The Mike Hosking Breakfast

Black Friday is known to throw up a bargain, but what shoppers may not know is some product prices are increased ahead of the flash sales event:
Data from price comparison website PriceSpy shows that one in 10 products typically go up in price around Black Friday. These items are typically gadgets and electronics, and the increases tend to happen a week before the event to make discounts appear more attractive.
Non-tech categories such as beauty and health, home and garden and fashion and accessories were found to offer better discounts on Black Friday.
Mobile phones were the most popular items on Kiwis' shopping lists on Black Friday last year, but the data shows these items offered the smallest discount on the day and an average discount of 2 per cent.
Headphones, the second most popular item, offered an average discount of 9 per cent, while gaming consoles offered an average discount of 11 per cent.
Insights show that one month before Black Friday last year, at the start of November, the price of Apple iPhone 8 Plus (256GB) was $959, on Black Friday the price had increased by 48 per cent to $1416.
This was a similar story for Apple iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (128GB) models, which increased by 38 per cent to $685 on Black Friday from $685 and 18 per cent to $869 on the day from $739 just weeks earlier.
The price of a DJI Spark RTF drone increased by 39 per cent to $696, up from $499 in the first week of November and a Canon EOS R camera priced at $2149 at the start of the month increased by 28 per cent to $2747 on Black Friday.
Price Spy found many examples of price increases on electronics such as mobile phones, cameras, headphones and drones on Black Friday.
"Our historical pricing data highlights the need for shoppers to be vigilant surrounding price discounting across these big flash sale days," Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy, said.
Matinvesi-Bassett said increasing prices ahead of dropping them on or around Black Friday was a "conscious and strategic move made by retailers to make their Black Friday deals appear better than what they are for consumers".
She said it was a strategy to ensure they maintain a healthy margin from each sale.
"Our recommendation to shoppers therefore is to not take the discounts offered at face value and conduct price research.
"When we dig deeper across the historical price points of products, we can also see flash sale days, like Black Friday, don't necessarily offer the cheapest price – as our research found of the top three products people were looking to buy last Black Friday, all items could be purchased for less prior to the sale day."
Contrary to what many retail commentators think, Ben Goodale, chief executive of Quantum Jump, does not believe Black Friday will have the same appeal in New Zealand this year as it has had in previous years' past.
"I think we are looking at a very different Black Friday for retailers this year. While retail has bounced back really well from lockdown and the wider impact of Covid, with some categories doing extremely well, I don't predict a stellar performance from Black Friday," Goodale told the Herald.
"Consumers are shopping more at the moment because they want to, or need to, not because of a 'sale event' - we are seeing more sophisticated and long term marketing strategies are paying off in retail.
"Shoppers are currently distracted, not quite sure what month it is as the normal equilibrium of the year has been so disrupted – and this means that while trading levels overall will be fine, last year's Black Friday spike is unlikely - I just don't think shoppers heads are in that mode yet."
Watch out for scams
As Black Friday and Christmas approaches, it pays for shoppers to be mindful of increased activity by scammers.
Last week a widespread scam text was sent out in New Zealand making claims about unpaid custom...

The Royal Commission's findings into the Christchurch shooting are with the appropriate Minister.
First question is, when do we get to see it? The law says it should be put into the house as soon as practicable, whatever that means.
But it is potentially the most critical part of the whole tragic event. Tarrant has been sentenced. So, justice, such as is possible in a case like this, has been done.
The gun buyback, which was the government's knee jerk reaction to a tragedy, has been carried out with the predictable outcome. A lot of rabbit shooters handed over their weapons, we paid millions for them and put them in the bin, in the vein hope that next time a nutter rolls into town they find it hard to get a weapon of some sort of mass destruction.
This is why the Royal Commission Report is so important. Because the ideal scenario was, of course, was the attack never happened in the first place. And the way that would have happened, is that Tarrant was picked up before he ever acted.
So, the critical part of this report is, was our security found wanting? And if so, how badly? My bet, sadly, is the answer is yes.
The sense at the time, if you remember, was that the authorities had spent too much energy on groups like ISIS. International terror groups were a reflection of where the world was at post 9/11. The white supremacist had managed to operate a bit under the radar. Whether that is true, will hopefully be fleshed out in this report.
But I ask the question again, that I asked at the time, and that is what I base my fears on, how is it that a person of no obvious means, no employment, is able to wander the world the way he did, and no flag went up anywhere.
This is a bloke that travelled to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bulgaria, Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, France, Spain, Portugal, Croatia, and North Korea.
Now, some of those places don’t ring alarm bells, but come on. North Korea, Pakistan and Afghanistan? There's a theme here, and it's not sunshine and lounge chairs. Even if it was, checks would have been able to verify it.
The travel record alone and its lack of attention for a single man sitting in Dunedin, warranted a lot of questions, I would have thought.
What I fear is that, yet again, government departments will be found badly wanting. And when they are, the apologies will flow, lessons will be learned, and promises will be made.
But, of course, it will, like all reports that find blame fault, ineptitude, unprofessionalism, and incompetence, be too late.
Let's hope I am wrong. It won't change the outcome, but it will be less salt in the wound.

