Lidl Spares

AIUI the VAT regime implemented by the UK for 3rd countries is essentially the same as by the EU, funny how they don't like it ... AliExpress had it up an running on day one

They are inside the EU so their intra-EU sales are customs-free. Selling spares is probably a niche part of their business, and spares to the small island of Great Britain yet a small niche, so they can't be bothered with the paperwork of selling outside the EU customs union. Aliexpress sells across the world and selling into the EU is a big market for them so it's much more worth their while.

Speaking of Aliexpress, it's worth checking there. Some tool brands are just a rebrand of Chinese ODMs (Sealey seems to do it a lot) and maybe you can find compatible parts there, especially for higher-turnover things like vacuum bags. You may need to know more about the the tool (eg they won't be branded Lidl, they'll might be branded under another name the tool is sold under, or just by dimensions with no brand at all)

Failing that, look for an EU freight forwarder who will give you an EU address to order the items to and do the customs clearance for you. (No recommendations - I have ones for the US and Japan but not needed one for the EU as yet)

Theo

I tried to order a tablet from a .hk supplier, they refused to deliver to .uk (not because of tax reasons, but because they say theft/non-delivery rates are too high here). They suggest I might find a friend/relative in .de

Yes - you'd think they'd be just as reluctant to sell into the EU from outside; oh, wait ...

The reality is that if people *want* to trade they will find a way.

However Ali Express works, I can buy £2 items and get them shipped to my door in a week, but try that with the USA and you will end up paying around £20 freight and taxes.

I got some stuff shipped from Australia more easily than from the the USA. People in the EU seem to not want to trade with the UK out of chagrin. After all if they can trade easily with the UK what is the point of being in the EU at all?

That however is their prerogative.

None more so than the dutchbikebits.com people ...

May they all die of prostate cancer...

Germans in particular felt insulted that the UK didn't want to be in 'their' EU. Since it was clearly the most superior of all institutions.

I got some stuff from France OK.

Take a photo of the ‘mounting’ part - the bit which is at the mouth of the bag.

Then use the Google image search tool ( Lens) . I would be surprised if the bags are unique to Parkside.

Another option.

Find a cloth bag with a smaller mounting. Remove the mounting from a paper bag. A bit of glue and …..

Thanks, yes - it's easy enough to get something that looks similar. But I'm after a genuine replacement, not something that an enterprising soul has cobbled together out of old socks.

And I've just bought some stuff from Thomann in Germany. OK, £10 postage, but hey.

Yes, that's fine - up to them.

However, Lidl has quite a large UK presence, and I would argue that safety related spares at least should be reasonably available. It's an argument I'm about to lose, I suspect.

I'd rather stick to branded items for things like hoover bags.

I'd look into that if it was a large indispensable item. Just hoover bags at the moment. Although I did buy some tool batteries from them many years back.

You believe that if you want.

Businesses trade if they can make a profit or if the loss made will encourage sufficient future orders. If the number of sales is not huge there's no point jumping through the hoops needed to sell to the UK or other non-EU countries. This is not rocket science.

When you are next in Budapest they have an actual Parkside store and it seems to stock everything but keep it under your hat when you try to convince domestic management to holiday there.

A bit. Germans are very proud to be Germans, to have gamed the system to become the richest country in Europe whilst pretending they did it all through hard work and better intelligence , government and education.

They believe they are the natural people to run the EU. And make up laws that favour German industry.

Well no, some businesses do not trade even when there is a potential market.

And you do not build a market by sayi8ng 'there isn't a market there'

And as for the 'no big potential market outside the EU' well that is precisely why the EU is so crap. It discourages exports as well as imports.

It is a *protected* trade area, not a free trade area.

The carrot is access to markets, but the price is colonialism.

Well I never. They do have a UK spares outlet:

The problem with cross-border trade is usually[*] not the export part of it, it's the import side. If someone in Germany wants to sell to the UK, they have to deal with UK red tape. They don't want to sell to the UK because of the UK's bureaucracy, not the EUs.

We chose to impose that on them - we didn't have to.

Theo

Indeed. Or rather they insisted we impose that on them.

It's very easy to import from e.g. Morocco, or Peru. Only Germany seems to have a problem

Of course we didn't leave the EU because of the trade part: we left because of the colonialism and Anglophobia part.

The success story has been free access to worldwide markets who are happy to sign deals.

EU is just playing dog in the manger,

Pour encourager les aûtres...

It's very childish of them. But then, that's why we left.