Who make all the money CCOPER ST MAXX

you find this situation time and time again in oz, hardly surprising then that oz retailers are 'doing it tough'.

You need to compare apples with apples, and I don’t think you are doing it here.

There is no doubting that we could all import many goods far cheaper than we would need to pay locally from a retail outlet. But you aren’t taking into account the fact that the retailer has a shop front to pay for, overheads including staff wages, the cost of freight to import the goods, government charges...the list goes on. I don’t think it is a fare representation to simply take the price you can do it for, deduct the price you pay locally, and suggest the difference is ‘profit’ to someone.

But if you are willing to go through the hassle to do it yourself there is no doubt it may pay-off, especially on smaller goods. I’m not sure what it would cost in freight to import the tyres yourself, but you’ve got four tyres at 15-20 kilos a piece, plus the size, doubt it would be cheap.

Worth noting, the retailer also provides a service by carrying stock that you can take delivery of at quick notice, if not same day, and that you can also view before purchasing. You pay for that convenience...

In terms of similar pricing from all dealers, many product distributors specify the retail price on goods and that is a condition of having access to the product...

In a rare moment of clarity I have just remembered I asked myself this exact same question of Coopers some time ago when the AUS$ was approaching parity with the US$ so I rang them on their 1300 number to ask, the answer went something like this;

The retail price in oz has no relationship to the retail US price.
The reason being that in order for the oz 'exclusive distributor/importer' to be in fact that he has to do a deal with the manufacturer. That deal involves them coming to some price that they both feel is mutually beneficial.
It's a no brainer for the manufacturer as the deal is risk free for them. The 'exclusve importer' takes on all the risk which includes all regulatory aspects, tax ,distribution, wharehousing etc etc. The manufacturer simply has to ship the product.
At the end of the day that deal centres around what the distributor feels the consumer will pay for the product. The only way we are going to get a better price is conversly by not buying the item.

If you manage to buy the product from a retail outlet in the US then that retailer has probably unknowingly infringed on the importer/manufacturer contract and will possibly leave themselves open to legal action.

WHAT!!!!!! - straying from the Toyo's!!! No good will come of that my friend. As an aside, were you able to source a price on the Open Country MT in the US, say a 285/75-16? Now that would be interesting to know.

Cheers Mick

This exact scenario took place on this forum in relation to Bilstein Shocks a day or two ago..available from the US at less than half the local retail..delivered. No doubt
importers direct from the manufacturer do a price deal , particularly if they want
exclusive importer status. I seriously doubt that, as suggested, US retailers are
breaking the law by selling to Oz, as they do with the shocks. Litigation is a part of
life over there & such actions would soon be in the courts. What I question is why are
local importers constantly increasing their prices when their terms of trade re the Oz $
have improved about 15% in the last year ?. I suspect it is due to falling sales, maybe
due to cost conscious buyers being prepared to import directly. And so the vicious
circle goes on. I, for one, will look at importing shocks when required, maybe tyres.
Has anyone noticed that for every increase in rim size.. a monster increase in costs
per tyre...bugger all increase in materials..a one off tooling cost sure, but surely
doesnt equate to $100 a tyre. All beyond me......:)))).....oldbaz.

Don't forget that someone has to pay for all the advertising in the 4WD mags, newspapers etc telling how wonderful Coopers are !!!

Cheers

Darryl
Brisbane

I don't have an issue with people who privately import goods for their own use as long as that person doesn't ever complain about the commercial situation of this country.
Freight, import duties, taxes, storage and distribution costs are all contributing factors to these costs as with all imported products.
You can buy groceries cheaper from wholesale warehouses yet you're more than happy to go to a supermarket. From personal experience i can assure you that the major supermarkets in this country operate on a 100% markup.

Major electrical retailers operate on a 15-25% margin yet there products are marked up almost 100% from the manufacturer until the reach your lounge room.

No-ones being "ripped off" you're simply paying the price for have commercial enterprise in this country and hopefully keeping a work force available for your children.... Or maybe you can bring your children up to import goods from china and sell them on ebay... Now there's a good idea!...

Dan

People are complaining that shops are shutting down,shoe shops, book stores, clothing stores all shutting down and jobs going with them. They are only closing down cause people are buying online/overseas. I often wonder when a store (myers, Big W, Kmart, woolies, coles) have massive sales and discount everything, they aren't loosing money so does that mean they are over charging the rest of the time. I worked in a hardware store years ago and we could easy knock 50% off the price and still make money. I was talking to a mangaer in a supermarket one day who told the mocassians they sell for $10 cost less than $2. That's a huge mark up.
Some companies work on the theory of A/ high profit low sales, others on B/ low profit high sales. Problem with A is when times are tough sales drop first because price is high. B can usually survive better cause the price is better. Maybe some retailers need to re avaluate their sales ideas to match todays economy and society.

