mantas wrote:some things to consider:
1. Maybe Finland is trying to protect itself, to support local products in this way. It would be illegal if it would be done with taxation system, but maybe it is a form done by business. It's just an assumption, because normally business would be interested in selling more.
2. I don't notice Finns to be so obsessed with spending, so if that is really true (I cannot generalize just seeing people I know) then the demand is not that high. So solution would be to limit selection, so that demand would focus on a particular set of products in each group. Now there is a lot of selection, but demand is not that high for all of it, to keep the prices low.
3. Setting a specific price for a product on a shelf very much depends also on prices of other products on the same shelf. So if you set have 'low price' shampoo for 1Eur, then the 'better brand' should have a higher price tag, eg. 2Eur. But this 2Eur price could be 1,2Eur in UK.
How would you compare Finland to Norway/Denmark?
1. But Finland does not always have a similar product to sell. For example I needed certain type of clothes hangers. The closest (only) option I found from Stockmann and due to poor design two of four broke down within three days, just hanging in the wardrobe (and no, ther was not too much weight on them). Luckily I at least got my money back. I would have ordered them from US, but unfortunately the store in question did not deliver them outside US, so I got them from UK instead. They are good quality and have lasted well, because of the better design.
2. Finns can't be obsessed with spending, because we don't have money to spend as we are being ripped off in many ways. Our purchasing power compared to other EU countries is poor. Selection can and has to be limited in one store, but it wouldn't have to be almost identical in every store. And being different doesn't always mean specialty, just different.
3. The price should depend on the expenses + wanted profit. If the purchasing cost is low enough, there is no obligation to sell the product higher just because there is a cheaper brand next to it (excluding some manufacterer's terms, apparently).
Many Finns, who live in Denmark or Norway, say that the prices are higher there, but so are salaries, so they have more purchasing power anyway. Someone who moved to Germany, said that their living costs are now 30% less and salary 60% higher. That of course depends on the education, too.
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. This is exactly what I am trying to say, I refuse to believe, that the cost of shipping from US to Finland makes the product 2-5 times more expensive, than just from US to UK, because that is the most used excuse those few times that this is brought up in the newspapers. And it's not only the price, but the selection. I would like to see different stores selling different goods here, without always being part of some chain and still be affordable.
