We're starting to see some of the effects of Brexit here and there — most notably for me in the case of ordering video games. Any of the shops run by Reef Entertainment — which means NISA Europe and Idea Factory International over here — are now quoting prices without tax, then sticking said tax on at the end of the transaction. Things are often ending up a bit more expensive than they used to be as a result.
Play-Asia has had intermittent issues, too. For a while, Play-Asia offered a helpful shipping service that took care of customs and duty fees, and it wasn't noticeably more expensive than just the regular shipping option until recently… when it starting adding an amount of "tax" that, in some cases, exceeded the actual value of the item being ordered! (I can only assume that tax was also being charged on the shipping or something.) I just ordered something from them and that didn't happen — but the "duty paid" option also wasn't available, so I don't know if they've sorted things out or if they've just quietly removed the "duty paid" option altogether.
I don't really understand the ins and outs of Brexit, but I do know a lot of companies — particularly those based in the UK — have been struggling quite a bit to continue catering to an international customer base. Reef had to outright stop shipping to the EU altogether for a while, and I know of at least a couple of other distributors who have been having similar issues.
I know "I have to pay a bit more for my video games" is the very height of first-world problems, but for me it is the first and most obvious sign I've seen of what Brexit is doing… and it doesn't fill me with confidence. What else is going to become (perhaps prohibitively) expensive in the near future? I guess we'll have to see. Brexit has just sort of quietly slipped through while the whole pandemic thing has been going on; I think people who haven't noticed will be in for a bit of a rude awakening when ol 'Rona is no longer occupying the majority of the collective consciousness!
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