haspete's - another grand on the dow thursday, page-99

Obe, sure, no problem. The comment comes from the knowledge that Australian retailers have been making customers pay more than the rest of the world for generations. I woke up to it when I moved to Europe as a teenager and really woke up when I went pack at 29 and stayed there for 10 years.

Prices are higher for some genuine reasons (or used to be, eg. transport costs) but the difference became staggering in the 90's.

I blame two things: commercial real estate rental costs and the cost of labour. Retailers bid up rents to secure stores which they saw as key to sales. Suddenly, along comes competition and they squeal.

So that is the demand side.

On the supply side, if an Australian manufacturer cannot supply a good cheaper or better than a foreigner then they have problems. Economics 101 says that everyone will buy the foreign good, all other things being equal.

The rest of the world take that as given. Australians though think that we are special and, being special, our customers should pay more to keep my staff and myself employed. It is a rubbish argument used by lobby groups (think car manufacturers; who BTW send a massive cheque back to Detroit or Japan each year... I used to work for Ford).

We also believe that evil foreigners should not be selling their stuff here like their steel, cars etc (despite it employing their people in the same way it would here). Thus, every foreign car that we buy has a massive tax on it. We are forced to either drive an inferior car or pay more. This lowers our standard of living.

So when I walk into a HN store and see rubbish for sale and/or foreign goods for sale at inflated prices (that I know I can buy online for half the price).... well, you will have to forgive me for snorting. I aint buying crap just so as to be patriotic; I aint paying a higher price for Australian made quailty if the other good is of the same quality but cheaper; and I aint paying a higher price for the same good (think iPad).