I don't accept that our costs are 200, sometimes 300% higher.
HH,
And the rest --- for markups.
I had a brother, now long gone, who had some involvement in the Indian rag trade. He had detailed information on a number of imports into Australia by big chains.
Believe me, the difference between the Australian landed price, all duties and, in those days sales tax,paid, and the retail was simply amazing. One example I remember well, so called Mens Fashion Shorts had a landed price of just under AUD$5.
The pre-Christmas shelf price was AUD$89.99, and the after Christmas sales --- "reduced" to AUD$49.99!!
Many moons ago, I looked after insurance payouts for a trucking company that carried a lot of stuff for the Melbourne rag trade chains. The "values" for insurance, which is what we paid out on, and the retail prices, based on the tags on the garments retrieved from crash sites, was an eyeopener for me.
Tootle pip!!