Many can said i don't support local store, but did local store support local photographer????
fyi, a lot of stores take chance to abuse the gst increases, an increase of raw 2% on say, a 1K lens (after gst pricing at 5%) will result in 19 dollar increase overall
given by 1000/1.05 x 1.07
same for chicken rice, 2.50 increase to 3.00 is rubbish
should be increase to 2.50/1.05 x 1.07 = 2.55
reasoning is because the gst incurred by reigstered companies for operating their business can be claimed back eventually from the government - at least the last time i checked mas website. that's why got all those gst fraud, etc
in the first place, prices overseas differ by more than that
i think it is more of the competitiveness, etc.. here where i am, the pricing is sick, but i still buy because some things to be found here (like lensbaby 2.0 for pentax mount) very hard to find in singapore.. about 20 sing dollar difference only anyways. :/
well, i think its more than that... not only gst force price increase, the recent fuel price surge also force things to go up, like import goods fuel surcharge go up, transport cost go up... etc... all tis adds to the 2.50 chicken rice to 3.00, besides that, how u gonna give change of .45 everytime a customer give 3 bucks, and if give 5 bucks even more work, might as well give a round number.
If the GST goes up again(with excuses from Govt),i think the more people will go and buy overseas.We care for price and warranty.
Take groceries for example,it's cheaper to buy in JB compared to Singapore's markets.
I totally agree with this... All business are setup to earn money... else how to survive... we cannot expect them to "support" us... but at least be fair... for example, how can 2 shop be selling the same thing with a price difference of more than $50 for a CF 4GB card... thats just out to try and fleece u...
Especially for lense, some may try to jack up the price by more than 50% even... i ever had a shop in SLS quote me $1188 for a 50mm F2... which is ridiculous... the RRP is not even that high!
bottom line... its supply vs demand... if the prices continue going up... we'll see more mass orders happening... :bsmilie:
Now thats one reason we should love CS more isn't it
yup tend to by my stuff from US because it is significantly cheaper, even with shipping and gst factored in. Would love to support local businesses, but the reality is we're in the age of the global economy and local businesses need to keep up to remain competitive.
Sometimes, its the local importers that are controlling the margins. About a year ago, cathay revised the prices quite a fair bit for canon products. Several retailers mark up by xx% to cover rental, salary, dividends etc (which is fair). If agent marks up 50% before giving to retailers, retailers would just slap another 30% on top of the cost price. On top of it all, there is gst as the govt wants a partial share of the deal.
Other countries (eg HK) work on volume sales as those agents are much more aggressive on driving up revenues.
Its a number game. Eg. Selling 1000 units helps a hk firm earns USD5,000 profit. Selling 300 units can also make another shop (in another country) earns USD5,000 profit.
It was the same story with Cycle & Carriage on their MB. In those days, an S class cost a whopping $400k. And its only an S class for that amount compared to what it cost overseas.
It's all about complacency and such attitude is not something manufacturers look forward to.
perhaps
or you could give slightly less rice. 5 cents is literally peanuts, you know what i mean.
or keep constant price and output and 5 cents less profit per plate.. nothing too wrong with that either. i wonder if chicken rice stalls can register for gst rebates though. i'm sure photography stores, at least the reliable ones that are always recommended in clubsnap can.
I vaguely remember that HK does not have taxes ... not even personal taxes .... this is b'cos the HK govt dun need to spend money on areas such as defence ...
hence, less taxes = lower cost structure ...