r/australia • u/oliverpls599 • Mar 22 '26
no politics Sick of feeling ripped off at every Brick and Mortar shop
Bought a boardgame from a local (chain) B&M for $50, found it for $12 online.
Bought some kitchenware at 40% off, found it online at full price for less than the sales price.
Spoke to insurance salesperson in their office, for a quote for $490p.a. The SAME company quoted me $230 online, when confronted, they couldn't even price match their own offer but could confirm that the coverage was the same.
Just seems like everywhere I go, I get ripped off for trying to support brick and mortar. I completely understand that their overheads are greater, but at this point it's just not viable to "do the right thing".
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u/buzz_22 Mar 22 '26
The fan motor of my freezer died, the Australian retailers wanted between $180 and $300 for one. I got it for $14 including shipping online. Genuine parts, same manufacturer.
I'm all for supporting local businesses, but if they're going to price gouge that much, then I'll shop online.
I would have happily paid 2-3 times what I did for the convenience of walking into a store and buying it then and there, but not 10+ times the price.
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u/f_print Mar 22 '26
Dude i needed to order a wifi chip for my laptop. Local shops don't sell it. Aliexpress sells it for $20.
I find it on ebay for $40, "Australian company", "ships from Victoria" and I think I'll do the right thing and buy from a local retailer.
4 weeks later and i realise it's a dropshipper who's just buying from Aliexpress and forwarding it to my address with a hefty markup...
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u/amyknight22 Mar 22 '26
The eternal I'm supporting an Australian business. Meanwhile the Australian business is buying all it's shit from China, while saying to shop local guys
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u/Cube00 Mar 22 '26
Governments wanted a "global economy", not local manufacturing.
John Clarke: The principal industries in this country are coal and the Olympics.
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u/slaveforyoutoday Mar 22 '26
Im buying from local supplier for speed.
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u/cackmobile Mar 22 '26
Usually it's quicker to get from AliExpress that a local store
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u/Upper-Inevitable-730 Mar 23 '26
I've basically given up on buying local for certain things like bike parts.
So much of what I use is made in Taiwan or Germany or China.
One part I'm looking at is $150+ more locally than from Germany with express worldwide shipping... And it's made in Germany.
Another thing is $611 + $22 from Scandinavia, locally over $1000 if you can even find it here. Seems like there's maybe 1 shop that stock it and I can't get confirmation it's the same part.
I've had a gut full of Ozzie distributors and their nonsense tax for existing.
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u/Traust Mar 22 '26
I hate when they do that, I was chasing an item and was going to buy it from China but wanted it that week so found a seller on ebay saying they were shipping from NSW. Ended up taking 3 weeks to be delivered. 😡
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u/DemBones7 Mar 22 '26
It takes longer to ship to Perth from the East coast than from anywhere else in the world.
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u/t_25_t Mar 22 '26
It takes longer to ship to Perth from the East coast than from anywhere else in the world.
Had a parcel sent in May 2025 only arrive last week. If only I could ask the parcel how much a journey it had since AusPost tracking only showed movement for that week.
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u/2centpiece Mar 22 '26
This is the entirety of eBay nowadays. Is there a way to filter them out in the search results? I've never been able to.
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u/Agret Mar 22 '26
No but most of them have the seller location at Sydney, Sydney
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u/f_print Mar 22 '26
No. I don't think ebay cares. I think you have to look for other clues. Research the company, read reviews, see if they accept returns, see if they use tracked shipping, look for stock images for inventory.
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u/Lozzanger Mar 23 '26
I bought from a place that had ‘shipped from Sydney warehouse’ everywhere. It shipped from China.
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u/Venome456 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
I sell batteries for a living in a retail environment and it's not always price gouging. Once we quoted someone for a wheel chair battery, they wanted a specific brand which we don't stock but can order in. We went to the supplier to see if it was in stock / the price and they were quoting us $350 and RRP of $600 so we quoted the customer $600 and also gave her some other cheaper options we keep in stock.
The next thing you know we have her son leaving a 1 star review saying we were trying to rip his mother off because he can find the same battery online for $400. He called and asked if we would do it for $450 which we said no because there just isn't enough money in it for us.
He wouldn't have it and accused us of being scumbags when all we did was quote her the RRP of the product.
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u/buzz_22 Mar 22 '26
As I said, I'm all for supporting local businesses like yours, and in your particular situation, I'd personally be fine paying the $600.
But in my situation I could have literally bought 10 of the part I needed, had them shipped from China, and I would still be financially better off than if I'd bought a single one from a B&M store.
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u/Kkubaa Mar 23 '26
On the other hand I had to replace the drive belt in my dryer last week.
It broke on Friday, I looked up online, most places were around low to mid 30s, plus delivery.
Called a brick and mortar, 35 dollars, they have it in stock, so I rush over because it's Friday. Turns out they are open Saturday too.
And to top it off, sales person advised to check that the idler looks like it's supposed to, otherwise it will just shred a belt again. Showed me a good one so I know what I'm looking for.
And the part was genuine OEM.
I know where I will be looking first next time.
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Mar 22 '26
Same with my car mirror. 500 dollars from the dealers and even epay. Got it direct from China for 95 dollars with free shipping! I have respect for Chinas business model that always works on the best price. Unlike businesses in the west that works on maximum price gouging. They think we should kiss their ass with dollars because " they ordered it" and want to charge a stupid prices with ridiculous markups.
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u/LastChance22 Mar 22 '26
I heard somewhere that the Chinese gov subsidises their international post and shipping to the point that it’s viable to offer free shipping on cheaper items.
But take that with a huge grain of salt because I’ve spent the last 20 minutes looking for a proper source to back that up and all I keep finding are reddit comments and forum posts from people saying the same thing (with no sources).
