>> Granted, this is somewhat different from selling gray market cameras, but >> the loss of sales and profits is the same. > > Um, no it's not, it would be similar if you could clone cameras. Grey > market import protection is in place simply to ensure that the local > market can gouge local buyers.
It's not gouging, it's staying in business. The costs of successfully running a business in one country or region can be substantially higher than running it in another country. This is why outsourcing of jobs has become such a major problem in recent years. A friend of mine whose job at Intel was outsourced referred to it as "job piracy." In a country like the US, workers cost more, insurance and benefits cost more, rent costs more, etc., compared to some "2nd world" country in southeast asia where gray market retailers get much of their stuff from. Thus, retailers in the more affluent regions have to charge more to stay in the black. The gray market undercuts their ability to stay in business, which affects not only the business itself but also its employees and the revenues and taxes it generates for local and higher governments. In other words, the gray market has an effect on entire industries and economies, not just local stores. There's also the fact that different countries have different import taxes, and some countries have sales taxes that others do not. A good example is the VAT that some UK travellers wanted to avoid by buying their cameras from me at my last job. There are reasons for these taxes to exist, the first and foremost is to ensure your government (local and national) has the money to continue to function. Unscrupulous dealers will do whatever they can to circumvent these costs, and unscrupulous or ignorant buyers will seek them out. On a large scale, this hurts the local and national economies and has been affecting the camera industry in particular for a long time now. It's one of the major reasons internet retailers have been successful at driving brick-and-mortar retailers out of business. I'd like to see how you felt if you were running a legitimate business and some jackoff came into town selling the same product, only at substantially less because he got it through illegal channels. The worst part is, you can't do anything to him because he's not located in a store: he's in a roving van that can go wherever buyers want him, which means he doesn't have the same costs you have associated with rent, insurance, employees, etc. Your business does not gouge customers, and provides services the other guy cannot or will not, but he's still successful because people don't realize he's hurting their economy. Your store goes out of business and your employees are now getting meager unemployment checks from the government (who is now getting less tax revenue, by the way) because they can't find work, all while the other guy keeps about his merry way taking more and more bites out of the economy until it dries up and he moves along to find greener pastures to slash & burn. This is what the gray market is doing to the camera industry, leaving us with fewer and fewer real, respectable camera stores. I guess that's what you want, though. Enjoy! John Celio -- http://www.neovenator.com AIM: Neopifex "Hey, I'm an artist. I can do whatever I want and pretend I'm making a statement." -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
