His: Living in America - The Cost of Shopping in Oz

Price of Oz the Great and powerful in Australia.

 One of the biggest changes I noticed when I was in Australia this summer was how expensive many things were. Some items cost about the same as they do in America but many items were much more expensive. The exchange rate was about even (once you took the conversion fee into account) at the time we were there so it makes comparing the prices easier. Below is just a sampling of items we saw that were far more expensive down under. To make things fair we took prices from Big W which is a similar store to Walmart.

DVD Movies:
Not only do a lot of movies get released in Australia later than in the U.S, the price can be over double what US consumers pay. In America a DVD copy of "Oz: the Great and Powerful" was selling in most stores for around $20. The same movie was selling for $44. Although it would be tempting to simply buy the movie in the U.S and ship it to Australia to save a few dollars, it's not advisable as the movie would not work unless you had a multi region DVD player.

Price of dishwasher tablets in Australia

Finish Dishwasher Tabs:
This one stopped me in my tracks as I walked through my local Big W. I bought this product a lot at my local grocery store in America and paid about $8 for a pack of 40. I saw the exact same package in Big W for $26. I even checked the barcodes and description to make sure it wasn't sitting on the wrong spot. This was one of the biggest differences we found at over triple the cost of the same item in America.
 
 Soft Drink/Soda
 Looking to quench your thirst? Soft drinks/sodas cost about $8 for 24 cans in America and even cheaper if on sale. In Australia they were $17.38 for 24 cans. No matter how hard I looked this was about the cheapest price I could find for a name brand soft drink anywhere. Even the single bottles were more expensive A 600ml/20oz bottle of Coke from Big W was $3.08 compared to about $1.69 at most locations in the U.S.

      Shopping in America can get expensive. In a future post I will discuss the prices of meals when eating out and even reveal a few places where eating out is cheaper in Australia. 

 What item have you seen abroad that is far more expensive than at home?