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Fish Food Importation discussion


smidey

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If i was HFF i would take what information i could to improve my store and there is plenty here for them with regard to NLS. I would be seeking cheaper sources of NLS if i was them so they can offer a better priced product so we can spend our money with them because that is the only issue, high pricing.

We simply pay to much for imported goods in NZ and we have found a way to save money, i still can't see why it should be our "dirty little secret".

I think you're right, and the cost of what the LFS sells it for is probably more indicative of what they buy it for, and it is there that both we the consumer and the retailers are getting screwed. When I can buy the same Eheim pump from a German website for nearly 1/4 of the retail price at HFF there is something not right. The suppliers are making it almost impossible for LFS-type retailers to compete with online stores, which is IMO a very bad thing for the hobby in a small country like this.

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On a side note and without adding anything relavent to this actual discusion. The topic of my lecture today was all about importing things, local suppy, labour market etc. it made me have a little chuckle thinking about this topic

Maybe it is relevent. Not everyone will have done economics, business or that sort of thing.

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Maybe it is relevent. Not everyone will have done economics, business or that sort of thing.

Sociology to be precise, but I get what you mean. :slfg:

Long story short, in an ideal world importing stuff privatly should reduce the retail price of things, bringing more customers into local shops to spend there money on shore. and in doing this it should also bring more job oppurtunitys to locals and local business people. However in the real world people bringing in there own goods does the opposit. retailers go hey we are not getting enough money now so insteed of lowering our prices to make more sales for lower profit we will raise our prices to make higher profit on less sales. and because they are not selling as much it means that there is less work available for people and so on.

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However in the real world people bringing in there own goods does the opposit. retailers go hey we are not getting enough money now so insteed of lowering our prices to make more sales for lower profit we will raise our prices to make higher profit on less sales.

the main problem here being that even if they sold at or near cost, they still wouldn't be competing against what people can buy it in for

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the main problem here being that even if they sold at or near cost, they still wouldn't be competing against what people can buy it in for

most stuff brought in privately is from an overseas retailer who has their mark up taxes etc on it

commercial operators usually source from an overseas wholesaler or manufacturer

can be a big difference in price

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Commercial operators also have to declare GST and all that, so they cannot alter receipts from the supplier. It is easy enough to ask overseas traders thta send products over to alter invoices to lessen the value and lessen the GST burden. Not that i would ever suggest such a thing.......... But it is easy...........

The end of the day, distributors have agreements with the makers to generally be the only one they ship to. This doesnt stop the ability to parallel import things. but when it comes to fish food, i think distributors get a good price - its how much mark up is put on wholesale and retail.

Do you sell High volumes or lower volumes to make profit.

nz is a small country, more likely than not, it will be a high margin model for a country that has low population which usually translate to a low turnover market.

Unfortunately, pretty soon - every retailer will have to embrace and adapt to the internet market.

largely because there is no choice.

Information enables the consumer to drive the prices down. THe likes of pricespy for electronic goods for example is a site devoted entirely to finding the cheapest price, that is its sole purpose, otherwise this would have been impossible to do wtih out the internet.

Generallys peaking, it is not worth importing your own fish food unless you use large amounts.

when i had all my collection intact, i would import $600nzd of fish food at one go!

now, i dont even bother, its not worth while...

when i first imported massivore for personal use, i got stung with a MAF fee cos it was a new product and was not registered in their books apparently, even though the ingredients are identical except it its proportions to other hikari items.

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I think you're right, and the cost of what the LFS sells it for is probably more indicative of what they buy it for, and it is there that both we the consumer and the retailers are getting screwed. When I can buy the same Eheim pump from a German website for nearly 1/4 of the retail price at HFF there is something not right. The suppliers are making it almost impossible for LFS-type retailers to compete with online stores, which is IMO a very bad thing for the hobby in a small country like this.

If the importer is not bringing in large quantities, they may not get a price much different from retail in the first place.

I recall importing computer equipment from Germany some years ago and there was a fair bit of work involved ncluding filling in import documents, paying GST, going to the airport customs to clear them etc. And the price needed to reflect all of this.

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Debate and discussion is all fine and good but I am not sure why this has to go on and on and on again, every time someone asks a question about where to buy food. Its old and its boring and I really am tired of reading the same old thing over and over.

We have a saying in Danish: "If you don't like the smell in the bakery you can leave"

You have made your opinion clear already and no one is forcing you to keep reading this thread.

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I think in time marketing will change. When I was a kid you had the butcher up the street and the corner dairy, the milk was delivered and everyone got the paper thrown over the fence. Now it is supermarkets, shopping malls, trademe and buying overseas on the internet. Given a bit of time shopping will not be the way it is today. There are shops that import themselves and there are shops that sell on trademe at a lesser rate than in the shop. We cannot hold the tide back. Our market is so small that it will not be the same as the US but it will change.

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With NZ's reputation we should be exporting and not importing.

The same could be said for many commodities.

New Zealand is one of the most expensive countries in the world to ship to because of it's geographical location, obviously the same applies for exportation of goods. It doesn't make economical sense to manufacture and export the majority of goods from New Zealand, regardless of what our reputation may be. It's more logical to manufacture commodities where raw materials are accessible or economical to source, more importantly also where primary marketplaces are located. Unfortunately we in New Zealand will most probably always have to pay high prices for our commodities due to the fact we rely so heavily on importation and the cost of importing said goods.

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Debate and discussion is all fine and good but I am not sure why this has to go on and on and on again, every time someone asks a question about where to buy food. Its old and its boring and I really am tired of reading the same old thing over and over.

so stay out of it, the people in this discussion clearly disagree by participation. we know your against it, that's your opinion and that's fine but you don't have to read what is posted.

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i hope that something changes in the importers/wholesalers side of things so that the local shops can offer well priced items and it will be a waste of time importing. I wonder how it will go in the future, will it get to a point where the local retailers become less and the importers/wholesalers have few customers and turnover or will the importers catch on early, see the hurt that importing items is so much cheaper and popular that to protect their market they start finding ways or reducing margins to keep the local customers using the local stores rather than importing.

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Yet you refuse to talk to the local store and inform them that importing it elsewhere is cheaper, so how will they know "oh, we are overpriced" rather than "oh, no one wants this item, we'll stop stocking it"?

why would i, am i supposed to tell every business that there goods are more than anothers when i find them? you tell them if you think it's so important but if they don't already realize this i will be well surprised.

i am shopping, i know what i want usually as i have done the research and look for the best deal. When i find the best deal, which isn't always the cheapest i buy it. I don't go back to the other potential suppliers to tell them they are ............. better things to do

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