opposing it.

mineral1 said...

The big thing is, the Aussie public has tightened the belt and this was very obviouse forom the lack of people about, shopping in the main city's we visited before and durring Christmas. Melbourne, I was stunned to see how many people "NOT" out shopping, it was like it was old Melbourne has lost its drive.

Funny you say that, I also heard on the radio that first day of Oxford Street sales in London had 400,00 people out.

UK economy is supposed to be at rock bottom.

But - you don't go to Oxford Street sales for daily essentials, you go for a good deal on top notch consumer products that are vastly over priced because the Oxford Street experience is worth 300% markup.

In context 400,00 people is 10% of the entire population of Melbourne, all shopping at the most expensive street in the country on the same day.

^^ no idea what relevance this has to anything. Just that retailers probably aren't as bad off as they say they are.

Ted and Carantoc - exactly. When we hit parity with the USD did we get discounts? NO

They say "oh but we ordered all that stuff long ago and paid under the old price" blah blah. Yeah, well when the aussie dollar drops do we see the price rise months later (cos they paid for the wholesale goods long ago) ???? Hell no. It rises 2 days later
Like petrol. Bvllsh!tfarkin

Bit of a laugh when the likes of Gerard Harvey, Target, David Jones, Myers etc start whinging about a level playing field.

This mob made it in their interest to create a playing field slanted in their favour in the Australian retail marketplace. They did lost no sleep when countless smaller retailers shut shop when they could not compete with the predatory tactics of the cabal of big retailers.

Boohoo, the CEO of Myer's sees his bonus drop a million. So bloody sad. As though they care about employing people. If the big retailers could replace their workers with a compliant zombie workforce they did not have to pay then they would think about for about 1 second and take another second to work out how they would sack all their workers.

Gestalt said...

Ted the Kiwi said...

they get no sympathy from me.......how many discounts have you rec'd in recent times since the currency jumped from 0.80 ag the USD....they have failed to pass savings on to us I reckon. I wd question the data re % purchased online ag retail. Easy to get the retail numbers but the on-line numbers wd be big guesses at best. I only wish I could buy my petrol on-line.

having a relationship with the windsurfing shops/people i buy from i usually get discounts on every piece of kit i buy. whether small or large it's the thought that counts so i appreciate it.

yes as a general rule I have always been provided nice discounts as well from water sports retailers. My comment is directed across the board - a generalisation of all industries.

It's a 1 way street sometimes !!

I was looking at some Harley Davidson's a while back. On The Road, AUD$17,500 here, and USD$10,500 there, with currencies on parity..... I'm not buying into $6,000 worth of transport. Exchange Rate at 88cents, bike is still AUD$17,500. It might have something to do with currency hedging.....

Profits for Woolworths is around the $2-$3 BILLION AUD per year.... Sounds like less when translated $100 per Australian..... but considering maybe only half of the population use the chain regularly, this might become $200 per Aussie Customer.... ????

"GST on online purchases " Against

But mine is for a small reason...I collect items that only come from other countries.
If Australia bought them into the country I would buy them at the ozy price...but they don't.

People in other countries can buy items on line from Australia and not pay any gst on their items...we should be able to too.

I am a big fan of a level playing field as a general rule. But this noise from the big boys makes me sick. This sums it up nicely

‘‘It’s extraordinary to hear Myer, David Jones, Harvey Norman and Target all claiming they want a level playing field when ... the extraordinary market power of these very businesses has put enormous pressure on the small business sector,’’ Senator Xenophon said. ‘‘It’s like watching Goliath pretend he’s David.’’

Some of you are vastly over stating shipping costs. For example a 20 foot container from china costs around $5k last I checked. Now imagine that container is full of play stations at $500 each, shipping cost is only a tiny fraction of the total cost. Sea freight isn't all that expensive and that's how the vast majority of goods get over here.

I got friends who bring over car parts such as wheels super chargers and even tyres from the us, even if they are over $1000, and you got to pay customs it's still vastly cheaper. You just have to be a little intelligent when it comes to managing shipping costs.

Start trimming back just a tiny bit on banking profits (speshly from ATM/POS/service fees) and you'll have Joe and Josephine Public spending up in shops more.

Was at two big megaopolises today and it was a consumer frenzy - so don't tell me the internerd is killing retail outlets.

Kn banks. Used to work for one, and yes, they suck at least as much as you have always thought.

swoosh said...

Some of you are vastly over stating shipping costs. For example a 20 foot container from china costs around $5k last I checked. Now imagine that container is full of play stations at $500 each, shipping cost is only a tiny fraction of the total cost. Sea freight isn't all that expensive and that's how the vast majority of goods get over here.

I got friends who bring over car parts such as wheels super chargers and even tyres from the us, even if they are over $1000, and you got to pay customs it's still vastly cheaper. You just have to be a little intelligent when it comes to managing shipping costs.

yeah, that's great if you want a shipping container from china.

but what if you can't fill a container, or don't/can't wait 3+ months or aren't buying from china. then you are left with air freight and that ain't cheap.

anyways.

whatever rules everyone roles out for the big few will be applied to all small businesses lets not forget.

The thing that anoys me is that the BIGs have lobbying power - so complain about having to compete against OS suppliers, where as who lobbies for the little man? Do they get that much media attention when the likes of Coles and Woolies put them out of business?

I have a mate who is a farmer, he sells his sheep per kilo for something like 2.55 - 2.80 per kilo to the BIGs - they really can't negociate all that well against the monopoly of buying power - how much do you pay per kilo for lamb? yep... a lot more... so who gets most of the coin.....? you know it.....

And then the threats "we are going to sack people".... is more like a hostage situation..... "give us the money or the hostage gets it!"

grrrrrrrrrr