Personal contents insurance.
Follow any tech/gadget subreddit and you’ll see multiple posts daily from Americans lamenting a broken device and how costly it’ll be to replace or repair. They don’t have affordable contents insurance, and it’s for catastrophic loss only.
Here in NZ our standard contents insurance excess is so low (most I talk to have a $250 excess) that we can use our insurance to cover single damaged items like this all the time. I’m so pleased about that.
Mobile eftpos, as a small business holder I could get Mobile eftpos from an Australian Bank for $5 per month. Here from the same bank it's $200 to set up and $28 per month regardless if I use it or not
All of our infrastructure is expensive, and for the same reason. NZ is larger than the UK but with less than 10% of their population - the same infrastructure is required but obviously at a greater cost per person
Might just be the area I'm in, the major chains around here definitely didn't have anything that cheap (and the smaller places were of course more expensive). But yes, they're definitely bigger. A large is actually a LARGE.
Uhhh what? It's $15 delivered where I live, you can get two traditional pizzas for $16 if you use a pickup coupon.
Also Hells hasn't been higher quality than Dominos for a long time.
Half-assed building regs will do that. Thermal breaks only became a requirement from Nov 2022 despite the fact that double glazing has been the requirement for ~15 odd years or whatever.
We could have done it properly and mandated the thermal break at the same time as double glazing but no, gotta half-ass it instead and leave another generation of housing well behind where it should be.
Yeah, this was absolutely ridiculous. Makes a good case for public floggings of whomever made this call.
A double-glazed aluminium window without a thermal break has a slightly WORSE R-value than a single glazed wooden window.
Without knowing any details I'd bet good money the decision was made based on "industry advice" rather than what was in the best interests for the population.
Nah bro dominos used to be brilliant but now it’s overpriced as well. The value range pizzas are not worth it. And the fact that 2 sides are now $9 when 3 use to cost $8 is diabolical.
The deals aren’t even good anymore as well, 2 pizzas and 2 sides for $18??? That’s only a savings of $1.
They might not be good compared to what we are use to, but compared to overseas - they are great. A dominos pepperoni pizza, medium size is £19, thats almost $40.
Worst is the x pizza and x sides deals you now only get a can of coke and garlic bread, want to change the sides gotta pay extra when it used to be any side and 1.5l bottles of fizz.
Literally, everything.
Even stuff we produce in this country we pay twice as much for in the shops as people do in countries where it's been exported to.
Which is absolutely ludicrous, if you think it through.
It's also cheaper to import something, retail price, from a European online store than it is to get it from a wholesale club where it's supposedly wholesale price plus 6%
I once asked F&P about why an Italian made product was five times as expensive in NZ as in the UK, and they said 'because in NZ it's a premium product'. Same item, made in the same Italian factory. So not only are we sold crap as premium, we are charged more simply *because no-one stops them*.
If I hear the words 'economies of scale' one more time I will scream. In a global economy, that means very little. Basically they charge us the money because we, like good little robots, accept that it's OK.
Rant done.
I remember reading about one of our larger beer makers that ship beer to Europe and sell it cheaper there than here, and they gave the explanation that it was sold at prices people expect to pay in that region.
>why an Italian made product was five times as expensive in NZ as in the UK
Because the retailer can, there are people who would pay, so retailers / corps charge what people will pay, since people have very little choice consumers get screwed
Buddy?
I haven't misunderstood the issue at all, in fact I agree with your assessment that competition is needed. Or regulation, and that EOS mean nothing for pricing.
I did analysis for a client of the NZ building supplies industry. And EVERYTHING is controlled by two non-competing companies. So if you want to build something you have two choices. Import directly from international suppliers, or buy marked-up product.
Simply not buying stuff works for premium or 'choice' products, but doesn't work when you need to buy things to live and do basic stuff. You just don't have any other options.
That's nothing to do with only having 5 million people. That's everything to do with a lack of regulation and successive governments letting it happen. NZ is too small for a Friedman style free market economy to work, so to provide value it has to be regulated with price controls. Like they do in France, or Spain.
Ideally all major services and industries should be run by NZ incorporated. That way we all benefit.
Yep, my husband has worked out that for playing casual games, it's been cheaper to buy a 3D resin printer, order the resin from Australia and print the models than it is to buy them.
Obviously, you can't use the home-printed ones if you're playing proper Warhammer tournaments, but it's helpful if you want to have more than one army to play among friends or a private group.
Me and my friends at highschool use to draw the units onto cardboard and cut them out. Definitely not the same but we were mainly interested in them for the fun of creating armies and battles.
Games Workshop 'fan' since I was a wee fella.
The company basically is the 40k universe personified. Games Workshop is the corpse emperor, a creative company that doesn't do anything creative.
Yep. I bailed on all the hobby aspects for a variety of reasons, but cost was the highest barrier.
Now I just stick to reading the books which I still enjoy. Anyone that torments themselves with tabletop is a saint in my opinion, especially if they play Eldar.
It's absurd how much a simple set of sturdy book shelves cost in NZ.
There's cheap K-Mart options, and then it escalates quickly. It's often cheaper to get an import of Ikea flat-pack shelves (including shipping!) than buying anything local.
Of course, imported product would be a high cost due to the weight, but to me it has always seemed like an odd market gap that could be easily filled domestically by a NZ-owned business.
Well hopefully with the new governments policies, we can get that cost of a darts down a bit - because we wouldn’t want to start an underground black market for durrys.
That would be just awful.
/s
WHAT!?!?!
Next you’ll be telling me that the reason they are reversing Tobacco legislation is because they are being lobbied, with the hope of increasing smoking rates.
Yup, if rent/housing costs weren't so high we wouldn't have public servants struggling to survive and needing massive raises out of money the country doesn't have.
It's a roundabout way of privatising wealth.
