Restoration of Faith in Local Market

[Roosta]

Went and did all my price shopping on the usual suspects in the Grey Area, site sponsors and the like, but what suprised me the most was that my local pro shop (Camera Electronic in Perth) had all in stock and all but matched the Grey price. All up, the new Nissin Di866 Mk11, Black Rapid Sport Strap R ((Why didn't I get this earlier, must have)) and the Powerex 4 AA charger and 4 x Powerex batteries cost me $30.00 more to get from my local store which had it all in stock.

Nice.

[OzzieTraveller]

G'day Roosta

Nice to hear your experiences ... always good to hear the local bloke beating the importers

Regards, Phil

[bricat]

I think most of us would like to buy local and $30. in the scheme of things pays for the service and advise' Plus you get the satisfaction of perhaps keeping jobs in Australia.. Good on them for dropping their prices if this is what they did

[Roosta]

G'day Roosta

Nice to hear your experiences ... always good to hear the local bloke beating the importers

Regards, Phil

Too right mate, keep people just like yourself employed, now that's got to be a good thing, must spend some of or hard earned in Oz to keep our economy going.

I think most of us would like to buy local and $30. in the scheme of things pays for the service and advise' Plus you get the satisfaction of perhaps keeping jobs in Australia.. Good on them for dropping their prices if this is what they did

Correct mate, building a good repor with your local shop, can only benefit both parties...

[JM Tran]

the flash and accessories you have bought there - are easily price matched by anyone in Aus to a grey import price. honestly. As there is a huge mark up for accessories and 3rd party flashes (non Canon, Nikon etc) in Australia and most consumers dont know about it. For example, Camera House chains make diddly squat on cameras and lens sales but make up for it with a very good profit from accessories and 3rd party equipment.

I have actually been into this shop on Stirling St last year to buy 3 CF cards for a shoot that day, and I was able to haggle $40 off - they were not able to match online grey import prices but that was hardly surprising to me, but being able to take $40 off was good enough for me to buy locally. Another camera shop in the main pedestrian shopping strip were open to lowering their prices too - it just seemed to me that buying in Perth is a lot easier and nicer than the usual Melb and Syd haunts I visit when I need something.

[Roosta]

the flash and accessories you have bought there - are easily price matched by anyone in Aus to a grey import price. honestly. ((Really - "Easily price matched", sorry but I disagree, I understand what your saying Jm, but some shops don't seem to get that to keep the Oz economy going , they need to have people spend money in Oz. Some are rip tear bust at all cost, the chain store mentioned earlier is a prime example of that, prey on the tourist dollar, the individual mightent come back, but the next poor bastard tourist will, no shame, sales driven to pay the sales staff))

I have actually been into this shop on Stirling St last year to buy 3 CF cards for a shoot that day, and I was able to haggle $40 off - they were not able to match online grey import prices but that was hardly surprising to me, but being able to take $40 off was good enough for me to buy locally. ((Good on you, and CE for that.))



Another camera shop in the main pedestrian shopping strip were open to lowering their prices too - it just seemed to me that buying in Perth is a lot easier and nicer than the usual Melb and Syd haunts I visit when I need something.

It might be a small backwater town Perth, but we have some good tog outlets, not forgetting a site sponsor Stu from Quality Camera Sales, not sure if you've had the chance to meet/speak to hime, but well worth it if your ever in our neck of the woods again. Great bloke.

Thanks for your input JM, always respected.

[JM Tran]

((Really - "Easily price matched", sorry but I disagree, I understand what your saying Jm, but some shops don't seem to get that to keep the Oz economy going , they need to have people spend money in Oz. Some are rip tear bust at all cost, the chain store mentioned earlier is a prime example of that, prey on the tourist dollar, the individual mightent come back, but the next poor bastard tourist will, no shame, sales driven to pay the sales staff))

Trust me, it is easily price matched and I will stand by that - this is going from my experience working as a slave for a Camera House store in Adelaide a few years ago before I struck out as a photographer. If you knew the cost-price to order things in, and the mark ups we put on them - you might have a heart attack. So it was no surprise for me to see that you got a good deal on buying accessories - because the store (most Aus stores) could take off a lot on their retailed price and they will still make a decent profit margin without going below their cost prices.

Try asking CE to reduce prices a bit on camera and lenses, and they cant and wont as the mark ups is not much from the cost-price they paid for. An example is when the Nikon D90 came out. Body only it was something like $1110 for cost-price and we were selling for $1170 - thats a $60 dollar difference - might be able to take off 10 or 20 at the most for regular customers or good hagglers. But we wont be able to beat grey importers selling it at under $1000 etc.

Another trick is to sell the camera at our cost price or just below it - IF AND WHEN the customer buys accessories as well on the spot such as memory cards and the stupid UV filters and bags. For example - a normal 4 gig Sandisk card would have costed us $6 or $8 bucks or so cost-price and we sell it for just under $50. A Katar bag might be $30 or so cost price and at $90 retail. There is just so much incentives for us or any store to push these accessories onto the consumer at the time of their camera purchase to balance out the 'savings' we had passed onto them by reducing the price of the camera.

I also highly recommend Stu as well, as I also called him up for the CF cards and a cheap tripod, but not being a local I had no transport or a way of getting there and he offered to drive it up to Perth CBD for me after work. I had to decline as I needed it beforehand. That to me is great service and price in Australia. If only we had more stores like that on the eastern seaboard.

[Roosta]

JM,

I've heard for some massive mark ups before but I would have thought in this day and age, and the retailers crying poor, that it might have settled a little, so thanks for the heads up.

CE have been great to me, as well as Stu, can't beat his service. It's nice to hear that little old back water Perth has got a few bastions of their trade and ours.

Thanks again JM..

[Bennymiata]

Accessories do have massive mark-ups.
It's the only way retailers can really make some profit.

Take mobile phone cases for example.
We used to sell them to our wholsesalers for around $0.85, they would sell them to retailers for about $3.50 and the retailers would sell them for $25.00!

However, having said that, think about the time the sales person is involved (and they are paid by the hour), and the rent they pay, and while the precentages look very high, the actual dollar amount is very low, especially considering the retailers sell just one at a time, whereas we were selling over 100,000 a month.