Aqua Digital,
I do understand some things about importing and retail and distributor markups as I ran a business importing and selling model race cars from around the world. But some of your reasoning still does not make sense.
Firstly, most of us are buying from Chinese retailers such as fish-street or reefshops. They are not Bubble Magus selling direct but retailers in China. So the wholesale price that Bubble Magus charges for their product is less than the retail price at fish-street etc. We were not buying at factory direct prices, we were buying at chinese retail prices. If Bubble Magus is charging you the chinese retail price for large wholesale purchases you better be renegotiating with them. Now, if they want to expand into the newer markets they should be working with you to offer the best wholesale price possible in order to build their new market. You make up the small loss in per unit profit by significantly increasing sales volumes and make more money overall. That is standard and prudent business.
So let's run a hypothetical scenario. The BM180CS is $305 retail in China. Let's assume a 30% wholesale discount (although the usual discount is 40%) which gives a wholesale price of $213.50. Add your 15% for shipping brings the cost up to $245.52. Let's now add another 6% for brokerage fees and duties etc. as you indicated. We're now at $260.25. Your distributor margin is 20% bringing the canadian wholesale price the dealers pay to $312.30. Add 40% to that for retail markup and we have about $438, not $500 and also a significant increase over the overseas prices. So why is MAP at $499? I think most of us would be willing to pay a $50 premium to buy a skimmer locally rather than overseas. But a premium of $120 or more seems a bit high for most of us.
And how do you explain the prices of the dosing buckets? They are $20 and $25 in China and $60 and $75 here. That is a pretty significant increase. That's not a 50% increase but a 200% increase.
Now your comment about spare parts makes no sense. Do they not offer a manufacturer's warranty? If not then perhaps it's not a product worth carrying but as far as I know any decent manufacturer offers some sort of warranty. So I don't see how you are out of pocket for replacement parts which should be covered under the warranty.
Nobody is trying to stop you or the retailers from making money. My problem comes from the apparent extra money making at some stage here. The excitement over Bubble Magus was the expectation that we could have a quality product at a lower price then the competition. But now it is priced in line with the competition and some of us are disappointed and unhappy with that.
Walmart has nothing to do with it. The pricing of the product as available overseas sets expectations here. Yes, we expect to pay a reasonable premium over that once its available here. Some of us think the current premium is not reasonable. As I said above, if you want to expand sales do it by offering better value then the competition and you will expand sales and everybody makes more money; the manufacturer, the distributor and the retail stores.
But don't keep changing your tune and blaming shipping costs, or duties and taxes, or warranty support or some notion that price affects perceived notions of quality.
And you will have to deal with the new world economy. The internet and Paypal and international sellers are here now and it is easy and, for the most part, safe to deal with sellers all over the world. Buying things from all over the world on the internet is increasing all the time. You need to recognize that and adjust to it too. It's not about throwing dosh to China and hoping for the best. That is nothing more than a scare tactic to justify higher prices here. More and more people are doing this as they don't want to pay excessive premiums for things. I found dealing with the Chinese retailer to be a good experience. They were eager to help, shipped our order quickly and gave support afterwards. So why wouldn't I and others do the same to save large amounts of money? Where's your value proposition to the consumer? Really, why should I buy it locally vs. overseas? You have yet to provide a compelling reason to justify the much higher prices on much of the Bubble Magus line.
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