It seems like it's not always a good thing to be British. Sure, we have the NHS, free education and we all sound really, really clever, but it's not all roses on this side of the pond.
After all, MAC is a Canadian company, and so we pay more for it over in England than they do in Canada or the US. In fact, almost double what the US pays since the price increase. Well, fair enough, it's got quite a way to go.
But hey! This is an English company! An exciting new make-up company, very promising, and it's English! Time for it to balance out, I thought. I expected some quid pro quo here. I was to be disappointed.
When Illamasqua launched in the US on Sephora a couple of days ago, I did a little price converting and discovered that some of their products are actually $1-3 cheaper there, than they are here.
OK, so it's a small amount, but it actually costs LESS to buy it from America than it does to buy it in the country it fucking comes from? Are you fucking kidding me?
Needless to say, I'm a little pissed off at being shafted again. Of course, I don't want you lovable yanks to have to pay more for it, but hey. It was ours first, so why the fuck do you get it cheaper?
I am tired of this assumption that the Brits will pay more for it, so it is acceptable to charge more for it. But of course, the Americans won't put up with that kind of behaviour, so they'd not dare try it on them.
I had been excited about Illamasqua and looking forward to trying it out, feeling all patriotic and proud of our Little Brand That Could, but no. Up with this I will not put, I shan't be purchasing anything from them in the forseeable future.
21 comments:
That actually bothers me that you have to pay more, if it's from your country ;( That seems just wrong.
24 July 2009 01:25That said, I think Americans pay less for MAC than Canadians do.
*hug*
Yeah. It's not that I think it's expensive or I want to pay less, it's that another country shouldn't pay less for it. That's just fucking disloyal, and I've lost all respect for the brand.
24 July 2009 01:27Ohh man, that is seriously lame. Just out of curiosity, are any of the other big names in makeup British?
24 July 2009 02:15MAC started as a Canadian brand, but Lauder is American. :s
24 July 2009 02:52I agree with you Ana. I'd be pissed to if it's reverse. My question is why can't cosmetics be relative the same price point all over.
24 July 2009 07:31I really get annoyed when I hear people say MAC is like three times more (and I guess they are taking in the exchange rate) than here.
I don't blame you. I noticed the difference too.
Actually it’s more complex than price conversion. I’m going to try not to sound too much like the marketing specialist that I am IRL and not to make this too long, but let me explain. Determining the price range for a range of products is a complex process. You have to take into account the positioning of the product (low-end? Ultra cheap? Premium?), the price level of your competitors (because consumers are going to compare, of course), what consumers are willing to pay for your products and this is all linked to the overall price level in your country.
24 July 2009 08:29UK is a pricey country: renting an apartment costs much more than in Brussels, food is more pricey and so is makeup. To give you another example, veel is sold 25€/kg in Belgium and 60€/kg in Switzerland although the quality is the same.
On the other hand you guys can get some fancy cheap clothes (topshop anyone?), and when things are on sale, you get huge discounts – while 20% is already considered a big discount to give here.
No product sold worldwide has a consistent price on all markets, it doesn’t work that way. I understand your frustration of course, I find it boring too that I have to pay more for a lot of cosmetics products. But it’s how the economy works, it has nothing to do with being fair to your own country… Illamasqua did launch with a price structure that was coherent for the European market. Entering the US market, they had to reconsider and are likely to have concluded they had to sell for cheaper if they wanted to sell at all. Also don’t forget they’re working with Sephora and they also have their word to say since they’re the distributor and have to be coherent with the products they’re selling next to Illamasqua.
I hope I didn’t sound too boring ;-)
I agree with you Ana, that is just wrong. I don't see why one should pay a lot more just because he/she happens to live in an expensive country. After all the quality of a product is the same everywhere. I understand that's the way the economy works, but still it doesn't make it right.
24 July 2009 16:39For a brand to be more expensive in an other country than that where it comes from is just ridiculous. It's really frustrating and makes you feel like you've been taken for a fool and ripped off. At least that's how I feel and I'm not even English!
If Illamasqua can afford to lower their prices in the US even after paying for shipping their items all the way there and can still make a profit, that just shows how way overpriced their products are in the UK. Which is making me think twice about purchasing any of their products. If I ever do it, I'll buy from ebay where I can get a more honest deal.
I'm boycotting.
25 July 2009 19:51<3 Grey. Well, I've e-mailed Illamasqua and explained my feelings about it and asked them for their explanation. I'll post whatever their response is, but irrespective of business tactics, I do feel that this is disloyal and the price difference is so slight I can't imagine they need it in order to stay in business.
25 July 2009 19:59I actually had a thought, and I'm not sure if this is why or not, but here it goes.
25 July 2009 20:06I was actually told that the conversion rate is only a rough estimate of what a dollar is to the GBP. You have to also look at what that amount gets you. I just checked on www.xe.com and it says 1 GBP is worth 1.64 USD. So 1 Maybelline Lipstick is $6 USD, which is 3.65 GBP.
