Support the local guy?

sad but true, as much as I would dearly love to... I just cant afford to throw my pennies around at whoever is bnearest. I seriously have to wonder just how much of a mark up on these kind of goods we are paying

Perhaps we're looking at a series of middle men all taking a cut, if this is the case why are the retailers not sourcing directly? and if they are, how are they justifying their huge mark ups. As I stated in my thread on comparison shopping, I can get a set of 72 vallejo paints IN a carrying case with three brushes for nearly half the price 72 bottles of vallejo would cost me here.

So the Wellington store has costs, they have to pay a guy to stand behin the counter, they have to pay for floor space in a city center, sure these are not cheap.. But how much money is that paint, that is double the price which US counterparts offer, bringing them if it is still sitting on the shelf.

Some NZ businesses just haven't caught on that lowering the profit margin can increase your sales. By selling lower you can actually make more of a profit through the increase in turnover

again and again and again I find that I can buy things significantly cheaper offshore, and this is including any possible import duty and the shipping costs. And we're not talking about buying direct from the manufacturers or even a wholesalers. We're talking standard issues domestic variety online stores.

I want to give my money to the local kiwi bloke who is trying to run his business. But I can't help but feel that he's not actually about looking after for me by providing me with a fair and competitive deal.. so why look after him?. Maybe I ought to just walk into these places and say "Hey I can get this paint for $ from the states, however I'd prefer to support a local business. Now you can either offer me a deal on the price of this, I buy the paint and you've made a sale, Or I will send my $ overseas and you lose out completely" .. I get the feeling I'd be told to f*ck off and buy the paint overseas though

... and then they justify the higher prices by complaining that too many people are buying from overseas and they have to raise prices to cover their costs.

then they whinge to the government that imports are killing them and that something needs to be done

then import taxes are increased tenfold,

and finally you are forced to buy from them

only you still only have the same amount of money to spend, you don't spend more $$ you simply buy less

and so they whinge to the government that they're a local company and not able to survive and the govt pledges to support local industry even more in the form of tax breaks and handouts

am I a cynic?