Quote:
Originally Posted by Stardrifter_WA
Hi Renato,
Unfortunately, it wasn't as simple as you suggest, but I cannot actual say why, due to certain confidentialities. Things are often more complicated than they appear on the surface.
When I worked in the industry I was selling Meade and the profit margin on them was extremely low, so low, in fact, I often wondered why we even bothered. Costs to do business in Australia are extremely high, but then, so is our standard of living. The Chinese have certainly changed the dynamics though, with very low cost overheads and production efficiencies.
Cheers Peter
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Hi Peter,
I just have a hard time swallowing the notion that if Meade dealers sold an eyepiece in the US at US$100, which at the time equated to A$125, dealers in Australia couldn't make any money selling that eyepiece here at A$300.
Yes, import duties may have been higher before the GST, but even if they'd been as high as 45%, that would have been applied to the wholesale price of US$50 or US$60. Then add transportion costs which should have been less than what I was paying for mail from the US, and there should have been an ultra healthy profit margin on each eyepiece sold.
In my opinion, either the local dealer was getting a super lousy deal from Meade (as was the Celestron dealer) or some odd accounting practice was in place for taxation purposes.
Well done with your foresight on the AUD- USD exchange rate!
Regards,
Renato