if you belive you can do a better job, go open a retail business, employing staff and all the usual overheads..... then come complain about wages or something else from the other side of the fence.
[/Serg
Who said some of us haven't opened retail businesses and have had to pay wages etc?
I have a few friends in business in South Australia who do nothing but bit*h and moan about the price of staff wages, just after one of them has bought their 5th investment property on the Gold Coast. This same guy has also been threatened with legal action for paying below the award wage...
Same goes for the old whining farmers that I deal with every day. They'll carry on about chemicals going up 2% in price and how they can hardly afford to eat and then when they've knocked the chemical price down to the point where you nearly have to pay them to take it they walk outside and jump into their new Toyota Landcruiser Sahara V8 Twin Turbo Diesel valued at $110k...
In regard to wages, some people value their employees enough to pay them well, others class them as just plain old sh*tkickers who should feel lucky to even have a job. These employers are the ones that have a continuous staff turn over and wonder why. They are also the same employers that stand out like dog's balls when they advertise for new staff every week.
We have a "Look Local First" advertising campaign going in our area to convince people they are better off buying locally than elsewhere. The good businesses do well regardless of what campaign is being advertised. The others forget that times are tough for many people so when they can save $400 on a television from interstate then guess where they go and you can't blame them for that.
Serg, if this filter kit was AUD$150 then I would probably say that is reasonable, but AUD$235 odd is just a bit too much of a markup (unless of course Makita employees are on $100k per year and they charter a private jet to deliver them).
Then again, if people are dumb enough to pay that amount then who's the idiot? I work and have worked in retail, I know what a reasonable markup on a product is. My family also has a soft furnishing's business involving curtains, window tracking and blinds that has been successful for nearly 20 years (fair chance that if I'm not at my day job or chopping trees down I'm hanging curtains. Therefore I play with chainsaws to counteract any gayness that may sneak in from the curtain side of things
)
Truth is myself and other guys like Rick want the chainsaw arm of Makita to succeed in Australia - they'll struggle with pricing like this...
Sorry about getting a bit off topic but I've been down the road arguing with dodgey employers over the years about wages. They promise the world then deliver jack and then take it personally when you leave for an extra $10k per year down the road.
