[Odde]

Opprinnelig lagt inn av wine, her.

I'm not necessarily saying that online shopping is bad, per se. In this day and age I think that many retail owners need to do a combination of both to stay competitive. Certainly I think people would prefer to buy single samples locally, and perhaps boxes (multiple units) online.

My gripe is with iHerb, specifically. It is nonsensical to assume that Norwegian businesses can grow and become competitive against a mass-volume international distributor in USA - who avoid paying Norwegian VAT and import tariffs like local companies. Norwegian companies can't come close to matching iHerb's UPD/DHL rates either.

This is not to mention the myriad other factors that benefit iHerb in USA. Their labour costs are what, $7-8 an hour? What would employment cost in Norway for people to do the same job (packing and boxing)? Would it be reasonable to pay a Norwegian <50 krona an hour in order to be competitive (even if it were allowed)?

The playing field is not on par, and the only people who win with this disparity in the end are iHerb Become too dependent on them, and you won't allow Norwegian stores the required volume to become more competitive in the future.

But really, this is not an exercise in morality I'll conclude here the same way I started - iHerb are not your friends, and they are not offering competitive prices to be nice. They are big businessmen with lots of money to invest, and their *only* interest is profit

Hmmm, followed the discussion with interest, and i both agree and disagree - lol. I can understand the hesitation and the raised eyebrow on iherb, but i dont really think they are worse then others.

The argument about vat is somewhat less then what it should be, even including vat they would still be a lot cheaper - its the extra costs like fee to postal service for customs handling that would tip the price the wrong way.

And i have to say, you can get a lot of what we earlier had to go to health shops to get in the supermarket - BUT - the prices seem to remain high, and i think most of us have noticed the money these businessmen draws from their companies - just like the shareholders of iherb.

odde