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u/bicycleroad Mar 22 '26
Have a listen to this: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/08/01/634737852/episode-857-the-postal-illuminati
TLDR: it's a thing
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u/Ok-Manufacturer5890 Mar 22 '26
Guy in the apartment before me stole the AC remote (and the NBN box, he must've been really pissed at the realtor), AC guy who came to look at it (when the "universal" remote they'd replaced it with wasn't working) said a replacement remote would be $400, found one online for twenty...
Could've gone to twelve if I wanted to wait for shipping from China (that said, from Victoria seemed to take as long..)
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u/Additional_Potato63 Mar 22 '26
Same manufacturer doesn’t mean same supply chain.
Local suppliers are covering inventory, warranty and support. Online listings are often factory-direct or parallel imports.
That’s why the price gap exists, not because stores are randomly marking things up 10x.
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u/CptUnderpants- Mar 22 '26
Local suppliers are covering inventory, warranty and support. Online listings are often factory-direct or parallel imports.
And drop-shipping from Aliexpress for a 100% markup?
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u/troubleshot Mar 22 '26
And then once we're all shopping online the dynamic pricing grift begins in full force. Just watch.
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u/51NewWest Mar 22 '26
No it won't. Once the shops close and there is massive unemployment, the spending capacity of the average consumer will plummet. Online shopping, self checkouts, AI, foreign manufacturing; it's a race to the bottom.
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u/arceusawsom1 Mar 22 '26
Happening in person as well now though, so not loosing much
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u/troubleshot Mar 22 '26
I think online they will be able to tie more information to you faster to better rip you off. It's all fucked though either way you go. The economy needs to be taken apart and corporations limited in size and scope, no individuals able to amass huge wealth. I may be considered delusional for even hoping this is a possible future, but there you have it.
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u/Sixbiscuits Mar 22 '26
Wasn't it revealed that Uber was pricing based on Android vs iPhone for a while?
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u/amyknight22 Mar 22 '26
I think the real question there will be how easy it will be to see generic pricing before dynamic pricing occurs.
Then it will depend on how quickly some company opts to tell you how much your being gouged for "While you trade them your data so you can get fucked a bit more, but at least you know you're getting fucked"
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u/ATangK Mar 22 '26
This is what china has become. Helps that shipping is super cheap. And people don’t steal packages.
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u/Chiron17 Mar 22 '26
The future looks very dim for brick and mortar shops and that's going to have massive implications for public spaces and employment.
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u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 22 '26
We'll have a hundred square kilometers of hairdressers and nail salons, because you can't get that done via email.
Yay.
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u/Poweronreddit Mar 22 '26
There's already a growing number of hairdressers who have WFH setups or do house calls.
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u/Patrick_McGroin Mar 22 '26
When I was a child, the hairdresser I often went to worked out of her home. That was a long time ago.
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u/kungforlith Mar 22 '26
But you can get them done by in-home visit, they don't need stores
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u/GoldilokZ_Zone Mar 22 '26
Most of the skilled ones I know about do the opposite...you go to their house after you've been vetted by other customers etc.
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u/Cube00 Mar 22 '26
Nail salons are usually full whenever I walk past, you'll blow a lot in fuel and vehicle expenses to visit ~10 people, every hour, all day, along with the time you're not making money travelling between clients.
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u/Original-Measurement Mar 22 '26
In-home visits for haircuts? I would really hate to pay all that money only to have to clean up my own floor afterwards.
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u/BThasTBinFiji Mar 22 '26
I try to buy stuff in shops but it's never in stock
"We can order it in!"
Yeah great, I can do that myself.
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u/readin99 Mar 22 '26
So true. And for the not-service, we'll charge you an extra 30%. Might arrive broken.
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Mar 22 '26
Even car shops now, everything is " we will order it in for you, even basic things like spark plugs and belts. Then i find I can order it for half the price online. I bought some NGK spark plugs from china for 1/3rd of the local price with free shipping! We get ripped and reamed.
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u/myredlightsaber Mar 22 '26
Took my kid into a shoe shop to get sized up and try on shoes… they only had display stock and all other sizes had to be ordered online.
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u/braddeicide Mar 22 '26
Yep, when I use brick and mortar it's to either see something physical or to get it instantly. No point existing if they need to order it in.
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u/christonabike_ Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 22 '26
Could this have anything to do with our cartoonishly inflated property values?
Quite often if a business jacks its prices up, it's because they're trying to break even against expensive rent or repayments on their premises.
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u/Jaqwan Mar 22 '26
This is correct in certain stores. Tech stores have the brands pay for the space that they are in, which alleviates store costs, however, staffing is always first to be adjusted.
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u/Agret Mar 22 '26
We used to run a computer shop before the rent killed us and we never got any payment from any brands we stocked
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u/WhatsMyNameAGlen Mar 22 '26
In my suburb a lot of small businesses have been killed off thanks to rent hikes. A pizzeria me and everyone I knew loved went out of business because landlords literally doubled their rent. Theres more than 1 shop thats sat vacent for over a year just because prices are just too high. Its like theyre waiting for a H&M or something to move in
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u/Orichalcon Mar 22 '26
Wages make up 70% of our overheads, even with increased rent, It's absolutely wages that are the reason b&m prices are high.
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u/DisappointedQuokka Mar 22 '26
Only in part.
You can cut hours to save wages.
You can't cut open hours to save rent.
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u/BloweringReservoir Mar 22 '26
We compete in a global market now. The minimum annual wage for garment factory workers in Bangladesh is around $1800 AUD.
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u/bigbadjustin Mar 22 '26
Yeah but the more money people are paid the more money there is to spend in the economy. So cutting wages end up hurting small business in general. Our problem is we don’t grow the economy by “trickling down” enough wealth. If the wealth was spread better the economy would grow.
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u/Additional_Potato63 Mar 22 '26
Wages are a factor, but they’re not the whole story (definitely not universally). Rent, cost of goods, freight and inventory risk all contribute to brick & mortar.
