Shopping in Northern Ireland

thanks. Thats gona make it an awful lot easier

Hiob wrote: »

Is it worth to go up north for lcd tv? Cheers lads

i'd say so, compare the price on argos.ie versus argos.co.uk

mailburner wrote: »

im going to eniskillen for the first time in a week
and was wondering
there is no sainsburys there
am i missing something there?
should i go further afield so i have sainsbury and asda?
or will asda and tesco fill all my booze needs?

No tesco and asda should fill ur boozing needs.I did head though tesco closing down in enniskillen now don't "quote" me n it now. I just prefer retail therapy for clothing in Belfast city centre for the day and do sainsburys lisburn n way back. It really does depend n where u live as to where u go. If you are In Dublin or further up east coast I think lisburn. The sainsburys in newry I give up on as it's too small busy and selection not as good as that is where all people from south go as it is right on the border

johnfás wrote: »

Sky News are today reporting that Britain will reduce VAT by 2.5% to 15% in the forthcoming budget. This will make shopping in Northern Ireland even cheaper comparatively speaking.

Great news for those of us who Shop Around

They were talking about reducing Duty on fuel too.

Lenihan is single handedly going to kill the country.
You dont tax people out of the market and then ask then to examine their conscience.

bulld wrote: »

WOW I can not Believe the Idiots on this site, By going to the North to do your shopping you are putting money out of the country. When it is obvious to any asshole the country needs it. I cant believe the comments here

They are also keeping some money in their own pockets too by doing it.
Why dont you ring revenue and offer them an extra 10% from your pocket. The country needs it. And it would be of more use than coming on here and talking ****e.

bulld wrote: »

WOW I can not Believe the Idiots on this site, By going to the North to do your shopping you are putting money out of the country. When it is obvious to any asshole the country needs it. I cant believe the comments here

Basically you are saying we should be good little boys n girls and do as we are told! Think for yourself and not others, we have the choice, still ,to spend the few quid we have left where we want, and your comments are only going to convince those who were on the fene about shopping up north to head there .... post haste.

Just in case the Govt arent paying attention.

RIP-OFF REPUBLIC IS NOW IN COMPETITION WITH THE UK.

COMPETE.

And in case you want to take the easy way out and just tax us for shopping around, think of Europe as the competition authority.

Without a car your options are limited. Could you not orangise a trip up with friends?

bulld wrote: »

WOW I can not Believe the Idiots on this site, By going to the North to do your shopping you are putting money out of the country. When it is obvious to any asshole the country needs it. I cant believe the comments here

bulld you do realise of course that many of the bigger retailers in the South are in fact UK based and that in the wider arena of retail most of our non-foodstuff purchases are imported (and much of our branded foodstuffs too).
Now with that in mind, most of the money that we spend in the South on consumables leaves the country anyhow, once Revenue has taken it's cut, overheads have been met and Irish staff have been paid.

Kindly explain to the people on this forum who you are so quick to brand as idiots, why they should pay 20-30% more on average on the exact same item, in most cases bought from the exact same company, by shopping in the republic.
It has been catalogued in numerous threads on these and other forums over the last few years, the blatant rip off that has taken place on the Irish consumer for no other reason that that we all had too much money and that we're an island nation, largely dependent on imports; in other words that we were seen collectively as a market that would bear the inflated price.
In a lot of those threads you'll see that the only reason many of us woke up and smelt the overpriced skinny latté, was due to our proximity to a slice of the UK market in NI.
Even before the current economic downturn and the fall in £STG, prices were still cheap enough in the North to warrant making a few trips a year...Irish interests at the time, mainly along the border, would have noticed a decline in income and should have reacted accordingly and dropped prices...instead, as far as I could see, prices here in fact went up, and so more people started heading North...as word spreads of the savings to be made, the trickle becomes a steady flow, and of late a torrent.
How can you blame people or worse try to make them feel guilty, about trying to make their euro go as far as they can? We already pay through the nose for everything else down here that isn't a consumable, we're taxed to the hilt through mainly secondary taxes and we do NOT receive value for money for the tax we pay (something that is becoming more and more apparent by the day).
Listen, people aren't stupid...basic common sense will tell you that if you spend money in the UK that Irish revenue sees none of it, Irish retail workers see none of it and Irish retail business sees none of it...but the North has always been there...it's not like someone just set up shop over night with 30% price cuts. The market in the South has failed to react in the way that it should hvae...UK companies continued to impose excessive surcharges for items blaming the cost of doing business here (wages, VAT, taxes, rates, distribution, shoplifting and a whole plethora of other excuses).

