I'm still relatively new in this country, so I really shouldn't start messing with diatribe about things which I am still learning. But it seems plain to see that the Australian consumer is getting raped. And I'm still trying to figure out where in the system all the profit is being taken - though it appears that huge profits are being taken across the board, throughout the entire distribution chain.

For instance a hardware item I was looking at yesterday (Zip-it wallboard anchors) costs about $10.00 for a hundred in the U.S. - or about 10 cents each. The cheapest I can find them here is for $120.00 for the same quantity or over a dollar each. Now that's a bit of a difference. Sure, there's shipping and duty to consider, but somewhere in this distribution chain a 1200% surcharge is getting added to this item. 

Amanda was looking yesterday at horse saddles. Australian horse saddles. We can buy them cheaper in Arizona than we can in Australia. Even shipping them across the Pacific and back again - is still cheaper than we can buy them about 250 kilometers from where they're made. By hundreds of dollars on a nominally $300-400 item. If you're a local, you can pick them up for just under $800. We can ship this Aussie saddle from the states to our doorstep for about $500.

The other thing to consider is the plummeting U.S. dollar. As the dollar has collapsed, the Australian prices on U.S. imports haven't budged. The merchants are still pretending that there's a 2/1 exchange rate. There isn't. It's rapidly approaching 1/1. The situation isn't any different for Chinese goods, which are often selling for 4-8 times the manufacture cost, even if you measure everything in the same currency.

Subtract known shipping and tariff rates and currency conversions, and you still end up with 400% or greater surcharges in most cases. I was in retail not that long ago, and don't see any problem with profit, but this situation is way beyond normal profit margins. It's even outside the edge of exorbitant profit margins. Gouging is the only word that applies.  

A ruthless retail giant like Wal-Mart could wreak havoc on this country just like they did in the states - if they control the entire distribution chain. They could sell goods for less than anybody here and still maintain huge margins and walk away with record profits - while shutting out all the competition. It's ripe for this to happen.

This worries me. In the meantime, I think I'll just be buying a lot of my stuff over the net from somewhere else in the world, like a growing number of people are doing here. I don't care if it costs $50 in shipping - it's still cheaper in the long run.