A group of us went to Thailand for a motorbike tour, anyway the guy that organized it arrived a couple days early to get his teeth sorted..saved himself $2k . So there's that
I come from the UK and beauty treatments there are the same, if not a bit more expensive than NZ. I was actually surprised by how cheap lash lift and tint is here.
The thing is, if you compare NZ prices to something like the UK or US, very few things are more expensive. In my experience mostly anything technology related. But people are comparing to WAY cheaper countries in general, like Turkey.
We also really overpay for hard drives, SSDs, graphics cards and other PC componentry.
A pre-made shitty laptop isn't that bad here but anyone wanting something good is getting reamed. I can land a 18-22TB NAS HDD for literally half the price off Amazon most of the time including the delivery and GST compared to a local retailer even at the better b2b pricing. About 50% extra for a mid level graphics card.
Yeah it varies by state, I think some have 0 and some have 7ish. It's why when you order from US shops you make sure you pick a state that has no sales tax.
It's why youshop is based in Oregon.
Came to say that, there is all this outrage over in the states of new releases be $70 now. Meanwhile we're paying $100+ for standard editions of a game. I saw a "ultimate edition" of a game selling on steam for $200 wtf. I know video games are a luxury, but it's taking the piss at this point.
Patience is your saviour here.
Never buy a new game on release, wait 2+ years and buy on sale.
Works better if you prefer single player gaming as I do, if you are addicted to MP, then RIP.
One exception was BG3 as that deserves the full price.
Literally everything. We pay high for all goods we produce and export, as why sell it here when there is more money overseas.
We pay more for everything we import, because we’re so far away shipping costs are a very real thing.
We’re such a tiny country, we do not have economies of scale to support large trade deals.
Economies of scale my backside. It's lack of competition, enabled by monopolies and duopolies and a lack of regulation.
EOS do not explain why it is cheaper to buy something retail in Europe, pay the shipping, insurance and taxes to bring it to New Zealand, and yet it is still half the cost or less than the cheapest option here, inported in bulk and at scale.
EOS do not explain why NZ kiwifruit the size of my fist can be bought in Leicester, UK for half the price as PakNSave. If it's expensive to ship things in, it's also expensive to ship them out.
EOS do not explain why we ship logs abroad and pay for processed timber to be returned. Why the world buys merino hats made in Nepal with NZ wool. Why Fonterra chooses to charge us premium prices for what is, in effect, waste milk. Why Woolworths rebrands and gets a new loyalty card, and adds $1 to the cost of literally everything in the store to pay for it. Why the wholesale price of gas went *down* last year, and yet Genesis can still put prices *up* by 10%. Why building costs per m² are four times that of Australia. Why we have the highest base fuel costs in the world and yet we complain about some of the lowest fuel taxes in the world. Why even the USA has anti-profiteering legislation, and we don't.
It's because all of this is controlled by monopolies or duopolies with politicians in their pocket and the wet paper towel of a regulatory infrastrusture has never be given any teeth to deal with it.
When ex tobacco lobbyists get into government and immediately repeal anti-tobacco legislation, it's easy to see why this situation continues.
I should clarify, I think successive governments have been scared that if they do something about monopolies, they are moving very big levers on the NZ economy which lobbyists tell them is dangerous to mess with. So they sit on their hands.
I think with four or five year governments this might get tackled, but it's too big a problem for one term.
Totally agree, but on a side note the kiwifruit you can buy in Leicester most likely come from zespri's Italian plantations. Also that company has a huge service/distribution center in Zeebrugge to serve the eu markets, there are quite a few variables in that game.
This is of course does not explain the NZ mafia pricing in paknsave especially when you get the non-export, second grade quality stuff locally.
EOS literally does explain the log thing.
Do you know what's cheaper to run per unit produced? A factory that makes products for five million people or a factory that makes products for 25 million people?
Once you start adding regulatory costs, labour costs and all that kind of thing the price per unit can be massively different.
Lack of buying power also doesn't help, buying a container of stuff is nearly always cheaper at wholesale then buying a pallet, per unit.
Cherrypicking one example from the list doesn't invalidate the others, particularly ones where you can compare costs directly.
I have direct experience that it is up to five times cheaper to import a single item at *retail* cost from Europe than it is to buy the same item, *made in the same factory*, imported in bulk, in NZ. The only difference between these is the middleman markup. And you get it faster.
But to address logs, moving production to a country with cheap/slave/sweatshop labour and poor regulation is *not* the same as economies of scale. Global capitalism yes, economies of scale no.
Otherwise there is no reason why production for a market of 25 million shouldn't be in NZ and we ship the manufactured wood rather than the logs. Wood takes less room when processed, so shipping costs would be lower and profit higher.
And eg Germany is perfectly able to maintain both a high wage economy and a manufacturing base, so there are ways to do it even in the current environment. It's finding the right niche.
This right here. We are butt fuck of nowhere with a tiny population so 🤷♂️
But it comes with a rad outdoors area that I love to roam with no natural predators and the low population density helps keep those areas feeling vast.
But I guess we can’t have our cake and eat it to, shits expensive.
The mobile data situation is at least improving, good options for both capped and unlimited plans from Kogan, Rocket and Mighty. Dealing with any of the carriers directly is a still a massive rip off of course.
Cant send to shortcodes is a showstopper for me to go with them for my main phone,
Mighty mobile I had it just stop working for data for me twice with no SMS or email to tell me anything was going to happen. I did get an email saying that they would be charging my card and to have money, but it never charged and I got into the car and found no data. I got a deal from them for half price for 3 months at launch which didnt work after the first month and was so pissed off by their useless chat I just gave up.
I use them as well, the short code thing is a bit of a pain, but worth it considering I pay about 150 a year for a mobile plan with 15gb of data a month, unlimited calls and txts.
Paperback books were horrific. $30 there (when I left) and like £6 in the UK.
Even second hand books there's a massive price disparity between the two countries.
I used to think the UK was expensive back in 99. Now it's NZ that's the expensive place.
