A good opportunity for a Public-Private Partnership?

The Government is spending $1.5 billion dollars on setting up ultra-fast broadband around the country. Unfortunately while it is a great idea the benefits are set to be limited for a couple of reasons.

First, data caps in New Zealand are so absurdly low that you will be able to use up all your available data in a few days and be paying enormous excesses for the rest of the month.

And second, the price of broadband in this country is incredibly expensive. At my flat we currently pay $75 a month for 60GB of data from TelstraClear. Contrast this to the UK where I was paying £13 a month for unlimited data with O2 (This included a £5 discount for having my mobile with O2).

New Zealand is miles away from where the vast majority of the content is produced (the US and the UK) and our population is relatively small, so we may never see the sort of deals offered in the UK. But the major problem is the Southern Cross Cable which limits capacity as it is used for all international communications out of New Zealand (data and phone) and as the only international cable has a monopoly.

What New Zealand needs is a second international cable to increase capacity and competition, and in turn bring down prices. But as the DomPost reports:

Pacific Fibre, backed by big-name entrepreneurs including Sam Morgan, Stephen Tindall and Rod Drury, launched in March 2010 aiming to build a 13,000km high-speed fibre-optic cable connecting New Zealand and Australia to California.

But this afternoon, chairman Sam Morgan said Pacific Fibre had failed to raise the required US$400 million ($490 million).

This is bad news for consumers and innovative businesses in New Zealand. Which leads me to ask?

Isn't this a great opportunity for a public-private partnership? Something the Government could use to sell the idea to New Zealanders?

(P.S. I see now the broadband plan I had in the UK is £12.50 a month, whether you have an O2 mobile or not.)

What's that got to do with the price of razor blades?

Stuff.co.nz reports: Manufacturers continue to hit consumers with price rises by stealth by cutting product sizes. Basically, rather than raising prices companies are cutting quantity to avoid the consumer backlash associated with a price rise.

So what you might say. Isn't that the just what we should expect in this greed orientated capitalist society we live in?

Probably and while it is a little devious it is also quite clever. Companies costs rise which means they need to raise their prices, nothing devious there just a fact of commerce. Consumers don't like prices rises (although they do like pay rises in their own jobs which contribute directly to price rises, although that is not the only factor) so companies are trying to keep their customers happy while maintaining their margins. A little devious, a bit dishonest but quite clever.

Ultimately it is the consumers responsibility to ensure they are getting a deal they are comfortable with. You don't need to be furiously checking every item you buy, just clever, especially when it comes to the more expensive items.

But what caught my eye in the article was this paragraph:

The world's biggest producer of men's razors, Gillette, is the latest culprit cutting the number of replacement cartridges in its Mach3 Turbo packs from five to four while keeping the price the same, effectively a 20 per cent price increase.

I believe New Zealand men and women are getting royally ripped off when it comes to the price of razor blades in the country. For instance from Countdown.co.nz you get a four pack of Gillette Fusion blades for $25.99 ($6.50 per blade), while in the UK you can get the same pack for £10.05 or $20.38 ($5.10 a blade) from www.boots.co.uk, over five dollars cheaper. And that doesn't take into account the fantastic deals you can get in the UK on bulk packs. Take this option from Superdrug.co.uk: a razor with blade plus ten spares for only £20 or $40.55 ($3.69 a blade).

So you can see why I thought there was a problem. So I asked Google if there was someway to get razor blades cheaper in this country and in it's infinite wisdom it gave me this.

Clicking the link will take you to BestBuyBlades.com who appear to have had the same problem as me.

We are three young and creative kiwi entrepeneurs that were sick of paying ridiculous prices for good genuine razor blades which are a every day necessity. Consequently we decided to do something about it; we scoured the globe to find large international exporters and whole salers which were able to supply us with your quality everyday razor blades (both Schick and Gillette) and have parallel imported them so that we can deliver them directly to your door step via our unique service set and forget while providing you with massive savings.

And it's true. A four pack of Gillette Fusion blades is $18.99 ($4.75 per blade) including delivery to your door. If you use their Set and Forget service it is $16.99 ($4.25). Brilliant savings and you just need to be clever about it. In my case just using Google solved my problem.

Disclaimer: I haven't received payment or razor blades in kind for this post. I was just upset about the price of my razor blades and think these guys offer a fantastic service.