What can you buy for 3.65 GBP?
How much does a candy bar and soda cost in USD and GBP?
Supposedly, if you look at the costs of those sorts of things, you can better refine the rough conversion.
Anyways, just some thoughts I'd had on this subject because I was upset by your post. I'm not sure I even want to try Illamasqua now until I find out the 'why' behind their prices, too.
It's hard to judge since the cost of living in England is so much higher. A 2 litre bottle of Pepsi is £1.56 which is $2.56, loaf of branded bread (Kingsmill or something) is like £1.30 ($2.13). The exchange rate is whatever it is that day, usually between $1.4-1.6 to the pound.
25 July 2009 20:15But LUSH is a UK brand, and they charge the Americans more. Like I said, I don't want the US to pay more, I just don't think they should pay less, even if it's a wider market.
What makes that even harder to gauge is the radical differences in cost of living in the USA, too. Living In California or New York is much more expensive than say, Texas. I used to live in the San Francisco area, which was crazy in price. Florida is much tamer.
25 July 2009 20:17I'm in agreement with you, Illamasqua should do what Lush does.
Lush's prices aren't outrageous, either. I'm a lover of Angels on Bare Skin :P so that's what I purchase from Lush.
Well, I'm going to try and reserve judgment until I hear from them. When they respond I'll post a transcript of my e-mail and their reply, and hopefully they'll have an answer for it.
25 July 2009 20:18I want to love Illamasqua, so I hope they have a good reason.
hopefully you'll hear back shortly- I've been communicating w/ them and found them to be very good about their public relations.
28 July 2009 17:41If it makes you feel any better at all, there are a TON of products that aren't being carried in the US (no pencils, only a handful of glosses, only 9 of the 25 foundations, etc..) I'll still be ordering from the UK site myself! (and even then, there are lots of items they apparently wont ship to the states- grr....)
Oh well, I guess we'll all have to wait and see.
It happens here in Australia too. We pay a crapload of $$ for Becca cosmetics and it's so much cheaper just to order off reputable websites!
29 July 2009 11:51Really? That stinks!
15 August 2009 14:36I'm from the US, and I honestly don't mind paying more if it has to be imported. I mean, it's not made here, after all.
What I don't like is when drugstores make the prices way higher, but then put it on sale and try to pass it off as a good bargain when it isn't.
Well I still haven't heard back from them! I bet it's really hard getting stuff when you're in Oz, Vintage, and shipping must be so high!
15 August 2009 16:55Hillarie, yeah, but I've been considering ordering from them lately anyway. I can't help it! I want the brow cake >_<
15 August 2009 16:58I HATE it when places do that, too. My store, the last time we had a sale, put up the base prices of all the products by £2-4 that were on offer to make the savings seem better. Argh! There's a law here that a product must be the advertised "was" price for at least 6 months I think so they can't just start something at £30 and suddenly immediately sell it at £10.
But there are ways around it and people use it as a selling tool so much, because we equate price with worth. What I do, before I jump on a sale, is do a little research - how much was it, how much is it everywhere else, etc. I'll always check what the actual saving is, too, since sometimes you just see a save sticker and assume that's cheap, but often you're only saving a few measly pennies!
did you ever hear back about this? I'm curious...
10 November 2010 18:18Nope =[ I was told that my email had been forwarded to someone, but that someone never got back to me.
10 November 2010 18:34I did notice that an AWFUL lot of products are EU only though, so I let it go :(
One thing to keep in mind, too, is that often a company will have to sign a deal with a distributor (in this case, Sephora) agreeing that Sephora doesn't have to pay as much for their product as say, a smaller distributor. They make less of a profit off of each individual item, but Sephora would be a huuuuuge account and they would order enough product to make the discounted price worth it. For example, say an eyeliner normally wholesales at $1and it only takes $.50 to make. That's a $.50 profit for the company. Sephora comes in and says, "We'll only pay $.75 each for the eyeliners, but in turn will buy 1,000,000 of them." Illamasqua would still make $250 in profit, even though they're selling for a lower price. Sephora can then price the eyeliner competitively with the other brands that they carry, and get more business because they can sell the item for less than a smaller distributor. But when it comes time to sell items online, Illamasqua has to be able to cover the overhead of running the online business and their own distribution, shipping, etc., and it would not be profitable for them to offer the same item at Sephora's price.
30 November 2010 20:36Lol sorry if that ran on too long or I tried to overexplain anything! I don't even know if this specifically is the case, I just know that's how alot of big companies do things so that they can have the lowest prices (Wal-Mart anyone?) and that's how things are done in the candy business as well :)
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