This thread could carry on until the end of time, and the end results are always going to be the same :
* Overheads for an Australian 'bricks and mortar' shop vs essentially a large warehouse.
* Enormous buying power of
Wiggle /
Ribble /
CRC etc vs the Australian shops.
* Buying direct for
Wiggle etc vs going through the Australian importer / distributor for the Australian shops.
* Associated taxes, charges and levies which the Australian shops have, which affects their bottom line.
Those things aren't going to change - it's simple maths.
As long as Australian shops do things legally (ie no grey importing) then it's impossible to compete.
The reality is, Australian stores can't keep $$$s worth of products in stock, on the floor, cos they're still liable to their suppliers.
The catch 22 is then that the local store risks losing a potential customer cos they figure they can bring it in from the UK quicker and cheaper.
Bike stores had it good until on line shopping went gangbust in the past few years, and now they're feeling the pinch, and you gotta some times feel sorry for them as a lot of the time they are at the mercy of their supplier. I know my bike stores do what they can, but when it's costing them more to buy a Dura Ace chain from the Aussie importer than we can buy it retail from
Wiggle, then they're screwed.