Aussie Consumers Say No To High Game Prices

[R31Nismoid]

Take a slab of corona for example. You can get them wholesale for $20-$25, they retail @ $50-$60

Again, 80%+ profit.

I could go on for hours about imported goods and bullshit gouging. Cars are another example.

Audi R8 IIRC costs something like 80-100k GBP onroad (so thats not the BUY price). Yet it's 250k+ here? Audi make a lazy 30k without doing squat.

Australian businesses should take note and realise that consumers are getting wise to this.

You see the Myer/David Jones CEO's piss and moan about online businesses, sales etc. No stores to compete etc. Yet it's not even eating up more than 5% of their business - Yet they've done nothing to adapt, and ultimately this will grow.

They need to wise up and get with the times. The majority of Aussie businesses are 5 years behind the rest of the world and are adapting too late - so screw em.

[Madaz]

^^ yep

[Joe_89]

Just so you guys know, It was me that voted "supporting aussie traders fully" but its simply because I like the conveniency, i cant download like you guys because im on xbox and as said before, im a sucker for the collectors editions

I agree, its NOT fair that they ramp up prices like they do, but anybody thats worked in any retail enviroment would know how excessive the prices are compaired to their cost.

My first job was a place like Autobarn, and there were a few items as high as a 700% mark up. It will never change

[EeLeYe]

Take a slab of corona for example. You can get them wholesale for $20-$25, they retail @ $50-$60

Again, 80%+ profit.

I could go on for hours about imported goods and bullshit gouging. Cars are another example.

Audi R8 IIRC costs something like 80-100k GBP onroad (so thats not the BUY price). Yet it's 250k+ here? Audi make a lazy 30k without doing squat.

Australian businesses should take note and realise that consumers are getting wise to this.

You see the Myer/David Jones CEO's piss and moan about online businesses, sales etc. No stores to compete etc. Yet it's not even eating up more than 5% of their business - Yet they've done nothing to adapt, and ultimately this will grow.

They need to wise up and get with the times. The majority of Aussie businesses are 5 years behind the rest of the world and are adapting too late - so screw em.

I agree with this. CEO of harvey norman has been complaining about small online businesses "stealing" away their customers. This is because online businesses/companies don't have the middlemen thus being more cost effective to the customer.

Most of us know what we're looking for and many times the service at a retail store is fkn shithouse; so why should I pay for it?

Kogan is an EXCELLENT example of new age shopping. Straight from the manufacturer. And to top it off, it's Australian owned.

Another example of the Audi r8 is it sells for only $160k in the US. We should be able to pick it up for $140k instead of the bullshit $250k.

Also Bose noise canceling headphones US-$300, AUS-$550. Total bs.

[Madaz]

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AU$799.00 ITS THE SAME PHONE oh please

http://www.cnet.com.au/htc-7-trophy-339306542.htm

[EeLeYe]

Lol. Just a bit of a mark-up.

My Boston acoustic pro60se I bought from the US Were $350 posted... Retail here, $899.

[.:: GimpS-R34 ::.]

Just so you guys know, It was me that voted "supporting aussie traders fully" but its simply because I like the conveniency, i cant download like you guys because im on xbox and as said before, im a sucker for the collectors editions

I agree, its NOT fair that they ramp up prices like they do, but anybody thats worked in any retail enviroment would know how excessive the prices are compaired to their cost.

My first job was a place like Autobarn, and there were a few items as high as a 700% mark up. It will never change

Yeah, I just voted the other way.. I mean it's not like our poll is going to change the world LOL..

I buy games from stores generally for the convenience.. But will usually be JB or Big W, etc.. where the prices are usually down around the $70-80 mark.. Gets quite expensive when you buy alot of them LOL.. Only time I shop at EB, etc is when there is a sale on for PO games that I didnt wanna buy retail as may not be a game i really wanted to play @ full price.. But i don't give a shit about supporting them when they don't support us.. Just their full pockets..

[oweban]

AU$799.00 ITS THE SAME PHONE oh please

http://www.cnet.com.au/htc-7-trophy-339306542.htm

Big difference there: In the US, they price phones on their outright price on a 24 month contract. I haven't really heard about phones being sold outright there.

We, on the other hand, have the choice

Plus they have to pay for incoming calls..... so their plans become not-so-great too

[Madaz]

I find that hard to believe, if you pay for outgoing and incomming then only every 2nd person needs to pay

[oweban]

I find that hard to believe, if you pay for outgoing and incomming then only every 2nd person needs to pay

http://www.wireless.att.com/cell-phone-service/packages/packages-list.jsp?wtSlotClick=1-004YXE-0-1&WT.svl=title

cbf going further into it but i've had it verified by a fair few mates in the US: quite a lot of plans you pay for incoming calls too. also they work on "minutes" and not on a dollar value like we do. But yeah, $200 for phone upfront then you're on a 24 month contract.

[bozodos]

you do realise that with our mobile "dollar caps" they just adjust the price per minute / text / kb to whatever the f**k they want right?

Fairly sure that Telstra charge per 100kb on mobile data now, what complete and utter crap that is.

