Australian Dollar

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

[marki]

Hey you only said 3 things

Mark

[gb_astro]

A possible happy ending to this thread: I see that Bintel has reduced the price of Tele Vue eyepieces this week by about 5%.

gb.

[mick pinner]

we will always pay percieved high prices because there is not the competition to bring prices down.
how many retailers sell Televue ep's?
how many retailers sell Takahashi products?
all we as consumers can do if we deciede to buy locally is find the lowest price and if we feel confident with their back up service is buy from that retailer and hopefully their competition will see this in their resultant drop in sales and hopefully try and compete by lowering their prices.

[dpastern (Dave Pastern)]

Originally Posted by mick pinner

we will always pay percieved high prices because there is not the competition to bring prices down.
how many retailers sell Televue ep's?
how many retailers sell Takahashi products?
all we as consumers can do if we deciede to buy locally is find the lowest price and if we feel confident with their back up service is buy from that retailer and hopefully their competition will see this in their resultant drop in sales and hopefully try and compete by lowering their prices.

So, what you're saying Mick is that monopolisation leads to price fixing, due to lack of competition? I agree with you, but this "free market" BS screws all of that. It's basically a "you can do whatever you like" scenario today for businesses.

Warranty is the major issue when it comes to buying overseas - local distributors jack the price up so much due to greed, and then hold the warranty to your face like a ransom. This is enough to tempt most people to buy local. It's why I believe in global warranties, not locally enforced regional warranties. They do nothing for the customer, and everything for the business, it's like treating your customers with heavy disdain.

Dave

[mick pinner]

l only see it as it is.
it stands to reason that if you have limited suppliers in certain areas that prices will not fall due to competition they will only be affected by the changing $AU-US.
take Takahashi as an example, we have one major retailer, now l have no idea how much they pay the supplier so therefore l don't know how much markup is added before they go on sale to us but it is obvious with no competition they will not be at the best possible price.
having said that l also notice that Tak prices from our one retailer do follow the change in the $AU very quickly, be it up or down.

[mswhin63 (Malcolm)]

There is a number of factors that affect the prices and the reason why we buy overseas when possible.

• Manufacture overseas - Cheap labour
• Manufacturing company is overseas - sell cheap over there lower margins for retailers her higher delivery costs.
• Nothing is manufacured over here - don't expect anything cheap even if we did manufacture something because standards here would bump up prices.
• Low Market - Comparably a small population base.
• Retailer owned by overseas companies - Money leaves the country further diminishing our value. (dosen't leave much for Australian owned compnaies)
• Finally consumers purchacing overseas's again money leaving the country.

I admire migrants as they have strong ties to there people they have left behind and they send money over there. Australian's in general are so complacant there is very little care to keep this country afloat. (BTW I am nin'th generation Australian)

Sorry about the post had a crap day explaining to Centrelink why my wife should be allowed to spend her money.

[stephenb (Stephen)]

I'm sorry but monopolisation as you call it is not necessarily the fault of the local dealer. If the manufacturer does not want to pay for the local dealer to conduct warranty repairs, some which may take up lengthy times to rectify, how is the dealer going to recoup costs? I support any local dealer who needs to "jack up" costs (as it has been termed) to cover these costs.

It all comes down to a small Australian market. How many Tak/Meade/Celestron/TeleVue dealers do we need in a 20 million population?

I will always support my local guys.

[marki]

Yep, it's a full moon again .

Mark

[netwolf]

What would be nice is if local retailers could some how offer a bulk discount. For example if there is enough interest in a certain RC scope or ED Triplet or say even a EQ mount, is there a way for both the retailer and the consumers to win by doing bulk. Maybe a vendor section on the forum could facilitate this. I am sure savings could be made at the least in shipping costs by going bulk. And retailers could also wait for a better currency exchange rate to purchase, making the deal even better.

But this maybe hindered where there is not a monopoly by a single distributor having import rights on a brand.

[MrB (Simon)]

Thats actually a pretty common thing over on the AussieHomeBrewer forums.
Usually someone starts a thread stating their intent, then a whole pile of people reply to say they're in, sometimes stating that it's price dependant.
Then when rough numbers are known, the OP starts contacting suppliers for best deals, mentioning which competitor can do what for him.
Then when the best price is found the OP replies to the thread with details, and everyone replies if they're in or not.
Payments are usually made direct to supplier, then shipment is made to ONE pickup point in each major city.
People that are slow to pay or pull-out/dissapear are named-and-shamed in the thread... no excuses.

I've been involved in a couple of bulk buys and they went well, without a hitch.
My most recent was for a couple of kegs, got them for around 30 or 40% off retail incl. freight

[Starkler (Geoff)]

AUD back down to 78.5c. Hope you paid for your OS goodies already.

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

While I am loath to keep this thread alive, I feel I must add a few pieces of of information to this discussion.

#1 For the main Astro retailers it would be normal already for them to buy in container load quantities for many of their larger items. It is the only way to ship them in an economic manner. How do I know this...I used to import "Stellar Seats" and resale them through several local retailers. I had two samples shipped in...they came DHL and the cost for the rwo was in excess of AUD$800. For the record a container holds between 200 and 400 chairs depedning on how they are stacked. Oh and some manufacturers have minimum purchase requirements.

#2 Turnover on many large items are slow (few inventory rotations per year)...slow turing items need to have a higher margin to be profitable. It took almost 2 years to sell the container full of chairs! This item alone is huge versus the size of the US market...

#3 It is not cheap to store a container full of chairs...if you don't have space available you must rent storage facilities.