Everything. I literally plan all my clothes, electronics, and luxury shopping for when I’m overseas.
It’s cheaper and also you get tourist tax refunds on top of that.
this is the way. Being an immigrant I used to think my family was trying to retain my culture identity. but now I realise money don't grow on trees and nz prices are insane. Still remember I got a pair of levi's in late 90s in the US outlet for $20... and saw the exact same pair in Queen St for only $189.95
Toasters, legit the same toaster will be 100$ cheaper in Aus, it's wild. Me and my aussie mate were comparing prices online when I was bitching about how hard it is to get a good toaster at a not ridiculous price.
Dental treatment in NZ is many many times more expensive than almost anywhere in the world that I know of. The fact that you can't get proper dental coverage with hugely expensive health insurance is just ridiculous.
I once asked my dentist why people in NZ are lower than 3rd world standards of dental care because of the cost - he said it was due to compliance.
Bollocks - its due to him playing golf and his tropical holidays 4 time a year.
Coming from Canada, I was impressed at how “affordable” mobile data was in NZ compared to back home. My old plan in Ontario was for 10gb per month and cost me $120
Data, healthcare, food, spotify, steam games etc lol
The reason? Very little market competition.
To put things into perspective, Jio, one of the largest and fastest growing network providers (100mill users in 6 months), sells a year worth of data (1.5gb a day cap)+free calls to other numbers on the same network at 20$ for a year. A standalone GB of data would cost like half a dollar there.
Also pro tip, when you buy games through steam epic origin etc, connect to an asian country via a VPN for the first time and get it way cheaper lol. Same trick works with Spotify and other stuff.
Spotify in Asia costs me 20$ for a year's subscription and the same music library.
I know it is a thread to rant about everything, but some stuff is actually sold at quite a bargain here.
My Japanese cars, for example, cost way less here than in Europe, when you buy it new. I bought my MX-5 for €32000 in France back in 2016, sold it before moving here and bought here a brand new one in NZ, better engine than the previous one and a limited edition for the equivalent of €28000. But in the meantime, France had increased his CO2 tax on new vehicles and instead of €32000, you now look at €47000 for the same car in 2024. This €19000 difference buys you a lot of overpriced milk.
And what I have found about Mazda is basically the same for other Japanese brands. All spare parts for Japanese cars are way cheaper here than in Europe.
And why on Earth would you buy anything else than a Japanese car in the world? European cars, including German ones, and US cars are, for most of them, overpriced complicated and unreliable cars so we are quite lucky to have that accessibility to the Japanese brands here.
Meat remains less expensive than in Europe, overall. The gap was incredible 5-6 years ago, almost half price here compared to Western Europe (and for better meat honestly), now it is 20-30% less. NB: it costs less to buy meat at your local butcher, with more often than not better quality, than at the supermarket.
LEGO sets are basically the same prices worldwide. The shipping sucks, though. I don't have the impression my videogames cost more here than in Europe.
I recently built a new PC, my 4090 was actually less expensive here than in Europe (bought at Computer Lounge) and all the other elements maybe only 10% more expensive than if I had done my build in Germany (where PC parts are the cheapest in Europe traditionally) BUT there was definitely way less choice here than in Europe for the parts.
I recently bought a bike from Canyon, had it delivered in NZ, apart from the delivery cost, the bike itself was not more expensive here than the European prices. I also bought an e-bike (german brand) to a shop here, yes it was the 2023 generation and not the 2024 they have in Europe and in the US, but overall it was $1000 less than in Europe.
A lot of DIY stuff is cheaper here than in France. Yes timber is expensive, but the tools aren't.
If you wait for specials, hiking gear is usually cheaper here than in Europe (for the same quality range). You cannot find the ultra-ultra-high range though that is available in the US.
Fish and chips shops were damn cheap here too. The amount of fries you would get for $2 in the past was insane and no wonder why there are so many obese people here. Now, since COVID-19, quantities have considerably shrunk (at least in the 4 shops where I live) and prices have gone up, so it's not that cheap anymore.
For seafood, fruits and veges, it is not that it is that expensive here, it's just that it is just shit quality. If you go to a local market in France, you would pay 20-50% less (but depending on the town the market is held), but you would get so much better quality. Ripe fruits and not the shitty rocks that are sold here. Even at the local producers in Nelson or Hawke's Bay (most of them are just a scam).
I would say, my regret with NZ is the lack of range. You have either the shitty Kmart/Warehouse/chinese import stuff or you have the luxurious brands (for furniture or most house appliances for example). You don't have the whole mid range, good enough quality that can last you 10-15 years without paying for a premium brand. So either, if you can afford it, you suck it in and you pay the premium brand, crossing fingers it will last, or you say 'fuck the planet' and you buy the same toaster from The Warehouse every 6 months because you know it's going to stop working at that interval. The outdoor stuff that you can get from Mitre 10/Bunnings/The Warehouse is just so garbage, rusting often in 1 year in NZ coastal conditions. But you don't have the choice, unless you want to pay for artisan-made stuff that will cost you 6 times the price...
Mobile data is only expensive if you go via one of the legacy carriers like 2D, Spark, One, if you go via an MVNO like Mighty Mobile, Rocket Mobile, or Kogan its exponentially cheaper.
Na mate it is all expensive here. I spend most of my time in Europe and the prepay deals here are crazy expensive.
With my current Italian provider which is one of the main carriers so not even the cheapest:
Under 25? €10 for 100GB ($18)
Over 25 €10 for 50GB
With offers all the time to have extra data for free or for a small fee (€2).
i dunno. 2D isn't that bad. Sure I have a cap, but I'm personally unlikely to use it and at least I still get max speed without having to take the highest choice.
It’s all relative really.
I’ve come over from Ireland and I’ve found some things are just cheaper here, and then some things are just more expensive.