Two thousand workers from the Pacific will come to New Zealand early next year to pick fruit for the horticulture and wine industries.
Their arrival is hoped to cover a huge hole in the labour force and avert what many growers have been calling a crisis.
But there are Government conditions to the deal.
Employers will have to pay the workers a living wage of $22.10 an hour, pay them 30 hours' a week while they're in managed isolation for 14 days, and cover their isolation costs - estimated at $4472 a worker.
The deal was announced this morning by Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi and Agriculture Minister Damien O'Connor.
Horticulture NZ chief executive Mike Chapman welcomed it but warned about possible labour shortages for the spring 2021 and harvest 2022 seasons.
Praise from growers
"While the timing of the Government's decision means that spring and early summer crops have missed out, growers across the country are relieved that some of the essential workers needed from low-Covid-risk Pacific countries are being let in," Chapman said.
The workers will be granted a border exception as Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers, and will fly in between mid-January and March. The staggered arrivals are aimed at continuing to have MIQ spaces for returning Kiwis.
Where the workers fly in from is still to be determined but, to qualify, the country needs an agreed plan to take back all of their RSE workers - not just those in the 2000-strong cohort - when the 2020/21 season ends.
New Zealand Winegrowers says it "warmly welcomes" the Government announcement.
Chief executive Philip Gregan said: "We have been working constructively with the Government to find a solution that balances our industry's need for skilled workers to complete time sensitive vineyard operations - against the high demand from Kiwis for places in managed isolation and quarantine."
Gregan said the industry employed up to 8000 workers at its peak.
Despite their efforts to recruit workers in New Zealand, however, he said: "The projected shortage of workers has been a real concern as we edge closer to next year's harvest and plan for the critical winter pruning."
Horticulture and wine exports were worth $6.5 billion in the last financial year, with the sector employing about 38,300 New Zealanders, mainly in the regions.
But growers have been crying out for more workers. There are normally about 14,400 RSE workers a year, but the pandemic and border restrictions have cut that workforce in half.
Meanwhile, the number of unemployed people rose by 37,000 - totalling 151,000 - in the September quarter amid concerns that ripe crops were going to rot on the ground.
The first of 2000 RSE workers from the Pacific will arrive in mid-January to help pick fruit. Photo / Warren Buckland
This morning the Government also announced incentives for Kiwis to work in the sector, including up to $200 in weekly accommodation support for those who move regions for this work and continue to have accommodation costs at home.
Halfway through a contract that's at least six weeks long, Kiwi workers will also receive $500 from the Government, as well as a further $500 after completing the contract.
O'Connor said the industries were also expected to make this work more attractive to Kiwis by addressing issues such as transport, accommodation, pay and training.
He added that employers were also on notice that the workers were expected to be treated well and fully employed.
There are about 6000 RSE workers from last year who have been allowed to stay and work this season, while those with Working Holiday visas expiring between October 2020 and March 2021 have been invited into the SSE (Supplementary Seasonal Employment) scheme to work in the sectors.
Of 12,300 people with such Working Holiday visas, 1300 have been transferred to SSE.
Those on current visitor, student and work...

THE BEST BITS IN A SILLIER PACKAGE (from Friday's Mike Hosking Breakfast) Black Friday's Back/Mark the Week/Next Growth Industry/Could've Been a Barista/Athleisurewear

