Had a look at your website TW. The street light is a much bigger investment than a halogen downlight replacement and may well be worth the money. As Lance says he buys the stuff for a couple of dollars in small quantities so bulk purchases wholesale would be in the cents range.
For cashed up people I'm sure your quality products are suitable however for low income purchasers they aren't even in the ballpark hence my approach to cheaper lighting products. There is no one size fits all in the market place as I tried to explain to engineer. Quality does not guarantee success. There are a lot more variables here.
The early days of LED lighting will be like many other innovative technologies. There will be successes and failures, good and bad product etc. Please don't be too discouraged as EcoOnline seems to be because these things will evolve in both quality and price over time. You may have to cross subsidise in the short term. Online overseas product will be hard to compete with though.
I sympathise with your testing issues. Let's face it there is zero enforcement and overseas product doesn't have to jump through that hoop if purchased direct by the consumer.
As for wages driving these prices I'm not so sure. Many of these businesses have very low start up employee costs, are often family run or a few friends getting together.
