some things have gotten expensive to purchase, the cost of running business in australia has also grown..

yer its not cheap to run a buisness atm. everything is stacked against small buisness, and these are the guys who sell this stuff. im sure the small buisness owners here can agree with how hard it is to make a dollar atm. and it seems the more you are making there some price hike of some kind from the gov is making profits less. Id say this would be the reason, sometimes it is better to pay the price to keep these places open so we have some where to buy from.
but on the mention of Aussie dollar being higher and should make stuff cheaper from local sellers, id say that also has a bit to do with why, high dollar just like other retails stores means people buy over seas not locally so they arent making money atm.
so you have to keep in mind often shopping over seas makes local prices dearer, and long term when dollar comes down and over seas prices arent what they used to be you will find long term you are ripping your self off.