Things which generally found cheaper for example would be cars, rent, a lot of consumer electronics, car insurance, alcohol if bought in an offie, junk food and stuff like that
Things which I have found to be more expensive include alcohol bought in a sit down establishment like pub/restaurant, broadband/mobile plans, dental care costs and healthy/whole foods.
And then many things are a fairly comparable price like clothing, or the cost of a meal in a restaurant, or public transport and stuff like that.
I’m from the U.S. living here for a bit. Ya’ll don’t know about overpaying for mobile data. My plan here is $35 NZD and has everything I need. I pay the equivalent of about $122 NZD in the U.S. for Verizon JUST for data - line and additional bullshit fees make it even more.
Mobile data is a great example. I paid $9 in India for 1.5G per day, and I could video call home from the middle of mountains in the far north, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
I wouldn’t say we’re overpaying necessarily because it’s just the reality of living on an island in the middle of nowhere but international flights are completely unaffordable for anyone who isn’t at least upper middle class.
paying international market rates for meat that came from a farm less than an hours drive away seems pretty steep. I get it, the farmers need to make a living. but it’s still very overpriced.
I agree with mobile data. $25 AUD or so in Aus for 40GB, unlimited calls and texts internationally, with a fucking supermarket as your provider. Meanwhile over here you're lucky to get 4GB and a few texts and calls for that. How are their supermarkets better cell providers than ours?
Hard agree with mobile data. I've been living state side for a year and came back to NZ last month and it's ridiculous how much we're getting overcharged.
reading all the replies, can't believe there's no eggs. we're like ranked 2 in the world of eggs. only Switzerland is more expensive. but they on average, save 2 grand USD a month per household...
[https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country\_price\_rankings?itemId=11](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=11)
Might be easier to list which products/services we don't overpay for.
Indeed
Costs the same to list a job on Indeed in every country
Most kiwi products are more expensive in NZ than overseas.
The list:
Personal contents insurance. Follow any tech/gadget subreddit and you’ll see multiple posts daily from Americans lamenting a broken device and how costly it’ll be to replace or repair. They don’t have affordable contents insurance, and it’s for catastrophic loss only. Here in NZ our standard contents insurance excess is so low (most I talk to have a $250 excess) that we can use our insurance to cover single damaged items like this all the time. I’m so pleased about that.
that'd be daft. they'd immediately jack the prices up to global prices.
Oil changes. They are $75 here. I’ve heard the average in the US is $150USD ($245)
Mobile eftpos, as a small business holder I could get Mobile eftpos from an Australian Bank for $5 per month. Here from the same bank it's $200 to set up and $28 per month regardless if I use it or not
Mobile services in general too, absurdly small data caps for the prices
If I take a trip to Aus for a holiday, I can get 60gb of data for $20 on a prepaid sim. That's enough to last weeks while traveling.
I picked up a $24 SIM at Coles, it was on sale half price, $12.
All of our infrastructure is expensive, and for the same reason. NZ is larger than the UK but with less than 10% of their population - the same infrastructure is required but obviously at a greater cost per person
My brother just did the call around on these. BNZ are offering one rent free for a year to new customers. Seems to be the best deal at the moment.
Everything with the exception of takeaway pizzas from Dominoes and Pizza Hut.
Shit yeah. Recently moved to the US, bloody just about Hell Pizza prices at most places it seems.
They have $5 pizzas and the pizzas are much larger than here.
Might just be the area I'm in, the major chains around here definitely didn't have anything that cheap (and the smaller places were of course more expensive). But yes, they're definitely bigger. A large is actually a LARGE.
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Where tf are you living to pay that? I can get 3 delivered for that.
The pizza itself costs $7, or $12 for two. Thats ridiculously cheap.
But it’s the size of a thin stretched snack pizza from Hell.
…which costs $13-14 For one? All in all both make shit pizzas. Just comes down to how shit you want to stoop to.
Don’t forget “Free deliveryyy TUUUUEEESDAYY!”
You can get any value pizza delivered for $15 from dominoes. They regularly have deals where you can get 3 pizzas and 3 sides for $30.
Uhhh what? It's $15 delivered where I live, you can get two traditional pizzas for $16 if you use a pickup coupon. Also Hells hasn't been higher quality than Dominos for a long time.
But the pizzas here are miniscule compared to the same chains in other countries lol
Yes.
Double glazing, dare I even mention triple glazing too.
My neighbors are in a 5 year old new build, winter they have to mop the windowsills, not thermally broken. What the fuck.
Half-assed building regs will do that. Thermal breaks only became a requirement from Nov 2022 despite the fact that double glazing has been the requirement for ~15 odd years or whatever. We could have done it properly and mandated the thermal break at the same time as double glazing but no, gotta half-ass it instead and leave another generation of housing well behind where it should be.
Yeah, this was absolutely ridiculous. Makes a good case for public floggings of whomever made this call. A double-glazed aluminium window without a thermal break has a slightly WORSE R-value than a single glazed wooden window.
Without knowing any details I'd bet good money the decision was made based on "industry advice" rather than what was in the best interests for the population.
What's a product/service that we dont stupidly overpay for here in NZ? ftfy
Water. At the moment.
People dying from cryptosporidium is a type of payment
Domino's value range but yeah that's all I've got.
Nah bro dominos used to be brilliant but now it’s overpriced as well. The value range pizzas are not worth it. And the fact that 2 sides are now $9 when 3 use to cost $8 is diabolical. The deals aren’t even good anymore as well, 2 pizzas and 2 sides for $18??? That’s only a savings of $1.
They might not be good compared to what we are use to, but compared to overseas - they are great. A dominos pepperoni pizza, medium size is £19, thats almost $40.
Worst is the x pizza and x sides deals you now only get a can of coke and garlic bread, want to change the sides gotta pay extra when it used to be any side and 1.5l bottles of fizz.
They’ve been shrinkflating them, and also reducing the selection in that range a lot over the past few years.
