Blaming the government because Amazon.com now won't sell into Australia is ridiculous. USA sales tax is a state by state concept, so Amazon has already built out in their coding at least 50 different tax calculations, but apparently adding one more for sales into Australia is too hard ! Amazon has entered Australia and realised exactly what EVERY other retailer in Australia has - we're geographically large with low population density, meaning that distribution is expensive. I suspect they've also realised that because of these horrible local distribution models we've become accustomed to paying more than just about everywhere else in the world for goods. I place the blame squarely with Amazon here, and even then I can understand their viewpoint - they're in business to make money after all (aren't we all - I don't work 5 days a week out of altruism). Take a look at the price variance between Australia and the USA for Ikea furniture as a good example of what I am talking about. Ikea has a very simple/flat distribution method and yet we pay 150% to 200% of what the USA does for the same product.
GST is primarily distributed to the states, and therefore goes into funding schools, hospitals, roads etc. Not saying that Australian governments have got it right with tax and distribution, but I believe that people deliberately avoiding GST by purchasing from offshore are just as bad as the big corporations funneling Australian revenue through tax havens in terms of economic impact.
I refuse to shop in Harvey Norman any more - not because of their prices or anything but simply because we have had 2 spectacularly bad experiences with them. When the primary reason I would still use a bricks and mortar store is for customer service and assistance (aside from being able to physically interact with a potential purchase) you simply cannot afford to get it wrong, and boy did they get it wrong ! Gerry needs to focus his energy on making sure that every salesperson in every department knows their products, knows how to speak to people and ensure that their point of sale infrastructure (warehousing etc) is up to scratch. Then maybe he'd stop loosing market share.......