Argos is just the one example I'm going to use here because I have recent direct experience of a huge% difference in the price of a delivered item, between my mate here in Dundalk and to a friend of his in Newry...they ended up buying a set of table and chairs and having it delivered to the address in the North, for the simple reason that they could either pay €100 more for the privilege of supporting "Irish" business, or they could get it for a more reasonable price (while Argos still makes their profit, pays their UK taxes and overheads and pays their local Northern Irish staff)

Dining table, 4 chairs, delivered by UK Argos store
£180 + £6 delivery fee = (€226 at today's comsumer XE rate)

Dining table, 4 chairs, delivered by Irish Argos store (ex-Dublin)
€290 + €30 delivery fee (€9 in Dublin area) = €320

So €226 UK or €320 IE (€300 if in Dublin: 70% of us aren't).
Roughly 33-38.5%
That's some hit to ask people to take, even back when we supposedly could afford it.

This is just one example...as someone who's done a lot of grocery shopping in the North over the past 3-4 years I have countless examples of the ludicrous differences for the exact same item selling in supermarkets across the border, none of which I can currently back up and at this stage I couldn't be bothered anyhow.
TBH you're the only poster in this thread who comes across as being somewhat intellectually challenged, or perhaps downright foolish if you think that the Irish consumer should feel some level of gratitude towards companies who blatantly overcharge them or that they are in some way unpatriotic for wanting to try and save some money.
The blame for all of this can not and should not be levelled at the hoi poloi...look more to blaming UK retailers and the policies of our elected representatives before you start slating the Irish consumer.

[edit] BTW just noticed on those 2 argos urls...the only thing I had to chnage was the .co.uk to a .ie...hey presto a nifty 1/3 of the price gets added on. David Blaine would be proud.

I bought a nice mattress up north fo 530 euro. The same mattress was on SALE here for 900!!

I asked yer man up north was he making any money on the sale. He said he was and that the retailers down south totally take the piss.

Recently I've gotten really choosey about who gets my money. I prefer to shop in small local shops especially ethnic ones. The owners are usually there so you get great service and value too. They want to do business. Tesco is not getting any more money out of me. The shops are filthy and not cheap and whats more you end up being the checkout person too! whats the story with that???

Time for the consumer to stand up!

Argos is an easy target here because you can view nearly all their stock on both region's websites....don't for a minute think that Argos are the only ones doing this or that they are even the worst example of overcharging.
The grocery prices especially on brand leader items is frankly staggering when you cross the border...and it was before the fall in £STG and before you took further offers like BOGOF or similar into account.
Drink and confectionery/biscuits were obviously always going to be more expensive down here due to duty and VAT on luxury items...but even after you take that on board, the prices are still inexplicably high.

BTW we might be loosing a lot of money over the border, but on the whole for most people a trip to the North isn't practical every week or month (especially if you don't have a car or access to one), so it's only those of us in border regions or with good mway access that can avail of the savings...for the majority of the country they are still faced with having to pay the Irish price for the goods they buy in a weekly shop. Companies are still creaming it, despite what the scaremongers would have you believe...if the groundswell continues though, we might see moves to try and pricematch...but I doubt it.
Even Aldi and Lidl are at this carry on, although perhaps not to the extent that Tescos and Dunnes are...

Yes that's a fair point, and it's one that also effects Irish retailers that have bought stock at the then higher £STG price...but on the other hand the recent falls in exchange rate has only made about 10-12% difference to the actual prices...the other 15-25% difference has been there all along...we just had too much money and access to easy credit to make us take notice of it...