Shops charging what they like for magazines

eth0_

This is really getting on my nerves! Why are shops allowed to get away with blatantly ripping the public off on the price of magazines?
Here's an example: The shop in Connolly train station. A copy of 'Now' magazine, £1.10 (which equates to €1.63) sells for €2.30 there! I know we have extra tax on the cost of magazines (that's a rip off in itself), but if I go to shops in the town where I live, that magazine is around €2! I know it's only 30c, but it all adds up, surely there is some legislation to stop retailers setting their own prices for magazines? Most magazines do carry european prices on the front cover, but Irish retailers ignore this.

:rolleyes:

sceptre

eth0_ wrote:

surely there is some legislation to stop retailers setting their own prices for magazines?

That would be price-fixing.

Cabaal

I used to buy Focas & various Computer Mags but gave up due to 2 things, one there expensive and two I can find all the same info on slashdot, tomshardware guide, newscientist etc,
ah the wounders of the interweb...

jesus_thats_gre

the interweb ****ing rocks dude!

Syth

The best thing to do is if you like a magazine is to subscribe to it. You normally get it cheaper, plus it's way more convienent. That's what I do with New Scientist and Linux Format.

Either that or go to Reads. They have magazines real cheap. The lesson is to shop around.

ednwireland

syth you are so wrong subscribing to uk magazines is uaullay more expensive in ireland than buying them from the shop i used to subscribe to pcpro in the uk which cost me aroung 16-17 £stg a year when i moved to ireland they qouted me around stg£90 a year must admit i can't see how they can charge the difference (they said it was due to postage rates to get it here at the same time as it hit the shelves) but if you look at the subscription offers they are usually uk only and european subscription rates are prohibitively expensive
pcplus just checked uk subscription price stg£54.99 europe subscription stg £89.99

Morgans

In may experience, that shop in Connolly station is the one of the most expensive in Dublin, for everything. Vending machine or nothing in that spot. Couldnt encourage them to keep ripping people off.

Sleipnir

Don't like the price? Don't pay it.

RuggieBear

ednwireland wrote:

syth you are so wrong subscribing to uk magazines is uaullay more expensive in ireland than buying them from the shop i used to subscribe to pcpro in the uk which cost me aroung 16-17 £stg a year when i moved to ireland they qouted me around stg£90 a year must admit i can't see how they can charge the difference (they said it was due to postage rates to get it here at the same time as it hit the shelves) but if you look at the subscription offers they are usually uk only and european subscription rates are prohibitively expensive
pcplus just checked uk subscription price stg£54.99 europe subscription stg £89.99

If you still have an english bank account, you can sometimes set up a direct debit and then get them to send the magazine to Ireland. That's what i do and i get my magazine for less than the normal english high street price. They haven't stopped me doing this yet. Admitedly i don't really get my magazine any time early tho....

Ripwave

pekelly wrote:

If you still have an english bank account, you can sometimes set up a direct debit and then get them to send the magazine to Ireland. That's what i do and i get my magazine for less than the normal english high street price. They haven't stopped me doing this yet. Admitedly i don't really get my magazine any time early tho....

I used to subscribe to New Scientist - but it often took 3 weeks to be delivered. And New Scientist is a weekly publication, not a monthly!!!!

(3 or 4 times a year it would be delivered within 2 or 3 days - the rest of the time it was 2 or 3 weeks).

eth0_

Why the HELL would someone leave me a negative feedback point for this thread? What exactly is so offensive/wrong about it?

grumpytrousers

Don't like the price? Don't pay it.

See - that's not a helpful contribution to the conversation, now is it. The point being made is that punters are routinely fleeced on the cover price of magazines and that there isn't any sort of guidelines on what one can expect to pay.

You say 'Don't pay', but I'd feel that tbh, if I've an interest in Movies and (bar the apalling 'promotion items') I enjoy Empire magazine, then I should be able, I'd have thought, to be able to purchase a magazine at a reasonable price. I'm *sure* a lot of the information contained therein is freely available on t'internet, but that's not the point is it. Maybe I like the shiny paper, maybe I enjoy their misguided love for Citizen Kane, perhaps I get a kick out of their pandering to the lowest common denominator in matters 'blockbuster'.

