Why are electronics too expensive in the UK comparing with the US?

eloy7

I just moved to the UK, and need to buy some electronic devices (computer, monitor, etc). When I compared the prices in amazon.com and amazon.co.uk (and some other UK retails), the price of a product was equal in number: X dollar in the US, X pounds in the UK. This means the same product is almost 40% more expensive in the UK.

Is it a common thing in the UK? Or, I missed the places in which you guys find bargains for electronics?

forgotmyname

Depends if your looking at the pre or post tax prices.

Buy from China its really cheap.

Flyonthewall

It is common. As forgotmyname has said, tax plays a part. If it's pre tax it's bound to look cheaper than it is.

The US also have some items that have things (substances/chemicals/ingredients) in that banned over here. It's possible it's cheaper to manufacturer the item with the banned thing in, but for health and safety reasons we don't allow it so the same product here has to be made differently and to our standards, raising the cost of it.

Other health and safety factors may also have affects on price.

While I've never looked to see if a bargain I've got over here would be cheaper for someone in the US, it certainly is possible to get electronics (and other items) cheaper. You just have to shop around.

People have their favourite stores or sites, they may claim they always get a bargain there, but there really is no one shop that is always the cheapest for anything. For example, a lot of people love Amazon, they order loads, have Prime to save on shipping and believe they're always getting a great price and Amazon is always one of the cheapest places, if not the cheapest. However, if I just bought everything off Amazon I'd be far worse off! Sometimes it is the cheapest, other times it's not.

forgotmyname

Quite a few threads on here where people have bought from ebay and the iotem arrived from Amazon. Seller drop shipping.

I guess the same happens on Amazon also. Buy something and it gets delivered from another vendor.

You need to shop around.

RFW

There are different things going on with pricing that us mere mortals don't always know about, beyond simple taxes. That said taxes don't help, especially the disparity of taxes from state to state.

In the US, bed linen is way more expensive than in the UK. Food in supermarkets is often more expensive, food in restaurants less so.

One of the things here on electrical items is the testing. EU and UK law require more stringent testing and certification before electrical items can be sold.

nomoneytoday

RFW wrote: »

In the US ... Food in supermarkets is often more expensive, food in restaurants less so.

That's because the customers pay the staff wages in tips

RFW

nomoneytoday wrote: »

That's because the customers pay the staff wages in tips

True. The restaurant culture in the US is quite different to here though. I'd guess that way more people, on average, eat out in the US than here.

I was surprised in a supermarket that a pineapple was 99p in a supermarket here and $7-$8 in the US.

It's swings and roundabouts, we get cheap food and health care and they get cheap Lego, petrol and computers.

[Deleted User]

A couple of years ago I compared toy prices in Asda UK with their US counterpart. Yep even these were available for the same number of dollars as pounds, so were far more expensive in the UK.

forgotmyname

I watch a lot of mad US people on youtube, tickles me they can pop along to Walmart and buy 20 / 25 litres of battery acid off the shelf.

If you need more than a thimblefull here you have to give them some vital organs as proof of ID.

Brooker_Dave

eloy7 wrote: »

This means the same product is almost 40% more expensive in the UK.

This is because if you drop the same product on your hand in the UK, you won't have to give the people in the Ambulance a big wad of money before they take you to the hospital, where you'll need to hand over a bigger wad of money just to be seen.

deanos

Can often be cheaper buying from Amazon abroad, i bought a philips sound system for my TV , cost £230 delivered from Amazon germany, selling for £450 over here

https://www.curiua.com/