#4 Currency fluctuates faster than you can move sell slow moving items.
Monthly average exchange rate (USD$ to AUD$)
January - 0.674665
February - 0.648326
March - 0.666189
April - 0.713671
May - .763883
June - 0.805115 (MTD days)

#5 Store overheads are much more expensive in Australia than in the US...all aspects (rent, utilities, insurance) but expecially the cost of labor.

#6 Many manufacturers invoice from shipping date with 30 day terms...Unfortuntely deliver takes closer to 45 days depedning on where it is coming from and shipping container availability (not a big issue at the moment). Oh and GST and other expenses are due at import too...creates a bit of a cash flow issue.

#7 Customer wants to use a credit card...no problem the retailer gets to wear a few for that too...

So, if my order for a container full of gear was placed in January and shipped in February I would have paid for it in February and recieved it in March. It would hit my "showroom" in April...by June, I'm feeling pretty silly about buying a container full of anything...especially if someone wants to pay by credit card.

Moral of the story...

Astro gear suppliers are not getting rich...no matter what you might think.

[DJDD]

Originally Posted by MrB

Thats actually a pretty common thing over on the AussieHomeBrewer forums.
Usually someone starts a thread stating their intent, then a whole pile of people reply to say they're in, sometimes stating that it's price dependant.

OT: hey, recently joined the AHB forum and have received heaps of advice...

and am looking to join in a bulk purchase (if there is enough interest) of a syphon for demijohns. good to know that the process mentioned works.

the people on that forum are as helpful as this one.

[netwolf]

Scott,

Thank you for sharing that that was insightful. If we could get some open talk like this with vendors then perhaps we could make it work. If we can gurantee a purchase then surely some way can be worked out to help us save on the cost of purchase. It may not be possible with all items but perhaps some big price tag items. My assumption here is that money could be saved by the retailer on overheads, if sales are guranteed.

In your expereince would manufactures take a deposit untill order is actually shipped?

What if you had a Confirmed group of people who are ready to purchase.
Say 50 slots for primary and 20 for secondary, if someone in the primary for whatever reason cant go through then the top person from the secondary slot is given the option etc. Charge the Primary's a deposit which they lose if no one takes there spot.

Once the batch is complete then the people remaining on the secondary list get first rights to place on a primary slot on a 2nd run.

Regards
Fahim

[iceman (Mike)]

Sounds good in theory Fahim, but I imagine it would be quite a logistical exercise for the vendor, and open to risk.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

Im sure that with a community such as ours we do have a bit of "clout" so to speak and if it means that the vendor will save on Overheads, Labor, Storage.... they would be silly not to embark.

ide rather sell 50 things at 5% profit than 5 things at 50% profit... for one ide get a name in the astro market for GREAT prices, for 2 ide have a whole lot more turn over, giving me more bargaining power hence either better profits next time or better savings...

thats my 2c worth

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Originally Posted by netwolf

Scott,

In your expereince would manufactures take a deposit untill order is actually shipped?

Fahim

Fahim, Thanks for your comments.

Base answer is I don't know...some might I would guess most won't.

The issue with this is really one of market size and scale...How many of an item (any item) do you think are sold worldwide? How many into Australia?

I suspect that even our biggest Australian retailers on the fastest moving items have little volume as a percentage of the world total. What advantage would a manufacturer gain by making an exception?

Think about the new RC telescopes...how many will be sold into Australia versus the USA? One tenth?...I doubt it. They will likely sell all they can make into the USA for a period of time without changing a thing. I suspect that they would not care in the short term if the number sold into Australia is small, they just want to keep their plant open and running. Once growth slows then they might consider it but by then they will be off on "the next thing"

But, look at the bright side, Australia is much better off than NZ market size wise!

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Originally Posted by bmitchell82

Im sure that with a community such as ours we do have a bit of "clout" so to speak and if it means that the vendor will save on Overheads, Labor, Storage.... they would be silly not to embark.

ide rather sell 50 things at 5% profit than 5 things at 50% profit... for one ide get a name in the astro market for GREAT prices, for 2 ide have a whole lot more turn over, giving me more bargaining power hence either better profits next time or better savings...

thats my 2c worth

That is a strategy that some people employ...and in that instance the total profit is equal...if the market is large enough it is not a bad model but it does tie up a lot in inventory and you must sell it all.

However, what if you only sell 49 at a 5% profit or something else stops you from achieving your volume...then you are worse off.

As a customer base we have all made clear that we are not loyal Astro gear buyers and the market is small (we quickly gravitate purchases based on price) so what value is there to having a name? If I was a retailer I would not count on volume in Australia to get me home.

[bmitchell82 (Brendan)]

In reply to your suggestion that it would be bad from a retail point of view. ask for a 50% deposit.... that is lost if the transaction falls though. then you have just made 55% PURE PROFIT if somebody pulls out? Im sorry but as a manager of games and phone stores for 5 years, its a no brainer!

If your buisness is known for good prices, good service, on time... then there is no reason for us to go elsewhere. you are correct we are not "loyal" customers but why be loyal when 9 times out of 10 the retail part just wants to sell you the product irrispective if its good for you or not. once the purchase is made you cannot change your mind because you went oohhh crud that was a bad move. Show me reatilers that are "Loyal" to their customers hahaha.!

Im a very loyal customer to somebody who gives me good prices and services and to the point i will direct people and spread the word so to speak. But on the other hand.... you rip me off and give me dud info doesn't matter how much "service" you give me I will go out of my way to direct business away from your store.

thats the end of what i say ill observe from here on!