Example...
Just a little example from my previous experience with dealers in Europe. There was an exclusive distributor for AE in Austria. Prices were calculated as follows (this could actually be found in the shop's catalog): take the recommended sales price from the AE parts catalog, and multiply by 20 to get the price in Austrian currency (no Euro at that time). Remarkably, this "method of calculating prices" did not take into account exchange rates, especially as the USD exchange rate dropped from about 1:16 to 1:12 around that time. Moreover, in the US, you rarely pay more than 60% of the recommended prices in shops. The results was that parts were usually half the price (or even less), without resorting to any tricks with VAT or duties (being 20% and 8% in Austria!).
Now, I don't know whether this specific example has any relevance to the UK market, but it shows that not every shop owner / distributor is living on small profits. Anyway, the shop I'm talking about lost most of its customers and is out of business by now.
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