welcome to super inflation finland

brengun · Post by **brengun** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 12:59 pm

will someone please tell me why a simple electric switch can be bought in England for 2 euro cost best part of 20 euros on mainland liberated finland,, ? please.

**Sponsor:**

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:13 pm

Population approximately 61,500,000 (as of mid-2008)[3]
vs.
Population 2009 estimate 5,350,150[1]

a) market is 11 times larger
b) you found geese that will lay you golden eggs
c) ???
d) profit

ps. now that you know where to buy cheap... buy it from there?

catfish78 · Post by **catfish78** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:30 pm

brengun wrote:will someone please tell me why a simple electric switch can be bought in England for 2 euro cost best part of 20 euros on mainland liberated finland,, ? please.

No again.

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:34 pm

catfish78 wrote:
brengun wrote:will someone please tell me why a simple electric switch can be bought in England for 2 euro cost best part of 20 euros on mainland liberated finland,, ? please.
No again.

I think your buying it from the wrong place.

Try Clas Ohlson or tarjoustalo

brengun · Post by **brengun** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 1:53 pm

Mook, you,re right, and that,s cool wot you say, but it makes one a little nauseated to witness the phenomenally expensive cars around here in this economy?, just to realise that some folk live in penury as a result of their greed. discuss.

brengun · Post by **brengun** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 2:53 pm

ps, i know its not "wot u lisnin to" site but who cares, take a lissen to ,Hard Times , by stephen foster, sung by bob dylan and tell me you don,t cry.

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 9:20 pm

Upphew wrote:Population approximately 61,500,000 (as of mid-2008)[3]
vs.
Population 2009 estimate 5,350,150[1]

a) market is 11 times larger

But electrical switches are being talked about here.
market for UK style square wall switches: UK, Ireland, HK and a few gulf countries. so less than 70m
market for Euro wall mounted switches: perhaps 300m. More if all those ex eastern european countries are using the same sockets and plugs as in Germany.

So the differences come down to the distribution costs and what the market will bear. Finland for a long time had small shops like k-rauta and other pipsqueak hardware stores. only with the arrival of bauhaus did they pull their socks up and rebuild the k-rauta stores to something more consumer friendly. It's still worth getting a bauhaus catalogue from germany to compare prices and make sure you're not being ripped off too much in finland though.
Germany is generally a better bet for electrical things and tools (like the two bosch lithium cordless powerdrills I bought) since the UK ones have the wrong plugs/chargers and sockets/lightswitches are to a different fitting size.

I think that finns are used to paying a fortune for light switches, so why would any retailer sell them at 1/2 what the locals are used to paying ? even at bauhaus some of the modular 3 way sockets that you build up with different switches and wall plates can come to 50 or 60 euros !!!

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:07 pm

riku2 wrote:I think that finns are used to paying a fortune for light switches, so why would any retailer sell them at 1/2 what the locals are used to paying ? even at bauhaus some of the modular 3 way sockets that you build up with different switches and wall plates can come to 50 or 60 euros !!!

I think that Finns are not used to paying for light switches as they are not allowed to change them. They just pay the electrician's bill and thats that.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:17 pm

And yoiu can get cheap switches from Bilteam, Tarjoustalo, ClasOhlsson.... only retards go to K-rauta and anyone retarded enough to go there and come whine is a financially challenged douche

Upphew · Post by **Upphew** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 10:31 pm

Pursuivant wrote:only retards go to K-rauta and anyone retarded enough to go there and come whine is a financially challenged douche

One is also doubleretard if he ends up paying the price that is printed to the box... 90% markup is not unheard of.

brengun · Post by **brengun** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 11:11 pm

oi, so we got a Turkish style bazaar going on here in helstanbul, , yeh i see people haggling prices down all the time here,

wot you on? Upphew.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 11:30 pm

why of course... that why you get "deals"...

...or *got* as its all estonians with polish blinkers

sinikala · Post by **sinikala** » Wed Dec 16, 2009 11:59 pm

Clas Ohlsen had a wide selection of items, but generally sells low quality crap at extortionate prices (for what you´re getting) and often sells the decent quality products at higher prices than the "premium" shops. Same goes for Hong-Kong, HalpaHalli, Vapaavalinta.

The have a reputation for being places to find a bargain, but actually when you look at what you get for your money ... they aren´t.

Different sort of switch ... but last Sat I was looking for a 100 mbps 5 way ethernet switch ... Clas Olsen´s website advertised a cheapo no-name effort for €25. The lowest price one in the store in Kamppi was €35. I bought a Zyxel switch from Stockmann... €20 and that was their standard price.

AldenG · Post by **AldenG** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 2:20 am

I don't know how it works now, but back when software packages started being sold for $40-200 to consumers, someone would buy exclusive distribution rights in Finland and then sell the very same box for more than twice what you could have bought it for by direct mail-order -- if it were not for the exclusive rights. The American developer would often refer you to the Finnish reseller. Often neither the program nor the manual were even translated to Finnish. Most of the real work had been done by the developers, but the Finnish distributor was making more money off each box than the original developers did.

Of course the price is not about the value provided. It is about what the Finnish distributor needs to pay the rent, feed the family, and go to the Canary Islands at Christmas, also taking into account the low volume that something like Turbo Pascal or Turbo C would sell in Finland.

I'm guessing the business model is largely unchanged, though competition with other European countries must make some difference. Finland is more of a software producer than it was then, but still not in a league with a place like Germany, numerically. I mean that Finnish software can be excellent but there's not all that much of it on the international market. I've used BestCrypt for years and I have qT, though that was really a Norwegian product that Nokia had the wisdom to buy.

Mook · Post by **Mook** » Thu Dec 17, 2009 9:10 am

brengun wrote:Mook, you,re right, and that,s cool wot you say, but it makes one a little nauseated to witness the phenomenally expensive cars around here in this economy?, just to realise that some folk live in penury as a result of their greed. discuss.

Well, you can see where I live. I watch the Wankers in their BMWs and Audi's speeding doen Mariankatu every morning, late for their meetings.

Saying that, the new prices are probably around the same as the UK at the moment (second hand prices in everything are screwed since no one is willing to sell something for less that they paid for it..)

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