The land down under
 

Australian store charges customers a $5 'just looking' fee in bid to stop showrooming

A speciality food store in Brisbane, Australia is charging visitors a $5 AUD (roughly $5.25) in an effort to stop them from "showrooming." Celiac Supplies, which describes itself as "Brisbane's only glutenfree and wheatfree store," became internet famous yesterday when a Redditor posted an image of a sign announcing the policy. The Australian Associated Press tracked down the store owner, who said that she was forced to put up the sign after spending "hours each week" giving advice to people only to see them leave and buy a similar product elsewhere. "I'm not here to dispense a charity service for [large supermarkets] to make more money." Customers will apparently be refunded the $5 charge on making a purchase.

A fairly new term, showrooming describes shoppers that examine a product in-store before looking online to find the same item cheaper. Although no US stores (that we know of, at least) are levying a tax on perusers, some retailers have implemented new policies to try and keep their customers loyal. Best Buy introduced an internet-price-matching offer and free delivery on out-of-stock items for the holiday season, and last month decided that it would keep the offer in place, declaring the deal "the end of showrooming."

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She's playing the classic game of blaming the customer for not buying things from her.

Her product is probably overpriced, or she has a crap sales team or lacks basic merchandising skills.

Now by charging people to come into her store she re-inforces the fact that the bottom line is that she's just a hopeless businessperson.

This "shop keeper" is not indicative of business people over here, she's what we'd call a "nutcase".

Are there additional charges that a store with a physical presence charges a customer in Australia vs internet orders? Sales tax, etc?

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We have a 10% GST in Australia which is charged on all purchases made from Australian based entities - online or offline.

There is no GST for goods under $1000 shipped to Australia from overseas however in most cases shipping costs exceed GST anyway.

This woman is clearly not competitive or people would buy from her. Businesses which aren't competitive tend to fail, she'll work that out when she does.

edit: most food is GST free in Australia - so GST wouldn't be her problem.

I'm sure there are lots of tasty treats in a Gluten/Wheat Free store. Of course she probably has the store packed and can afford to turn people away.