https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh Style Advice for Fashion Lovers en-US Sun, 10 May 2026 14:00:09 +0000 http://bbpress.org/?v=1.0.2 q https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/search.php https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617301 Fri, 11 May 2012 08:13:09 +0000 anne 617301@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Well this is interesting and a bit disturbing.</p> <p>But I do wonder what you guys would say to the counter argument that retailers here have to pay Australian award wages and rent etc.</p> <p>There are retailers in my town who haved closed their businesses, and can't even sell them, because (among other reasons, such as a tourism drop off) people are ordering online as it is cheaper. It can be impossible to compete against a warehouse somewhere.</p> <p>I don't think it is simply a matter of offering better customer service.</p> <p>That said, I have ordered online myself (ie Ezibuy) because I can't find equivalent products in my own town, and while I have never ordered from overseas yet I wouldn't rule it out - and I take your point that you couldn't have purchases these items at their australian price points anyway.</p> <p>It is obviously something you have thought about a gre </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617293 Fri, 11 May 2012 07:30:50 +0000 Deborah 617293@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Fruitful, I was discussing this with some girlfriends today. </p> <p>One of my friends has an account with a company in the US. She pays a yearly fee and when she orders something in the US, it is delivered to this particular organisation who holds it for her until she advises them to send it on to her here in Aus. If she is ordering a number of things, she waits until everything has arrived at the holding place and then has it all sent together to save postage costs. Seems to work really well for her.</p> <p>I know this doesn't solve the problem but hey...</p> <p>I don't want to start on how I feel about all of this as I will find it hard to stop. Lets just say Im not happy. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617214 Fri, 11 May 2012 03:31:26 +0000 Fruitful 617214@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I commented on your Made In India situation in Sveta's thread, Manidipa! And thankyou for your positive comments re food! yes, we do have good food now - but prior to those immigration waves it was usually boiled meat and overcooked veg! The Italian, Vietnamese and other influences (as well as climate for growing) have had wonderful results. If you come to Australia again I hope we can catch up! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617209 Fri, 11 May 2012 03:25:00 +0000 ManidipaM 617209@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Egads! And here I was feeling sorry for us Indians, for the high customs duties we pay on shipping most stuff in. (Funny, OR NOT!, because it's supposed to protect local manufacturing --- which is very ironic when the item you're importing is Made in India for a foreign client and hence never *sold* in India!) </p> <p>I have to say, though, I love eating in Australia or even in Australian-style eateries abroad. The best nationality in the world for really reifying fresh fruits and veggies in all meals, without actively imposing restriction on the other ingredients! So very smart. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617198 Fri, 11 May 2012 03:10:55 +0000 ironkurtin 617198@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I have a similar deal with friends of ours who just moved to Australia. And another family we know once lived there, and every time the dad had to come back to the USA for work he'd bring bag duffel bags of toiletries and makeup. The markup there is insane! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617196 Fri, 11 May 2012 03:07:34 +0000 Fruitful 617196@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Anna, what a thoughtful and sweet offer! xxx</p> <p>I am on some budgetary restrictions at the moment anyway, but I would be so happy to know that when the situation arises someone could help me out. </p> <p>Big hugs to you and I would be grateful to take you up on your kind offer at the right time.</p> <p>BTW I wasn't expecting offers of assistance when I posted this! Was actually thinking I might have to sign up to a complicated sounding forwarding service, which has always daunted me. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617193 Fri, 11 May 2012 02:57:23 +0000 Anna 617193@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>OK, of course that's ridiculous. So what do we do when we confront ridiculous situations? We figure out a work-around. I'll be the first to volunteer to buy you whatever you want online and ship it to you if you pay for it. What say you? </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617165 Fri, 11 May 2012 02:18:58 +0000 Fruitful 617165@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Thanks Angie &lt;333</p> <p>*more ranting* retailers have always had us by the %$^% because we are stranded away from the rest of the world - for too long. I don't want Australia to be a fashion (or cultural) backwater! And try finding a decent selection of talls or petites. Slightly OT, but thank God for the immigration waves of the 60s and 70s, or we'd have nothing nice to eat here either! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617158 Fri, 11 May 2012 02:12:38 +0000 Angie 617158@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>*empathetic hugs*</p> <p>I feel for you </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617153 Fri, 11 May 2012 02:07:36 +0000 Fruitful 617153@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Thanks Shannon &lt;3</p> <p>Jen, I noticed a few years ago Myer cut its staff to the bone. I feel sorry for the workers having to cover everything, and annoyed for myself wandering from register to register trying to find someone! In their changerooms is now a sign asking you to rehang the clothes! It's a ghost town. If I was criminally inclined and/or desperate I'd be very tempted to shoplift.</p> <p>And then there are the shops that deign to let you purchase from them... not customer service. It's Prue and Trude but without the lolz. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617151 Fri, 11 May 2012 02:04:09 +0000 Fruitful 617151@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Oh yeah, some of these sites won't ship to Australia, but will ship to Austria...or Nigeria... </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617145 Fri, 11 May 2012 01:54:27 +0000 Fruitful 617145@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Kiwichik I don't feel better - just guilty on top of mad as I know things already cost way more for you than for us! (is that because of exchange rate?) You don't need more hassles!</p> <p>Sveta, I have long felt bad for you Canadians and other countries that charge import duties on everything. I don't like that at all! At least we have no duties for less than $1000, which works for me.</p> <p>Annagybe, thanks for your empathy. The funny thing is I'm so used to it that I don't even blink at the $90 for a Quicksilver top. And don't get me started on makeup. Nars Sheer Glow is $42 in the US, but $68 here. The Australian brand Becca charges us multiples of what it charges in the US ($42 Beach Tint is $25 on their US website). Needless to say I buy it from Ebay, Strawberrynet, or Kiss and Makeup NY.</p> <p>Thanks Jewel and Rae, good to know I'm not insane; Rae, I appreciate your insight about supply and demand. This is indeed a bandaid that won't really solve things for anyone. I for one will just have to become smarter about sourcing things (did we always need a degree in consumer smarts in order to buy something and be happy with it?)</p> <p>And yes, I'm whinging about a problem some people in the world would love to have. In the big picture, global inequity means people are forced to pay luxury prices for poor quality goods - if they can even get that sort of money (I'm thinking of an Argentian poster on a violin forum who had to buy what I consider an unacceptable instrument for what is to him a LOT of money, and then spend more money fixing its problems - that breaks my heart). So I do feel spoiled even having this rant.</p> <p>Still, it irks me.</p> <p>Oh yeah, I just remembered where it happened to me recently - I was all set to buy a few-seasons-old coat I'd been stalking from Karen Millen Outlet on Ebay (they said "ships internationally"). But Australia wasn't on the list of countries. They politely explained it was because of such an agreement (despite the fact I can't get that particular coat in Australia). I was gutted! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617132 Fri, 11 May 2012 01:40:48 +0000 Transcona Shannon 617132@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>That is absolutely ridiculous and unfair! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617123 Fri, 11 May 2012 01:23:54 +0000 jen 617123@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>As an Australian this makes me so made, when you stand in a store like Myers with absolutely no shop assistants in site, it's no wonder we go else where! </p> <p>After visiting the US in 2009 NY and LA. I was amazed with the variety and the excellent service you got (admittedly it was obviously commission driven)!</p> <p> However retailers in Australia need to earn our money and offer free shipping and returns, better store service and better online shopping and stop whinging! </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617075 Fri, 11 May 2012 00:21:30 +0000 Kiwichik 617075@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Fruitful if it makes you feel better it happens over here as well there are some sites that you just cannot order on for delivery to NZ. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617061 Fri, 11 May 2012 00:06:33 +0000 Sveta 617061@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Oh, so unfair! Maybe I should stop complaining about Canadian online shopping pains - seems you have it much worse. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617058 Fri, 11 May 2012 00:04:14 +0000 annagybe 617058@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>I didn't understand clothing pricing in Australia at all. I bought a bunch of Sass &amp; Bide at what I'd pay for the equivalent in the US. Lucette was similarly priced. But when I was freezing coming back from the beach one day and bought a Quicksilver hoodie for $90. I think that's an Australian company.<br /> I'm really sorry Fruitful. Now I know why my cousin who flies for Quantas stocks up when he goes to LA. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617045 Thu, 10 May 2012 23:58:31 +0000 Jewell 617045@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>Wow...unbelievable! I hate this sort of thing, and I agree that retail made its own bed. The problem is they want to force customers to lay in it. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617044 Thu, 10 May 2012 23:58:08 +0000 rae 617044@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>"...the government refuses to lower the $1000 GST-free threshold for imported goods." </p> <p>There you go... another one of those attempts to "fix" the economy by propping up businesses instead of letting supply and demand do its thing. If those retailers went under, do you know what would happen? It would create openings in the market for NEW Australian retailers to emerge with better quality manufacturing and lower prices. The Gvt. wants to keep sales in-house and protect its own, but it is only protecting corporations and doing it at the expense of the people. </p> https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/topic/price-gouging-rage-aaaaaaaaaaaaargh#post-617040 Thu, 10 May 2012 23:49:35 +0000 Fruitful 617040@https://youlookfab.com/welookfab/ <p>If this was not a public website I'd be unleashing every expletive I know.</p> <p>You know how Australian retailers will jack up prices of things from the rest of the world 2-3 times? And they are pissed because we are buying things online instead of from them? Well they have found a brilliant solution. Companies are forging agreements to not sell online to Australians! So we won't be able to buy Paige Denim from ShopBop, for instance. </p> <p>I've already experienced this with the odd item. That was infuriating, but seeing it done systematically and calculatingly is making my head explode.</p> <p>Yes, I am sympathetic to retailers and in fact am making an effort to buy brick-and-mortar most of the time. But things being tough does not justify doubling and tripling prices, which I then can't afford anyway. Besides, retail has made its own bed by forcing manufacturing to close here and buying cheap Chinese. How dare we, the mere customers, try to save money too?</p> <p>For anyone who cares, the cut-and-paste is below (and if you click on the link the comments are worth reading): </p> <p>"Importers close door on overseas online stores</p> <p>Rachel Wells<br /> May 11, 2012 - 3:00AM</p> <p>AUSTRALIAN consumers will be forced to pay substantially more for their favourite fashion brands as a growing number of local importers reach agreements with international brands to stop selling their clothes to Australians on overseas websites or to lift their web prices.</p> <p>While this will be welcome news to the country's struggling retailers, it means shoppers will no longer be able to save up to 50 per cent by buying labels from overseas.</p> <p>The distributors, who typically have exclusive wholesale rights to some international brands in Australia, say they have no choice while the government refuses to lower the $1000 GST-free threshold for imported goods.</p> <p>Jacki Bresic, of the International Fashion Group, last month reached an agreement with popular US denim brands Paige Denim and AG Adriano Goldschmied to prevent major international online stores, including the Amazon-owned Shopbop and Revolve, selling their jeans to customers here.</p> <p>Meanwhile, celebrity denim favourite True Religion agreed it would continue to sell to Australians - but at a higher price.</p> <p>Ms Bresic said she was working with her other import brands on the issue.</p> <p>''It is the only way we can compete on price with these overseas websites and try to prevent more and more retailers from closing their doors,'' she said. ''When you've got overseas websites selling the same pair of jeans for $100 or $150 cheaper because they don't have to pay the outdated taxes and duties that we do, then what hope do we have?''</p> <p>Mattias Friberg, director of Some Agency, which imports Swedish brand Dr Denim, said preventing international websites from selling to Australian consumers was the best ''Band-Aid'' approach to stop the flow of sales going offshore.</p> <p>He has negotiated with Dr Denim to prevent UK online fashion giant Asos selling the brand to Australian shoppers.</p> <p>He said brands such as Dr Denim were agreeing to limit sales to Australia or to sell at higher prices because it helped to ''protect the integrity of the brand and the retailers who have supported the brand in this market for many years''.</p> <p>The Age is aware of at least half a dozen fashion distributors, some who import up to a dozen brands, who have reached agreements or are negotiating to set prices or limit supply to Australia.</p> <p>The increasing trend of retailers blocking access to US websites has also led to a rise in companies that forward items on to Australia for a fee.</p> <p>The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission did not want to comment on individual cases, but a spokesman said ''impediments to emerging competition involving online traders is an area of priority''.</p> <p>''Certain behaviour employed to underwrite regional pricing strategies can in some circumstances raise concerns under the competition provisions.''</p> <p>This story was found at: <a href="http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/shopping/importers-close-door-on-overseas-online-stores-20120511-1yg3r.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.theage.com.au/lifes.....1yg3r.html</a> </p>