Rip-Off Britain: Halo 3
AN excellent example of a traditional story here at The Telegraph:
Prices for the game in the US start at around $60 (£30), but the same basic edition of Halo 3 in the UK has a recommended retail price of £49.99, although many retailers, such as Amazon and Game, are selling it online for around £39.99.
Yes, it’s Rip Off Britain making an ever popular return. Slightly unfortunately, no one ever goes on to say why things are more expensive in the UK than the US, it’s just generally assumed that manufacturers, distributors and retailers are taking us all for mugs. However, let’s run through the numbers shall we?
That $60 price is the US Amazon one. So that’s already discounted and should be compared to the discounted one here, that £39.99. We also have VAT which is £5.96. So the actual price the retailer is trying to charge us is £34.04…not too different from the £30.00 in the US is it (no, the US price does not include sales taxes)?
So what explains the four pounds then? One is that silly but effective practice of pricing things at 1p under a number. Things are never sold at £40.00, £35.25 (ie, £30 plus VAT), but at £29.99, £39.99 and so on. The other is that it’s more expensive to sell things in the UK. You might not believe it, but we have a restrictive planning system, one which does not allow supermarkets and Big Box stores to pop up just anywhere, everything is thus just that little bit more expensive.
Rip Off Britain might even be true, but if it is it’s the Government doing the rip off, through taxation and regulation.
September 27th, 2007 at 4:01 pm
I think it’s unfair. . Coincidentally I’m playing the first Halo right now, just took a pause to look here. I have no idea when it’s coming to Portugal, but like everything here, it will be expensive. If the price is as high or higher than in Britain, I won’t buy it out of protest and I love Halo. Bungie should have some say in this.
September 28th, 2007 at 3:50 am
….no one ever goes on to say why things are more expensive in the UK than the US….
Untrue!!
If you’d been following my website Rip-Off Britain (www.rip-off.co.uk) for the past 9 years, then you would have discovered the many reasons why most goods, services and certainly housing are cheaper in the USA as compared with Britain. But don’t stop there, why not compare the prices of goods between Britain and mainland Europe - many of which are indeed much cheaper across the channel?
UK taxes including outdated import duties clearly contribute to higher prices on many everyday goods, as do high transportation & fuel costs, commercial rents, property costs, council tax, 150 new stealth taxes and higher than EU & US average interest rates.
The other important factor is created by big business.
Their pricing cartels (supermarkets are the tip of the iceberg!) and higher ratio profit margins on an island economy that doesn’t have the instant ability to cross-border shop, such as occurs in continental Europe, allows big business to manipulate the economy, the pricing of goods and services and enhance their boardroom pay.
WHY DO YOU THINK BIG BUSINESS CALL US ‘TREASURE ISLAND’ ??
…because they know we’re virtually trapped in buying their overpriced goods from within the UK!
UK Customs also have a stranglehold on those who want to freely cross-border shop across the channel. This does not occur in the rest of the EU who regularly border hop to buy their goods where they are cheapest. Austrians shopping in the Czech Republic is a typical example.
There are many other minor reasons why things are more expensive in the UK, but I’ll offer you just one to tease you.
From our experience when we had the ‘British Empire’, we Brits have a long tradition of exploiting other nations for vast profit and gain, mostly to the detriment of other countries and their population.
NOW THERE IS NO BRITISH EMPIRE, WE BRITS HAVE BECOME VERY GOOD AT RIPPING-OFF EACH OTHER. WE ARE INDEED A VERY GREEDY NATION!
It’s about time Britain woke up!
Paul Meyer
Editor, Rip-Off Britain
http://www.rip-off.co.uk