Why oo why is Avene so expensive in Finland??

wei-ste · Post by **wei-ste** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:57 pm

I was shopping for Avene's face cream and other cosmetic stuff the other day. I checked the price from some Apteekki's website, and of course read some reviews as women often do. Well there are plenty of Avene's products in Finnish pharmacies, but in a German girl's review she mentioned that she paid twenty something € for that particular face cream, and all the Finnish websites I checked they're all more than 45€, including but not limited to the famous Yliopistoapteekki... idealo.de tells me that twenty something € is normal price in Germany, after some more surfing I noticed that it's also normal price in Holland, Belgium, Spain etc. Other creams, gels, waters... are equally much more expensive in Finland, some are even double the price they sell in Germany. Finally I bought 4 different bottles from one German pharmacy website, with the total cost including posting I could have bought 2,5 bottles in Finland. I'd rather pay taxes for Finnish govermant if it's not THAT MUCH expensive... Why oo why??? Because Finland is further away from France? But it's a lot cheaper even in the US and Canada!!!

**Sponsor:**

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:10 pm

So In Finland, you pay €45 for that cream... Dont like it..
Order it from Germany...and you might be subject to the luxury goods tax too!!!

OTOH; you can find a Lumeme products cheaper here..

wei-ste · Post by **wei-ste** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:16 pm

Well it's not that luxury when I paid 23,5€ for it fom Germany, besides isn't this EU free market or something

...
I quite like Lumeme too but differnet products for different purposes...

raamv · Post by **raamv** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:35 pm

wei-ste wrote:Well it's not that luxury when I paid 23,5€ for it fom Germany, besides isn't this EU free market or something ...
I quite like Lumeme too but differnet products for different purposes...

In Germany, its not a luxury item...in Finland it is!!

yes and every country have their VAT, and customs relating to the items..
If you think about this product..the company selling it must buy it close to the price that you are paying in Germany,
pay shipping and Handling for it..
Pay customs duties for it..
pay any additional VAT for it..
pay people handling this product
pay Tax on the profit they make ( 22% ?)
and then have to make a decent profit on it..so people like you can buy it!!

or you can try the German website to order it to the price of their linking!!

I can give you another example:
A Brand name shir t( Polo, Ralpg lauren, Tommy H etc ) costs around €80-100 here..
It costs only €2 to manufacture ( A place in India ?)
it costs only €4 to buy it wholesale ( A place in India ?)
it costs only €10 to buy it from the retail close to where it is manufactured.. ( A place in India ?)
it costs €20 to but it in retail from the city close to where it is manufactured..( A place in India ?)
it costs €30-40 to buy it from the states..
and here in Finland, it costs aroun €80-100!!
So Either you take a flight to buy it from there..( Even posting it is cheaper from India as post costs €40 per Kg)..
or buy it from Stockmann/Sokos...

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:46 am

Pricing for branded goods often doesn't appear to follow any logic. The pricing can be set at a high level which actually contributes to the brand's image, and therefore popularity. I remember one case study where a brand reduced its' prices, and sales actually fell

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 8:18 am

Just order the stuff from the UK or wherever. The pound sterling is really low so there are some good bargains on-line from the UK. Many parapharmaceutical products are expensive here (like vitamins, fish oil products), also fitness and weight-training supplements.

And even Lumene products, although they are made in Espoo, are more expensive than similar products from l'Oréal etc AND they are cheaper from CVS in the USA than they are from Prisma in Kauklahti (10 mins from the factory)

But on-line shopping is great... just do it! Eventually the Finnish retailers will have to re-align their prices.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:59 am

Yes but Raam, within EU theres no customs borders. So yeah, ordering online... it is a *known fact* that anything made in Finland is cheaper bought outside Finland.

Bubba Elvis XIV · Post by **Bubba Elvis XIV** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 10:12 am

penelope wrote:
But on-line shopping is great... just do it! Eventually the Finnish retailers will have to re-align their prices.

