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Originally Posted by geckoGT
After reading this whole thread again, trying to work it out to see if it is actually going anywhere I have noted a few things.
Those that are obviously employees are mostly stating that their reason for shopping OS is their own personal bottom line, their pay only goes so far. That is fair enough, who can really blame them for that.
Those that are involved in retail seem to put the blame on two areas, the first and most apparent is the consumer, the consumer is murdering Australian retail. The second avenue of blame is the manufacturer and the disparity of the wholesale pricing between here and OS.
Now personally I think the likes of Gerry Harvey having a go at the consumers for killing retail and killing his bottom line is a bit rich, after all the consumer is just looking after their own bottom line. But the consumer does not have a bottom line as large as some of the big retailers.
Personally I think a key point is the disparity between wholesale prices here and OS. It seems to me that if Aussie retailers are paying 100% more than US retailers for the same product, it is the manufacturers that are killing Australian retail. Level that out and the prices will level out. We keep having this notion of a "global market" jammed down our necks but is it really, to me for that to be true it would have to be a level playing field across the globe. It seems it is not.
Perhaps the key players in the retail industry, retail associations and federal government should address that issue before they ear bash poor old Joe Average for trying to spread his bottom line a bit further.
Just a thought.
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I think the blame is pointed more at wages, taxes and other regulatory costs.
I think it was crazy for Gerry to start the war with the aim to reduce/remove the GST free imports up to $1000. Instead of applying something to the masses that artificially makes you competitive, why dont we look at the real issues. All the red tape costs that cause prices to be marked up as they are, which causes wages to go up to pay for these marked up goods, and so on.
If regulatory costs were reduced, items could be offered at lower prices and Australians would have more disposable money.
I dont want it to go political, but I think that's where the real problem lies.
It makes no sense to me to introduce something that will cost businesses, that then requires something to be put in place that reduces the costs passed on to the customer, or introducing something that removes a level of competition from the consumer.
It would be like Casey Council making a law that stopped any residents of the Casey shire from being able to purchase anything from Costco.
Sorry for the slight rant, I'm having trouble getting my words together today, so if it seems a little fragmented, I'm sorry. But my point is in there somewhere.