Gas prices in Trinidad & Tobago

[Miktay]

Yea I agree. Trini businesses ridiculous. Little variety, poor customer service (most of the time), poor warranty, high unjustified prices. I buy everything expect groceries and car (can't avoid stealership) abroad and I don't give a sheit. Let them greedy businessmen close up

And what shall you do when your online purchases in USD become limited and are taxed?

Sometimes local is the way to go. I've heard lubing up before helps.

We could go local. No problem. But at what price (cost)?

Willing to accept that local has limitations. But forin bought items also have drawbacks.

But some locals just ridiculous. Men just bussing price. In them cases I buying forin.

Unless it's a necessity...if I can't get USD...I ent buying at all.

Who go out of business...go outta business.

[skylinechild]

I never even thought of that.
Look i does order all my business cards from vistaprint
I pay people on freelancer for artwork for adds and websites

is how you look at it....local businesses need to understand they have to stop the price gouging and start offering value for money cause if you dont you will realize you'll be undercut by ppl who can offer better value for money - on the other side of the globe.

Interesting...

How this cost $1600? Parts labor machines chemicals?

Or men bussing price?

https://youtu.be/fSyvw-A5z2E

thats the quote i got...$1600...
lets say for argument sake..we have ten customers a day who do small items...automotive related..vents...door sills...switch holders....finishers etc...each payin that price.

1600X10 = 16000...thats just for one day of work.
now by 30 days..
16000X30 = 480000

literally by charging 1600 per customer...within two weeks they cud make back their investment...
for the other two weeks...its just profits....

only consumables wud be the chemical spray...and the pattern. and other minor things.

so yea...men jus gouging price...

interestingly enough also few places do sandblasting and powder coating that i am aware of. got a quote to do my sway bar - $600.....ok thats too much...got another quote from the same place a good while after....cost was $300.....

so i had my sway bar done...and it looks good. so what changed...??? and why did it change..??

well if someone have time n money to worry about hydrodipping rice for their car they obviously have extra cash or not part of the population that affected by price increases...so they could cope with men bussin price

I think it was just an example There are lots of other services that you get your eye removed for.

thanx De Dragon..apparently he missed the part where i said its just an example...
he slowly turning into ED...

[Chimera]

Honestly the reason I do all my graphics work on freelancer is because of a sour situation years ago where I had asked a designer for the original psd files for a logo he had done for me months before.... (a logo that he took 6 weeks to complete btw) and he wanted 3000 for the original psd files...

After that I never pay anyone to design anything locally ever again.

[Chimera]

3000 additional from wha I had pay him for the logo eh. He had jus email me smallish files to use on my fb page....months later I wanted the large psd files to print on banners.....Mc hold me ransom

[TurboSingh12]

Dont forget Great is the PNM

[Miktay]

Price gouging=economic thuggery

Got a gps few years ago (b4 Waze and G Maps)

But it didnt do local routing. Showed the island outline and 1 road only.

Called the local company that does gps maps. They wanted $1700 !

I tell them that's more than it cost to buy the gps unit. They say they have to recompile for my unit.

Boleface lie.

Did a search and found a source. Downloaded. And works to this day. With updates.

Price was free.

[Morpheus]

Local can really be stupendously ridiculous some........most times SMH

[DTAC]

Going local is like shopping in Aldi or Lidl in the UK, you only go there is you don't really have a choice. Same as local businesses.

The business mentality has always been the same, "If you want my item, you have to pay whatever I feel to charge for it. If you don't like my price, go abroad and buy it nah." mentality.

Eye jooking/price gouging is the norm here. I have no problem with paying a 10% extra on an item. Even 15-20%. But anything deemed "luxury" (which seems to be anything from outside Trinidad) automatically has to have a 80% "luxury tax", markup added to it. Even the advent of online shopping and "sky boxes" didn't change the local retailer mentality. If anything they just added more to offset the "lost" sales due to people buying and bringing in their own items.

Having to buy local because of online shopping taxation is just another opportunity for retailers to exploit as opposed to government.

[hong kong phooey]

Problem is what can we manufacture that we can export...

Lots of cottage industries existing but struggling to expand due to lack of funding
..