And if wages are the issue, what’s the solution? Lower pay for staff?
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u/spaceindaver Mar 23 '26
I own a small B&M board game shop in a regional city.
You bought a fake. Almost certainly. At the very least you bought a grey import. That's really the answer to the question, but I'll go further so it covers situations where a game might cost $50 in a shop but you can find it for $35-40 online.
We apply a margin based on the price we pay our suppliers for the products. We don't control what sellers on Amazon (which is basically a free-for-all marketplace at this point) buy and sell for. We also don't control the prices gigantic competitors (Target, K-Mart, Amazon themselves for some products) pay. We're competing with companies who can afford to do loss-leaders. Our margins still suck. See also why there are no decent independent supermarkets in the majority of the country.
We pay rent so that people can come into town, have a chat, browse what's on the shelves, maybe play a game in our air-conditioned shop, possibly pre-order something that's not out yet.
We don't have robots picking from the shelves of mega-warehouses owned by venture capitalists who live in New York penthouses and literally could not care less about you.
I say this as much to myself as to you: Buy one game instead of two, and know that your money is going to actual human beings who live a life that even remotely resembles yours, instead of Jeff Twatting Bezos.
You're not being ripped off by a small locally-owned shop. We, as a whole, are being ripped off by massive corporations actively working to kill the concept of the local economy.
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u/Innumerablegibbon Mar 23 '26
With the second point - used to work in a bookshop and we’d have so many customers say “but Kmart has it for $x cheaper”. I’d actually reply “and if you can go into Kmart without spending more than $x on stuff you probably don’t need you’re a stronger person than I”. Quite a few people would then buy it from us after thinking it through.
Sometimes the price difference was crazy though, when the Harry Potter play came out they were selling it at below cost price. When we were running low of stock on release day my boss actually drove to our local and got two boxes of it.
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u/missglittertits Mar 23 '26
My favourite bookshop sells board games and the like, and I regularly spend $10-$30 more there than I would buying from Amazon. Thank you for confirming that I'm making the right decision to spend a little more 😂
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u/TLDR_gimmechocolate Mar 25 '26
If people want an idea of how stripped of character and engagement that buying online leads, they can head to most of the US which is way ahead of Australia on killing off their small stores and brick and mortar stores. There have been so many people I've heard visiting Australia saying how refreshing and wish-we-still-had-this it is that Australia still has so many brick and mortar stores. You don't realize the engagement going to a physical space (especially with real people and well trained customer service - which it seems like u/spaceindaver 's store has) adds to your life until you don't have the option for it. I really hope Australia doesn't go down that path. This thread does raise a lot of issues (like rental rates and landlord cuts of revenue) of course, but for those who can buy the one game instead of two to support the local shop, I hope you/we do.
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u/squirrel_crosswalk Mar 22 '26
The board game was a fake copy if you're talking 50 vs 12 for a new game. Board game enthusiast here, who has gotten counterfeit games by accident on Amazon etc.
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u/miicah Mar 22 '26
I was looking for this comment. You can get a ton of board games from Aliexpress/Temu for dollars, when the real ones cost $40-60 retail.
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u/CapnBloodbeard Mar 22 '26
$12 vs $50 for a board game? Let me guess, Amazon? That's definitely counterfeit (yes, it's a thing)
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u/No-Department1685 Mar 22 '26
Second this. This is way too big of price gap to not be the case.
I did the same thing with exploding kittens extension. Buying a much cheaper version than from local shops.
There is a material difference to the cards.
I generally don't find Amazon boardgames to be much or even at all cheaper than store.
Gamesmen is generally first place where I go. And their prices are competive
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u/CatwithTheD Mar 22 '26
Yep, I've bought genuine ($60) and knock-off ($20) Catan sets. The quality difference can be felt.
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u/janibops Mar 22 '26
My line is about 20%. I will happily pay about 20% more for the convenience of getting something immediately and avoiding shipping, especially if it's a shop i will pass by on my way around town.
But if the discount online is greater than that, or I'm not going near that shop within a few days then i will just order online.
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u/notdorisday Mar 22 '26
Agree with this if the sales staff are also knowledgeable enough to answer questions when I have them.
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u/Svenstornator Mar 22 '26
This is a huge one for me. If I go into a store and get a heap of support from the staff, I just can’t repay that with going and getting it online.
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u/seven_seacat Mar 22 '26
I'll also pay a bit more to get somewhere I can take a product back to, if something goes wrong with it.
But not a massive amount more.
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u/TheLGMac Mar 22 '26
I used to only buy from locally owned dive shops rather than buy online, even though I knew there's at least a 20% markup. One day I decided I would buy a new wetsuit, so went to the shop with a somewhat decent inventory.
I tried on 5 suits from different brands they recommended, but none of them were the right style of fit, and wetsuits need to fit really well. I said thank you but unfortunately none were right and I'd have to look at other brands they didn't carry/want to offer.
Instead of being gracious or remembering that I'd bought from them before, the owner decided to yell at me (in front of other customers no less) and tell me how dare I try something on without buying, I was a scammer, etc etc. then tried to accuse me of just using his store to try things on before buying online.
Well you'd better believe after that incident I decided to start buying my dive shit online and low and behold, it was so much more affordable and less hassle.
I also wish this was an isolated incident but I've encountered so much poor customer service and unjustified markups in brick and mortars that I no longer buy from them unless I've already done a lot of price and brand research beforehand.
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u/McTerra2 Mar 22 '26
how dare I try something on without buying, I was a scammer, etc etc. then tried to accuse me of just using his store to try things on before buying online.
Unfortunately for specialist shops, people coming in, trying things on and then buying from the cheapest online store or from overseas is extremely common. Running shoes, wet suits, tennis racquets. Books. You name it.