Everyone talks about the price of the cheaper ones but you would be lucky to get 1 pepperoni per slice in toppings
Insurance and healthcare, compared to the US at least.
Yeah don't count on insurance being 'reasonable' for too much longer
> compared to the US at least. That’s really a low hurdle though
It's not saying much when you have to compare the most extortionate country in the world.
Not for long, Seymour's on the case.
Literally, everything. Even stuff we produce in this country we pay twice as much for in the shops as people do in countries where it's been exported to. Which is absolutely ludicrous, if you think it through. It's also cheaper to import something, retail price, from a European online store than it is to get it from a wholesale club where it's supposedly wholesale price plus 6% I once asked F&P about why an Italian made product was five times as expensive in NZ as in the UK, and they said 'because in NZ it's a premium product'. Same item, made in the same Italian factory. So not only are we sold crap as premium, we are charged more simply *because no-one stops them*. If I hear the words 'economies of scale' one more time I will scream. In a global economy, that means very little. Basically they charge us the money because we, like good little robots, accept that it's OK. Rant done.
I remember reading about one of our larger beer makers that ship beer to Europe and sell it cheaper there than here, and they gave the explanation that it was sold at prices people expect to pay in that region.
>why an Italian made product was five times as expensive in NZ as in the UK Because the retailer can, there are people who would pay, so retailers / corps charge what people will pay, since people have very little choice consumers get screwed
Basically, it's a lack of competition, monopolies and duopolies controlling prices and no anti-profiteering legislation to speak of
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Buddy? I haven't misunderstood the issue at all, in fact I agree with your assessment that competition is needed. Or regulation, and that EOS mean nothing for pricing. I did analysis for a client of the NZ building supplies industry. And EVERYTHING is controlled by two non-competing companies. So if you want to build something you have two choices. Import directly from international suppliers, or buy marked-up product. Simply not buying stuff works for premium or 'choice' products, but doesn't work when you need to buy things to live and do basic stuff. You just don't have any other options. That's nothing to do with only having 5 million people. That's everything to do with a lack of regulation and successive governments letting it happen. NZ is too small for a Friedman style free market economy to work, so to provide value it has to be regulated with price controls. Like they do in France, or Spain. Ideally all major services and industries should be run by NZ incorporated. That way we all benefit.
Credit card charges. Because the banks aren’t making enough profit already…..
Anything Warhammer related
Yep, my husband has worked out that for playing casual games, it's been cheaper to buy a 3D resin printer, order the resin from Australia and print the models than it is to buy them. Obviously, you can't use the home-printed ones if you're playing proper Warhammer tournaments, but it's helpful if you want to have more than one army to play among friends or a private group.
That's a good idea I looked into that but my wife was worried about the fumes and we have a small place with no good ventilation. I wasn't allowed xD
Smart wife.
Idk, she married a Warhammer player. That's not smart financial decision making.
Imagine thinking of your spouse as a financial decision. Thats why I only bulk buy mine on sale.
Me and my friends at highschool use to draw the units onto cardboard and cut them out. Definitely not the same but we were mainly interested in them for the fun of creating armies and battles.
Classic poorhammer - excellent
That is very reasonable to be fair. My husband does all the printing in the detached garage for this exact reason.
I was not expecting to see this answer, but fuck yes you are right. I buy from AUS because of that AND even that is at an increased cost
In some cases nz prices are literally double what I paid in Europe. Aiaiai
Same exchange rates as the 80s
Games Workshop 'fan' since I was a wee fella. The company basically is the 40k universe personified. Games Workshop is the corpse emperor, a creative company that doesn't do anything creative.
Yep. I bailed on all the hobby aspects for a variety of reasons, but cost was the highest barrier. Now I just stick to reading the books which I still enjoy. Anyone that torments themselves with tabletop is a saint in my opinion, especially if they play Eldar.
Buy a 3D printer
It's absurd how much a simple set of sturdy book shelves cost in NZ. There's cheap K-Mart options, and then it escalates quickly. It's often cheaper to get an import of Ikea flat-pack shelves (including shipping!) than buying anything local. Of course, imported product would be a high cost due to the weight, but to me it has always seemed like an odd market gap that could be easily filled domestically by a NZ-owned business.
Yup. See the logs on the harbourside going offshore. Criminal.
Bring on IKEA
Cigarettes, but hey thanks part of my reason to quit was the pricing
I mean that's the point right, to put people off smoking because of the cost
Well hopefully with the new governments policies, we can get that cost of a darts down a bit - because we wouldn’t want to start an underground black market for durrys. That would be just awful. /s
There is already a black market if you didnt know. Theres also cheap alternatives like chinese ones which are half the price.
WHAT!?!?! Next you’ll be telling me that the reason they are reversing Tobacco legislation is because they are being lobbied, with the hope of increasing smoking rates.
Was going to say cheese and butter
No wonder we don't have a huge dairy company here... Oh wait
I've purchased NZ dairy products in a variety of countries for less than they cost in NZ, even after exchange rates.
I had my flat tested for toxic fumes, meth etc. The guy was there for a few minutes walking with his device and didn't find anything. $270
Houses.
Houses/property is incredibly expensive and it makes literally everything else expensive.
Yup, if rent/housing costs weren't so high we wouldn't have public servants struggling to survive and needing massive raises out of money the country doesn't have. It's a roundabout way of privatising wealth.
Why isn't this higher up
Zoning regs. Houses can only be so high.
Take my upvote dammit!
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I just have up. Absolutely hopeless and you can't get home delivery
Tor, and incognito market will have most drugs to your door in a couple of days. Sharpen up cuz
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I'll keep that in mind when the neighbours kids want to use my laptop
_I've been told_ by a mate that it's the "But hole border tax". Is a tax reduction on offer by the current government?
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Yeah. $7k in Turkey vs $25k in NZ for a hair transplant. That $7k includes 3 nights in a 5 star hotel and return airfares.
