I listened to the bleating of some of the larger retailers regarding foreign goods purchased and imported online.
The complaints are loudest from those large retailers whose merchandise is nearly 100 per cent imported from countries with abysmally low pay and near-slave working conditions, to gain a higher percentage profit margin than when the items are made in Australia; never considering the detrimental effects on local manufacturing employment.
So… they want to buy from overseas to the detriment of Australian manufacturing. To cry “Foul Play’ when the purchaser does the same thing, to me, is blatant hypocrisy.
I’ve never purchased anything on the internet that was available in Australia. Often the transport costs make it uncompetitive, plus, very often, the lack of a convenient “Goods Return’ policy when not suitable, makes the transaction not worth the risk.
Tom Edgar
