Take Advantage Of The Low U.S Dollar & Save On Shopping

The current economic situation in the U.S. is kind of scary on a number of levels because of what could happen to not just the U.S. economy but the global economy if a resolution is not reached soon. Seeing the world sink into another recession so soon after last one (if it really ever ended) could cause more stress to a world that is already trying to deal with a lot.

All of that said, there are people (including myself) living outside the United States who are looking to the U.S. to snap up bargains. The US Dollars (USD) to 1 New Zealand Dollar (NZD) has shot up from about 0.76 at the beginning of the year to almost 0.88 today (31 July 2011), which is it post float high.

With that exchange rate, it only makes sense for New Zealand consumers to look around and maybe even shop online for all sorts from books to electronics to cosmetics to clothing and so on and so forth. The reason being, you will more than likely find whatever it is for a lot cheaper than the recommended New Zealand retail price. For example, my wife has been thinking about getting her hands on an Apple MacBook Air. If she were to get it in the U.S. she could save herself up to NZ $459 as follows:

Apple New Zealand NZ $1,549
Apple USA US $999 (approx. NZ $1,146) (NZ $406 saving)
Amazon $950 (approx. NZ $1,090) (NZ $459 saving)
In this case though, she would need to find someone travelling from the US to get the notebook over because of Amazon’s shipping restrictions on electronics. This however isn’t a problem for her because she has a friend visiting soon who offered to bring it over for her. If this is not an option for you, there is a work around for online retailers who do not ship internationally. I will write about this in the near future.

There are a number of retailers who do ship internationally and even with shipping fees included, turn out to be cheaper than New Zealand retailers. I picked a couple of random items available from NZ retailers to compared their prices against online retailers to find out how much could be saved. The results were:

Book: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo [Paperback] by Stieg Larsson
Amazon.com – US $12.99 (approx. NZ $14.90) [shipping included]
Whitcoulls – $24.95
Saving of NZ $10.05

Make-up: Wonder Volume Mascara – #01 7ml/0.25oz
Life Pharmacy – NZ $55.00
StrawberryNET.com – NZ $29.50 [free shipping]
Saving of NZ $25.50

These were just an example of a couple of things that people may want to get their hands on and how much could be saved by buying them online. The main point that I want to get across is that with the current USD/NZD exchange there are plenty of savings to be made for New Zealand consumers. All it takes is knowing what you want to get, it’s retails price so that when you do your online search you will be able to calculate what kind of a saving you will make and whether it will me worth your while.