Tip of the iceberg Dave
And god forbid you employ staff with the slings and arrows that are involved / have a repairing lease / turn on the lights / heat the premises / bank charges / pay your self
/ accountant fees / trade association fees
These things and many many more that all demand slices of your pie before you even make it.
... and it's the knock-on of all these highly taxed inputs to business operations consumers are fed up having built in to every flipping thing they go out and buy. It took years for the penny to finally drop that aside from 17.5 - 20% VAT, more than 50% of what remained of what I was paying for in an item bought was resellers' grocery bills and mortgage repayments, and a multitude of taxes on their business inputs (through employment taxes, taxes on fuel etc etc). For the vast majority of items I buy nowadays, I don't need or want a showroom or salesman. A built bike with demonstrators is different as there is added value there, but for parts purchases I want at as low a price as I can get.
It's gone even further with stuff like specialist clothes, shoes etc. Used to always go to shops but now you can get stuff delivered at well below showroom prices (and return it for free on a grand scale if it isn't right after having a sensible time to make your mind up) I am converted. Especially when the local shops you go to never have stock in to try in your size and only want to order in for you if you're committed to buying ...
all advantages I might have paid for in the past have evaporated and I'm actually worse off feeling obliged to hand over money for the 'favour' they have done me using their rationed purchasing allocation to get my stuff in.
Some on here seem to advocate that I should hand the UK retailer the extra £142 as some sort of benevolent act based on the premiss that UK retailers only have access to a very small market. The thinking then being that when the retailer has made enough money, he or she will then reciprocate the kindness shown from the UK customer by only charging them the same as the Germans do for the same goods.
Just go for it. I buy all my tyres from Germany because the cost is almost invariably lower than in UK even after paying high postage markups. Plus the stuff arrives often faster than Parcelforce stuff sent from a UK address
In this case, a battery is a battery. You take some risk that if it's faulty it'll be more expensive to return but if you buy a reasonable % of stuff in from abroad you basically self-insure that out with the cost savings.
In fairness it's not a level playing field. The German ebay supplier often has this as a sideline to his main domestic business as I was illustrating above, or doesn't have any other business having costs of maintenance.
Delivering very low prices for anything via ebay is easy.
.... and UK suppliers can sell via e-bay just as easily - if they want to. Just set up a parallel low cost sales and distribution line. Prime sort of example - pair of cleats off eBay £9 delivered to your door 1st class mail. Cost in your local shop £17 and a trip into town to get them. I know why but it still can't convince me to spend double on a basic item. For what they are, even £9 is a bit more than they should be - probably cost about 20p each to make.
With a price disparity of the magnitude that I have illustrated, the simple truth is that people are going to go for the cheaper option and buy direct from Germany. In the present climate, personal finances are being hammered from all directions and that means passing some of the pain on to others.
Of course. It would be pretty daft not to. Some people are frightened of ordering from foreign suppliers but touch wood nearly all my experiences of importing small orders have been problem-free. Most of the problems I have had have been with UK suppliers, but that's likely because I don't take so much care checking them out first.
I fully agree, it makes little sense to buy at much higher prices when there is no material gain from doing so.
I can't be very specific in defence of the UK supplier in this instance, though it appears they have sunk income into expanding their business with improved showroom and warehousing facilities and a second outlet in the London area.
Exactly. Something the buyer of a battery shouldn't be expected to have to be funding. Just as expansion of infrastructure in the energy and railway networks after profits have been stripped for years and investment has been woefully inadequate is not something consumers should be expected to cash-finance through constant price hikes
....just try discussing that with most small retailers struggling to keep going with rising rates, utility bills, N.I., staff problems, financing their stock, unresponsive banks etc etc.......
We all have our problems. Those issues don't just affect retailers. It's called a free market and this is where it has ultimately all led.
Cost of living in Britain is absolutely scandalous when you look at what you get (or don't get) for it and everyone is scrabbling to try to keep up with an increasingly unsustainable set of expectations.The sheer numbers (£) needed to sustain let alone improve quality of life long term are out of control - and I would hazard unsustainable.... younger generations' prospects of a retirement and decent pension are little more than pipe dreams. And for all the monumental amounts of tax we pay, one bit of cold weather and the rubbish still hasn't been picked up from Sunday. Hmmmm .....
If those with surplus are happy to keep the gravy train flowing and feel virtuous in doing so I can understand that. However, the existence of a free market for imports is a lifeline for others to get themselves things they otherwise would have no option but to do without and for that I definitely cannot point any fingers at either.
Personally, if price differentials are small or convenience is a priority I'll happily buy local. When it's 30-50% or more cheaper elsewhere on a large purchase, I'm buying elsewhere. Simples.
