So its been shown in this thread that the 'High St' stores arent really that much more expensive than the online competitors.
Let me tell you, you are spoilt rotten here in that regard.
The B&M stores in Australia are soooo over priced compared to online competitors AND overseas, that is makes way more sense to purchase online. Often, most of the stores wont even price-match, wont even bother to check. As soon as you say 'on-line' they just glaze over.
Its cheaper to shop in B&H America, pay the shipping (to Aus), AND pay the customs charges than to buy onshore in a B&M store. an absolute joke. Made way worse in the last 12+mths when the AU$ was above the US$ (its dipped back under now). That huge change was never reflected by retailers.
There was a huge outcry from all retailers, not specifically cameras, last christmas because so many poeple were buying overseas and having it shipped. They need to do something to compete.
JB Hi-Fi (this was mentioned earlier in the thread) have started to sell grey imports, due to this overcharging. Canon and Nikon are having a hissyfit.
But Aussies have had enough of being massively overcharged constantly, especially for anything electronic. JB have always been very competitive in their field, and moves like this are why. Ma and Pa Smith are becoming more and more savvy, and realise that they have been ripped of for years too, and now have option open to them to pay a real price for something.
No one is going to care if CameraHouse, Teds, Paxtons, et al, all go out of business. JB and similar department stores, with much more knowledgable staff are around, and will actually compete price wise, on some level.