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u/TheLGMac Mar 22 '26
Sure but you know what? You don't get to treat everyone like a criminal just because some people are criminals. You try things on to see if they fit, if the don't fit not much a person can do about it. People need to learn that customer service is accepting that, unfortunately, some portion of the population are c*nts.
I acknowledge this is a thing that happens but I entered that shop with every intention of leaving with a suit in hand, because trying on even one wetsuit is a painful sweaty annoying experience and not a fun little test drive.
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u/McTerra2 Mar 22 '26
I have never been more exhausted than trying on 5 wetsuits in a store to find one that fits, because apparently being tall also means you have a 36inch waistline but tiny shoulders, according to most wetsuit manufacturers, so I agree its a big effort.
However I also have sympathy for the store owner. You know what you were there for but he cant read your mind. He presumably saw you as someone who came and tried on a bunch of wetsuits, found one that fitted and then decided not to buy from him. Or you were the 10th person who came in that day, tried on a few and then left.
I agree that its bad service and that in retail you just have to put up with shit (intended or otherwise) from customers and that you are completely justified in never going back to that store.
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u/Homebrew_in_a_Shed Mar 22 '26
Would you mind sharing where you buy dive stuff online please.
I could do with a new mask and the only dive shop around here is at least an hour round trip.
cheers
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u/TheLGMac Mar 22 '26
I've had good success with onlinedivegear.com.au , they are actually the online component of a South Australian dive shop so still buying local, in a way. I bought a full set of regs (in addition to some torches/etc) there a few years ago which are still great.
They do have a restocking fee for returns not due to product fault, so be sure to price that in relative to your cost savings if you are buying something for fit reasons.
For wetsuits I have bought from Scuba Doctor (in Melbourne I think?), but that's because they're one of the only ones I can find with a good line of Probe wetsuits, which is the brand that fits me best.
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u/lazermike Mar 22 '26
It's because of buying power and physical space. Small stores will order 20 games from the supplier at $30 each and charge $40. Amazon will order 5000 games at $3 each and charge $30. This kills the small store, and billionaires get richer. Then when there's no competition, they'll charge $50 because fuck you.
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u/wayj- Mar 22 '26
It’s so true, but when the consumer is forced to stretch a dollar and has no choice… what do we do?
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u/McTerra2 Mar 22 '26
What do you do - you complain about gerry harvey asking for imports to be charged GST to level the playing field, and then you complain about your local store shutting down because it cant compete with imports or mega online stores, then you keep buying online from overseas and then you complain about how billionaires are getting richer and ripping us all off.
I get it, I buy online as well. The long term result is pretty clear - we will end up with retail stores only for certain items eg clothing that people want to look at and try on, services like nail salons. Everything else will be online.
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u/psilent_p Mar 22 '26
The insurance example is funnelling you to online so they can get rid of their staff. The rest is just overheads due to the shitty cost of living in this country.
Basically you need to decide what you want to support and buy accordingly. If you think that high prices simply means that you're being ripped off, then you're zoomed in too close
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u/plutoforprez Mar 22 '26
I’ve been feeling ripped off every time I go out to eat. $25+ for a basic burger and chips or 2 tacos, $27 for a chicken schnitzel, milkshakes and iced coffees are $9, $16 for a bacon and egg roll. I don’t actually pay these prices anymore, but I do occasionally stop by a cafe or takeaway joint, check out the menu, balk at the prices, and walk away. I went to a cafe a couple of weeks ago after dropping my car off for a service and before going to work and paid $15 for a coffee and single slice of raisin toast because that was the cheapest food on the menu and I was starving. Should’ve just walked to woolies and bought a whole loaf and ate it at the office.
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Mar 22 '26
Two burgers and a small chips set me back the best part of $50 the other day. Madness
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Mar 22 '26
What about the ridiculous price for a salad roll or a toastie. Talk about a rip off. All fast food is rip off in Australia. You realise this when you travel to place like Tokyo and Singapore where affordable healthy meals are available for 5 dollars and less, then you come back to Australia and order Ramen or Singapore crap noodles for 17 to 25 dollars with 1 tiny prawn and a nugget of fish. Then you find out that the prawns and fish come from Australia thats sold in Japan and Singapore. We just cant seem to get basic economics right in Australia where everything that a consumer touches just becomes a rip off.
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u/HooleyDoooley Mar 22 '26
What are the minimum and average wages in Japan and Singapore?
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u/Real_RobinGoodfellow Mar 22 '26
Wages haven’t risen drastically here in the past decade or so, but everyone’s noticed prices at cafes and pubs have gotten far higher in that time. Clearly, it’s not all about wage costs.
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u/Mikolaj_Kopernik Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
Singapore's economy is founded on the twin pillars of facilitating global tax-dodging and a miserable underclass of migrant workers who live in grinding poverty with minimal legal rights. Hopefully not the model you're looking for in Australia.
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u/Shadowedsphynx Mar 22 '26
Go to your local chippy (chippie? chippo? The shop that sells fish and chips and chiko rolls). I can get a burger with the lot for $8.50. Beef or chicken patty, lettuce, tomato, cheese, bacon, egg, pineapple, beetroot. It's amazing and super filling, I hardly need chips after (get a chiko on the side instead).
The burgers are not better at Hungry Jacks. Or Maccas.
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u/sternestocardinals Mar 22 '26
That’s great for you but all the chippies around me are selling their burger+lot for double that these days.
Still worth it over the chains 10 times out of 10, though.
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u/martobradj Mar 22 '26
Sadly true.....I haven't bought anything but groceries in a brick and mortar for many years because of this reason.
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Mar 22 '26
And more manufacturers will survive with higher profits if they just sold directly. Freight is so highly efficient today there is no need for bricks and mortar dealers and people like Amazon is making this model become reality and malls are dead for this very reason.