The reason, at least in part, we are back into this time consuming, tedious and ultimately fruitless scrap between business and the government over jobs and how we can’t find any locals to fill them, is because up until the government decided to change the rules, we buy and large had it sorted - and we have the numbers to prove it.
In other words, within a margin, if you needed people in from off shore you could get them, and we did.
Stats out this week show 18000 more work visa applications under the essential skills category. Only 1500 had been turned down.
The essential skills category is the list the government has decided we need help on that there is a genuine shortage locally.
Or is there?
Here’s the simple truth: shortage or not, an employer should be able to hire who they want.
Hospitality especially is a good example. French chefs or Mexican or Chinese, people with skills we would be unlikely to replicate.
But the stats tell us there were in fact 660 different job types that we could not fill. Accommodation and hospitality managers, consultants, engineers, scientists, technicians, machine operators and drivers, mechanics: the list goes on and on and on.
Now, do you honestly believe that in every single one of those categories, there isn’t a New Zealander about the place that could do it?
If the answer is yes, what a monumental enlightenment on our education system.  
If the answer is no, we clearly have a booming economy where everyone is gainfully busy.
And yet of course we don’t, and we know we don’t.
So the government’s new answer is to take those out of work and give them these jobs. Classic theory from a group who have never employed anyone in their lives.
And, as we are seeing by the ongoing cries for help, this plan is hopelessly unrealistic.
You either want stuff done or you don’t, machine driven or not, fruit picked or not, the job actually filled or not.
The government argue it’s about money. It isn’t. For cherry or apple picking it could be, but even there I am doubtful.
The truth is we lack skills, we sometimes lack desire, but that doesn’t change reality and the reality is an economy needs workers to fill jobs and we have a mismatch.
The solution is to get these people in here and fix the problem. There are spaces in quarantine, but the government is reluctant because they’re hung up on ideology to fill them.
The only tangible sensible and realistic solution is for them to wake up and change their minds and get back to doing what we were previously, which, although not perfect, was a hell of a lot more productivity that what’s going on now.

Tributes to Argentina football great Diego Maradona, who died Wednesday at age 60:
___
“A very sad day for all Argentinians and for football. He leaves us, but he is not gone because Diego is eternal. I stay with all the beautiful moments I lived with him and I wanted to send my condolences to his family and friends." — Argentina and Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.
___
“Sad news today. I have lost a dear friend, and the world has lost a legend. There is much more to say, but for now may God give his family strength. One day, I hope, we will play soccer together in the sky." — Brazil great Pele.
___
“Today I say goodbye to a friend and the world says goodbye to an eternal genius. One of the best ever. An unrivaled magician. He departs too soon, but leaves a legacy with no limits and an emptiness that will never be filled.” — Portugal and Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo.
___
“You will always be in our memory, you left your legacy. Soccer thanks you.” — Brazil and Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar.
___
“My friend is gone. Maradona, the legend! The Argentine that conquered the world with the ball at his feet, but also for his joy and unique personality. I said it sometimes, out of the players I have seen on the pitch he was the best.” — former Brazil forward Romario.
___
“By some distance the best player of my generation and arguably the greatest of all time. After a blessed but troubled life, hopefully he’ll finally find some comfort in the hands of God." — former England striker Gary Lineker.
___
“There was a banner in Argentina, one year ago I read it. It said, ‘No matter what you have have done with your life, Diego, it matters what you have done for our lives.’ I think it expresses perfectly what this guy gave us. The amount of joy and the pleasure and his commitment for world football. He made world football better.” — Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, a former player and coach at Barcelona.
___
"I’m proud to have been able to experience him up close on the pitch. Diego Maradona won everything there is to win, as well as the hearts of everyone who loves the beauty of football.” — former West Germany forward Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
___
“He had everything technically: Left foot, control, shooting, and he was also very lively. To avoid the assassins (on the field) in the 1970s and 80s you were better off being very, very lively, and he was a dribbler, too. He would dribble, dribble, dribble.” — former France great Michel Platini.
___
“What Diego has done for football, for making all of us fall in love with this beautiful game, is unique. It is, as he is, simply immense. Diego deserves our eternal gratitude for that, for having amazed us with his incredible talent and yes, for having been so unique: for having been Diego Armando Maradona, a legend, a hero, and a man. Diego may be eternal now, but for forever, Diego will also have a most prominent place in the incredible story of all football fairy tales." — FIFA President Gianni Infantino.
___
“The world lost one of the greatest soccer players that ever lived Diego Maradona. It was one of the thrills of my life when I got to meet him." — Los Angeles Lakers great Magic Johnson.
___
“Football and the world of sports has lost one of its greatest players today.” — India cricket great Sachin Tendulkar.