We all know how hard it is to make money 'legally'. Banks are a total waste of time and the Trinidad business model is either yuh have money or not. . So investment in the cottage industry could open an export market. ..

lets define cottage industries as small / micro businesses...sayin "cottage industry" have me thinking the business making cheese....

some cottage industries are struggling to expand due to the high cost they want for their product / service.

so lets use an automotive example...say hydro dripping. relatively new to our country very few ppl doing it. its a small business with the opportunity to make alot of $$$

cost to hydrodrip one piece of plastic. - roughly 5 inches wide and 8 inches long....costing $1600???
when the OEM part hydrodipped costing 35 USD???
even including shipping from japan will NEVER reach that 1600 cost.

therefore we choose to buy outside...using USD..thereby contributing to the forex drain.
if everyone on tuner cud get cheaper outside...and purchases outside....imagine the amt of USD we spending.

meanwhile the small business either close up...or lower price to make it more competitive.
it is what it is.

Very true
Wanted to install a GPS tracker in a vehicle and decided to buy local .
Men wanted a 1000 dollars for the tracker installed. Which cost US 20 dollars with free shipping. and installation is 200.
No way you can support local.
Wanted a motor for the kayak decided to qet a quote from 2 tuners who does sea shipping. There quote for sea shipping alone was more than the cost of skybox shipping plus duties and taxes which I had to pay to clear the item.

[DVSTT]

Price gouging=economic thuggery

Got a gps few years ago (b4 Waze and G Maps)

But it didnt do local routing. Showed the island outline and 1 road only.

Called the local company that does gps maps. They wanted $1700 !

I tell them that's more than it cost to buy the gps unit. They say they have to recompile for my unit.

Boleface lie.

Did a search and found a source. Downloaded. And works to this day. With updates.

Price was free.

You wanna PM that link?

[Trinislacker]

X2...

[pete]

80%? My wife wanted to buy a peppa pic house for my daughter. Advertising for 20 pounds on Disney UK. Local price $900

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

[Daran]

Ok guys about the GPS maps, it's quite obvious that you misunderstand economics.

How much you want them sell it for?

I think it took those engineers years to drive and accurately map the entire country (and continuously update it). Obviously the market (population) of T&T is pretty small so it can't be sold at the low prices of foreign country's maps. Another factor would be a lot of other countries road maps were done by the government. The local maps you attempted to purchase were done by enterprising private individuals.

So right now if they didn't map the country (and the maps you found online were most likely pirated from the company anyway) you'd be complaining about how backward we are, and that we don't even have proper road maps for or country.

You're criticism is incredibly ignorant and I've seen this attitude propagates by many small minded trinis.

You want something good pay for it.

[DVSTT]

Waze though.

[kjaglal76v2]

now I understand wah allyuh saying, but local merchants have alot of overheads for there businesses, makes no sense jus sitting there browsing amazon & jus multiplying x6 & expect to pay that locally

[sMASH]

So, buy local and have locals hook out yuh eye, or buy online and have gortt jook out yuh eye.

[Pirate]

Still not sure why all this talk about an online tax. Don't we pay duties for all items entering the country already and it's between 15% and 35% depending on the item???

[Miktay]

Ok guys about the GPS maps, it's quite obvious that you misunderstand economics.

How much you want them sell it for?

I think it took those engineers years to drive and accurately map the entire country (and continuously update it). Obviously the market (population) of T&T is pretty small so it can't be sold at the low prices of foreign country's maps. Another factor would be a lot of other countries road maps were done by the government. The local maps you attempted to purchase were done by enterprising private individuals.

So right now if they didn't map the country (and the maps you found online were most likely pirated from the company anyway) you'd be complaining about how backward we are, and that we don't even have proper road maps for or country.

You're criticism is incredibly ignorant and I've seen this attitude propagates by many small minded trinis.

You want something good pay for it.

I agree with you. I concede the following:

I dont know if people behind local gps map companies are enterprising or not.

I dont know if the alternate software i d/loaded was pirated or not.

I dont know the economics of local software map firms.

But i don't need to know any of these things.

I know my pocket. I know my personal economic situation.

I would pay up to $500 for the product. But that price wasn't offered. The asking price was $1700. Firm.

For $1700 most people can buy:

*about 1/2 a carnival costume
* about 113 cold beers on the Ave
* roughly 6 bottles of scotch

I wasnt willing to sacrifice these things for the product.

I took my business elsewhere. I didnt spend much money. But I spent time to find an alternative.

Isnt that what freedom to choose iz supposed to be about?