[Madaz]

had a quick look on that website rather gay and confusing to navigate

[oweban]

Yeah, we get our own shit end of the deal too... Just was trying to make the point (in the shittiest way possible, it seems) that price difference on phones between here and the US isn't apples vs apples

(god i suck)

[mad082]

on the comment about the dollar dropping but prices not, one thing you have to take into account is the amount of stock on hand that the distributors have that they paid the old price for. it's all well and good to say that the dollar has gotten stronger but if they still have 6 months supply then they can't realistically drop the prices until they get new stock in. of course this is a general comment, and doesn't apply so much to the gaming industry where there is new games coming out all the time.

as for dick smith vs eb games, you have to remember that dick smith is owned by the woolworths/big w company these days, so they have plenty of money behind them, so yes, they will sell things at a loss to get sales, but it also means that they can bargain better prices than smaller players. when i was working at a shop that sold games (before i bought my bike shop), target was selling consoles for below cost. the store owner rang the sony rep. he assured her that sony wasn't selling them to target for a lower price and that she shouldn't bother to buy stock from sony and to go buy them from target while they were still selling them at that price.

all i can say is that until you have owned a business, you have very little idea about how much money it takes to run a business and aren't really in a position to comment about businesses being rip-offs. if most of you decided to open a games store and put the prices at what you think they should be, you'd be out of business in a matter of months.

[Doobs]

I'll start with.

Marc's right.

A lot of you don't seem to realise, Australian retailers aren't buying stock direct

from the manufacturers in their respective countries of origin.

They buy it through the local companies bearing the same names or through agencies/importers.

I know first hand, there is no money in games hardware and software. I flat out refuse to stock the

PS3 as my company's head office always have it advertised or bundled to sell at a loss.

This mentality of the Australian consumer, that they somehow deserve everything below cost. They

don't seem to understand that the salesperson that is trying to help them and the business that employs

them, are there to make a PROFIT!!

I just finished a 4 day sale where we had advertised 20% off storewide, that puts the majority of

products below cost. Every customer i served, asked if they could have more off. Get Fu<ked.

End rant

[bozodos]

be competetive or go broke, your choice retailers. You're effing kidding yourselves if you think that we the consumers are going to pay higher prices so that you can make money, dosen't work like that in most cases.

I agree with Ash; retailers in Australia and distributors need to lift their game or face extinction.

[R31Nismoid]

I know first hand, there is no money in games hardware and software.

Please explain to me then how companies like PCCG have been able to upgrade premises size twice in the last 3 years if they are not making any money?

That's all they fken sell!

There is money to be made, no doubt about it.

US companies are now starting to alter their respective discount offers to businesses EX-USA to cover the dollar. EG you might have got 15% off, now its 25% off. I highly doubt they carry that much stock if they are having to resort to these measures already.

[mad082]

be competetive or go broke, your choice retailers. You're effing kidding yourselves if you think that we the consumers are going to pay higher prices so that you can make money, dosen't work like that in most cases.

I agree with Ash; retailers in Australia and distributors need to lift their game or face extinction.

bit hard to be competitve when there is bugger all profit margin.

too many morons in this country that think it is all the retailers who are making the profit rather than the 2 or 3 tiers in the retail chain above them. at least get your facts straight and realise that the prices are that high because of wholesale costs, not because of retailers putting on big mark-up. and for crying out loud, will people realise that most of the large chains in the australian market are all part of multi-industry companies, so yes, some of them will gladly sell stuff below cost to get customers in the door. this doesn't mean that the cost that it is on for sale for is the price it should be all the time and the difference is purely profit. also don't forget that a company that has made a decnt profit at some point in time can also invest in other things to then continue to make even more money. hell some companies will use 1 industry purely as a tax write-off. others simply monopolise the market (harvey norman is one of them as they are also joyce mayne and i think it's domain as well).

if need be i will post up a heap of wholesale prices of stuff from the bike industry as well as links to various overseas online stores who sell the stuff at below australian wholesale cost to prove my point. now i'm sure people sill start saying "well then the retailer should buy direct from overseas". there are 2 problems with this. 1: it;s illegal and the retailer can be taken to court for this as in a lot of cases the australian distributor is paying quite a large sum of money to the head company to be the sole distributor, or shared sole distributor, and since the retailer would then be classed as a distributor as well, they are in breach of this. 2: warranty. no australian supplier will provide warranty on parts bought outside of australia, so it means either a lot of dicking around on the behalf of the retailer, or customers getting pissed off because they have no warranty.

oh and as i said before, in the case of aus prices VS US prices, you have to factor in wages. minimum wage there is half of what it is here (about $7.50 an hour), so that will always be a factor. if you ignore that then we are all getting ripped off with everything we buy because when mum was visiting a friend in china he had a plumber come and install a new sink and it cost him $2 for the sink and the plumbers labour to install it. any plumbers here that would supply a new sink and fit it for $2? i thought not...... anyone here willing to work 6 days a week in a factory for $70 a month? no one?

basically, everyone wants to get paid as much as possible but don't want companies to make any profit. why don't you all go and tell your boss to give you a pay rise while at the same time telling him (or her) he should cut the profit margin by 50% and see what they think of your genius idea.

[mad082]

ok, i think i have come up with a way to make some of you understand the point i'm making. this is mostly aimed at people who work for companies that charge out labour for work done (such as an electrician, mechanic, etc), but others can get the idea.

ok, so anyone who works for a company where they charge out labour at an hourly rate. is the hourly rate much higher than what you get paid per hour? i'm guessing it will be at least double, but most likely more, even though there may only be 1 person doing on that particular job at a time.

i want you to justify why i shouldn't just pay the hourly rate you get paid (including super, and GST). now comes the kicker.....

you can't justify it in a way that can also be used to justify the (usually) much smaller (percentage wise) mark-up on retail goods. if you can do that i won't post in here again.

or to put it another way, why will most people pay up to, or over $100 an hour to have a mechanic fix their car, even though the person who works on their car will only get 1/4 of that. the argument is exactly the same. it is just that people can justify the argument to themselves about the price of some things, but not about others.

[Mayuri Krab]

Too much proper points & economics being said here...

All I care is if I can get the games cheaper overseas/on the net compared to the retails here then I will. If they shut down, I don't really care, since I'm a evil bastard. >

Atm I only pay stuff locally for the convenience.