*Yabby, retail provides a large amount of female employment, as well as flexible work for students*

Absolutaly Antiseptic, but postage from overseas is not cheap.
People will buy from overseas, if they are being screwed locally.
I bought an infred thermometer on Ebay some time ago, for around
50 bucks. The same thing locally, was 170 bucks. With that
kind of markup, our retailers need competition.

But I'd say that the new employment legislation being introduced
from Jan 1st, will cost women far more. If you have to pay people
250% to work on public holidays and sundays etc, many businesses will simply
shut their doors. Women in retail will be the losers. Don't blame
imports for that.

*The "new trend" is the people of this nation and their government is broke and living off credit.*

Not everyone, Sonofgloin, but certainly those who have been living
beyond their means. The GFC has made many think a bit, about
ever increased borrowing. The increasing savings rate shows that.

But still only a third of Australians actually have a mortgage.
40% of Australians own shares directly, most grey nomads and people
close to retirement etc, who saved when they were younger.
Increasing interest rates on bank deposits will also help self
funded retirees and others, who were knocked around by the GFC and
low interest. They can spend again.

People in the mining industry are living it up too. Once these
floods go down, even builders in Qld should do well for a couple
of years.

So its not all black and white.

Yabby:>> Once these floods go down, even builders in Qld should do well for a couple of years.<<

Yabby they say every cloud has a silver lining. Luckily NSW Labor has managed to divest the state of investors, our tradies are already in Qld

Yabby, I think you're wrong about the markup issue. Our customer base for specialist products such as the thing you mentioned or the shocks for my car that I purchsed in the US is so small that a large margin is necessary to cover the cost of inventory. Added to the fact that your small supplier probably bought at the same prie that you're paying O/S since he was only buying one or two and the price he's charging probably isn't unreasonable.

We need small specialist retailers to have an incentive to keep rarely-required but essential parts in stock. Ordering from O/S may be fine for some things (I don't think BMW will go out of business because I bought shocks O/S), but it's a very short-sighted approach for others - I'd not like to have to rely on my weekly groceries being delivered from the US, or even for a part for my truck to come from Japan. Retailers provide that service and we should support them, quite apart from the other benefits I've already mentioned.

And you're right about the PPLS - it's going to be a disaster for women employees in small business, while those in larger firms will wonder why the glass ceiling seems to be getting thicker.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Here's another take on the situation from the Australian a couple of days ago
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/shoppers-attracted-by-virtual-benefits/story-e6frgakx-1225979026187 :

"Did the Boxing Day splurge help? Not a lot.

Profit margins were already reduced before Boxing Day by aggressive bargain pricing, a reality that led Myer chief executive Bernie Brookes to lament: "In all my 30 years in retail, I've never seen a more discount-oriented Christmas.""

and

"Access Economics says online shopping so far accounts for just 3 per cent of total consumer retail spending. But online auction site eBay's research is compelling, showing more than half of all Australians used the internet last year to shop.

Access Economics director Chris Richardson says: "Although we are spending less in shopping malls, we are spending more on utility bills, more on mortgages and more on cars."

I'd reckon that's spot on, especially the bit about mortgages and utility bills. Here in Qld we're still paying for the bungling of the Bligh bunch over water and power and we'll pay a great deal more yet.

Of course, as far as the Govt is concerned, that's fine - GDP will go up regardless and GST will flow just the same, but for the small business sector it's a disaster waiting to be recognised.

No doubt there'll be a "crisis" requiring some Labor crony to be appointed to an expensive "inquiry" in a year or two. I recommend Quentin Bryce - she's already demonstrated her abililty to do nothing at all for a large salary...

This website may be of some interest:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/farm-mine-production-to-drive-economy/story-e6frg8zx-1225970825791

*Our customer base for specialist products such as the thing you mentioned or the shocks for my car that I purchased in the US is so small that a large margin is necessary to cover the cost of inventory.*

Anti, the infrared thermometer which I bought is a generic tool,
handy in any workshop where measuring bearing temperatures matters.
They are also used by supermarkets etc, to check on ther fridges
and freezers. They probably cost 10-15 bucks to make in China.

The only way to sort all this out is to let the market decide,
not a bunch of regulations. I recently bought some new parts
for some German taps that I'd installed in my house, 25 years ago.
They were really hard to get hold of and in the end, the local
dealer slugged me an arm and a leg for them. What if he'd not had
them available any more, which will happen when he runs out?

I did a net search with google and sure enough those parts were
available from a US dealer who still had an abundance of stock he
was trying to get rid of.

The thing is, the global economy is here to stay as everything becomes more
specialised. It takes no longer to fly that part
to WA from the US, then it does to get here by road from Sydney.

I recently bought a steel order from a local steel supplier. Some
sections seemed great value, some sounded outrageous in price, when
I worked it all back to $ per kg of steel. When I asked them about
it the bloke told me that it just depended on how much competition
there was in the market from Chinese imports. On those sections
where there was competition, they had to be competitive, on those
that weren't, the price was much higher. In other words, they
will screw the customer where they can. For that very reason we
need an open market.