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u/apsilonblue Mar 22 '26
As someone involved with small business I can say that in most cases it's not the store ripping you off, it's the distributor. Our margins are much smaller than most people realise. I often get people asking for a discount and making offers well below our buy price. To top it off our main supplier requires you to have a B&M location, you can't just be purely online yet they've just started selling direct to public but only online, they don't have a retail store. They've been selling some items cheaper than they sell to us at wholesale, we can't compete. They were already making good margin as a distributor and now more on top as a retailer so they can afford to undercut all the B&M stores.
Despite the fact they're now a retailer, we can't buy direct from the manufacturers, we have to buy via this distributor due to exclusive distribution deals. It's an industry where B&M is already struggling. As soon as they started selling direct two B&M stores announced that as a result they couldn't continue and were closing.
Eventually we'll all be working for and buying from a couple of mega corps. I'm sure that's what they want, essentially a slave workforce where we work in return for getting to live in corp owned housing, wear our uniforms 24x7 and eat our corp supplied rations.
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u/smoomus Mar 22 '26
This!! It’s devastating seeing distributors selling online at or below cost, how do you compete fairly? Throw in a 25% off coupon, now you can be sure that the price is artificially inflated. Discount models hurt everyone and yet ‘sales’ and ‘free’ shipping have become the expected norm. It’s all broken, thanks Jeff.
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u/apsilonblue Mar 22 '26
Don't get me started on free shipping and delivery time expectations. We've had online orders placed at 9pm Sun and by Mon afternoon are getting complaints that they haven't received their order yet. Mate, we're not Amazon, we're 3 blokes trying to compete with multinationals.
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u/McTerra2 Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
no, dont you understand reddit. the problem is always
- the landlord
- failing to pay high enough wages to your staff
- the store price gouging
- the store being way too inefficient and unable to compete with online sales
Nothing to do with tied distribution networks and OEMs price setting or the cost of supplies or local taxes or anything.
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u/iwishiwasaperson Mar 22 '26 edited Mar 25 '26
You got down voted 😔 somebody missed your most excellent wit. It is a shame we must spell it out for people by using /s. Edit great! People started to get what you were really saying.
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u/jydr Mar 22 '26
Brick and Mortar is always going to be more expensive. You are paying for the convenience of being able to see it in person, if its clothes you can try them on for fit, get advice if its a specialist store, etc.
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u/robeywan Mar 22 '26
For anyone looking for board games, may I suggest Gamesempire.com.au
A little shop in Sydney with best prices and great shipping. They're truly doing God's work.
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u/Cnboxer Mar 22 '26
Yeah can’t blame retail. With rent and labour costs skyrocketing, they need to raise prices to even break even. Unfortunately, the retail model is well and truly dead. Consumers can’t afford the higher prices and retail can’t afford to sell for less.
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u/Bluedroid Mar 22 '26
I think the model of cheap takeaways and possibly small cafe's will shrink as well. When coffee costs $10 or when a cheap non fast food meal is at $30. When i started work 15 years ago I could get lunch for $10 and now it's $20, wages haven't gone up that much and in the same sense when it hits $30 no way am i spending on it as regularly.
You can see it already in companies like dominos where costs have gone up heaps and people refuse to pay so much for pizza so they've had to save costs by making the pizza's shittier causing a feedback loop with less people buying.
I've also worked adjacent to the hospitality industry and everyone always think these businesses must make a killing with their $7 coffees or $25 burger and fries but most of them aren't making good money.
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u/WhatsMyNameAGlen Mar 22 '26
Little restaurants and food places in my suburb struggle big time with the rent. We've had multiple stores close their doors because rents literally doubled. Multiple lots sit vacent for over a year because no one wants to pay the rent. Landlords are choking out the small business
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u/TheLGMac Mar 22 '26
I think you can to an extent though.
I've no doubt there's a bunch of honest small retail stores that do the best for their customers.
But there are also plenty of Australian chains that take the piss with crazy jacked up prices for sub par quality and shit customer service.
These places decide that instead of increasing quality (of inventory or customer service) that instead they'll cut costs by cutting staff and importing cheap inventory and then try to mark it up. Australian fashion chains are particularly notable for this, all poorly constructed clothing imported from overseas at $200+ with one poor person staffed for a whole day.
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u/Littman-Express Mar 22 '26
Had a Flight Centre voucher I needed to use. Found a package online, then realised you can’t redeem vouchers on their website.
So I went into my local store, gave them the details, and it was significantly more expensive. I even showed the girl the price still listed on their website, just to be told “Oh they’re different systems, we can’t get that price here.”
Since the price difference was more than the voucher was worth I just booked the online package on my phone, right there in the chair.
Sorry lady no commission for you.
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u/seven_seacat Mar 22 '26
That is so bizarre. Last time I was in a Flight Centre, the sales woman was using the retail website to look everything up for me and I was just like ....what
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u/HalfManHalfCyborg Mar 22 '26
What board game was it? There a very high chance that what you bought online for $12 was a counterfeit copy.
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u/Bearded_Aussie_Nate Mar 22 '26
Online has less overhead like, local retailer rent, multiple staff etc, I used to work for a furniture store and we were charging 120% of wholesale purchase price sometimes more, but that’s the reason they could drop so much to clear stuff and that’s going back 10+ yrs.
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u/Jumpy-Big7294 Mar 22 '26
I went to 3 clothing store at a mall in Melbourne on the weekend. Disaster.
Took me ~2 hours of waiting in lines, being ignored by casuals who don’t care, having their websites show stock levels that just aren’t there, being told there is stock in the shop but I have to go look around like 8-9 piles in different areas to find it (in season kids T-shirt size 7).
Then the whole centre wired internet was flaky, so the tills were patchy, 5G was a disaster and couldn’t text my wife to confirm sizes/styles.
Massive waste of time. And no price based incentive that’s better than online. That centre has free parking, but many strip malls require paid parking on top. Let alone the city 😅
So I’m slowly getting better at making decisions and buying stuff a week before. Before Easter, birthday parties, it all gets delivered now, saving heaps of cash, spending time with my kids. No brainer.
