Supply & demand plus economies of scale. The US has a consumer base of >300 million, while NZ has a consumer base of just over 4 million. I'm sure there are other factors at play, but the basic economics speak for themselves. If I have to sell X widgets at 30% markup to make my nut, I could sell 2X widgets at some arbitrary markup greater than 15% but less than 30% (to account for overhead). The determining factors are whether I can establish and maintain a market for 2X widgets, and whether I can establish maintain a supply chain.
Get a ShipItTo address or somesuch with an address in a state that doesn't have sales tax (e.g. Oregon), and go that route. Big savings to be had, even taking into account extra shipping costs.
I've no qualms about avoiding paying the piddling amount of GST on imported consumer goods I might buy given the amount of "extra" GST that I pay on local things (taxes on taxes etc). Especially when the pricing is as much of a rort as it is for Apple products here.
And anything you bring through customs, if it's not in the original box, then they've no grounds to sting you for it.
surfisup1000: It's all a bit of a scam the way kiwis must pay more for imported goods. If the prices were fairly set then people would not need to go to all of these efforts to self-import. Really, why should kiwis pay $400 more? It is still shipped from china whether you live in the USA or NZ. We even pay much more for downloaded software, so you can't argue economies of scale.
This is an endless debate that comes up over-and-over.... but we live in NZ so you have to deal with prices the way they are here.
Remember economies-of-scale mean a store in the USA has a larger customer catchment base, meaning more cash-flow, which means they may sell for lower margins. It's also my experience that many resellers in the USA don't have large stock holdings (or if they do they use a central warehouse) and often ship direct from larger warehouses. Again lowering their costs by managing stock holdings across a larger customer base.
But hey.... whats stopping you starting up a local sales portal that'll offer us all the savings and you a healthy slice of the get-rich pie. It can't be that hard??
nathan: often when comparing US prices, those US prices don't include state sales tax
but I'm sure the NZers paying more thing has a lot to do with going through another middle man/distributor etc
also I think a large part of it is the retailers obligations under the NZ Consumer Guarantees Act, which affectively gives you a longer warranty, if purchasd for non business use
I compared tax exclusive prices to remove tax distortions.
I think apple handle the whole distribution chain, ie, no middleman.
Similar price differences apply for directly downloaded software, and , neither the middle man/CGA arguments could apply.
Until downloaded software costs the same in NZ , I'll never believe the CGA/economies of scale reasons.
nathan: often when comparing US prices, those US prices don't include state sales tax
but I'm sure the NZers paying more thing has a lot to do with going through another middle man/distributor etc
also I think a large part of it is the retailers obligations under the NZ Consumer Guarantees Act, which affectively gives you a longer warranty, if purchasd for non business use
I compared tax exclusive prices to remove tax distortions.
I think apple handle the whole distribution chain, ie, no middleman.
Similar price differences apply for directly downloaded software, and , neither the middle man/CGA arguments could apply.
Until downloaded software costs the same in NZ , I'll never believe the CGA/economies of scale reasons.
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