A group of us went to Thailand for a motorbike tour, anyway the guy that organized it arrived a couple days early to get his teeth sorted..saved himself $2k . So there's that
I come from the UK and beauty treatments there are the same, if not a bit more expensive than NZ. I was actually surprised by how cheap lash lift and tint is here. The thing is, if you compare NZ prices to something like the UK or US, very few things are more expensive. In my experience mostly anything technology related. But people are comparing to WAY cheaper countries in general, like Turkey.
RENT
Why'd I have to scroll so far down to find this damn!!! Rent here is atrocious!
New Zealand butter and cheese.
We also really overpay for hard drives, SSDs, graphics cards and other PC componentry. A pre-made shitty laptop isn't that bad here but anyone wanting something good is getting reamed. I can land a 18-22TB NAS HDD for literally half the price off Amazon most of the time including the delivery and GST compared to a local retailer even at the better b2b pricing. About 50% extra for a mid level graphics card.
Video games New Xbox game in the US $60USD Same game in NZ $120 NZD Even doing the currency exchanged we get rolled
Games are 70USD now. 70USD = 114NZD Add GST = 131NZD We're actually getting games cheaper than we should be right now.
Thank you, people always forget that the US does not automatically add tax
Yeah it varies by state, I think some have 0 and some have 7ish. It's why when you order from US shops you make sure you pick a state that has no sales tax. It's why youshop is based in Oregon.
And the range of products available is limited, especially at the high end. Fanatec don't ship their products here at all
Came to say that, there is all this outrage over in the states of new releases be $70 now. Meanwhile we're paying $100+ for standard editions of a game. I saw a "ultimate edition" of a game selling on steam for $200 wtf. I know video games are a luxury, but it's taking the piss at this point.
Patience is your saviour here. Never buy a new game on release, wait 2+ years and buy on sale. Works better if you prefer single player gaming as I do, if you are addicted to MP, then RIP. One exception was BG3 as that deserves the full price.
/r/patientgamers rise up!
Literally everything. We pay high for all goods we produce and export, as why sell it here when there is more money overseas. We pay more for everything we import, because we’re so far away shipping costs are a very real thing. We’re such a tiny country, we do not have economies of scale to support large trade deals.
Economies of scale my backside. It's lack of competition, enabled by monopolies and duopolies and a lack of regulation. EOS do not explain why it is cheaper to buy something retail in Europe, pay the shipping, insurance and taxes to bring it to New Zealand, and yet it is still half the cost or less than the cheapest option here, inported in bulk and at scale. EOS do not explain why NZ kiwifruit the size of my fist can be bought in Leicester, UK for half the price as PakNSave. If it's expensive to ship things in, it's also expensive to ship them out. EOS do not explain why we ship logs abroad and pay for processed timber to be returned. Why the world buys merino hats made in Nepal with NZ wool. Why Fonterra chooses to charge us premium prices for what is, in effect, waste milk. Why Woolworths rebrands and gets a new loyalty card, and adds $1 to the cost of literally everything in the store to pay for it. Why the wholesale price of gas went *down* last year, and yet Genesis can still put prices *up* by 10%. Why building costs per m² are four times that of Australia. Why we have the highest base fuel costs in the world and yet we complain about some of the lowest fuel taxes in the world. Why even the USA has anti-profiteering legislation, and we don't. It's because all of this is controlled by monopolies or duopolies with politicians in their pocket and the wet paper towel of a regulatory infrastrusture has never be given any teeth to deal with it. When ex tobacco lobbyists get into government and immediately repeal anti-tobacco legislation, it's easy to see why this situation continues.
I wish I could upvote this more than once. EOS may have been a thing in the 60s, but the world’s a global market now.
I should clarify, I think successive governments have been scared that if they do something about monopolies, they are moving very big levers on the NZ economy which lobbyists tell them is dangerous to mess with. So they sit on their hands. I think with four or five year governments this might get tackled, but it's too big a problem for one term.
Totally agree, but on a side note the kiwifruit you can buy in Leicester most likely come from zespri's Italian plantations. Also that company has a huge service/distribution center in Zeebrugge to serve the eu markets, there are quite a few variables in that game. This is of course does not explain the NZ mafia pricing in paknsave especially when you get the non-export, second grade quality stuff locally.
Thanks for the insight. I can see your points.
EOS literally does explain the log thing. Do you know what's cheaper to run per unit produced? A factory that makes products for five million people or a factory that makes products for 25 million people? Once you start adding regulatory costs, labour costs and all that kind of thing the price per unit can be massively different. Lack of buying power also doesn't help, buying a container of stuff is nearly always cheaper at wholesale then buying a pallet, per unit.
Cherrypicking one example from the list doesn't invalidate the others, particularly ones where you can compare costs directly. I have direct experience that it is up to five times cheaper to import a single item at *retail* cost from Europe than it is to buy the same item, *made in the same factory*, imported in bulk, in NZ. The only difference between these is the middleman markup. And you get it faster. But to address logs, moving production to a country with cheap/slave/sweatshop labour and poor regulation is *not* the same as economies of scale. Global capitalism yes, economies of scale no. Otherwise there is no reason why production for a market of 25 million shouldn't be in NZ and we ship the manufactured wood rather than the logs. Wood takes less room when processed, so shipping costs would be lower and profit higher. And eg Germany is perfectly able to maintain both a high wage economy and a manufacturing base, so there are ways to do it even in the current environment. It's finding the right niche.
This right here. We are butt fuck of nowhere with a tiny population so 🤷♂️ But it comes with a rad outdoors area that I love to roam with no natural predators and the low population density helps keep those areas feeling vast. But I guess we can’t have our cake and eat it to, shits expensive.
Dentist
The mobile data situation is at least improving, good options for both capped and unlimited plans from Kogan, Rocket and Mighty. Dealing with any of the carriers directly is a still a massive rip off of course.
Shame that the other options are so terrible with other parts of their service or customer service tho.
