Online GST screws Aussie shoppers

[Neferti]

NO! Everything on Amazon is NOT made in Taiwan!

in the US you can buy the latest high definition flat screen 60 inch TVs for $250. Food is a fraction of what we pay here. Whole chickens on sale are 99 cents - $1.29. 36 slice pizzas $6. Bag of 20 fresh very LARGE prawns $18. The list goes on and on and on and on. I am talking normal America not LA or NY which are comparable to Sydney.

IT makes no difference how hard the Japanese work or what they are paid. We EXPORT our gas to Japan and their end consumers pay ONE THIRD of what we pay for our own gas here. Think about it.

UNIONS! Plus 25 million versus 350 million. Oz needs more workers, less bludgers. We do not have any "factories" making stuff ....

EVERYONE in Australia considers themselves "Middle Class" ....... even the unemployed think they should have it ALL.

Aussie.

[IQS.RLOW]

Amazon never shipped most good name brand products to Australia in any case as most quality products are already tied to regional distribution deals or the brand has has a regional office and staff for corporate sales and support (like Nortons- crap product btw Bobby and Microsoft)

I've mostly used them for price reference and here's a tip, most vendors on Amazon also have their own shopfront or an eBay store where you can buy direct at the same price, just have to hunt them down (although depending on the vendor, you can get hosed on the shipping if they and you don't have a DHL/UPS/FedEx account with the typical courier discount rate)

[IQS.RLOW]

NO! Everything on Amazon is NOT made in Taiwan!

in the US you can buy the latest high definition flat screen 60 inch TVs for $250.

Those TVs would be all made in China as will the majority of electronic goods.
Taiwan hasn't been a major manufacturing hub for 10-20 years now.

If you order 250-500+ of em, you can even have your own brand name, packaging and poorly translated user manual, container shipped to your door for much less.
However, the major issue is you now have to be able to get rid of 100s of boxes of "The ultra-Black Orchid Dynamic 3D DTVDU" you now have stacked in your lounge room and support the product with warranty, spare parts and deal with **shudder** the public. For that you need a distribution network which is ultimately more valuable than anything than most brands and products.

[Neferti]

Exactly ....