Books are expensive in New Zealand. Always have been. Now that we are living here, we have become avid users of the public library, which is probably a Good Thing (R) (TM) anyway.
Over the weekend I decided to spend a gift card at Borders (the same chain as in the US). I had read a good review of Steve Skiena's "The algorithm design manual" -- $75.50 USD on BetterWorld including shipping. That's $100 NZD at the current exchange rate. Shipping from the US usually takes 7-10 days -- USPS doesn't ship by sea any more.
Borders didn't have it but they could special order it for the princely sum of $215 NZD. BetterWorld it is then.
This is completely nuts -- more than double the price of buying it from a US retail source. For items that might involve after sales support (e.g. electronics goods) I could understand paying a small premium. Labor costs in NZ are high after all. But this is a book we're talking about.
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