quote:Originally posted by Stevey:
Yeah, agree 100% and it would be a waste of my 1.5L duty free room on the Covenent. But I still remember not too long ago when LCBO prices on Aussie wines were pretty good and you can get good deals.
Those days are long long gone and sometimes the prices are really hard to swallow. For example, from the Oct 11th Aussie release catalogue...
'05 Penfolds RWT: LCBO=$134; US=$80-85
'06 Torbreck Juveniles: LCBO=$30; US=$16-17
These are not wines I'd bring in from the US, but there's no way I'll submit to being ripped off buying from LCBO at those prices.
Aussies are being dumped in the US now, whereas a few years ago importers were making a killing.
I think it is still generally true that we pay over 100% in total markups/taxes. This means that our pricing will never even come close to anything being offered on low margins in the US.
Any time we 'seem' to get competitive pricing it is actually an illusion... we're still being fleeced, but for various reasons (usually scarcity) the free market elsewhere is marking product up by more than 100%. DRC anyone?