[citicroego]

WTF, Aussie retailing fucking fatcats complaining - but shoppers are fighting back.
Who ever shop at Harvey Norman anyway.


Back off our web deals - readers
By staff writers From: news.com.au
January 04, 2011 12:00AM 261 comments


Chris McQualter and her daughter Tamsin say online shopping is a godsend. Picture: Stuart Mcevoy

Shoppers defend online bargains
Urge retailers to up their game
Web offers choice, better service
Read more reader comments here
SORRY, Gerry, shoppers won't give up their online bargains.

News.com.au reader reaction to a campaign by retailers urging taxes on online bargains suggests Australians are unhappy with the prices charged by national retailers.

They also want choice - something they believe they don't get in Australian stores.

Nathan from Gawler was not atypical in his assessment of the retailers. He wrote: "The public is fed up of being taken for a ride. Your profit margins: too fat, your business plans: inefficient, and yet you think I'm going to buy your goods at your inflated prices. Why wouldn't we shop online? In the space of 10 minutes, I can compare the prices on any given item."


Related Coverage
Store Wars: Empire strikes back
Readers tell retailers to back off
Adelaide Now, 7 hours ago
Retailers' GST demand 'won't work'
NEWS.com.au, 9 hours ago
Shopping around was never easier
The Australian, 1 day ago
Retailers fight trend to internet
Adelaide Now, 1 day ago
Shoppers attracted by virtual benefits
The Australian, 4 days ago

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Price was not the only reason readers gave for their decisions to shop online. Many offered several other justifications, like Susan from Ormeau, who wrote: “The cost of implementing a GST on internet purchases (even if it were possible to do so) would far outweigh the money collected by the government, and would not protect retail sector jobs, it would just employ more public servants to collect it.

"I will continue to shop online and buy from overseas because it is cheaper, and the service is better. I can get items delivered to my door, don't have to fight crowds and deal with salespeople who are often rude and don't know anything about what they are selling.”

For Steve Berry of Newcastle it was about convenience and the dwindling mobility in an ageing population – and more. “If the large Australian retail stores had comprehensive online sites, they would probably get more online business,” Mr Berry wrote.

“The new NBN is supposed to make it easier and faster to get online. With an aging population who would rather shop online they really need some place to go. Come on Gerry Harvey and the rest of you, please try to keep up with technology and stop whinging that no one buys your products.”

Another reader said if retailers wanted to increase sales, they should drop prices and treat people with respect.

The McQualter family in Broome told The Australian that internet shopping had been a godsend. Because distance and wealthy tourists push the prices up in their local shops, they often look online for a better deal.

Chris McQualter saved $600 on a $2000 cappuccino machine at Christmas by buying it on the net and having it delivered to her father's farm in Gippsland, Victoria, for $17.

Using internet prices as a wily negotiating tactic, she has also saved money by challenging businesses in Broome to match the online deals.

"I tell them the price and they normally say 'We can get within that'," she said.

Not everyone agrees that online is best. Paradise teacher Sarah Belperio, 21, told AdelaideNow that she always bought locally.

"Even if something is cheaper online, I always want to see it, to try it on if it's clothes, before I buy it," she said.

"But the retailers definitely have a point. You don't want things overseas to look too appealing."



Read more: http://www.news.com.au/money/money-m...#ixzz1A4Wev700