AMAZON.com pulls out of australia

[KingOfSoldiers]

Amazon.com pulls out of australia and millions of Australians won' be able to buy for US due to new Australian tax

https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/turnbulls-online-shopping-tax-punishes-aussie-consumers-how-to-avoid-the-amazon-ripoff/news-story/a9fc27c89f4f9c8ad933c34551e463df#.f3ht2

[spartaman64]

 add quotes and your own thoughts

[Joveice]

I mean, if I visit amazon like 90% of the items are "does not ship to Norway", soo it can't be that bad can it ?

 

EDIT: Hahah, it was supposed to say ship not "$h!t"

[Mr.Meerkat]

9 minutes ago, Joveice said:

I mean, if I visit amazon like 90% of the items are "does not shit to Norway", soo it can't be that bad can it ?

Hehe, as I live in Britain, I have amazon.co.uk (we get our own domain!) and as I live less than 50 miles away from both one their warehouses and amazon logistics distribution centre, I can get same day delivery on a lot of products. However, as I do not live in the city 40 miles west of me, unfortunately, I do not get amazon now (2 hour delivery) .

[TetraSky]

Quote

Australians had “many other choices available to them”.

Wow, they do? I'm surprised, I thought that country has nothing but dangerous animals.

Do these "other choices", also offer super inflated items price wise?

 

They don't seems to mention the tax rate in the article, so I'm assuming it's the "normal" tax that any other physical store would have to pay? Kind of sad Amazon decided to do this if that's it.

[Joveice]

1 minute ago, Mr.Meerkat said:

Hehe, as I live in Britain, I have amazon.co.uk (we get our own domain!) and as I live less than 50 miles away from both one their warehouses and amazon logistics distribution centre, I can get same day delivery on a lot of products. However, as I do not live in the city 40 miles west of me, unfortunately, I do not get amazon now (2 hour delivery) .

Haha, well if I'm lucky and find a thing I want on those 10% I can have it here within 30-50 days or express for like €50 and have it here in 20-30 days...

[Deus Voltage]

So I did some quick research on this, its by no means exhaustive or thorough, but here are my two cents:

 

Basically, this has to do with GST (Goods and Services Tax) as well as the current Australian government. 

 

The government is seemingly trying to create an "equal playing field" by taxing foreign business so that Australian ones can get a "fair shot".

 

However, some are making the argument that such a thing is very counter intuitive, as many business rely on supply that they get from Amazon. This is a huge mess, I hope it gets sorted for Australians. 

[JoostinOnline]

16 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Wow, they do? I'm surprised, I thought that country has nothing but dangerous animals.

They've trained kangaroos to deliver packages in a timely fashion.

[Droidbot]

18 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Wow, they do? I'm surprised, I thought that country has nothing but dangerous animals.

Do these "other choices", also offer super inflated items price wise?

 

They don't seems to mention the tax rate in the article, so I'm assuming it's the "normal" tax that any other physical store would have to pay? Kind of sad Amazon decided to do this if that's it.

We have Amazon.com.au but the service is mediocre at best at the moment and should be improving with the implementation of the Global Store.

 

It's the same tax all businesses have to pay.

 

3 minutes ago, Deus Voltage said:

So I did some quick research on this, its by no means exhaustive or thorough, but here are my two cents:

 

Basically, this has to do with GST (Goods and Services Tax) as well as the current Australian government. 

 

The government is seemingly trying to create an "equal playing field" by taxing foreign business so that Australian ones can get a "fair shot".

 

However, some are making the argument that such a thing is very counter intuitive, as many business rely on supply that they get from Amazon. This is a huge mess, I hope it gets sorted for Australians. 

Correct.

 

2 minutes ago, JoostinOnline said:

They've trained kangaroos to deliver packages in a timely fashion.

No, we use humans. Kangaroos are too unreliable and keep running off with packages.

[porina]

If I understand it, the complaint is that ordering from amazon.com, with shipping, with taxes, is cheaper than ordering similar from the local amazon site? I think many parts of the world have suffered from this. In the UK, we look at US pricing, add shipping and taxes, and in the past it can often work out enough different to be worth thinking about. This is NOT the same as some far east stores, which deliberately avoid taxes to present much lower pricing.

 

What I don't get is the implementation. Generally if you buy something from outside your normal taxation zone, you may be taxed on import. The government still get their cut. Why get amazon.com to collect the taxes instead of at the point of import? The biggest potential reason I can see is to streamline the customs process. Amazon then has to do the work, not the people on the import border.

[Cyanara]

5 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Which means it was either running a loss or not profitable enough to continue business.

