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Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

reuters.com

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Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#161

Post by stefan_ »

hourislate wrote: post #32

Hyper inflation drives people to buy goods that can be resold later for more. This happened in CCCP while it was falling apart. People would show up with all their money every morning at their local stores, buying whatever was available no matter what it was. They could resell it later for more money (effort to preserve the value of the currency they held). Apple products are a safe bet as they typically hold on to t…

Whats stopping people to exchange their money for euros or dollars? It's a popular tourist destination, after all.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#162

Post by throw3849 »

aerovistae wrote: post #36
jeffbee wrote: post #6

The Turkish lira has been plunging vs. the US dollar for 14 years straight. It has fallen by 90% in dollar terms. All foreign retailers must be constantly readjusting prices, right?

So does that mean it would be profitable to short the lira? Not a forex trader but it's where my mind went.

Well, I am going to Turkey for couple of months this spring.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#163

Post by mrtksn »

throw3849 wrote: post #157
AdamJacobMuller wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember the process of getting a SIM in turkey was super annoying. I had to physically go to a store where they needed BOTH of our passports and a second form of ID (so had to go back to the hotel and return with my traveling companion) and a decent 30 minute process of entering our information into databases and making copies of IDs. Compare that to most countries where I can either trivially pop into a local sto…

You have to buy sim at airport, there is an exception from this registration, it is easy.

Are you sure about that? Maybe the process is streamlined for tourists but I doubt that they are not taking a copy of your passport.

In fact, I Googled for tourist SIMS from the Turkish GSM operators and they mention[0] that to purchase a tourist SIM a foreign passport is required.

[0] https://m.turkcell.com.tr/en/aboutus/traveling-turkey/local-...

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#164

Post by Traster »

qsort wrote: post #47
Zenst wrote: post #27

Question is - if/when the lira rises 15% (#1), will Apple respond as timely to adjust prices cheaper? Mindful that companies are quick to point to a reason to increase prices yet when that same reason goes the other way, not so quick (if ever) to adjust down. Is Black Friday sales a thing in Turkey? As can imagine many who would of banked to buy then, only to get hit with the polar opposite in this instance. #1 - (ma…

I mean, it's not Apple's fault Turkey's currency is unstable. Why would it be their responsibility to take the exchange risk? I wouldn't be surprised if in response to future events like this they stopped accepting payments denominated in TRY altogether.

A perfectly reasonable thing for Apple to do would be to buy foreign exchange options to hedge out the risk of currency fluctatuions, passing the cost on to consumers. So it'll cost a percent or two more in the price of a new Apple product, but that means Apple isn't exposed to risk of currency fluctuations. Having said that, Apple is probably a big enouhg company to just accept the risk itself and not pay for options to hedge that risk.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#165

Post by spdionis »

WanderPanda wrote: post #110
ryanlol wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Turkey is anything like eastern Europe, I’d be pretty confident that the people buying Apple stuff don’t have their salaries or bank accounts denominated in Lira. For example in Ukraine anything that matters is priced in USD

Even wages?

Especially wages. At least for the industries where workers are in a position to demand.

A tech job that offer in local currency gets laughed out of the room around here.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#166

Post by AdrianB1 »

tsimionescu wrote: post #142
AdrianB1 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is no law preventing one to sell in Euro in US and there is no law mandating a seller to accept USD as payment. "Legal tender" does not mean what most people think.

A supermarket could refuse to sell you something unless you pay in Mario coins, but I beleive a restaurant is forced to accept your dollars to settle the bill you incurred for the food, and can't insist you pay your bill in Fallout Bottlecaps. Is this right?

As long as they tell in advance (before you order), they can have any rules like any contract. It is extremely rare to have weird rules, but more common sense ones like "exact change or card only", "card only" are fairly common.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#167

Post by throw3849 »

mrtksn wrote: post #163
throw3849 wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have to buy sim at airport, there is an exception from this registration, it is easy.

Are you sure about that? Maybe the process is streamlined for tourists but I doubt that they are not taking a copy of your passport. In fact, I Googled for tourist SIMS from the Turkish GSM operators and they mention[0] that to purchase a tourist SIM a foreign passport is required. [0] https://m.turkcell.com.tr/en/aboutus/traveling-turkey/local-...

Of course they will take your passport. First time I bought sim in store, it was illegal to use foreign phones, and shop owner had to fake his IMEI. Airports never had this restrictions or asked for IMEI.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#168

Post by jopsen »

CSDude wrote: post #102
throwaway4good wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the cost of living (food, rent, price of a coffee at a bar ...) in lira going up at the same pace? Or is the inflation only felt in imported goods suchs computers, gasoline ...

It used to be OK. However, recent increase and the longer increase with start of Covid started to amplify in all goods. Even bread is now 1.5/2x more expensive, restuarants are 2x expensive compared to 1YR, because of cascading increases in every industry, mostly transportation and goods. For instance, the wood for the kitchen is increased almost 3x in 6 months according to our guy. Tech workers are mostly in good sp…

> But those taxes are everywhere, named like "Luxury Consumption Tax".

Are those taxes effectively targeting products that are imported?

It's classic trick to improve the trade deficit.. I would guess that getting rid of them would only further crags the currency.

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#169

Post by mrtksn »

throw3849 wrote: post #167
mrtksn wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you sure about that? Maybe the process is streamlined for tourists but I doubt that they are not taking a copy of your passport. In fact, I Googled for tourist SIMS from the Turkish GSM operators and they mention[0] that to purchase a tourist SIM a foreign passport is required. [0] https://m.turkcell.com.tr/en/aboutus/traveling-turkey/local-...

Of course they will take your passport. First time I bought sim in store, it was illegal to use foreign phones, and shop owner had to fake his IMEI. Airports never had this restrictions or asked for IMEI.

AFAIK foreign IMEI was never illegal in Turkey. The registration requirement started in 2011, before that you could just pop a local SIM and use it.

Any IMEI can be registered within a specific timeframe(they change it from time to time but it's usually 3 weeks to 12 months) or the GSM operator will deny service to your device. It could be that you missed your deadline because to register an IMEI you need to do it within certain timeframe after you enter the country, there was even a business of paying tourist to use their passports for registering IMEI of black market imports.

Those who legally import phones for sale in Turkey also register the IMEI of every device but at different and much lower rates than the individual registrations(they pay other taxes).

Re: Apple stopped sales in Turkey after the lira crashed 15% in a day

#170

Post by pasabagi »

jopsen wrote: post #168
CSDude wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be OK. However, recent increase and the longer increase with start of Covid started to amplify in all goods. Even bread is now 1.5/2x more expensive, restuarants are 2x expensive compared to 1YR, because of cascading increases in every industry, mostly transportation and goods. For instance, the wood for the kitchen is increased almost 3x in 6 months according to our guy. Tech workers are mostly in good sp…

> But those taxes are everywhere, named like "Luxury Consumption Tax". Are those taxes effectively targeting products that are imported? It's classic trick to improve the trade deficit.. I would guess that getting rid of them would only further crags the currency.

I think in general luxury goods taxes are underexploited. People normally want to buy expensive things so they can show off how much money they have. May as well make them more expensive, and divert some of that cash to useful purposes.
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