Another week and another Australian arm of an international brand announces it is packing up its duffle bag and bugging out.

On Thursday, it was Esprit, which announced it was closing its stores and concessions here and in New Zealand, totalling 350 jobs, citing an "unfortunate but unavoidable" decision.

Esprit will close its Australian and New Zealand operations.

Another brand fails and its operators are left wondering, "Why didn't it work in Australia when we have made it work in [insert country name here]?"

I'll tell you why. Because for too long, international retailers have been playing Australian shoppers as disconnected and "lucky" to have the "privilege" of accessing these global fashion brands, even if that means tolerating old or unappealing stock, sometimes months or years after it was released, and often at a hefty mark-up.