So the wife was looking at the DETOLF glass display cabinet.
As I had the US VPN running was directed to US site without noticing
$64.99 is the US price
SO I jump over to Aussie Site, To see NEW LOWER PRICE $124 from $129 even with todays 78c to usd thats just short of A$84
Now I guess people are going to blame it on, Higher Labour Costs & Lower Turn Over.
Yes, of course nobody works in the stores and no human input is required to get the goods from the factory to you.
Yeh Aussie Cost of Labour, Store Staff, Truck Drivers ect
I blame on dumb australians willingness to pay.
Don't forget US state/city taxes probably not being included in the USD64.99 pricing…
If u add on 37% (15%tax /22% Aud-USD) its still $89.. $35 cheaper and this is just 1 Item. if you where buying multiple things/items big difference
Maths fail. thats 1.15 x 1.29 = 1.48, so us$65 + tax = a$96. (No import tariff in the US?)
The real differences are increased competition and lower operating costs.
Buyers have more cheap alternatives in the US.
But they charge what they want here. Why are some things double the price in WA (Cebas), and some others half the price?
What really annoys me is the price differences between states! For example, for some reason the Ikea Markus chair is $199/399 in cloth/leather in WA, but is $249/299 in cloth/leather in QLD.
There are price differences that work the other way between the states too.
Be fair, Australia is an awful place for businesses. Cities are far apart, the population density (and population) is relatively low, transport cost is high (both in between cities and to Australia), lower sales volume as the country compared to places like America, China etc. Though that being said, I think it's more of Australians don't have that much alternatives in furnitures and our minimum wage is fairly high, so they increase price for more profit.
Just my opinion, happy to be refuted :)
9 stores in Australia, 42 in America. Of course things will be cheaper there.
23m people in Aus, 320m people in the US. Why would more stores equate to cheaper prices? We have more stores per head of population than the US do.
Prices are decided most predominantly by market forces. What people are willing to pay depends on scarcity, competition, disposable income etc.
Do we have IKEA alternatives in Aus available at cheaper prices? No? Then why would they lower their prices? If a competitor came along and undercut IKEA significantly to a point where it impacted market share, IKEAs prices would fall.
Sales volume, I think that was what he was implying (might be wrong). More stores per head is actually bad since that means that IKEA is paying more in Australia (for stores, land, etc) compared to US.
While market forces determine how the price is set, how high the price is set by a monopolist (or in this case, a company with monopolistic power on the market) is determined by their cost function.
Go look in their scratch and dent area or trawl through the Op shops. Might be even worth looking around people's hard rubbish. Look for alternatives. My issue with Ikea is more about the quality of their stuff rather than the price. We bought a room divider from them and, whilst assembling it, if you lent on the dowels they snapped. Also Ikea don't pay their taxes so why support them.
Higher Labour Costs? I assemble that by myself…