Either way - the fact remains, I shouldn't be getting screwed by some chancer of a newsagent in a small town where there's no competitor who's out to make a quick buck...

Sleipnir

So what do you suggest, price fixing? Well that's illegal so what do you think should happen?
What's your suggestion?
Why does everyone place the onus on the seller rather than themselves. The only way to get traders to lower their price is not to pay high prices. There is no other way.

If you want to be screwed, pay the price. If you do not want to be screwed, don't. It's that simple.

"it's too expensive but I'm a sheep so I'll pay it and say nothing"

Sleipnir

eth0_ wrote:

Why the HELL would someone leave me a negative feedback point for this thread? What exactly is so offensive/wrong about it?

I got the same Eth.

grumpytrousers

Why does everyone place the onus on the seller rather than themselves. The only way to get traders to lower their price is not to pay high prices. There is no other way.

Aye - I see yer point. However (and this 'un always comes up when we start whinging about prices) is that

a) in a perfect market where there are numerous products of equal value/worth to the consumer then a refusal to buy product X becuase you can have your needs satisfied by the competing product Y WILL lead to the price of product X coming down.
In other words, to labour my own analogy to death, "if I have a need for a named movie magazine which gives a certain utility return to me but it's too expensive, but there isn't a cheaper magazine giving a similar return of utility' then i'll buy the more expensive as it's closer to what I want.
I realise that this economic theory, when applied to magazine is a bit silly, but you see what I mean...think about it with relation to concert tickets and you can maybe begin to see what i mean...

b) it's a very 'long term' solution to a problem.

I'll have to 'fess up and say that I can't give a 'one stop solution' to a problem that irks me.

I suppose what irritates me more than anything else is that with regard to books, it's pretty cut and dried how the STG price on the back relates to the EURO price, but that they can't manage it with magazines...

**EDIT**

oh - and btw, i got me karma docked as well. Methinks we've got a newsagent who doesn't like us talking about these things here!!!

eth0_

grumpytrousers - looks like it!

I hate how we get ripped off with the extra tax on magazines as it is, and i've really cut down on buying magazines, I just usually buy them in Easons where they charge a fair price!

Cabaal

Shops need to know people won't pay higher prices so aswell as boycotting you'd have to say it to the expensive shops in question.

Calibos

eth0_ wrote:

This is really getting on my nerves! Why are shops allowed to get away with blatantly ripping the public off on the price of magazines?
Here's an example: The shop in Connolly train station. A copy of 'Now' magazine, £1.10 (which equates to €1.63) sells for €2.30 there! I know we have extra tax on the cost of magazines (that's a rip off in itself), but if I go to shops in the town where I live, that magazine is around €2! I know it's only 30c, but it all adds up, surely there is some legislation to stop retailers setting their own prices for magazines? Most magazines do carry european prices on the front cover, but Irish retailers ignore this.

:rolleyes:

We sell it for 1.96. So even your local shop is rounding up. Our magazine supplier is Eason. The delivery invoice with each bale of magazines has the RRP's for all the mags in that bale. We always charge the RRP. I think these places just pull numbers from thin air. "Hmm lets see will we still sell all our copies for of NOW for 10 extra next week......yay they're all gone, lets bump it up another 10cent........"

Easons also send out a conversion table each month taking into account that months exchange rate plus the usual Irish 12.5% Vat. I'll scan it up if anyone wants.

eth0_

Calibos wrote:

Easons also send out a conversion table each month taking into account that months exchange rate plus the usual Irish 12.5% Vat. I'll scan it up if anyone wants.

Oh yeah, I know the one, it's pinned up behind their tills. Would be nice to have - could confront these errant shop owners with it haha!

Calibos

I wonder do the shop owners have a hand written note on the bottom of their table for the benefit of their shop assistants. ie "NB* Add 30c to whatever the table says" !