Price Differences between ROI and NI

Davidth88

Ok, I know there have been loads of threads in here about this.

But over the last few weeks I have been to IKEA in Belfast a couple of times , while passing Lisburn I decided to check out Sainsburys

Ill be honest I was shocked by the price differences, now I am being really careful here , the price differences on things like toiletries ( shampoo/toothpaste ) were marked ( 30-40% like for like ), and remember Sainsburys isn't the cheapest if I went to ASDA it could be cheaper .

Example Colgate Total 100ml pump, Sainsburys £1.88 ( approx 2.20 euro ) in Tescos Ireland same thing exactly 3.59 euro, and this is just one example.

I am not sure if these are 0% vat rated , but even so the difference was marked.

I was amused when I saw the following article

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0711/economy.html

Which caused a rash of comment in the papers , and from TD's basically telling us we are being ' unloyal ' by spending in the north, these are the same people that tell us that we should ' shop around ', they can't have it both ways !

Interestingly , a friend of mine purchased some clarkes childrens shoes ( 0 vat rated ) in the north , then when the CC statement came in compared prices to the clarkes shops here , the price difference was 30%.

I know I am going to be told that the price of rent/insurance/wages is higher here ( ROI ) , and we shouldn't compare , but I can't help but be more than a little shocked by what I found.

Anyway, by stocking up on non-perishables we ' paid ' for the trip to the north no problem.

Oh, and by the way if you are thinking of going to Ikea, get there before 11am and get their 99pence ( 1.20 euro ) breakfast , with their £1.50 cup of tea ( with as many refills as you want ) , great value !

spadder

Yeah, I was in Asda Enniskillen on Sun, I would say more than half the cars there were from the republic.

Bluetonic

Oh Lord, not another thread on this.

Did somebody mention petrol prices...

craichoe

Davidth88 wrote: »

Ok, I know there have been loads of threads in here about this.

But over the last few weeks I have been to IKEA in Belfast a couple of times , while passing Lisburn I decided to check out Sainsburys

Ill be honest I was shocked by the price differences, now I am being really careful here , the price differences on things like toiletries ( shampoo/toothpaste ) were marked ( 30-40% like for like ), and remember Sainsburys isn't the cheapest if I went to ASDA it could be cheaper .

Example Colgate Total 100ml pump, Sainsburys £1.88 ( approx 2.20 euro ) in Tescos Ireland same thing exactly 3.59 euro, and this is just one example.

I am not sure if these are 0% vat rated , but even so the difference was marked.

I was amused when I saw the following article

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0711/economy.html

Which caused a rash of comment in the papers , and from TD's basically telling us we are being ' unloyal ' by spending in the north, these are the same people that tell us that we should ' shop around ', they can't have it both ways !

Interestingly , a friend of mine purchased some clarkes childrens shoes ( 0 vat rated ) in the north , then when the CC statement came in compared prices to the clarkes shops here , the price difference was 30%.

I know I am going to be told that the price of rent/insurance/wages is higher here ( ROI ) , and we shouldn't compare , but I can't help but be more than a little shocked by what I found.

Anyway, by stocking up on non-perishables we ' paid ' for the trip to the north no problem.

Oh, and by the way if you are thinking of going to Ikea, get there before 11am and get their 99pence ( 1.20 euro ) breakfast , with their £1.50 cup of tea ( with as many refills as you want ) , great value !

Yayyy... another .. travel somewhere and its cheaper thread !! .. QFT .. its the same everywhere, just because its a different currency means jack.

rubadub

I buy all my bread in mongolia, much cheaper there. I get it DHL'd in fresh each day.

Davidth88

ok ok , if people want to scoff do so.

Read my thread carefully , part of what I point out , this price difference is beginning to actually show in the economic figures of the nation.

We are constantly told to ' shop around' , but if we do so from another juristriction we get ' told off ' by our leaders if we venture north.

Now of course there is price differences anywhere , for example I used to live in the UK and we went shopping in France 3-4 times a year for booze, but a lot of this is due to tax , on the things I mention the tax difference either does not exist or is a fraction of the price difference . I carefully didn't mention the significant price difference in booze because this is almost entirely down to tax.

All I am saying , if you live near to the north , go up there and purchase the non-perishables ( no not bread from outer mongolia ) and save yourself money , and get a day out into the bargin

rubadub

Davidth88 wrote: »

We are constantly told to ' shop around' , but if we do so from another juristriction we get ' told off ' by our leaders if we venture north.

That is exactly what I would expect, would you not?

I have never heard any politician encouraging people to buy from other countries, i.e. supporting other companies in other countries when they could have bought it from a company in Ireland. If you order cds from the UK you are contributing to the UK economy, giving them the VAT, supporting their companies, contributing money for their workforce etc.