[zoom rader]

I say remove all gas subsidy, too many asswipes driving around. Wetman crew is the worst of the lot

[EFFECTIC DESIGNS]

I say remove all gas subsidy, too many asswipes driving around. Wetman crew is the worst of the lot

Have this muffler bearing on my side here with a box lancer whole day he flawing that X with a stupid loud muffler even the police does cover their ears when he passing, hopefully when oil pice go back up and gas get real expensive with removal of subsidy, he will go the way of the dodo.

[A172]

Ok guys about the GPS maps, it's quite obvious that you misunderstand economics.

How much you want them sell it for?

I think it took those engineers years to drive and accurately map the entire country (and continuously update it). Obviously the market (population) of T&T is pretty small so it can't be sold at the low prices of foreign country's maps. Another factor would be a lot of other countries road maps were done by the government. The local maps you attempted to purchase were done by enterprising private individuals.

So right now if they didn't map the country (and the maps you found online were most likely pirated from the company anyway) you'd be complaining about how backward we are, and that we don't even have proper road maps for or country.

You're criticism is incredibly ignorant and I've seen this attitude propagates by many small minded trinis.

You want something good pay for it.

I agree with you. I concede the following:

I dont know if people behind local gps map companies are enterprising or not.

I dont know if the alternate software i d/loaded was pirated or not.

I dont know the economics of local software map firms.

But i don't need to know any of these things.

I know my pocket. I know my personal economic situation.

I would pay up to $500 for the product. But that price wasn't offered. The asking price was $1700. Firm.

For $1700 most people can buy:

*about 1/2 a carnival costume
* about 113 cold beers on the Ave
* roughly 6 bottles of scotch

I wasnt willing to sacrifice these things for the product.

I took my business elsewhere. I didnt spend much money. But I spent time to find an alternative.

Isnt that what freedom to choose iz supposed to be about?

agreed so doh come & cyak after abt ppl price too high if u done gt elsewhere

if u en like it doh buy[REGISTERED SIGN]

[cherrypopper]

I say remove all gas subsidy, too many asswipes driving around. Wetman crew is the worst of the lot

Have this muffler bearing on my side here with a box lancer whole day he flawing that X with a stupid loud muffler even the police does cover their ears when he passing, hopefully when oil pice go back up and gas get real expensive with removal of subsidy, he will go the way of the dodo.

Box lancer tax. .

[Miktay]

agreed so doh come & cyak after abt ppl price too high if u done gt elsewhere

if u en like it doh buy[REGISTERED SIGN]

Well the economists and politicians claim all we have to do iz buy local and we will save fgn exchange....ent?

I prefer local. But in some cases meh pocket cyar tek it.

So local iz not a solution 4 everyone. Solutions 2 the fgn exchange scarcity are not az simple as many make them out to be.

[jm3]

This is gonna suck the amount of kakahole taxi drivers on the road once people can't afford their own car. Ooh all the premium cars up for sale cheap

[jhonnieblue]

Well seems Fri gas going up..looking at 4.11 for super..from what I've heard

[1UZFE]

Soobarooo

[Morpheus]

I say remove all gas subsidy, too many asswipes driving around. Wetman crew is the worst of the lot

Why? How would people be able to buy their 50in 4K TV "for de Chrisrmas" so they could put de box by de road for ppl to see?

[Morpheus]

Once Premium eh move I won't be affected. Already got my assault in 2012

[zoom rader]

I say remove all gas subsidy, too many asswipes driving around. Wetman crew is the worst of the lot

Why? How would people be able to buy their 50in 4K TV "for de Chrisrmas" so they could put de box by de road for ppl to see?

It's better they buy TVs that drive on the road. They cause too much accidents and promote Road rage.

Buss price on gas

[skylinechild]

now I understand wah allyuh saying, but local merchants have alot of overheads for there businesses, makes no sense jus sitting there browsing amazon & jus multiplying x6 & expect to pay that locally

never thought i'd hear myself say this... but...i agree with you.

HOWEVER businesses hav to survive and to survive they must make a profit.
before the credit card and skybox boom shopping online was relatively unheard of....everyone had to either wait till they travellin to ship a barrel....or send stuff wit relatives....or face the store price.

wen facing the store price we would pay it..unknowingly the store makin 200% and more profits...now everyone cud shop online...and see the REAL prices these business places gettin stuff from...and the cost...

tell me...does 200% profits and possibly more fair to the consumer.???

case and point..take a look at gopauls music store high street in sando...look how much old house amps they have on shelf...brand new..never used...but it old..why???

no one buying....why...the cost. !!!!