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Australians are definitely loyal shoppers, but Amazon are certainly moving into markets that have screwed Australian shoppers for a long time. I wouldn't be sw

Australians are definitely loyal shoppers, but Amazon are certainly moving into markets that have screwed Australian shoppers for a long time. I wouldn't be sweating it much at the moment if I was for example a local bookshop. OTOH an electronics retailer...

will_hughes 9y ago
I'm not sure I'd agree. Take for instance what Bunnings has done to the Mitre 10 brand. The moment there's a lower price that's at least as convenient and serviced, we're gone. Another point of anecdata is what Amazon and other overseas stores have done to local stores. Loyalty by older generations perhaps, but younger generations can see how much we've been screwed by local retailers for years. E: the reason Starbucks failed was because they sold American style coffee, which not enough people like. Cafe culture is incredibly picky about exactly how to make good coffee, so all the chains that hire uninterested inexperienced kids off the street all have problems in places where there's a lot of quality coffee.
- foobar1962 9y ago
  Loyalty to Gerry Harvey? I doubt it. Aussies know a good deal when they see it: we adopted mobile phones and DVD pretty quickly. Whe alao know a bad deal too: see how Masters failed miserably.
  - will_hughes 9y ago
    Yeah honestly I, and a lot of other people, are welcoming pretty much anything that'll result in Gerry Harvey getting a flogging after his hypocritical and self serving b.s for years. His campaigning for eliminating/lowering the tax-free threshold on items bought overseas online was based on so much spinnning of the truth it's a wonder he didn't catch fire.
    - chris_wot 9y ago
      Yep. Harvey appeals to an older audience, but the truth is - he's not well loved by anyone else other than television networks because of his advertising spend.
- robryan 9y ago
  I wonder if loyalty to Bunnings played a part at all in the failure of Masters. Of course a large part of it was price and selection. But it seemed though that it was mostly a me too type offering and unless there was a drastic reduction in prices ( drastically better range would have been very hard) people were already pretty happy with Bunnings.
  - petecox 9y ago
    Bunnings (Wesfarmers) had a well-established lead. There was no compelling reason for Masters to enter the market except that Woolworths thought they needed a piece of the action. Such is our supermarket duopoly.
petecox 9y ago
Bookshops that are still around have already survived Amazon. Remember Borders Australia? They died spectacularly and it was only the niche players that survived.

will_hughes 9y ago

I'm not sure I'd agree. Take for instance what Bunnings has done to the Mitre 10 brand. The moment there's a lower price that's at least as convenient and serviced, we're gone. Another point of anecdata is what Amazon and other overseas stores have done to local stores. Loyalty by older generations perhaps, but younger generations can see how much we've been screwed by local retailers for years. E: the reason Starbucks failed was because they sold American style coffee, which not enough people like. Cafe culture is incredibly picky about exactly how to make good coffee, so all the chains that hire uninterested inexperienced kids off the street all have problems in places where there's a lot of quality coffee.

foobar1962 9y ago
Loyalty to Gerry Harvey? I doubt it. Aussies know a good deal when they see it: we adopted mobile phones and DVD pretty quickly. Whe alao know a bad deal too: see how Masters failed miserably.
- will_hughes 9y ago
  Yeah honestly I, and a lot of other people, are welcoming pretty much anything that'll result in Gerry Harvey getting a flogging after his hypocritical and self serving b.s for years. His campaigning for eliminating/lowering the tax-free threshold on items bought overseas online was based on so much spinnning of the truth it's a wonder he didn't catch fire.
  - chris_wot 9y ago
    Yep. Harvey appeals to an older audience, but the truth is - he's not well loved by anyone else other than television networks because of his advertising spend.
robryan 9y ago
I wonder if loyalty to Bunnings played a part at all in the failure of Masters. Of course a large part of it was price and selection. But it seemed though that it was mostly a me too type offering and unless there was a drastic reduction in prices ( drastically better range would have been very hard) people were already pretty happy with Bunnings.
- petecox 9y ago
  Bunnings (Wesfarmers) had a well-established lead. There was no compelling reason for Masters to enter the market except that Woolworths thought they needed a piece of the action. Such is our supermarket duopoly.

petecox 9y ago

Bookshops that are still around have already survived Amazon. Remember Borders Australia? They died spectacularly and it was only the niche players that survived.