When I hear "shop around" I presume they mean around Ireland. Have any politicians done otherwise?

My point about mongolia was to make people aware of false economies. I know guys who would drive miles to save a few cent on petrol, using up far more fuel and time than they save. I know people who would spend all day hunting down a cheap cd, save €1, while they could have been working that hour as overtime and made a lot more. Many do not enjoy the "day out" of such trips, if you do that is great, but just calculate all factors in.

I get loads of stuff delivered via ebay, most of the time it is cheaper, the odd time I pay for the convenience, it costs me a lot of time and money to get to specialist shops.

Davidth88

Good point well made Rubadub. Its like the people that spend 10 mins hunting for a parking space on a lower level in a multistory, go up one level and it's empty

I actually did the sums and we saved the petrol money in Sainsburys. But we were passing anyway because we wanted to go to Ikea. ( so it was a bonus )

Of course there isn't an Ikea here yet so I was making that journey to get goods I could not actually get here ( ROI ).

I will be interested to see the pemium put on in Ballymun when it opens ( Ikea )

On an interesting point , Ikea charge 70 p ( about 90 cent ) to use a credit card , compares nicely with the 6 euro ( I think ) that Ryanair charges. They do accept Euro notes , but were only giving 75p to the euro .

Shelflife

Always amuses me when people talk out travelling to tesco/dunnes/aldi/ whatever to save money. in my town they have to travel 20miles to do this assuming 40mpg this actuallys costs approx €3 add in the travel time at least 45mins and you have to wonder is it worth it.
if you buy €250 worth of shopping would you save enough to make it worth your while against shopping in the local mace /centra/ costcutter shop.
These are the same people who put it all on their credit cards, dont clear the bill every month, pay €25- €50 interest per month on their card and complain that milk is 6c cheaper 10 miles away.

bizarre :eek:

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Well said Shelflife.
Good point on the Credit Card costs.
There are many false economies. I live less than 15 minutes from Newry but we don't find any long term benefit in shopping there. You need to know what items are best value each side of the border. You waste time going to Newry for some items and locally for others. The parking is a nightmare and you don't get the currency conversion rate quoted on TV each night. (How the OP got 99p to come to just €1.20 and £1.88 to €2.20 escapes me). It's fine if you want to do one of those massive monthly shops but that's not how we work in our house.
On top of it all I'm old fashoned and still like to keep my hard earned cash inside the country.

A Dub in Glasgo

If I lived near the border, I would do my shopping in the North. I have recently come back from a holiday in Dublin/Wicklow. I was shocked at the differentials between what I am used to paying for groceries and what people in the RoI are paying for the same stuff.

Shopping around also includes shopping in other jurisdication where it is warranted and I would definitely do it.

craichoe

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

If I lived near the border, I would do my shopping in the North. I have recently come back from a holiday in Dublin/Wicklow. I was shocked at the differentials between what I am used to paying for groceries and what people in the RoI are paying for the same stuff.

Shopping around also includes shopping in other jurisdication where it is warranted and I would definitely do it.

You can draw the same comparison between Cork and Dublin.

Davidth88

Ok, my maths was wrong 99 pence would be more like 1.25 and 1.88 would be 2.35 on an exchange rate of 78pence to the euro. 2.35 is still a lot cheaper than 3.59 , and this was not a single item it seemed to be ' across the board '.

Most of the shops that I saw were giving 80pence for a euro. Ikea were giving 75p .

Newry looked like a nightmare for parking hense why I stopped at Lisburn

I was careful about what I purchased, and I only got what I knew we needed long term , what I did buy basically saved me the petrol money for the journey ( I got a load of toiletries etc ) , next time it will be booze.

However since I came back I have done quite a bit more research on the web and Ill be honest I could not find anything cheaper here ( comparing goods on sainsbury's website vs tesco.ie )

With the advent of the EU/EEC or whatever it's called are we not meant to be in a free economy now ? Why the hell should I feel guilty spending money in another country/juristriction ?

One thing that did strike me , shops in the UK and NI seem to have a lot more ' own brand' for example you can get own brand shampoo there very cheaply , here the multiples only have a smaller range of own-brand items ( I have no proof of this it's only a feeling ).

Guy:Incognito

Why dont we join the UK? We can lower our wages and then pay lower prices.

The currencies have been very much in our favour the last while but if it took an equally big swing in the opposite direction, nobody would be going near the north. Prices will always be relativelt cheaper in the UK but swings in the currency decide whether its good value or not. We happen to be reapign the rewards of a bouyant € at the minute. Economics has the prices low as things like wages are low.

Funnily enough , theres never threads extolign the virtues of going up the north for petrol..........

Davidth88 wrote: »

With the advent of the EU/EEC or whatever it's called are we not meant to be in a free economy now ? Why the hell should I feel guilty spending money in another country/juristriction ?
.

