you did make a point but hell it took a while.

all we, as "punters", need to know is that australian retailers (with no help from the government) have more and higher costs then overseas retailers.

yeh you might save a few dollars, but you cant buy local expertise or personal after sales service.

goto your shop and not a .com

happy buying

Hi Guys,

As a retailer I know how hard it is to make a dollar with such high overheads and such. I'm also a bit of a patriot. I recently bought some running shoes and running shorts etc.

I paid full retail for them but could have bought them online in the US or Canada for just over half price and had them shipped directly. I have no regrets paying the extra.

I used the sales guys advice, had them fitted, got a receipt and a store location where I can go to solve any issues with my purchase. Most of all, I helped contribute to an aussie guys business, the money stays here and provides jobs, helps him put food on the table and the tax contributes to the Australian economy.

I buy local and support Australian businesses. I appreciate when my customers come to me to purchase their items, I know they have the choice of going elsewhere and finding similar products for cheaper prices, so we look after our top customers as best we can, not always with cheapest prices, but we go out of our way with customer service and add on value services which makes a big difference in my books.

DM

Darren, I hope you look after "ALL" your customers "as best you can" not just your "TOP" customers.
ET.

Hey Darren,

I have been thinking about this a lot, all debates on this subject generally disintegrate into a shop v shop or customer type of thing and also get shut down by moderaters pretty fast.

But I'm going the public education route, business has been saying 'the high prices are because of the Government charges and red tape' so I am pulling the facts straight from the Customs website and showing the public. Delta Goodrem was busy so I have done it as humorously as possible.

Any type of individual customer service stuff is not relevant it just muddies the water, same when people talk about high wages etc.

For any retailer selling under $1,000 ish products in this current regime the end game is this:-

Have in Oz a showroom and warranty centre, but do all the selling from an offshore business, they can even log on in at the showroom for the sale. The customer will still get good local service. It's completely nuts. Governments shouldn't be allowed to be this slack.

But the internet can help hugely by educating the masses quickly, imagine if every shop owner in every sport did what I am doing, the problem would get sorted. Very important to only talk about the one thing though, Government charges and taxes, nothing else.