I booked my tickets to the land of Pokémon aka. Japan aka. Nippon a few weeks ago. I decided that I needed a more versatile lens for my DSLR so I don't miss a thing.
This led to an extremely frustrating adventure through the world of Australian retail.
The lens I wanted was the SONY 35mm 1.8F lens. Its quite a basic, cheap, low range lens.
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666254721
Sony USA had it for 219 USD.
Usually official Sony stores sell for quite inflated prices, amazon seemed to have similar prices and eBay was going for roughly 210 (shipped)AUD at the lowest price.
So I thought I will do some research looking at local retailers.
Ted's cameras has this lens for 299 + 10 delivery if you want it delivered.
That's 310. 100 dollars more than INTL retailers.
I did a quick search on static-ice. A local retailer in Northcote is selling this lens for 249. A great price for Australia it seems (though I can't find the site of the retailer atm).
I printed this out and took it to the many camera retailers along Elizabeth Street to beat that price. Given that the retailer is in the same city and not TOO out of the way, it would not make sense to price match as it would only encourage expensive retailers to inflate their price and match when the occasion comes.
To my surprise, not one single retailer wanted to beat the price of 249.
These retailers include Ted's Cameras, Michaels and Camera House (their retail for this lens was actually 399).
Both Ted's and Michaels tried to convince me that their whole sale price is 249 which I called bullshit.
I hate it when retailers try to convince me they're not making any money with a sale but are willing to sell it to me anyway, that is an insult to me as a consumer. I will never buy anything from Ted's or Michaels moving forward.
At Ted's the first attendant told me that this lens was out of stock and they needed to order it in (which would take about a week). Just as I was walking out, I saw it on display and approached another attendant if I could buy the display model, he said no but funnily enough said there was stock.
The only place that was willing to beat 249 was Sony Center for a token price of 245. But when he checked his stock, he had to order it in (would take up to 2 weeks). He said the display model belonged to "Sony Australia".
(A word of advice to stores, if you are going to call yourself Sony Centre, don't tell me this stock belongs to Sony Australia and you're not actually Sony.)
I wanted to spend my money and would have settled for 230-240. No one wanted to take my money so I spent it with an online store from Hong Kong, paying only around 200 bucks.
This is why retailers in Australia are failing, not because of taxes. But because they are stubborn and would rather lose business and lie about their costs than adapt and lower their prices.
