Australia/NZ/Pacific - Consumer opinion

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Australia/NZ/Pacific Consumer opinion - Vyoos

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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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: China, Australia, Consumer fights back, Consumer opinion, Economics

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First NAB off the rank in scrapping bank fees

July 30th 2009 01:40

I watched the television news last night and learned that National Australia Bank is to scrap overdue account fees. The decision will cost the bank an estimated A$100 million a year in revenue, but it had decided getting rid of the charge was "a good business decision that will retain customers and attract new ones".

You bet it's a good business decision. Better to do it now, while you can make some promotional mileage out of it, than in a few months after proposed government legislation becomes law and forces you to do it.

As I watched the news report last night, I thought, "It's a start, but it's not enough." These bank fees are a scam. They are amongst the most detested consumer impositions in the market place. Maybe the only thing more hated is automated phone answering systems.

There is no doubt scrapping these fees is opportunistic. There is no mention, you will note, of doing anything about the blight foisted on society by the blood-sucking retail banking credit card business.

"You have a long way to go," I said to my television screen.

Following the news, I watched the Australian Broadcasting Commission's 7.30 Report, without which the world would be a far less tolerable place. They covered the NAB fee-scrapping news too, and had managed to grab a word with the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.

My Rudd welcomed the decision to scrap overdue account fees, but then said the NAB has "a long way to go".

Something positive from a bank and the PM agrees with me. It was a good news day.

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Australia, Consumer fights back, Consumer opinion

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Rachael Finch: beauty in the spotlight

April 22nd 2009 19:11

Rachael Finch

It was all glamour and glitter at the Sydney Hilton last night as a host of beautiful young women paraded before the Miss Universe Australia judges, and a host of less beautiful, less young people asked the perennial question — are beauty pageants outdated?

Last year's winner, Laura Dundovic, doesn't think so. As evidence, she pointed to the stellar career of the 2004 winner, Jennifer Hawkins, who went on the win the Miss Universe World title and then scored a lucrative contract promoting the Myer retail chain.

It is not entirely clear how this addresses beauty pageant concerns, and begs questions as to the legitimacy of the efforts of lesser achievers.

This year's Australian winner and bigger stage hopeful is Rachael Finch, a 20-year-old model, TV presenter and Australian Heart Foundation ambasador from Townsville.

She won despite, on being asked what she considered the greatest challenges facing the national government, answering "a variety of things". Upon further reflection, she settled on "healthy living".

"Defining recession" may have been a better stab, but Finch was unfazed by being human and less than perfect. "I just did the best I could," she said after the ceremony.

She won more than A$25,000 in prizes, and now heads to the Bahamas in August for the Miss Universe World finals.

theaustralian.news.com.au; image: townsvillebulletin.com.au

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Posted By: Chris Champion - Category: Australia/NZ/Pacific, Consumer opinion, Sex

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