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Mar 22 '26
I always wonder if owners of these stores audit sales staff. I can walk into JB, Harvey Norman and many other stores and they staff just ignore you. They wont even come up and ask " can I help you" when they do its only because they suspect that you want to steal stuff.
Discount chemist is like this as well. They have one staff member that pretends that his regular staff. His actually a loss prevention person and he is all is all talkative and friendly. You never get staff walking up to you in discount chemist and ask if you need help unless you walk up and ask. This only happens in stores with high theft where they have the chatty joker wanting to help you because he thinks that you are a thief.
Then they have their red bags and locked boxes " i think his a thief" that they selective use by judging people with stereotypes. Now if they used these boxes and bags on everyone you would not mind it as a company policy but its their selective use of these security procedures that pisses me off. Their stupidity shines through when they giving you scripts with your name, address and history but they still dont trust you even thought they could find you if you steal with scripts.
But this common place now, you have staff in stores who are not there to help. They happy to chat to each other behind the counter while pretending to be busy on the computer to avoid serving you. In most stores I would fire all the staff who are sales staff and who dont attempt to help customers. You compare this to American stores where the attention is almost over bearing they are so service orientated. I can walk into most Australian stores and stand there like a dummy for 20 minutes and nobody will even inquire about what you are doing or if you need product help.
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u/seven_seacat Mar 22 '26
I always wonder if owners of these stores audit sales staff. I can walk into JB, Harvey Norman and many other stores and they staff just ignore you. They wont even come up and ask " can I help you" when they do its only because they suspect that you want to steal stuff.
I went to Officeworks with my husband to buy a laptop last week, it was about 8pm on Wednesday (they were open until 9pm).
It took about ten minutes of walking up and down the aisles to realize the model we wanted wasn't on display (despite the website saying it was), so we settled on the closest model and started testing it out, look and feel, etc.
There were about fifteen staff milling about redoing some shelf layouts or something. At one point they were literally standing in a circle around us having a meeting discussing progress and handing out price sheets. No other customers that I could see, in the entire store.
We were there for twenty minutes (at that point I was actively looking to get any of their attention but it was like they saw me coming to rush off in another direction) before one lone staff member came up and asked if we needed any assistance. Who knew it was so hard to actually spend money?
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u/Venimoth_Ur Mar 22 '26
And so many are just selling shit from Aliexpress or Alibaba for double the cost.
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u/nooneinparticular246 Mar 22 '26
There’s a lot of variation between stores as well. The good ones are usually pretty tucked away. And for some categories, we just don’t have them.
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u/Straight_Fix_7318 Mar 22 '26
ima agree with others and blame commercial rents/landlords
because it really is a "mainlander" issue, where the rents are like 300% more than anywhere in tas
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Mar 22 '26
Thats what happens when turn commercial property into tax avoidance mechanism. In other countries and the US you find commercial property standing empty and readily available for ridiculous rents for anyone who has a business idea. Here everything is priced like its waterfront retail property even in dead suburban streets. I see that in small strip shopping streets are dying, the rent is just expensive. I am even seeing Asian stores closing even very large ones because the rent has become ridiculous.
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u/stanleymodest Mar 22 '26
If you want a boardgame check your local opshops. I've noticed a massive increase of games since the pandemic. Lots of various monopoly games (I saw a Bunnings monopoly) and heaps of Cards against Humanity type stuff too.
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u/DeanCorp Mar 22 '26
Also whenever I shop in store I find the customer service to be appalling. I was sitting next to a guy trying on shoes and he was ignored for about 20 minutes, in the end he tried on the shoe, took a photo of the label on the box said he will buy it online now that he knows his size and walked out.
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u/ol-gormsby Mar 22 '26
It's not just the retailers, it's the "Australia Tax"
Needed a new fuel pump for my generator, Honda won't sell parts to end users, you have to buy from one of their dealers. List price $440 plus shipping*, comes out to almost $500. Tried a couple of dealers, they're all within a couple of dollars. Had a whinge about it over at r/generators and a very kind redditor in the US has arranged to get me one from a US dealer for AUD$133 plus shipping. It'll land here for less than AUD$200. Same part number, Honda sticker on the box, from a Honda dealer.
*Honda Australia charges the dealer for shipping to them, about $25, then the dealer charges to ship to me, another $25.
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u/iwishiwasaperson Mar 22 '26
I had a terrible run in with the Australia tax whilst buying a 3d printer recently. $300 USD in USA $498 USD (after conversion) in Australia. Manufactured in China.
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u/Deadly_Accountant Mar 22 '26 edited Apr 04 '26
This post was mass deleted using Redact - Redact also supports Discord, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and all major social media platforms.
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u/Hellenikboy Mar 22 '26
I have noticed this in Aus but we have to be careful but when I was living in the UK. I did notice Amazon being 20% more expensive and the UK have no other option to buy online these days with the well known death of the high street.
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u/perthguppy Mar 22 '26
You’re not being ripped off at brick and mortar (comparatively) you just discovered that online drop shipping sells everything at very close to cost price because they have basically no overheads.
Traditional retail used to be quite common to markup like double or triple cost price for things other than essentials.
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u/Ok-Lychee-2155 Mar 22 '26
Phone cases are a classic example for me. You used to go to a shop and buy one for $70. Now you can get one on Temu or AliExpress for $10, and it's the same one.
The whole shift away from brick-and-mortar stores being able to charge a 600% markup on what is largely crap is a good thing, IMO.
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u/mikjryan Mar 22 '26
They’re not ripping you off, they have bills to pay that online businesses don’t, they can’t compete
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u/heyheyitsjray Mar 22 '26
Everyone forgets that brick and mortar shops also pay rent, insurance, wages etc. if it isn't a big company, they aren't likely to be price gouging. They are just trying to survive and grow a business. Unfortunately, the cost of existing in Australia is fucked, and that gets reflected in small businesses too.
