Online buys prompt retail inquiry

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

My bet's on the government deciding to add GST to items bought online under $1000 due to retail industry pressure and the allure of more revenue, and being totally unable to police it. Most consumers gripe about it but suck it up and do the obedient right thing, a couple of people get busted with nasty fines for dodging it, many more just don't pay it and get away with it, but in the end a lot of people still use online shopping anyway 'cos it's by and large still cheaper even with GST. In the meantime, Ausssie retail prices stay uncompetitively expensive - especially Transformers - and customer service remains often bad and underresourced.
France tries the same thing a few years later and there's riots in the streets - again putting paid to the theory that Aussies are tough, rugged, crocodile-wrestling battlers and the French are cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

[Tetsuwan Convoy]

(particularly since my online searches always seem to be limited in their randomness by the fact that they all include the word 'Transformers' in them. )

lol.

Just a quick story. I went into a game shop to get Okami on Wii. It had been out for a while, but I hadn't seen any copies in Australia, so I went inot a game shop to see if they could track one down.

Apparently they couldn't. the reason, "Okami didn't exist on wii." Erm, yes it did, but the shop was telling me I was wrong.

One week later I had a copy from the UK for $20.

[loophole]

IWhen I wanted to buy StarCraft 2, I asked EB Games to price match (they were selling it for $100) Dicksmith's price of $70.

The response was "We don't price match that game."

wow thats dodgy, my local EB pricematched Stracraft 2 with Dicksmiths price no worries

[SharkyMcShark]

I must say on the customer service side of things EB is quite good - the other week I was in there buying some PSP stuff for my sister for Christmas and got chatting to the guy behind the counter about a particular xbox game I was looking for - he said they didn't have it but he did a print out of all the stores in WA that had it, how far away they were, what price it was, and what quantity of it they had.

Which was nice, but then they were asking a ridiculous price for a 4 year old game so really it was a neutral experience all round.

[Burn]

I really don't think anything's going to come of this.

Online Aussie shops already add GST, but for the sake of looking like they're doing something, the Government will ask the ATO to target them in next year's auditing program.

As for overseas online shops, just what is the Government going to do about it? Start taxing all overseas orders? What's the point? That tax is just going to have to be funnelled to customs to pay for the extra wages.

No, just open your eyes for once Government, the problem isn't with the consumer this time. It's with the Retailer.

That being said, I actually do try to shop locally as much as possible. But there are certain things that i'll ALWAYS order online. For example, books.

The nearest book store is an hour's drive away. So factor the petrol in for starters. Add on to that the fact that the in-store price is more expensive than the online price from an Australian online store. Then add on the fact that the online store often gets their stock far quicker than the retail store.

So it's cheaper, faster, and a lot less hassle for me in this case.

[kaiden]

I want to mention that online retailers operate from a warehouse - which keeps their costs down significantly.

thats why its easier to buy games, toys, books (almost everything really...) online.

there are more complicated issues, but it gives me such a headache trying to write it all out.

[Hursticon]

again putting paid to the theory that Aussies are tough, rugged, crocodile-wrestling battlers and the French are cheese-eating surrender monkeys.

I love it how Jerry Harvey gets back up on his horse and cries poor, because all these people buying online are buying TVs, White goods and the like.
This idiot represents the vast majority of Monopoly Retailers in this country, with the attitude that: 'Australians would prefer to pay more" and, like ex-Prime Minister Howard, "Australians have never been better off".
Aussies have been paying too much for too long and as soon as anyone tries to do something about it they're either belittled and/or priced out of the country, I feel sorry for those in Small/Medium retail business who have to try and compete with these mongrels and the tactics they employ.

The other thing I find ridiculous? - Online sales accounted for 3% of total sales for the last financial year and look to increase by, maybe, 0.75%, so out of 250+ Billion Dollars worth of sales, 3% of that is apparently sending the likes of Woolworths, Coles Group, Harvey Norman, Myer, David Jones etc. broke?
All I can say to this mob is Grow A Dick!.

This isn't targeting employees of these companies, more so their Heads, CEOs and Boards.
Mind you, some employees do need a good swift kick in the rear!

[SkyWarp91]

I love it how Jerry Harvey gets back up on his horse and cries poor, because all these people buying online are buying TVs, White goods and the like.
This idiot represents the vast majority of Monopoly Retailers in this country, with the attitude that: 'Australians would prefer to pay more" and, like ex-Prime Minister Howard, "Australians have never been better off".
Aussies have been paying too much for too long and as soon as anyone tries to do something about it they're either belittled and/or priced out of the country, I feel sorry for those in Small/Medium retail business who have to try and compete with these mongrels and the tactics they employ.

The other thing I find ridiculous? - Online sales accounted for 3% of total sales for the last financial year and look to increase by, maybe, 0.75%, so out of 250+ Billion Dollars worth of sales, 3% of that is apparently sending the likes of Woolworths, Coles Group, Harvey Norman, Myer, David Jones etc. broke?
All I can say to this mob is Grow A Dick!.

This isn't targeting employees of these companies, more so their Heads, CEOs and Boards.
Mind you, some employees do need a good swift kick in the rear!

Yeah those CEOs are only just covering their own rear-ends, they want to make sure they get that extra dollar so they can buy something ridiculous like the $1000US Pizza made with caviar! (funny how only Russian execs bought it hahaha)

[sanbot]

I gotta be careful not to over generalise here but my experience in the US with customer service was all top notch. As an example I'd be buying clothes and the staff would constantly be checking to see if things were okay and it was busy too! There'd also be times where I'd be in the dressing room and I keep asking for other sizes or other styles and they'd be more then happy to oblige. Whereas in Oz I tend to get attitude from the stuff. Perhaps tipping should become compulsory!

It amazes me that not only are things cheaper in the US but they also manage to have good service too.

Which brings me to another point. Even if retailers start going online one thing Australia lacks is demand and I think this will always prevent us from being as competitively priced as other countries that have the scale of demand that will reduce the costs.

[gdmetro]

As many have said- Aussie retail is a joke really. And the prices are just.. ludicrous- not only for tfs.. but I'm no expert.

I hardly buy from retail these days, but both online and retail do have their own merits, although price and service level are just typically better online than domestically. I've never bought electronic goods or clothing from online- I've just heard too many horror stories of that just not working out. That's where being able to inspect the item and trying it on is a must. However, while sometimes the service in domestic retail can be okay, more often than not, service sucks or is non-existent- asking for service in a store is taboo and frowned upon, like I'm wasting their time.

Another factor that someone else talked about is the stock availability. Choice. Online is so much better for that and coupled with the pricing and not having to deal with dirty glances, crap registers, crap parking- i'd go online anyday.

Reading this article and the mention of retailers wanting to scrap the 1k threshold for buying online just pissed me off- insulting. Pandering to govt to change regulations to limit the choice of consumers thus strong-arming into buying from them?....

Thinking of these greedy retailers inevitably my mind wonders back to the $250 TRU Ghost Starscream fiasco. Do they really think Aussies are that stupid? The retailers in this article are whinging like spoilt children- The online system shouldn't change for retailers, they should get off their asses and work at a solution if they want my money.

It's not like online buyers are actively trying to exploit by overseas buying and not wanting to support domestic- I'm sure a reasonable person could see the merits of keeping the money flowing via domestic retailers.. but for all the problems especially pricing, unless there are major changes, the market will go for the better option- ONLINE.