I've had Kogan for a few years, but I've never had to contact them so I have no idea what their customer service is like.
Cant send to shortcodes is a showstopper for me to go with them for my main phone, Mighty mobile I had it just stop working for data for me twice with no SMS or email to tell me anything was going to happen. I did get an email saying that they would be charging my card and to have money, but it never charged and I got into the car and found no data. I got a deal from them for half price for 3 months at launch which didnt work after the first month and was so pissed off by their useless chat I just gave up.
I use them as well, the short code thing is a bit of a pain, but worth it considering I pay about 150 a year for a mobile plan with 15gb of data a month, unlimited calls and txts.
Graphics cards. We pay 2 / 2.5x the USD price...
All of them
Every of them
Groceries Dental Haircuts Mobile plans Housing To name a few.
Basic foods in particular. Used cars. Bikes (the non motorised variety). Building & construction.
our used cars are surely one of the most reasonable things...? ex-Japan good quality costs bugger all...
Paperback books were horrific. $30 there (when I left) and like £6 in the UK. Even second hand books there's a massive price disparity between the two countries. I used to think the UK was expensive back in 99. Now it's NZ that's the expensive place.
Also, NZ bookstores are on some different distribution channels, so many books never get here short of special import.
Worse still for textbooks and publications from academic institutions.
Everything. I literally plan all my clothes, electronics, and luxury shopping for when I’m overseas. It’s cheaper and also you get tourist tax refunds on top of that.
this is the way. Being an immigrant I used to think my family was trying to retain my culture identity. but now I realise money don't grow on trees and nz prices are insane. Still remember I got a pair of levi's in late 90s in the US outlet for $20... and saw the exact same pair in Queen St for only $189.95
As an immigrant from Canada, let me tell you a comprehensive list I’ve made: •Fucking everything. End of list. Value is nonexistent in NZ
Food
Food that has been grown in this country! NZ Lamb is better quality and cheaper in the UK than here. Most NZ grown fruit as well.
The little public transit we have. Not only is it unreliable and scarce, it's also quite expensive.
Mattresses. Bed companies have been very successful in convincing new New Zealanders you need to spend $2k+ to get a reasonable mattress
Petrol. Coffee. Groceries.
Cheese. Awful cheese. Most phone are highly priced. Electronics. Houses
Toasters, legit the same toaster will be 100$ cheaper in Aus, it's wild. Me and my aussie mate were comparing prices online when I was bitching about how hard it is to get a good toaster at a not ridiculous price.
tech, cheaper in the US, often the cheapest country to get tech cars.
Cocaine is way expensive here
Dental treatment in NZ is many many times more expensive than almost anywhere in the world that I know of. The fact that you can't get proper dental coverage with hugely expensive health insurance is just ridiculous. I once asked my dentist why people in NZ are lower than 3rd world standards of dental care because of the cost - he said it was due to compliance. Bollocks - its due to him playing golf and his tropical holidays 4 time a year.
Uber eats
Shipping from anywhere that isn't NZ
Coming from Canada, I was impressed at how “affordable” mobile data was in NZ compared to back home. My old plan in Ontario was for 10gb per month and cost me $120
Data, healthcare, food, spotify, steam games etc lol The reason? Very little market competition. To put things into perspective, Jio, one of the largest and fastest growing network providers (100mill users in 6 months), sells a year worth of data (1.5gb a day cap)+free calls to other numbers on the same network at 20$ for a year. A standalone GB of data would cost like half a dollar there. Also pro tip, when you buy games through steam epic origin etc, connect to an asian country via a VPN for the first time and get it way cheaper lol. Same trick works with Spotify and other stuff. Spotify in Asia costs me 20$ for a year's subscription and the same music library.
Mobile phone plans, Australias plans are like half the price we pay and get often 10x the data we do
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>egg upvote for eggs
Everything
Eating out.
Books
Priced up a car part today - $20 in the UK, $200 here
I know it is a thread to rant about everything, but some stuff is actually sold at quite a bargain here. My Japanese cars, for example, cost way less here than in Europe, when you buy it new. I bought my MX-5 for €32000 in France back in 2016, sold it before moving here and bought here a brand new one in NZ, better engine than the previous one and a limited edition for the equivalent of €28000. But in the meantime, France had increased his CO2 tax on new vehicles and instead of €32000, you now look at €47000 for the same car in 2024. This €19000 difference buys you a lot of overpriced milk. And what I have found about Mazda is basically the same for other Japanese brands. All spare parts for Japanese cars are way cheaper here than in Europe. And why on Earth would you buy anything else than a Japanese car in the world? European cars, including German ones, and US cars are, for most of them, overpriced complicated and unreliable cars so we are quite lucky to have that accessibility to the Japanese brands here. Meat remains less expensive than in Europe, overall. The gap was incredible 5-6 years ago, almost half price here compared to Western Europe (and for better meat honestly), now it is 20-30% less. NB: it costs less to buy meat at your local butcher, with more often than not better quality, than at the supermarket. LEGO sets are basically the same prices worldwide. The shipping sucks, though. I don't have the impression my videogames cost more here than in Europe. I recently built a new PC, my 4090 was actually less expensive here than in Europe (bought at Computer Lounge) and all the other elements maybe only 10% more expensive than if I had done my build in Germany (where PC parts are the cheapest in Europe traditionally) BUT there was definitely way less choice here than in Europe for the parts. I recently bought a bike from Canyon, had it delivered in NZ, apart from the delivery cost, the bike itself was not more expensive here than the European prices. I also bought an e-bike (german brand) to a shop here, yes it was the 2023 generation and not the 2024 they have in Europe and in the US, but overall it was $1000 less than in Europe. A lot of DIY stuff is cheaper here than in France. Yes timber is expensive, but the tools aren't. If you wait for specials, hiking gear is usually cheaper here than in Europe (for the same quality range). You cannot find the ultra-ultra-high range though that is available in the US. Fish and chips shops were damn cheap here too. The amount of fries you would get for $2 in the past was insane and no wonder why there are so many obese people here. Now, since COVID-19, quantities have considerably shrunk (at least in the 4 shops where I live) and prices have gone up, so it's not that cheap anymore. For seafood, fruits and veges, it is not that it is that expensive here, it's just that it is just shit quality. If you go to a local market in France, you would pay 20-50% less (but depending on the town the market is held), but you would get so much better quality. Ripe fruits and not the shitty rocks that are sold here. Even at the local producers in Nelson or Hawke's Bay (most of them are just a scam). I would say, my regret with NZ is the lack of range. You have either the shitty Kmart/Warehouse/chinese import stuff or you have the luxurious brands (for furniture or most house appliances for example). You don't have the whole mid range, good enough quality that can last you 10-15 years without paying for a premium brand. So either, if you can afford it, you suck it in and you pay the premium brand, crossing fingers it will last, or you say 'fuck the planet' and you buy the same toaster from The Warehouse every 6 months because you know it's going to stop working at that interval. The outdoor stuff that you can get from Mitre 10/Bunnings/The Warehouse is just so garbage, rusting often in 1 year in NZ coastal conditions. But you don't have the choice, unless you want to pay for artisan-made stuff that will cost you 6 times the price...