The title is a bit misleading. The story is about the US (and presumably any other international) versions of Amazon blocking Australian customers because they think it's too hard to collect GST (as will soon be legally required) through those sites. The Australian site (.com.au) remains, but as the article points out, it's pretty inferior at this point in time.

[Droidbot]

14 minutes ago, huilun02 said:

Which means it was either running a loss or not profitable enough to continue business. Not surprising given the high tax rate and aggressive consumer protection laws. It might seem cheaper for Australians to buy from Amazon but in reality they still have to pay shipping and import fees on top of the list price. And then law dictates that the onus is completely on Amazon to refund/replace when customer is not satisfied. That is extremely costly because they bear the full costs of shipping the goods back and forth across half the planet. In the end what Australians really lose is access to goods they can find on Amazon but not in the home country.

Incorrect, they've introduced Global Store for Australians.

 

It's much easier for them to collect GST that way.

 

[Teddy07]

Aren´t Aussies also earning a lot more money so they can afford higher Aussie prices?

[JoostinOnline]

3 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

Aren´t Aussies also earning a lot more money so they can afford higher Aussie prices?

Yes, inflation is crazy there. When you average it out though, cost of living is still high compared to a lot of places.

[Droidbot]

Just now, JoostinOnline said:

Yes, inflation is crazy there. When you average it out though, cost of living is still high compared to a lot of places.

Not that crazy though. Lots of overseas investment, however.

[Carclis]

Never been impressed with their entrance into the Australian market TBH. Their prices haven't even been competitive with local or Australian online stores and their site is worse than the US version.

[JoostinOnline]

2 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

Not that crazy though. Lots of overseas investment, however.

I'm going on vacation there and everything I've looked at is between 2 and 3 times the price it is in the US. My friends I'm visiting warned me about it beforehand, but I thought they were exaggerating.

[GoodBytes]

Tech News entry does not meet posting guidelines, and there moved out.

 

[Cyanara]

1 hour ago, Teddy07 said:

Aren´t Aussies also earning a lot more money so they can afford higher Aussie prices?

 

1 hour ago, JoostinOnline said:

Yes, inflation is crazy there. When you average it out though, cost of living is still high compared to a lot of places.

 

1 hour ago, JoostinOnline said:

I'm going on vacation there and everything I've looked at is between 2 and 3 times the price it is in the US. My friends I'm visiting warned me about it beforehand, but I thought they were exaggerating.

We have a fairly high minimum (living) wage of about $18AUD per hour to minimise the poverty and inequality issues found in some countries. It allows for a higher degree of social mobility, but it raises the price of goods and services because it more accurately represents their actual cost to society. Also, it means tipping is not really a thing, fyi. Food always costs the exact price on the menu (and that includes tax, which is a flat 10%, as per the article)

 

That said, Australia is roughly the size of the US, with a population of only about 23 million. While most people do live near the coast, we still lack the scales of economy that higher population densities of many other countries can provide. That would certainly play a role in some of our pricing.

[Cheezdoodlez]

4 hours ago, Joveice said:

I mean, if I visit amazon like 90% of the items are "does not ship to Norway", soo it can't be that bad can it ?

 

EDIT: Hahah, it was supposed to say ship not "$h!t"

Amazon is expected to launch in Sweden later this year. So things should become a bit better even for you Norwegians.  

[Egg-Roll]

5 hours ago, Droidbot said:

No, we use humans. Kangaroos are too unreliable and keep running off with packages.

Apparently their meat tastes good, so can you blame them? Imagine Amazon Primes pitch for Australians:

 

"Free live Kangaroo for dinner with every delivery, comes with complimentary spice of your choice"

[Joveice]

1 hour ago, Cheezdoodlez said:

Amazon is expected to launch in Sweden later this year. So things should become a bit better even for you Norwegians.  

Damn, I did not know!

[paddy-stone]

11 hours ago, Droidbot said:

We have Amazon.com.au but the service is mediocre at best at the moment and should be improving with the implementation of the Global Store.

 

It's the same tax all businesses have to pay.

 

Correct.

 

No, we use humans. Kangaroos are too unreliable and keep running off with packages.

What about the drop "shipment" bears

 

[Mooshi]

@GoodBytes can you remove the OPs link? I clicked it and it redirected me to some bogus ad and then a fake you've been infected page.

 

 

[Cyanara]

28 minutes ago, Mooshi said:

@GoodBytes can you remove the OPs link? I clicked it and it redirected me to some bogus ad and then a fake you've been infected page.

Hmm, it definitely shouldn't. news.com.au is certainly trashy, but it's Murdoch's combined online news platform in Australia, and he literally started here, so it's not an unprofessional site.

That said, OP hasn't fixed any of the problems with their post, so someone should probably do it properly with a more neutral article.