So it seems if you can't buy happiness, you can subscribe to it.
Gone of the days of insurance and WOF's.
The Giltrap Group is today launching 'Sixt', a fresh alternative to car ownership, allowing punters to subscribe to luxury cars for six , nine or even twelve months at a time.
Dan Fisher is the general manager of the Giltrap Group, he joined Mike Hosking to explain how the initiative works.
LISTEN ABOVE

The Wiggles have announced extra dates for their New Zealand tour in March and April next year.
The We're All Fruit Salad Tour will begin in Invercargill on March 19 and finish in Wellington on April 1 – traveling to Dunedin, Christchurch, Queenstown, Tauranga, Hamilton, Auckland, Napier and Palmerston North in between.
The beloved children's act will be joined onstage by Captain Feathersword, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus and their newest Wiggly Friend; Shirley Shawn the Unicorn.
"The We're All Fruit Salad Tour is a truly wonderful show and I can't wait for our fans to experience it! You'll hear all the classic songs you love plus new ones!" founding member and Blue Wiggle Anthony Field said in a statement.
"The show will feature a variety of dance styles and performances that go with different styles of music. Children will see and hear drums, keyboards, banjo, guitars, bagpipes and lots of singing. We hope to see you there!"
The tour kicks off in Invercargill on March 19 and travels to Dunedin, Christchurch, Queenstown, Tauranga, Hamilton, Auckland, Napier and Palmerston North before finishing in Wellington on April 1.
If you're keen you better get a wiggle on and be prepared at 1pm next Thursday, November 26, when tickets for all shows go on sale. The group sold out their 2019 tour within two minutes.
Complete tour, ticket and information can be found on livenation.co.nz.

There's good news for the Ministry of Health as it prepares to integrate Apple and Google's automated contact tracing solution to its NZ Covid Tracer App.
A new survey has found that more than two-third of Kiwis now believe their phone's location data - which keeps a record of all your movements, if enabled - can be used positively by government agencies to improve public services and emergency responses.
And some 50 per cent say they have become more willing to share location data.
Tech commentator Paul Brislen told Mike Hosking that Kiwis are getting used to location data being shared. 
He says that users need more education on what location data means and how it is used. 
"It's a good technology if you use it and you are aware of it, so it's really about informed consent." 
LISTEN ABOVE 

The British government faced fury Wednesday after ditching its long-standing target for overseas aid in the wake of what it described as the deepest recession in over three centuries.
In a statement to lawmakers, Treasury chief Rishi Sunak said the target to allocate 0.7% of national income to overseas aid will be cut to 0.5%. The move is expected to free up 4 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) for the Conservative government to use elsewhere, money that critics say could be used to save tens of thousands of lives in the poorest parts of the world.
While expressing “great respect to those who have argued passionately to retain this target,” Sunak said “sticking rigidly” to it “is difficult to justify" to people at a time when the economy has been so battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
“At a time of unprecedented crisis, government must make tough choices,” he said.
Without giving a timetable, he said that the government aims to return to the target first laid out by the Labour government of Tony Blair in 2004. And he said that even with the new target, the U.K. will still be the second biggest aid spender among the Group of Seven leading industrial nations.
The decision goes against the government's promise last year to maintain the aid target and drew sharp criticism from across the political spectrum, including within Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own Conservative Party.
Liz Sugg, a junior minister at the Foreign Office, quit in the wake of the decision, arguing that it “will diminish our power to influence other nations to do what is right.” She said it undermines Johnson's efforts to promote a “Global Britain” in the wake of the country's departure from the European Union earlier this year.
The U.K. is considered one of the world's leaders in development issues so the cut was met with dismay from anti-poverty campaigners.
“Cutting the U.K.’s lifeline to the world’s poorest communities in the midst of a global pandemic will lead to tens of thousands of otherwise preventable deaths," said Oxfam Chief Executive Danny Sriskandarajah.
Save the Children Chief Executive Kevin Watkins said the decision had “broken Britain's reputation for leadership on the world stage” ahead of its hosting of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby joined the chorus of disapproval, describing the cut as "shameful and wrong” and urging lawmakers “to reject it for the good of the poorest, and the U.K.’s own reputation and interest.”
In a sobering assessment that provided the backdrop to the cut, Sunak sought to balance ongoing support for the economy with a longer-term commitment to heal public finances after a stark deterioration.
“Our health emergency is not yet over and our economic emergency has only just begun,” he said.
Sunak said the government's independent economic forecasters are predicting that the British economy will shrink 11.3% this year, the “largest fall in output for more than 300 years.”
The Office for Budget Responsibility expects the economy to grow again next year as coronavirus restrictions are eased and hoped-for vaccines come on stream, though it warned that a failure to agree a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU would wipe 2 percentage points off growth next year.
Assuming a trade deal is secured by the year-end deadline, the agency is predicting growth of 5.5% in 2021 and 6.6% the following year. As a result the output lost during the pandemic won't have been recouped until the final quarter of 2022.
Sunak warned that the pandemic's cost will create long-term “scarring,” with the economy 3% smaller in 2025 than predicted in March, before the spring lockdown.
The massive fall in output this year has led to a huge increase in public borrowing as the government sought to cushion the blow and tax revenues fell. Sunak said the government has pumped 280 billion pounds into the economy to get...