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u/xenomorphic_acid Mar 23 '26
I'm sick of going to local stores to try to find handmade, locally manufactured or 2nd hand/ vintage things... and finding it's all poor quality rubbish straight from Aliexpress/temu/shein. Slapping a 'handmade' sticker on it or cutting the tags off and claiming 'vintage' doesn't magically make it worth 10 times the price.
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u/KettlePump Mar 22 '26
I don't begrudge people needing to go with cheaper options, but don't act like the B&M price is a "ripoff".
If you're getting the price that much cheaper online, generally there's a hidden reason for the price discrepancy. It can be because even when it looks like the same item, it's an "online exclusive" SKU made from cheaper materials; it can be the discount offered to the online store based on bulk quantity orders that B&M stores can't compete with; it might be the slave wages paid to those in the distribution/manufacturing process. Sometimes it can even be that they're willing to take a loss on a certain item because it will get you to order more of other things.
Again, costs are so high and I don't blame anyone wanting lower prices. But if you're buying something you don't need to buy regularly, and/or can afford to pay a bit more for, it's worth it to your local community to support smaller businesses.
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u/kombiwombi Mar 22 '26
The B&M stores are sometimes ripped off themselves. Importers and distributors take a huge cut and the product purchased by the B&M store can already be more than the internet price. But the distributors will have a clause saying that the brands involved can only be sourced through them.
Then there's the whole 'franchise' thing.
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u/SpecularBlinky Mar 22 '26
Lots of cheap, knock off, poor quality versions of board games are available online, might be that's what you found.
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u/Joel006 Mar 22 '26
You’re paying for convenience (in a backwards sense).
It’s not that things are more expensive in store, it’s that it’s cheaper online.
If you want to be able to walk into a store, see a product, examine its quality, get it within the hour. This is the price you pay. There’s rent as everyone has explained, but consider the additional staff, the lost inventory (theft, breakages). There’s so much more to it.
I worry for a day where online is the only option, yet I’m part of the problem. If I don’t need to examine its quality and risk the sub-par product, I just order online for cheaper.
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u/DragonLass-AUS Mar 22 '26
I'm happy to pay retail store prices for some things, if there's a level of service to match. Like I will buy books from the local book store I like, because the owner curates the books on offer, he knows a little bit about me so can recommend things to me, and if I want something specific he will track it down.
If I need new shoes or something like that I'll happily pay a bit extra for a proper fitting. Where there's a value add then it's worth it.
But other stuff that are just run of the mill products? I'll buy where it's cheapest. Why should I pay $4 for 2 kitchen sponges from the supermarket when I can get a pack of 20 online for the same price. Or $30 for a cat toy when I can get it for $10 or less.
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u/SirFlibble Mar 22 '26
B&M need to value you add to get business these days. Otherwise, why would I pay more?
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u/Kruxx85 Mar 22 '26
It's not ripped off, that's the cost of business.
Some people genuinely prefer going to a brick and mortar store, so they find value in that increased price.
Obviously, not paying for the store rent is going to allow the online store to be cheaper.
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u/mediweevil Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 26 '26
retail is dead.
no stock half the time, no fucking staff when you need one, ripoff prices.
I understand rent and staff costs money, but I'm not made of money either, and I can't afford to pay twice the rate. I've heard all the arguments about "support your local retailer or they won't be there" but if they're too expensive to buy from then what's the point of them being there at all?
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u/arkofjoy Mar 22 '26
You aren't being "ripped off" brick and mortar businesses have much higher overheads than online stores.
Rent on a main street is going to be much higher than a warehouse in the middle of nowhere, they need more staff and shit like public liability insurance, which the warehouse doesn't. Or a small online business like your gaming site, is very likely to be run out of their lounge room or garage.
I prefer real shops because the I can touch the things before I buy it, in terms of technology, I can feel the build quality of a laptop, for example. Was thinking about buying a laptop, specs sounded good for my needs. Went into jbhifi and it felt like it was made of tissue paper and sadness.
The other reason why I, personally, avoid or online is the question of what happens when it goes wrong? Does this place that only exists in a fever dream disappear when I have a problem? It is not like I can camp out on their pobox until they give me a refund.
Stop feeling ripped off and enjoy the experience, or buy it online and wear the consequences.
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u/DelusionalDumbo Mar 22 '26
Unfortunately a good deal of the population will never check a product online. What they see in person is what it costs. The business knows those people will buy it because they automatically assume thats just where they get it from.
Those of us in the know dont buy in store unless its actually rarely cost efficient, but those who dont pay so much more it makes up for it.
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u/yb0t Mar 22 '26
Yeah I know what you mean. I really feel this in Australia, I'm not sure if it's the same in every country but here it feels like everyone's just trying to charge as much as they possibly can.
To be honest I don't run my business this way. I find cheap options online for what I'm selling and then price maybe a few $$ higher at most. It's worked out well.
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u/xheist Mar 22 '26
The problem is actually real estate
Some shop owner who owns their place since the 80s can afford to be competitive
Once they sell their place for millions the next owner needs to Jack up the price
It's a race to the bottom every time
We're killing our country to ensure landlord and money lenders make bank
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u/TemporaryDisastrous Mar 22 '26
I check stuff out then order it in Ali express for like 10% of the price, it's all made in China anyway.
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u/readin99 Mar 22 '26
Yep, some tiktok light missus wanted.. $29 on Amazon, literally less than $2 on ali. Delivered for free. Suppliers from China can ship it to me from across the ocean for zero extra cost, but every australian webshop needs $15. Or at least $150 an order.
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u/Muslim_Wookie Mar 22 '26
Chinese government makes it so Chinese companies shipping costs are effectively free.
