Back in January 2003 I did a trip to the US and was stunned at how cheap electrical/appliances/TVs were at the time. When I came back to Australia, I did a price comparison with the lowest local prices I could find. Funnily enough, the exchange rate in March 2003 was almost identical to the current rate.
Uniden 900 mhz cordless phone. USA: $9.88 (A$13.14). Cheapest local price: $88. Almost 7 times more expensive!
Panasonic DVD player. USA: $88.88 (A$118). Local price: $300 (2.5x cost)
13" (34cm) Toshiba CRT TV. USA: $68.88 (A$92). Local price: $300 (3.3x cost)
47" Panasonic HDTV rear projection TV: USA: $888.00 (A$1181). Local price: $6300 (over 5 times the cost!!)
57" Sony HDTV rear projection TV: USA: $2393.88 (A$3191). Local: $10,000 (3.1x cost)
Sony 5.1 Dolby Digital/DTS receiver. USA: $148.88 (A$198). Local: unable to obtain a price at the time (can't remember the reason), but I estimate that at the time, the cheapest 5.1 of any brand on the market would have been well over $400, and a Sony would have been nearly $600. Even today, prices are still much the same.
Now, TV prices have come down massively here compared to last decade, but why were they so overpriced in the first place?
Here's a look at the price difference these days:
US 40" 4K generic: $240 AUD. Local: Kogan 40": $279 (16% more)
US 50" 4K generic: $335 AUD. Local: Kogan 50": $439 (31% more)
US 75" 4K generic: $1340 AUD. Local: Kogan 75": $1900 (42% more)
So now, instead of TVs costing 3-5 times as much, they're only 15-40% more.
Note that back in 2003, there were almost no "generic" (Chinese) brands like there are today. Almost all products were from name brands.
Id be more interested if you did current comparison on name brands, so we know its legit LFL.
I think ecommerce has helped improve price parity on global goods as it delivers a lot more transparency.
Its always hard to do a full apples for apples comparison as any business who operates in Straya has to contend with the significant costs associated with rent + minimum wage, and its hard to offset with volume due to limited size of population. This lends to make companies charge more for goods. There's a nice list of companies who've failed this balancing act (GAP and Top-shop are two that spring to mind)