Josh

I also wonder the same thing, but i know the answer.

We have around 20 million people here .

They have around 200 million or something.

They sell 10x times the amount of everything compared to Oz.

They would have 20 million 4wds to sell those tyres to, Oz might have 2 million.

HUGE difference. They also get paid peanuts. Yet in Oz, everyone demands more money for the work they do, and everything goes up. In the end we pay more for everyday living anyway so we are no better off.

I take advantage of some things from the US. Aussies arent put out of a job. I need customs to inspect it, couriers to deliver it, etc etc.

If we could look a bit further into the future when just about everything we buy is available on line and cheaper whether from USA, China, India or wherever what all our kids who we gave a great education to by saving all that money are going to do for a job??
Before the fleabay era countries like America found that they could be much more competitive in their own country by exporting technology and jobs to countries where the costs to set up factories and employ/exploit local labour were much lower. Worked great for a while until so many Americans found that they did not have a job to buy these lovely cheap goods because exporting work has a finite lifespan, even for a country as rich and powerful as the good 'ol US of A. Oh, and buying everything on credit usually ends in pain if left unchecked even for the US government. You gotta ask yourself how monstrous conglomerates such as Ford or GM can find themselves applying for bankruptcy protection?

ob

Whether we like it or not we now live in a global economy , the adage of 'buy your kids a job by buying local / Australian made' has been a spectacular failure in that we as a nation want and demand top $ wages and bottom $ prices , a very large mitigating factor is the age group many of which are on this forum , just getting ready to retire /have retired /self funded superanuation /pension , we demand high returns from our investing that someone has to pay for , in the end the one that pays is the consumer. And we all consume.

I hear all the time the argument that Aussie retailers have to pay for overheads such as rent, advertising, importing etc but hang on;

most of the places I have bought from the US/UK are actual retail shops that would also have to pay for same overheads.

So if Aussie retailers can buy direct from the manufacturer there should be only a relatively minor difference in the price between Aus and US/UK; taking into account sales volumes mostly.

I will buy stuff from here if the prices are reasonable in comparison, but not when it is marked-up to the buggery.

Hi there,

I totally agree prices here in Aus are way over the top BUT if you do go down the line of a "Grey Import" just be mindful of 2 things;

1... tyre load rating - a lot of the tyres or should I say tires being imported privately from the US have a lower load rating making them illegal for your vehicle here is Aus. Hence you probably will not be covered in the event of an insurance claim. Yes you will get the exact same size tyre but as a word of warning check and stipulate the load ratings before you pay.

2... No warranty with Grey Imports. The local distributor is not liable.

Cheers
Craig

I can get a container shipped from the USA to an Australian port of my choice for about A$2400.

Tyres made in the USA have no duties when landed here in Australia.

As an example:-
If I got 10 people who wanted 5 tyres each I could land them here all up for around A$288 each including freight and even if I have to pay GST and brokerage fees they will still be landed here for A$328 each... a savings of $246 per tyre or $1230 a set.

For me I lucky as I have a good customer who imports from the USA and he will ship them for free.

If I was only going to save $100 per tyre I would by local but $246 is a bit much to ignore.

Food for thought!

Must admit that i am not very knowledgable regarding taxes , but has this all come about due to free trade and the abolution of import duties.
I believe the system used to be if it was made overseas then it was taxed and this was the attraction to manufacture local.
Get rid of taxes and the manufacturers all go overseas to take advantage of the low wages, and so our jobs go off shore.
Guess if we keep seeing manufacturers go overseas then we can look forward to being in the same position as good old USA. I was once told that what the americans do, we will have the same 5 years later
Now that would be a game goverment to bring back import duties above the 10% GST.
Den

I have just gone through importing a set of tyres from the USA just in the last 2 weeks.
The real price gougers in Aus are the importers and are holding the general public to ransom with inflated prices.
I bought a set of 5 Goodyear Wrangler DuraTracs 245/70R17 LT with a load rating of 119 for US$192 per tyre and they were delivered to my door for just under AUS$279 and that included US$449 for air freight with FedEx and a wire transfer fee of $30.
I didn't get charged for GST but I was prepared to pay if it was required.
We only see a fraction of the available tyre sizes that are available and even if they are available the importers screw the consumers to the floor.
I used Tire Rack tyres and the tyres were in the country in 7-8 days. They were held up in customs for 4-5 days but when cleared were delivered to my door and I'm very happy with the whole transaction.
With the free trade agreement with the USA there are no duties payable only GST if it's levied and even with air freight I still got them much cheaper than available here.
My next transaction will be to buy a set of 4 Bilsteins and a pair of air bags from truckspring.com for 1/2 the price I can buy them for here.
Regards Andrew.

An interesting discussion on a topic that is going to come up more frequently, given the higher level of the Australian dollar, and ease of access to product in other countries.

