The Australia Tax Part V: Putting it all together

In the final article in this series, I'll put together all the information looked at thus far.

In the first article, I used a few case-in-point examples to opine that we do pay substantial price premiums in Australia for a number of products.

In the second article, I looked at exchange rates. It is obvious (though that data is a bit out of date now; the Australian dollar has retreated substantially of late) that the Australian Dollar is a very volatile currency, and retailers may try to build a worst-case scenario into their pricing to avoid having to adjust prices repeatedly.

Then there's the issue of wages. A key issue here is that wages in Australia are high even by developed-country standards, and that they always need to be paid in local currency. So the high cost of labour for Australian-based staff (especially relevant to department stores) will always add a premium to the price. And this premium will be in Australian dollars regardless of how the imported cost of a product changes. This can severely limit the margins by which retailers can adjust their pricing.

Next, I looked at real estate. Using data from CBRE in that article, it is easy to conclude that rents in Australia are very high. 

Lastly, the issue of whether the Australian consumer can actually pay more. In most cases, and having some knowledge of economics (being a qualified accountant myself), this can be a key issue in determining pricing for local markets for a number of products. 

There's a couple of key measures used for the 'average' income. The median income is a good one (I'm not going into the technicalities of why and how). Australian Bureau of Statistics in this publication has the average income at $58,817 per year (scaled from $1128 per week by a factor of 52.143). 

Median income is harder to come by, but this article in ABC RadioNational says it's about $55,000 or thereabouts. They peg the mean average at AU$75,000.

Whichever way we look at it, it's obvious that Australians earn quite a fair bit. According to NATSEM, the average Australian household has a median disposable income of $43,100 in US Dollar equalised terms. More extensive comparison of household incomes is very difficult because of the differences in exchange rates and purchase parity.

Which essentially means this in laymen's terms: we earn a substantial amount of money.

So all-in-all, a volatile exchange rate, high wages, high rents, and the consumer having more disposable income make for a recipe where we end up with more load on out credit cards when buying things. But more income means we don't necessarily have trouble keeping up with it.

Does this mean I endorse or condone high pricing beyond what can be reasonably explained by all these factors? No. And a lot of products are still priced at levels where even all these factors combined dont account for the entire difference in price.

Perfume Review: Parisienne L'Essentiel (Yves Saint Laurent)

Target Gender: Female; Price Bracket (Aus): High ($150/50ml). Category: Vinylic/Leathery Floral. YvesSaintLaurent (YSL) is a brand of L'Oreal.

This is not a review for Parisienne (EDP), Parisienne EDT, Parisienne L'Eau, Parisienne A L'Extreme or Parisienne Edition Singuliere. Review based on wrist and card samples.

Disclosure: No affiliation with any brand or store. 

The 50ml bottle.
The cap is golden in colour.

There is hardly any perfume with a more confusing name lineup in its sub-range (J'Adore from Dior comes to mind). Parisienne, which was itself the younger spawn of the venerable Paris, has itself spawned no less than 5 flankers, and a number of them don't smell anywhere like its siblings. Parisienne L'Essentiel happens to be one of them; YSL could have called this something else and it would have made practically no difference.

This is a mixed floral scent; it has both jasmine and rose, plus iris . The key note for this scent is the "vinylic" accord though. It's not quite a leather note, but does give feelings of plush luggage...it feels almost like what the scent of a highly polished vinylic-leather wallet or bag would be. It's quite a pleasantly different scent from the hordes of purely flowery ones. The base does have a leather note, but it's quite a dry one. It almost feels like smelling what Parisienne would be like, sprayed on top of a fresh-off-the-shelf Oroton handbag, minus the rose.

The top is berries and pink pepper (not anywhere near the sharpness of Elle though), as the berries sweeten and cut through the pepper. The middle is where the vinyl shows up, along with rose and iris. By the time it reaches the base, you'll be getting the scent of rose/iris mixed with dry leather, and vinyl. The leather and vinyl combine to give you a very handbag-esque note; almost like walking into a footwear/luggage store and sniffing their merchandise(!).

While the bottle says "Essence De Parfum", it is more of an "EDP Intense". Lasting power is very high; on my wrist it was detectable after about 9 hours. When not having to survive against dishwashing fluid and soap several times, it would go on for another couple of hours easily. Do be mindful though, that this one has very strong projection. It is not a skin-hugger, and unless you're moderate on the pump, it will leave you quite noticeable.

Ratings:
3.75/5...Strong lasting power, a very different scent, and a very chic one. 

Prices:

RRP: AU$150 for 50ml (original at launch; last seen at around $95 for residual stock, sometimes as low as $52)

UVP: 50ml $3/ml at RRP, as low as $1.04/ml for residual stock

Click for more information on UVP

Stockists: Only seen at David Jones since 2013. Most likely not stocked any more except for clearance, as it was a limited edition in Australia.