Job Discussion Forums

[Qaaolchoura]

I remember on my first visit to Mexico, reading on the immigration form the penalties for smuggling in cheaper American electronics for resale. At the time I was baffled. Everything's made in China, Taiwan, or Korea, so why wouldn't it cost the same in both countries?

Then I went to Korea, which actually produces the technology, and was shocked to find that the price of a certain Samsung tablet, which required a phone plan to purchase, was over three times as much as the unlocked version of the same model, purchased from Amazon in the United States.

I chalked this up to the fanatical loyalty of Koreans to their company leading to a Samsung monopoly, with monopolistic prices, until I came to Turkey, where no native computer producer seems to have any real share of the market, and native cellphones are non-existent. While Turkey apparently officially doesn't charge tariffs on foreign electronics, makes up for it with taxes, meaning that computers and phones here cost on average twice as much as they do in the United States, despite a far lower income.

I've also noticed that European Union versions of Amazon (Italy, Germany, France, and Britain) are usually significantly more than the US versions, though still cheaper than the Turkish ones, and with some variation between those sites themselves (which seems like it totally invites arbitrage).

So my question is: excluding China, does North America (excluding Mexico) have the cheapest electronics prices in the world? And if so, what is the government of your country of residence doing to keep prices artificially high, and how do they justify it?

For example as more than one Turk has explained to me, computers and smartphones are viewed as a luxury rather than a necessary part of doing business in the 21st century, and as such are heavily taxed at luxury item rates.

Regards,
~Q

[Prof.Gringo]

It's like trying to buy size 12 EEE (American) men's shoes in Mexico or Vietnam, both countries produce that size for export, but Mexico sells very few pairs (but you can and do find that size in SOME stores and only a few styles to choose from).

In Vietnam forget trying to find large size shoes, I just have them custom made.

And in Mexico there is something like a 400% import tax on Chinese goods.

And when it comes to price, you can't beat Wal-Mart!

[Shroob]

[MotherF]

As an American in Japan in the 90s, I was shocked to hear my Aussie and Kiwi colleagues going on and on about how cheap the electronic were. I was like Good God, what must they cost down under? Everything seemed to cost more in Japan--but there was so much more variety. It was fun to visit the Sony store where all the latest gadgets were available for trying out--but I certainly never bought any of it!

And in Mexico, the prices have really come down in the last few years.

[Denim-Maniac]

I've been considering a new laptop before I travel back to China.

Im in the UK at the moment and have considered an entry-level Dell laptop. 15'6" screen, 4GB RAM, 500 GB hard-drive, Windows 8 and DVD/CD drive.

That would be �279 delivered. (Around $420 US according to online exchange rates). That looks really really cheap to me. Interested to see how that price would compare.

[it'snotmyfault]

Foreign branded products are subject to higher tax in China.

The government cashes in on the aspirational appeal to things like Apple computers and other western branded products (Nike trainers, Levi jeans etc) that are often produced in China.

[Kent F. Kruhoeffer]

Re: Denim-Maniac's post

Buy your laptop in the UK. In addition to the price advantage mentioned by it'snotmyfault, be aware that Chinese computers often contain boot-leg software and are geared to the Chinese web, which is a diplomatic way of saying that they contain lots of crap you won't want. You may also run into serious language barriers with a Chinese computer - unless you uninstall the OS and start over from scratch.

As I mentioned in the mobile phone post, you might also want to consider signing up with a VPN.

[BadBeagleBad]

I would say at this point the US and Mexico are on even ground in terms of elctronics prices, with the exception of the latest and greatest. I always used to buy my computers when I was in the US, but last September during the back to school sales WalMart had an Acer Aspire One, 2 gigabytes of RAM, 340 Gig hard drive, built in camera, modem, and an international keyboard, which is great for me since I work with both Spanish and Portuguese speaking people, for 3400 pesos, about 275 dollars, while the same computer at a Walmart in the US at the time cost just over 300 dollars and how costs around 250 dollars, so the savings is not enough to bother with, especially if you need something right away. I have been eyeing a new cell phone, and the year old versions of the Samsumg Galaxy are a bit cheaper in Mexican than in the US. Three years ago, say, this was far different. And, you can order things and have them delivered in the US without paying duty, I just got a Kindle Fire, and it was delivered to my house and handed to me just like packages from Office Depot in Zacatecas are.

[alvanorichie]

No, it has nothing to do with the population.It has everything to do with something called INFLATION where goods such as groceries and petrol increase in price. Rising interest rates push house prices up significantly as people struggle to pay off mortgages.It is caused by high demand and low supply - where customers are requiring more goods so the goods increase in price.