Covid-19: Overseas based retailers still selling non-essential goods online

Overseas based retailers are eating the lunch of their local counterparts and continuing to sell non-essential goods online.

New Zealand retailers have been forced to close or get by on selling a few essential items such as blankets, whiteware, and computers, due to the Covid-19 restrictions.

But all manner of things were continuing to be sold online by companies based offshore, potentially putting extra pressure on couriers here trying to deliver essential items.

One of the largest overseas based online retailers in this country, Ezibuy, had closed its New Zealand distribution centre but was continuing to sell straight in to this country through the one it had in Australia.

As of Wednesday morning, its website advertised "Essential" items using a large banner which when clicked on took RNZ to everything from approved items, such as bedding, to non-approved ones, such as hair dryers and marble toothbrush holders.

Retail New Zealand spokesperson Greg Harford said his members were experiencing one of their darkest hours at the moment and deserved better.

"There's a real issue about the lack of a level playing field that currently exists where overseas businesses are allowed to be servicing Kiwi customers, while Kiwi businesses are essentially banned from doing so. It's not clear what the rationale for that is. It really is something we'd love to see government have a close look at."

A flood of non-essential goods from overseas could also clog up deliveries by courier drivers, he said.

"The view coming out of government to date has been that the transport network needs to be preserved for carrying essential items. But if we've got non essential items coming across the border, then that's something government needs to look at," Harford said.

"There's two ways of doing this. One is to perhaps clamp down on those items coming in, or potentially creating a level playing field and freeing things up a little bit more domestically as well."

Some smaller retailers would be able to continue selling goods out of their homes or garages without spreading Covid 19 any further, if the government was willing to provide them with the same leeway it appeared to be providing to large overseas businesses, Harford said.

The Briscoes Group owns Rebel Sport, Living and Giving, and Briscoes.

Its head, Rod Duke, said the government needed to take action.

"There's not much point in having rules unless you police them. Will there be some retailers out there who try and flaunt that? Yes, there will be, and do I hope they get caught and exposed and fined? Absolutely."

However, Duke acknowledged the reach of the New Zealand government probably did not extend as far as companies based offshore.

"It's just a question of whether or not Kiwis sitting in New Zealand think it's morally the right thing to do.

"Now I happen to think that Kiwis have got a conscience and there's not a lot of that is going to happen. But will some people in the suburbs order an outfit and a pair of fashion shoes from the United States and have it delivered? Probably yeah, they probably will."

New Zealand Post had asked all overseas businesses using its services to deliver goods to the homes of New Zealanders, to ensure these were only essential items.

But its chief executive, David Walsh, said there was not a lot else it could do.

"We can't tell them exactly what their items are. They've got to make sure they're aware of the rules that have been published on the guidelines and we're expecting them to adhere to them. And so we're pointing them to the right websites or the right advice that is published by the New Zealand government."

RNZ called the Sydney-based owners of Ezibuy, Alceon, to find out why marble toothbrush holders were being sold in to this country as essential items, but did not receive a response.

The Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, which is in charge of administering the rules around essential items, did not respond in time when the story was published.

But the Covid-19 website advised people to only courier items that were "essential to the provision of the necessities of life."

It said adding "additional pressure and burden to that service may impact on society's wider ability to get through this period, and to stop the virus in its tracks."

• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP - don't show up at a medical centre

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