We can hope.

But that has happened with musical equipment. The biggest competition to Finnish shops was a German on-line shop called Thomann. Excellent service, cheap, you can fone them in any language....free postage after something like 50 euros...etc etc
The shops had to lower their prices here. They couldn't compete. Who wanted to pay 30% more for the same product?

i am convinced that the shops keep the price high and use the old thing of Finland being an expensive country to justify it...People won't complain.

The amount of thigns I used to try and bargain for and the shop staff would just say "Well....It is Finland and you know it is an expensive country"

Kupcake · Post by **Kupcake** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 1:44 pm

Pursuivant wrote:... it is a *known fact* that anything made in Finland is cheaper bought outside Finland.

We are getting ready to leave Finland and have been looking online for Finnish things that we might be able to buy in Australia when we get back - just in case we can get things cheaper there. Italla stuff is more expensive in Australia than in Finland, by a lot!!

BUT, 90% of things we have bought here are LOADS cheaper back home. I don't know why everything is so much more expensive, but gosh its ridiculous sometimes. Eggs, Special K, milk (and now Italla) is cheaper here than in Australia, but they are the only things we've found in 3 years here.

Lately i've been doing a lot of shopping online and it's worked well, so take advantage of it.

Oh, and by the way, just my personal opinion - i think Lumene is crap ... along the lines of L'Oreal and Neutrogena. Better off spending the extra money and getting something that will actually do what it says it will do.

wei-ste · Post by **wei-ste** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 4:42 pm

Kupcake wrote: Eggs, Special K, milk (and now Italla) is cheaper here than in Australia, but they are the only things we've found in 3 years here.

I found that tap water is also cheaper here. Ha!

Kupcake · Post by **Kupcake** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:09 pm

wei-ste wrote:
Kupcake wrote: Eggs, Special K, milk (and now Italla) is cheaper here than in Australia, but they are the only things we've found in 3 years here.

I found that tap water is also cheaper here. Ha!

Oh it's true!!

simon · Post by **simon** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 12:12 pm

penelope wrote:Just order the stuff from the UK or wherever. The pound sterling is really low so there are some good bargains on-line from the UK. Many parapharmaceutical products are expensive here (like vitamins, fish oil products), also fitness and weight-training supplements.

And even Lumene products, although they are made in Espoo, are more expensive than similar products from l'Oréal etc AND they are cheaper from CVS in the USA than they are from Prisma in Kauklahti (10 mins from the factory)

But on-line shopping is great... just do it! Eventually the Finnish retailers will have to re-align their prices.

Do you order any vitamins then from the UK?

If so who?

Rosamunda · Post by **Rosamunda** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 3:49 pm

I think I already posted a couple of webshops for vitamins but I usually buy them when I am in the UK and bring them back in my luggage (in which case I just buy 3 for the price of 2 from Boots). Efalex, which I buy for one of my kids, works out 1/3 of the price it sells for in Stockmann (on special offer this month to cardholders, but still more than double the UK price). But apart from fish oil and calcium tabs (I also have a son who is allergic to milk so he takes Calcium every day), I don't buy much else in the way of vitamins. I do buy antihistamine and ibuprofen, Strepsils, Bonjela etc too when I am there.

http://www.expresschemist.co.uk/
https://www.yourhealthfoodstore.co.uk/

inkku · Post by **inkku** » Tue Mar 24, 2009 4:18 pm

I buy vitamins etc from Healthspan, they have also excellent skincare products.
http://www.healthspan.co.uk/default.aspx

They started supplying outside of UK sometime ago, stuff comes taxfree from Guernsey.

littlefrank · Post by **littlefrank** » Wed Mar 25, 2009 5:05 pm

I'm sure antarctica_moon would say it's because Finnish women are the most beautiful women in the world, so there's not much call for beauty (enhancing) products.

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