Never in the history of retail has so much been written by so many over so little. I refer, of course, to the LVIT (Low value imports threshold). Someone has even taken time out to change the acronym from LVT to LVIT. The Productivity Commission has spent hundreds of thousands of our money preparing a report that was about 3cm thick and weighed about 3kgs. CEOs have blamed the LVIT for their poor performance. Unconfirmed reports claim that a cleaning lady blamed her low wages on the LVIT. Austra
lians are renowned for their get up and go. If something is broken, we fix it and turn the page. One term that certainly cannot be associated with Australians is ‘whingers’. And yet we are coming perilously close to joining one other country in particular, known for their whinging.
In the name of the prophet of retail let us move on and tackle the real issues, rather than using this red herring to divert attention.
I recently needed to purchase a number of related items, and as many of us do, I went onto the internet to do my due diligence. The seven items were going to cost me $1308, and on the internet they were going to cost me $1201 – a difference of $107.
I had got into the habit of doing the maths mentally and stupidly equating a USD more or less with an AUD, but when I did the exercise properly including freight plus paying a premium for one item which needed to be shipped by a third party because the suppliers had done a fantastic job on blocking exports, the difference of $107 was trivial. I would happily pay the extra for supporting Australian retail and for the peace of mind of warranty issues.
In the event, I asked the retailer to sharpen his pencil and give me a discount, which I am sure he will do. My guess is that there will be nothing in it at the end of the day.
So rather than whinging, why don’t we educate the customer? Why don’t we help them do the maths? Why don’t we offer them a discount not to meet or beat the overseas price, but to show willing? I have not yet seen one promotion or advertisement competing with the LVIT. Instead we lobby, lobby, lobby behind the scenes.
In Tuesday’s article – Report rallies against online GST – the report author said: “The tax would also be so hard to collect that the costs of extending of GST would exceed the revenues collected. The Productivity Commission found that reducing the GST low value threshold down to $100 would have raised $495 million for the government in 2010-11, but it also would have cost the government $1.2 billion to collect it”. “The only thing extending the GST will achieve is increasing the cost of living for Australians, for no good reason.”
This article drew over 15 comments (including one from me – guilty as charged).
For the sake of our reputation as Australians please let us allow the LVIT to R.I.P.
Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or 0414 631 702.
