John, I bought my first *ist D from Canada, then paid shipping, import duty and VAT on arrival in the UK. Note that the VAT was paid on the shipping cost as well.
It was still a third cheaper than buying in the UK. Local margins are, I believe, similar to those in other parts of the world. The price differential arises because, for no good reason, Pentax charges UK retailers much more than US or Canadian retailers. So do the other manufacturers. This is gouging. It has nothing to do with higher local costs. They do it because they can get away with it. Or used to be able to. John On Fri, 27 Oct 2006 02:20:46 +0100, John Celio <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >>> Granted, this is somewhat different from selling gray market cameras, >>> but >>> the loss of sales and profits is the same. >> >> Um, no it's not, it would be similar if you could clone cameras. Grey >> market import protection is in place simply to ensure that the local >> market can gouge local buyers. > > It's not gouging, it's staying in business. The costs of successfully > running a business in one country or region can be substantially higher > than > running it in another country. This is why outsourcing of jobs has > become > such a major problem in recent years. A friend of mine whose job at > Intel > was outsourced referred to it as "job piracy." In a country like the US, > workers cost more, insurance and benefits cost more, rent costs more, > etc., > compared to some "2nd world" country in southeast asia where gray market > retailers get much of their stuff from. Thus, retailers in the more > affluent regions have to charge more to stay in the black. The gray > market > undercuts their ability to stay in business, which affects not only the > business itself but also its employees and the revenues and taxes it > generates for local and higher governments. > > In other words, the gray market has an effect on entire industries and > economies, not just local stores. > > There's also the fact that different countries have different import > taxes, > and some countries have sales taxes that others do not. A good example > is > the VAT that some UK travellers wanted to avoid by buying their cameras > from > me at my last job. There are reasons for these taxes to exist, the first > and foremost is to ensure your government (local and national) has the > money > to continue to function. > > Unscrupulous dealers will do whatever they can to circumvent these costs, > and unscrupulous or ignorant buyers will seek them out. On a large > scale, > this hurts the local and national economies and has been affecting the > camera industry in particular for a long time now. It's one of the major > reasons internet retailers have been successful at driving > brick-and-mortar > retailers out of business. > > > I'd like to see how you felt if you were running a legitimate business > and > some jackoff came into town selling the same product, only at > substantially > less because he got it through illegal channels. The worst part is, you > can't do anything to him because he's not located in a store: he's in a > roving van that can go wherever buyers want him, which means he doesn't > have > the same costs you have associated with rent, insurance, employees, etc. > Your business does not gouge customers, and provides services the other > guy > cannot or will not, but he's still successful because people don't > realize > he's hurting their economy. Your store goes out of business and your > employees are now getting meager unemployment checks from the government > (who is now getting less tax revenue, by the way) because they can't find > work, all while the other guy keeps about his merry way taking more and > more > bites out of the economy until it dries up and he moves along to find > greener pastures to slash & burn. > > This is what the gray market is doing to the camera industry, leaving us > with fewer and fewer real, respectable camera stores. > > I guess that's what you want, though. Enjoy! > > John Celio > > -- > > http://www.neovenator.com > > AIM: Neopifex > > "Hey, I'm an artist. I can do whatever I want and pretend I'm making a > statement." > > > -- Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
