Do you buy Australian, or do you buy cheap?
August 16th 2009 03:19
Hannah Kovacs in her $18 wedding dress
In 1991, just before moving overseas to live, I decided to consolidate all my addresses and phone numbers in a new contact book. This item, basically a few blank sheets of paper stuck together with glue, cost me just under A$10. A similar item in an Australian newsagent today will cost a fraction of the price.
How is it that, over the past 20 years, so many things have become so much cheaper?
The reason is that far more consumer products are now imported from China, India, Indonesia and other countries where wages are much lower than Australian wages. The prices we pay for the items produced reflect the lower production costs.
Many argue that this is to the detriment of Australian business and Australian jobs. Others argue that that this is to the benefit of the consumer. Economists and regulators argue that this is about free and fair markets, and reasonable business practice.
Hannah Kovacs is a consumer who stands fairly in the free trade corner. An online poll conducted by Bride to Be magazine in early 2009 estimated the average bride spends A$2,200 on her wedding dress. Kovacs paid A$18.
She's a psychology student at the University of Queensland. The wedding dress industry, like the stationery industry used to be, is notorious for abusing the lack of a competitive market by ripping off consumers. Kovacs was quoted $4,000 for a dress in a Sydney shop. Asked if the dress was made in Australia, the store was at least honest: no, they said, it was made in China.
Kovacs, still paying for tertiary studies, could not afford $4,000 but she got an idea. She went online and researched Chinese garment makers — at the Chinese end. What she found is professionalism, service, quality — and an $18 price tag for the dress of her choice. Postage and insurance brought the total price to $185.
She found the same gown available in an Australia shop. It sells for $1,500.
So do you buy Australian, and get ripped off, or do you buy at fair market value?
news.com.au
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