QUOTE=Bally;537918]Please excuse the clumsy copy and paste, but I haven't worked out the how to make quotes work yet

MARKW Fine but that shouldn't stop you understanding that the quote system is based on a response to previously printed text held within the box and not to the general text previously written. I shall use this sytem as you have already started this format and would be difficult to correct your misunderstandings otherwise.

That's a bit strong and your following comments didn't really support your assertation that well

MARKW Whilst my tone of what is written may be a bit strong, you have failed to point out where MY comments don't support MY assertions. Big words with lots of sylables but meaningless without context.

The economy of the the online shops may not change if the local retailer shutsdown, but there is no logical connection here with who cares. I and a number of others care if the local shop closes, because I want to look feel and test a new camera. get advice service and support from them. As a number of others have said, the local shop could also have a online capability and reflect the savings from selling in an online environment.

MARKW If you look at the percentages of people who purchase over the net compared to say 5 years ago, the trend is increasing and as more and more people become computer literate and more comfortable with online purchase, the future of the small retailler is short. A large number of people these days only go to the shop to look without purchase then purchase online - not morally correct but that is the way it is. If your local camera shop holds the type of equipment you want then you must live in a major CBD area or your still learning the photography ropes as even major business district shops like Parramatta in Sydney wont carry the type of bodies, lenses or accessories I need. Its all order in stuff and I refuse to purchase when I cant see from a retailler so I may as well use online.

Everyone charges what the market will bear, unless they are selling into a competive market, that is why unique items sell for so much, and commodity items so little. Competition is the ultimate market force. Banks "may" be an oligopoly, but again when funds are easy to access, small players come into the market and drives costs down. again competition.


MarkW I don't need a lesson in basic business mechanics. I have an AD in this and this subject was week 1, lesson 1.

If you want to use Telstra as an example of a monopoly, then perhaps it is not the best example. There are plenty of monopolies and monopolistic businesses out there. For example, Standard Oil, Bell Telephone, both broken up. Microsoft invested in Apple to ensure that they didn't reach 95% market share and become a victim of monopoly laws.


MarkW I refer back to my first comment. I didnt bring in the example of Telstra, the author in the quote box did.

Something like banning australians from buying from overseas sites? They already have the laws in place to block sites if they did this. Not likely I admit, but possible, grey marketing is illegal in some countries.

MarkW What a load of crap. Maybe if you were buying pornography or something which may be considered as morally outrageous but we are specifically talking about camera equipment. This is not a communist country. Care to specify what countries (other than communist or dictatorships) make grey market sales illegal? Yes you can't buy cuban cigars in the USA but thats a product block of a rogue dictatorship which had previously shown agression towards the US.

As I said in an earlier post the local retailer may or may not be able to compete, but under the current structure it is disadvantaged by manufacturer selling tactics, not the selling opportunites.

MarkW No its diadvantaged by its own business model which has enormous overheads and a loyalty to the local brand distributor. There is no reason it cant accept a grey market business model. It works for D-D Photographics. If all the small retailers went to a bricks and mortar grey market model the only one to suffer would be the local distributor ie Nikon Australia, an independant business entity. It would have no affect on Nikon Japan - relatively the same number of Nikons would be sold. Eventually a distributor for local grey market would be formed which would compete against the overseas distributors then everybody would be happy.


So in summary, local retailers can offer online services as cheaply as a big company, but also offer unique capabilities above and beyond online busnesses.

See earlier comment on look and touch

They can't buy as cheaply as high volume sellers, but this could be addressed as it is in other industries by the sales model of the vendors. If it was they could then compete, and have a full service offering business and a no service online business and even a third model that involves both.

What industries - qualify your statement

You want the distributor to say "Ohh look, a little retailler, lets give him a lower distributor price than the company who sells 100 times as much". Did you fall out of a tree recently and bump your head? I dont know of any distributor who sell for less with a lower volume. Sales prices equate to volume, that was lesson 2 week 1, note its so simple it was done on the same day as lesson 1.

Allowing the little retailer to be run out of business would be bad for the manufacturers in the long run.

Rubbish, people are going to purchase the brand and model of equipment they want one way or another so that in the end the manufacturer will still get the profits albeit sometimes in a reduced amount.

Monopolies grow out of unregulated markets and are broken up in regulated markets.
Laws and regulations change with time, experience and circumstance.

So I haven't indicated any desire for a monopoly have I, maybe you dont understand what has been written. Either that or you are taking comments out of context which only reinforces a lack of understanding or a desire to write agressively for your own agrandisement.

I think your agression and lack of understanding about marketing and economics are displayed here.

Maybe my tone was and is a little strong but you really have shown no insight or provided any qualified statements which give any impression of an understanding of corporate governance or business modelling. Maybe things have changed in the last 20 years when I got my AD but I don't think so.