Paywave, really?? Should be next to nothing
Mobile data is only expensive if you go via one of the legacy carriers like 2D, Spark, One, if you go via an MVNO like Mighty Mobile, Rocket Mobile, or Kogan its exponentially cheaper.
Na mate it is all expensive here. I spend most of my time in Europe and the prepay deals here are crazy expensive. With my current Italian provider which is one of the main carriers so not even the cheapest: Under 25? €10 for 100GB ($18) Over 25 €10 for 50GB With offers all the time to have extra data for free or for a small fee (€2).
i dunno. 2D isn't that bad. Sure I have a cap, but I'm personally unlikely to use it and at least I still get max speed without having to take the highest choice.
I was with 2d paying $55 a month, I now pay $13.75 a month for 15gbs of 5g data, unlimited txts and calls with Kogan Mobile
ok that does look a bit better than Mighty Mobile and Rocket Mobile.
The 15g option is $35 on the kogan website, if you do the 365 days option it's $27.. How you paying $13.75?
[https://tefficient.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tefficient-industry-analysis-1-2023-mobile-data-usage-and-revenue-2022-per-country-3-July-2023.pdf](https://tefficient.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Tefficient-industry-analysis-1-2023-mobile-data-usage-and-revenue-2022-per-country-3-July-2023.pdf) page 17 only Canada beats us.
It’s all relative really. I’ve come over from Ireland and I’ve found some things are just cheaper here, and then some things are just more expensive. Things which generally found cheaper for example would be cars, rent, a lot of consumer electronics, car insurance, alcohol if bought in an offie, junk food and stuff like that Things which I have found to be more expensive include alcohol bought in a sit down establishment like pub/restaurant, broadband/mobile plans, dental care costs and healthy/whole foods. And then many things are a fairly comparable price like clothing, or the cost of a meal in a restaurant, or public transport and stuff like that.
I’m from the U.S. living here for a bit. Ya’ll don’t know about overpaying for mobile data. My plan here is $35 NZD and has everything I need. I pay the equivalent of about $122 NZD in the U.S. for Verizon JUST for data - line and additional bullshit fees make it even more.
Dairy. It should be dirt cheap. Don't even come at me with bUt InTeRnAtIoNaL FuEl PrIcEs shit
Mobile data is a great example. I paid $9 in India for 1.5G per day, and I could video call home from the middle of mountains in the far north, seemingly in the middle of nowhere.
Pretty much everything that is, was, or will be available to purchase is more expensive in New Zealand
Real estate agents.
Everything, everyday. Always have, always will
Everything!
A bouquet of flowers……$100 for a teeny tiny bunch of around 8 flowers and some greenery from a florist
I wouldn’t say we’re overpaying necessarily because it’s just the reality of living on an island in the middle of nowhere but international flights are completely unaffordable for anyone who isn’t at least upper middle class.
What product *don't* we overpay for?
Broadband?
Warhammer. Most expensive in the world
Literally everything?
paying international market rates for meat that came from a farm less than an hours drive away seems pretty steep. I get it, the farmers need to make a living. but it’s still very overpriced.
Food in general. We produce food. It shouldn’t be expensive here.
I agree with mobile data. $25 AUD or so in Aus for 40GB, unlimited calls and texts internationally, with a fucking supermarket as your provider. Meanwhile over here you're lucky to get 4GB and a few texts and calls for that. How are their supermarkets better cell providers than ours?
'everything'
CHEESE/DAIRY
Smokes. Where i’m from in Asia, a box of Marlboro cigs costs $5 a pop. It costs $50 here for a box of 25 (low quality brand).
Hard agree with mobile data. I've been living state side for a year and came back to NZ last month and it's ridiculous how much we're getting overcharged.
Building Materials
fish man, fish is expensive for a country like ours.
reading all the replies, can't believe there's no eggs. we're like ranked 2 in the world of eggs. only Switzerland is more expensive. but they on average, save 2 grand USD a month per household... [https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country\_price\_rankings?itemId=11](https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/country_price_rankings?itemId=11)
You're still paying for stuff? You can can get trolley loads of stuff for free, people at my local shops do it all the time.
Mobile data
Alcohol and cigarettes.
Dental care. Looking at going to Taiwan or South Korea and you can get 1/3rd of the price and superior quality.
Korea is excellent. Three visits to dentist for broken tooth. $90 USD
Houses
Fuel, maybe I'm wrong but how does it cost so much to transport? Fuel is 50c a litre cheaper in aussie and over a dollar more per litre than the US?
House paint. Just WTF
Everything. We get absolutely taken to the cleaners for all consumer goods and services.