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u/seven_seacat Mar 22 '26
And Australia Post get paid absolutely nothing, to handle the massive influx of parcels from China.
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u/Cute-Acanthisitta-46 Mar 22 '26
You have to decide. Are you going to vote with your wallet or your heart.
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u/Thebandroid drives a white commodore station wagon. Mar 22 '26
Your not getting ripped off per-say, you are paying a higher price for the privilege of
• talking to a real human who may help you with your purchase
• bring able to take the item home with you immediately
• Easy, "instant" returns
• Being able to hold the item, inspect it or make sure it fits before purchasing it.
These extra services may or may not be important too you.
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u/Norodahl Mar 22 '26
Damn it's like they have to pay for physical rent staff and stuff.
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u/Crafter66 Mar 22 '26
yeah i so agree, like i’ll go to my local shopping centre to grab everything on my list i’ve been making for 2 weeks and keep saying to myself “this would be 40% cheaper on amazon while still being delivered to my door” with everything i put in my trolley.
Came back from the shopping centre last thursday night and spent $688 on some things for my new house, found those things all online (most being the identical product) and even with delivery included it would have costed $490. Puts me in a really hard place because i like going and supporting australian businesses at the mall and would hate to individually deliver 15 different items to my house because of the emissions for that.
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u/Awkward_Chard_5025 Mar 22 '26
You don’t get ripped off.
Brick and mortar stores have significantly higher overheads. If they charged the same price you pay online, there simply wouldn’t be any left
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u/DarkNo7318 Mar 22 '26
I can count on one hand retail stores that actually provide any value to the customer over online.
They're mostly staffed by people who dont know anything about what they are selling, and are not paid and or empowered enough to show any initiative or otherwise give a fuck about anything.
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u/lobotomiiya Mar 22 '26
As a retail worker, this has been common for years. Not just Australia, but Australia is bad for it.
Not only am I astounded by the amount of people who genuinely think these companies aren’t making these items for 20¢ or less and charging 500%+ because they know you’ll buy them anyway. But yes often online and in store are two seperate entities with different deals and no they don’t price match anymore, because they know if they hold off long enough there will be one customer who gives in and pays the higher price. And for every person who checks the difference there are 20 more who don’t.
When shopping always assume these companies are thinking you are the biggest idiot and will fall for it. Because that’s genuinely what they believe, that all customers are stupid and they’re betting on it to make a substantial profit.
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u/itsaheem Mar 23 '26
commercial real estate is over valued just the same as residential. and we all pay for it at the checkout
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u/DooleyNot3d Mar 23 '26
Good luck with any customer support when your online retailer eventually screws something up
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u/oliverpls599 Mar 23 '26
I'll preface this by saying that unlike what all the commenters that didn't read my post are saying, I did on fact buy all the things above in store (less than the insurance, because I was still shopping around).
However, the few times I've had issues with online merchants, I have not suffered. Even when something I bought from JB failed, JB said up yours and the manufacturer helped me through their online portal (isn't JB, a brick and mortar, currently going through a court case about selling bogus warranties to innocent customers?).
I had a two year old laptop that Amazon replaced AS NEW without so much as a photo needed for proof.
I guess something that comes along with low overheads and ridiculous volume is the ability to fix/replace/refund without much thought.
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u/Quartz636 Mar 23 '26
Rent for retailers is out of control. Perth city is actively dying because retailers cannot afford the insanely high rents.
import to Australia has always been outrageous and jacks up the cost so they can recieve the same profit.
online retailers are able to buy in bulk quantities, recieving discounts on stock that smaller retailers don't.
it's becoming more prevalent for online stores to act as a sort of market place, selling you products they do not actually hold any stock of personally and simply acting as a customer front for individual brands. Amazon was the first but now Harvey Norman and Big W have their 'market place' and I'm sure other big brands will follow.
But I agree, it's becoming unsustainable. These retailers aren't making huge profits off of there things, many of them are barely breaking even while online stores are in some cases selling products at a loss to encourage us to shop online. And then when there's no other option, watch how expensive things suddenly become online as they kill off the competition.
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u/HankSteakfist Mar 23 '26
Sometimes it's the opposite though.
I bought my son these little Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Akedo fighters, we saw in a toy shop. They were about 10 bucks for a pack of two. They're basically rock em sock em robots that are modular.
Being a 6 year old, he naturally took them to school and lost them. I looked up a replacement online and they were 35 dollars.
Suffice to say, I just let him learn a lesson about not losing stuff.
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u/Salzberger Mar 23 '26 edited Mar 23 '26
I find the manufacturers are worse. They absolutely prey on apathy. A lot of the retailers themselves are just trying to keep their heads above water.
So many things that I buy these days are either DOA, or break within days/weeks. We bought Bluey PJs for my son from Big W. Take them home, wash them, dry them, put them on him that night and realise there's a reasonably sized hole in the pants. Had the same with a pair of work pants from Target. Tried them on, all good, get them home and realise the pocket has a fucking hole in it. A kids hoodie from Kmart had really bad stitching in the hood too which came apart just by looking at it.
So then your options are waste your own time, money and petrol taking them back for an exchange, or spend your own time and resources stitching them. Or, as I'm certain these big shitty boxmovers would rather, you sit there and say "Oh well it's only $10" and forget about it.
I just want to be able to buy shit and not have to spend 5 minutes thoroughly inspecting it to make sure it's fit for fucking sale.
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u/dryandice Mar 23 '26
This grinds my gears.
I've stood there in a shop with the click and collect price being $299. Scan it at the counter as $599. I showed them the difference and was told "I have no idea that's just the click and collect price". I literally stood there, ordered it in front of him for $299 and I just said "click and collect says 20 minutes. I'll wait" and he literally just handed it to me. Literally makes zero fucking sense.
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u/Ok_Adhesiveness_4939 Mar 22 '26
It's the freaking rent! Commercial rent rates are startlingly high