Quote:
Originally Posted by Cookie Monster
Price discrimination. They can charge higher prices in different markets and what to keep it that way.
The American market may be large but the median American has a relatively low income compared to many other developed nations hence the lower price.
In other countries prices are higher because that is what the market there can bear. However, they don't want Europeans buying stuff on the cheap from America destroying their cash cow.
Look at DVD regions for another example of this.
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I had heard that the DVD regions were to prevent US DVDs being used/sold in Europe. The US DVDs are released in the US often a couple of months before the actual feature film makes it to theaters in Europe - and the concern was that people would buy the DVD rather than go to theaters...
Doesn't make much sense that Americans have low income relative to Europeans - certainly not Greeks. Although - I don't know why - a significantly lower income seems to stretch much farther here. My only ideas are that:
1) Food (high quality) and eating out costs are incredibly lower (in Greece at least);
2) Housing costs are lower;
3) Automobiles last longer (less snow + road-salt)???;
4) Great vacations (sea, mountains, islands...) are convenient and inexpensive
5) Not as much "recreational shopping" goes on here. Of course, it's not so much fun here where the prices are higher and there is not much of a point to comparison shopping.
My students (college-age) often ask me why I stay in Greece and wouldn't I rather return to the US? I usually say that there are good-and-bad aspects of both. The main difference to me is that we can live very comfortably, even luxuriously, in Greece and have tons of time after work for being together as a family and extended vacations. We had much higher income in the US but very little time and extra income to relax together. When we started a family this became a major issue. I am willing to sacrifice some shopping-luxuries in exchange for more leisure time together as a family.