G'day Sydney shops!

Well, imagine my excitement arriving in such a beautiful city with all those new and wonderful shops to explore!

Then imagine my shock and horror when I see how unfathomably expensive EVERYTHING is!

Don't get me wrong, I'm no stranger to expensive shopping trips and have become positively intimate with Selfridges, Liberty and the host of gorgeous independents in and around London - and I've unfortunately never been blessed with the economic shopper gene.

What I mean is, that aside from Sydney's high-end equivalents of the above, everything else seems to be expensive too! Even the 'low' budget, every-day stuff seems to be staggeringly over priced.

I guess us Brits have become pretty demanding shoppers of late - we want great quality, we want style - but we want to pay a fair price. Competition has certainly been tough in recent years and many old favourites have fallen by the wayside. Every retailer in the UK has had to change and consider their position and proposition very carefully - and the competition has become fierce. Being just good has become not good enough - and as shoppers [I now realise] we really take that for granted.

I don't think that kind of revolution has happened here yet. I wonder if it will...

Now, I don't mind paying whatever I can afford for something really special, but I certainly do object to paying too much routinely for cheap-looking product.

I've never been a great fan of Tesco or Asda for clothing [Sainsbury's quality is far superior, but that's a digression for another day] - it looks cheap, but guess what? IT IS!

Shopping for the children is the most frustrating.

Let's take a basic cheap kid's long sleeved top. You know it will only last a few washes, but hey, it'll probably cost you a fiver [£]. Over here [or is it under here?] in places like Big W or Target, the same top [though in some cases, not such good quality] will cost you $30 ! [around £20].

Now here's a conundrum. I've often bought kid's clothes from Pumpkin Patch and was pleased to see them in Aus. I actually didn't realise it was a New Zealand brand. But get this - the same products are substantially cheaper in the UK. How does that work?

I can understand that imported brands and products would be more expensive, but I'd really love to know why, when so many products, where ever they are sold, are sourced from the far east, and Australia is closer to the far east, and they must be paying the same cost prices, where these rediculous retail price points are coming from? I know wage costs are much higher here, but rents and rates seem to be comparable.

I guess I could go on all day about this, but I'll leave it for now and pray to the god who inspired Next to deliver to Australia.