Australian Supplement Prices

Just to start this out, I'd like to say that this thread isn't about bashing the Australian Supplement retailers or anything along those lines. And I don't want it to turn into a "you don't need supplements, just eat, sleep and lift heavy s**t" thread.

I'd just like to know why buying supplements in Australia costs so much when compared to buying them overseas. The Australian dollar is continually growing stronger compared to the U.S, even projected to surpass it in the near future, however I am sure we won't see supplement prices decreasing at all. Buying supplements retail from the U.S is literally 2 to 3 times cheaper, some even being upto a quater of the price of the product when purchased from Australia. Even adding in postage an order is considerably cheaper and can be received in around in 2 to 3 days (with express post which is only a couple of dollars extra). Also note I've never had a problem with customs seizing anything I've ordered.

I like to support Australian industry but where it comes at a massive expense to myself I struggle. I can only assume it comes down to taxes. I know Aminoz on this site runs an online store so I'm hoping he or someone in the industry can provide me some insight.

It's a booming industry in Australia with stores constantly popping up, so I'd assume this would force everyone to have competitive pricing. I won't be posting up any price comparisons because that's not what this is about, but people can do their own research if they are unsure.

the same can be said for pretty much everything , it all comes down to how much the customer is prepared to pay , remember they are a store not unicef , the end goal is to make money , so when the aussie dollar is up meaning importing is cheaper it equates to greater profits for the shop

i second that notion, not only that, we have such strict supplement laws,
so we can jipped in the price,
and the product.

Admin said:

the same can be said for pretty much everything , it all comes down to how much the customer is prepared to pay , remember they are a store not unicef , the end goal is to make money , so when the aussie dollar is up meaning importing is cheaper it equates to greater profits for the shop

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Fair point. If people are willing to spend the money, why wouldn't they charge what they can. I was just hoping for more of an insiders point of view to find out if they are taxed heavily or if the prices they buy wholesale for aren't that much cheaper than what is offered retail.

It sucks Mark. I guess it just means that more and more people will start buying from Overseas. Given the current status of our AUD, I am going to look at buying from the US next.

We get ripped for everything here in Aus. The R35 GTR is 75K - 80K USD and in 150K AUD here. BULL****!

i used to buy balance protein because it was australian owned, to my dismay i found out its made in NZ, *raises fist!*

Yes with a global market place now, australian retailers have to be careful their target market do not look overseas for their purchases. With the aussie dollar being so high and the big difference between Australian and USA prices for the same product, more and more people will look to buy from the USA if Australian retailers do not pass on this saving to the consumers and drop their prices.

The purchasing power of the USA is absolutely massive, compared to the tiny Australian market in comparison.
This would have a large impact on setting reselling prices based on purchasing price from the manufactures/suppliers.
I assume the duties and taxes would also coumpound the final selling prices in our small Austraian market.

I've also wondered the same thing, but not just for supplements.
Two reasons I decided not to buy supplements from the states are:
1. Impatience, I don't want to wait 3-4 times longer for something to arrive.
2. They often have different versions of products with ingredients that aren't allowed to be imported into Aus. That could be one reason supplements cost more here...they would need to make a special smaller batch just for the ingredient strict countries.

I would rather pay a little bit more for a comparable australian product and support our own economy and keep jobs for us all, not support another countries economy. Too answer the original question about why products are more expensive here it has a lot to do with taxes because once you import over $1000 worth of goods you will have to pay all relevant australian taxes, this makes it viable for the individual with a small order but for a large company importing over the $1000 threshold they are slugged with the taxes. Having said that i know that the companies who import them dont pass on any savings whenthey buy the product at a higher monetary exchange rate otherwise the prices would change a lot more regularly

jboy said:

I would rather pay a little bit more for a comparable australian product and support our own economy and keep jobs for us all, not support another countries economy. Too answer the original question about why products are more expensive here it has a lot to do with taxes because once you import over $1000 worth of goods you will have to pay all relevant australian taxes, this makes it viable for the individual with a small order but for a large company importing over the $1000 threshold they are slugged with the taxes. Having said that i know that the companies who import them dont pass on any savings whenthey buy the product at a higher monetary exchange rate otherwise the prices would change a lot more regularly

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The problem jboy is most will pay a little bit more. However when the difference becomes almost double, then people start to ask themselves am I getting value for money.

-LJ- said:

The problem jboy is most will pay a little bit more. However when the difference becomes almost double, then people start to ask themselves am I getting value for money.

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Yes i agree and think that most will pay a bit extra for aussie products but thats where we have to blame the importers/ shops for maintaining the price instead of passing on the savings from the high australian dollar

while our aussie dollar is high at the moment , you also need to consider when the product was imported maybe it was imported when our dollar was low, how long has the product been sitting around on the shelf for

Aussie Dollar has been high for quite a while now, and what dollar cost avarageing...
No excuses.

the amount of $$$ spent by the importers on gettin the products into the country is huge!.. permits registrations.. frieght.. tax's. as well as the aussie dollar jumpin up and down. ontop of that they still have to make some money.. u wouldnt do what i do day in day out for free so why should the guys who import the product in.. if any one has dealt with TGA and AQIS b4 u would know how expensive it can be...

You still importing Mauler?

yeh dude..
but not this sort of stuff anymore...

Is it true though you cannot import protein powder?

The stores in Australia over charge. Simple as that.

When you consider you can pick any suppliment, get it shipped across from the US, express post via fedex and still pay less than what Australian shops sell it for, you know something isnt right.

Strangely enough, this happens for quite a few car parts as well.

yeh.. but get pulled up by customs.. and watch ur product get distroyed.. wanna do it for a living and legal.. expect to be paying thousands of dollars per product for registrations..... dont quote me but i believe it can be up to 17K per product... on top of that, when ur product lands AQIS have the right to pull ur shipment in, go through it all.. all at ur expense. add that to ur "buy online" and fed ex it over.. these guys go through all this so we can have quality products available at ur local go vita or GNC etc etc rather then wiating a week or 2 and hoping it doesnt get pulled up..
fact is we are in australia.. we are so far from every where and our customs would have to be one of the most strickests in the world..