On the topic of tyres, it is clearly evident that you can import tyres from the US at prices that are below what you would expect to pay locally, although I don’t necessarily accept that the difference is profit to the local suppliers or retailers as they have a totally different cost base to take into account compared to the occasional Mum and Dad importer.

Often these discussions focus (almost entirely) on the benefits derived from the exercise, the money saved, but there seems little discussion on the potential pitfalls. After all isn’t it like investing? The safer the investment, the lower the return, the more risk you are willing to take with your money, the greater the return – well that is how it usually works.

When you go to a local tyre distributor or retailer, and if you shop around there are some good deals to be had, you will find most of the risk of your purchase has been eliminated before you hand any cash over.

For starters, you’ve got the opportunity to view the outlet you are purchasing from, in many cases this will be a major distribution channel or retailer that is well known locally, so reputation and reliability can be readily assessed. You can view the product, and obtain advice (yes – sometimes this lacks!) and you have access to a workshop that will fit, balance, and align your purchase, as well as take care of the old tyres, after all they need to be disposed of, you’ll get a cup of coffee and a read of a four-wheel drive magazine and be gone within an hour or so of turning up.

This all happens before you hand over the cash, which is usually the last part of the transaction. And if you drive out and have a problem you’ll most likely be covered by a warranty and Australian consumer protection laws. The risk / reward pay-off is similar to a safe investment, low return (you pay more money for your purchase), but the risk to you is relatively low, almost non-existent if you are diligent enough.

For those going down the route of the offshore purchase the risk / reward equation has just changed dramatically, sure the pricing looks attractive, in fact far cheaper as highlighted in earlier posts, but what about the risk you now assume that someone else did previously?

For starters it is most unlikely the seller is known to you like say a Bob Jane, or Jax tyres might be (I’m not endorsing them, just case of point), so assessing reliability and reputation is more difficult, sure you can review what other people have said, but they are unlikely to be a household name in Australia. Can you be sure that you will actually get the exact product you order, sounds simple, but many disputes with importers and overseas suppliers’ centres around this very issue.

And of course they won’t ship anything to you until you have paid over your money, so the situation could arise that your tyres arrive on the doorstep and when you open the package they aren’t what you expected, maybe they are seconds passed off as new, whatever the issue, you now have the problem that they have your money, and you have the wrong product. Perhaps this can be corrected, but it is sure to involve more expense to you in the least, or a protracted argument that might see you lose some or all of your financial outlay at worst. It is unlikely Australian Consumer Protection Laws will assist and credit card companies don’t get involved in ‘commercial’ disputes so don’t rely on that for recourse.

And there is also the potential for the ‘hidden costs’ the things that maybe you didn’t factor in, or were not aware of.

So like a ‘riskier’ investment the reward is now much greater (tyres are cheaper), but so is the risk you’ve assumed.

Are you happy with this risk? If you apply the same criteria you do to investing, that is you assess all the risks and balance it off against the reward, and you are happy with the pay-off, then importing your own tyres could be the way to go...

But as always, Caveat Emptor!

The sad thing is 4x4er's are getting ripped off here in Australia.

Why can I buy passenger car tyres here in Australia for not much more then out of the USA but when it's 4x4 tyres there is all of a sudden a hugh price difference.

And please don't use the excise of "then sell more in the USA".

Freight and duties are the same if the tyre is for a car or a 4x4 and most companies bring over a range of different tyres in a container at the same time.

If all you naysayers want to bury your heads in the sand, so be it.
My transaction was well researched with many a satisfied customer doing exactly the same thing I have done from various forums.
If all you need are 15" and 16" tyres then you are well represented here but as soon as your talking 17" and upwards then take a deep breath because you're screwed.
Many modern cars now need 17"+ rims to clear brake calipers as was my case and I had a set size in mind as I do not like wide tyres. So I downsized in width but increased the aspect ratio to give exactly the same diameter as standard to keep everything legal.
In Aus I had a choice of about 3 or 4 tyres in total and a few of those were basically highway tyres and a load rating lower than standard tyres so were illegal.
On Tire Racks homepage I searched using my required tyre size and it came up with 67 results with lots of all terrain/mud terrain options and load ratings over and above what I needed.
Prior to getting on Tire Racks website I was seriously considering General Grabbers AT2 after being quoted AUS$330 per tyre here in Aus but taking a look at the Tire Rack site I saw the same tyre listed at US$144 but the load rating was only 110 and I needed a minimum 112.
It was this realisation that someone was making a very tidy profit on what essentially is a tyre at the cheaper end of the market that made me determined to source quality rubber in the specs I wanted.
Initially I was drawn to the new Goodyear MTR's as I've had a very good run with them on my GQ but they are now an assymetric directional tyre so I decided on the Goodyear DuraTracs and on seeing them delivered I was more than happy with my choice.
I would do exactly the same thing again without hesitation but as always I research well before committing my money to overseas companies.
Regards Andrew.