Thread: A Rant- Buying OS

Originally Posted by Cruzi

Australians are known worldwide for being the most tight fisted people on the planet.

Buying overseas costs a lot more than you think, it takes jobs away from Australian, Australians who have to buy things to keep our economy growing, they do not have the money to buy your hand-crafted items.

Local suppliers have to increase margins becausre volume is reduced which then causes more to buy OS , which then leads to local suppliers closing, along which local support and service.

The balance of trade also continues to blow out, this forces interest rates up as we have to pay off the debt to cover the difference which then puts more ppl out of work which lowers demand and so it spirals out of control.

Buy Australian, if you can't buy Australian, then buy from a Australian Supplier.

Saving yourself a few $ is costing us a lot more.

Cruzi, whilst I agree with your "Buy Australian" sentiment, the fact of the matter is that it is becoming almost impossible to buy things made in Australia, other than food perhaps.

I drive a car made in Australia (Holden) but often wonder what the "Australian" content really is.

When it comes to buying products made o/seas, I truly don't see the difference in most cases between buying it o/seas or from the Australian importer, there certainly wouldn't be a difference in the balance of trade (or very little anyway).

Your post appears to have been prompted by someone offering for sale an item made in America by Incra, imported by a private individual who is offering it for sale on this forum. He is competing against the official importer of Incra products, paying nothing for advertising, indeed using this forum to run his side line business. The Australian importer meanwhile sponsors a forum here and has advertising costs. Some people, including myself, have politely pointed out that the same item can be imported directly at far less. You requested that we "get off his case".

I have purchased, and will continue to purchase, products overseas. At times the cost of bringing it in from overseas is less than half compared to buying it locally, a Wixey Digital Saw Fence is but one example. I also buy pen kits and blanks overseas that local businesses, don't or won't stock, again often at half the cost of comparable locally stocked (but imported) products.

And the fault , of course, lies with the inaction and ineptitude of the previous government.

Originally Posted by Gingermick

And the fault , of course, lies with the inaction and ineptitude of the previous government.

As much as I'm not a fan of our previous benevolent overlord, it's not thier fault.

The Australian economy under goes a few very predictable things and one is, as soon as our economy does well Aussie buy overseas, blowing out balance of trade, happens everytime and we are known for it.

I have purchased, and will continue to purchase, products overseas. At times the cost of bringing it in from overseas is less than half compared to buying it locally

Herin lies the problem, of course it "costs" more to buy locally, but it costs a lot more when you continue down the path of buying overseas.

Sorry, counldn't help the persiflage.
Currently in the engineering field we are a net exporter of expertise and I believe that exporting service / expertise will help to balance our trade deficit.

Originally Posted by Gingermick

Sorry, counldn't help the persiflage.
Currently in the engineering field we are a net exporter of expertise and I believe that exporting service / expertise will help to balance our trade deficit.

Current tax regime is killing this, a lot of expertise is moving OS and staying there, nearly did it myself to stop the double taxation !!!

What would you do in this case.

Teeth for my backhoe cost US$12.00 each from the USA plus postage.
Same teeth from the Austrailian branch of the same company cost AU$50.00 each.

I buy a bit of stuff that is difficult, if not totally impossible for me to get locally.

Fair enough I live in the sticks so I am motivated to buy sight unseen online as I can't cruise down the local tram tracks to woodies goodies emporium.

Originally Posted by Cruzi

Buy Australian, if you can't buy Australian, then buy from a Australian Supplier.

Cruzi, fundamentally I agree with you i.e decreasing reliance on imports to stop are our current trade account deficit going up, but even then that is limited.

My problem is your argument. Buy from an Australian supplier means that's an import item, hence the originator of that item as being oversees has already recieved their payments, so thus essentially supporting a foreign owned item.

Will Australia ever develop it's own manufacturing base? I doubt it. India, as an example, in one generation has turned themselves from being reliant on import to now being the second biggest exporter, China being number 1.

I have to agree with echidna, I live in the sticks. there are no wood work suppliers here. I recently ordered an "in stock item" from Brisbane (closest big smoke) which arrived after 3 weeks. I also ordered some items from lee valley in Canada and these arrived in 4 days. I generally have to buy sight unseen no matter where the item comes from, and as the example i have given shows, if i need it in a hurry, often O/S is the fastest option, as well as the cheaper option.

james

I just bought a bandsaw guide from Rockler in usa , never seen them here.
It arrived within a week.

A lot of my firearms parts get bought from the USA. The australian market is so small that the aussie sellers/dealers charge around 100% markup.

EG: a C-more red dot sight can be bought for $250 US.
the same sight bought in Aus is $450 AU.

So...for about $30US for postage I have saved about $150.

God, I love online shopping

That is one of the problems with living in the bush, unless you drive to the nearest city you are better off buying from o/seas, particularly the US.

In general, and there are exceptions, Australian businesses are not mail order oriented and our postage charges are almost as high as mailing stuff from the US.

The US websites will tell you whether the item is in stock, if not when they expect it, they will tell you how much it is going to cost to post/freight etc.

In my experience, and I have gone through this time and time again, invariably when you order something here it is not in stock and has to be ordered. To make it economical to get it here, the Oz supplier needs to combine an order, often won't tell you this, and you finish up waiting 2-3 months, or longer, and keep getting fobbed off.

Most of the time you get delivery from the US within 7 days at postage costs not much higher than within Australia.

The reality is that the world has become a global market place, Australian suppliers now have to compete with suppliers in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, China and other places.

I am looking at a set of collets and chuck for my lathe, cost from a local importer (Chinese made) > $330 plus delivery, ex Hong Kong < $100 including delivery. So who would you buy it from?

Call me tight fisted, but my benevolence only stretches so far!

It the outlet does not retail Aussie made then they are just recycling money. Retailers show no loyalty to Australian manufacturers so don't expect me to show loyalty to their shopfront given that their owners are probably scattered all over the world.

I treat retail in the same fashion they treat me. Give me good service and competitive prices and I will go back. Rip me off or be rude then I go elsewhere.

The world is one big shopping village now and it is about time that Aussie retailers adopted this view. They sit on their hands expecting us to accept their terms and prices when they should be out there competing with the same overseas market that I buy from.

Not a rant just my view of things.


Sorry Big Shed I was editing out what read like a rant while you posted a very similar opinion.

Kind of ironic, I live in Canada and find the same thing with "big brother in the south" I can buy on line cheaper than local in most circumstances.
I can find items not stocked locally and bring it in cheaper than asking them to order for me. We do have "free trade" but it seems to be free one sided, Hum! I wonder who gets the gravy.

On line shopping is a world wide multi billion dollar buisness and will not go away. We have a world economy and local buisness gets bought out by the big guy or they get put out of business because they can't compete.

I wonder when we will have a "solar economy" :
Place your order now for the newest chisel "made on Pluto". We will then moan about imports from other planets. Don't figure!

Through the eyes of John!
Have a great woodworking day!