We are in a free economy, which is why prices vary. If the north brought their pay rates up in line with ours, the prices would rise to compensate.

jor el

Petrol prices vary by the duty and tax applied by governments. In the UK, the government levy more tax on fuel than our government. For food and other items, the wholesale price is the same, the VAT rates differ. 3.5% difference between UK and Ireland accounts for that much. The higher wage here is another thing, but corporation tax is a lot lower here than in NI or UK.

It's a very simple and clear cut case of us being robbed blind here, simply because we appear to be able to afford it. That's economics I guess. If we all stop paying, the prices will drop. We're not going to stop though, are we?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Stekelly wrote: »

Why dont we join the UK? We can lower our wages and then pay lower prices.

The currencies have been very much in our favour the last while but if it took an equally big swing in the opposite direction, nobody would be going near the north. Prices will always be relativelt cheaper in the UK but swings in the currency decide whether its good value or not. We happen to be reapign the rewards of a bouyant € at the minute. Economics has the prices low as things like wages are low.

Funnily enough , theres never threads extolign the virtues of going up the north for petrol..........

We are in a free economy, which is why prices vary. If the north brought their pay rates up in line with ours, the prices would rise to compensate.

Too true! It's like people coming back from holiday in Budgetopia and rattling on about a meal for 4 plus wine for €12. But the staff get 60cent an hour. We live in a high cost society and prices reflect it. We demand higher wages for producing our goods but refuse to buy those same goods because someone somewhere else sells them for less. What happens when they loose our jobs because everyone is availing elsewhere of the goods and services we provide?
People living in this area know how the trends have changed. We had huge numbers of Northerners shopping down here for years because of the exchange rate and nobody praised our good value then. They still flock here for petrol.
As for Davidth88's exchange rates. Still wrong. You will be unlikely to beat £1.31 to £1.33 to the Euro in a shop. 75p does not mean an exchange rate of £1 to €1.25 but €1.33. The rates quoted on the business news are wholesale rates. 99pt is closer to €1.32

A Dub in Glasgo

I was offered 2 jobs in Dublin over the last 3 years and the salary offered was not much more than what I am on in Glasgow. Is there any studies that show the wages and salaries in the RoI are higher than in Britain?

parsi

Davidth88 wrote: »

I was careful about what I purchased, and I only got what I knew we needed long term , what I did buy basically saved me the petrol money for the journey ( I got a load of toiletries etc ) ,

Someone should do an economic study on the value of "stocking up".

One might be saving Xc but one is also tying up money and space...

ScouseMouse

I am a frequent visitor to the UK and see the stock in the shops for sale cheaper than I can buy it here wholesale. We are all shafted and as for a low tax economy, thats complete sh**te. We have more stealth taxes than we realise. I pay 800 quid a month in rates to pay for that nice fancy council office in Tallaght.

Here is a rough breakdown of my bills before I open my front door, I have these bills PER WEEK

Insurance 200 euro
Rates 200 euro
Electricity 650 euro (energia not esb)
Wages 3000 euro
Advertising 150 euro
Till leasing 120 euro
Refuse 70 euro
Mortgage (interest only) 1500 euro
Life assurance 50 euro


Thats is just my basic overheads.

That next ejit who comes into my shop and tells me I am to expensive, gets it. (I wish)

Ronin247

While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his
electric razor
(MADE IN HONG KONG). He put on a shirt (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer
jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking
his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with
his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After
setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in
his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying
JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe
decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured
himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV ! (MADE IN
INDONESIA), and then wondered why he can't find a good paying job
in.....IRELAND.....

ScouseMouse

Chaya Creamy Weirdo wrote: »

Too true! It's like people coming back from holiday in Budgetopia and rattling on about a meal for 4 plus wine for €12. But the staff get 60cent an hour. We live in a high cost society and prices reflect it.

Sorry, have to disagree with you there though. I had a meal in Tenerife 3 weeks ago for 6 adults and 2 kids, three courses, drinks, the works, €89.

Went to Joels in Dublin last week, 4 adults 1 child, 2 courses, one bottle wine, €140.

The difference in wages isnt that much

I felt sick and it wasnt the food !

Corruptedmorals

A Dub in Glasgo wrote: »

I was offered 2 jobs in Dublin over the last 3 years and the salary offered was not much more than what I am on in Glasgow. Is there any studies that show the wages and salaries in the RoI are higher than in Britain?

Well, since the thread is mainly about the service/retail industry. Minimun wage in the UK is £5.52, which xe.com says is €6.99. It's €8.65 here. And that's the UK rates for over 22's, it's even worse..the first rate is £3.40 for 16 year olds. A Spanish girl in work says minimum wage in Spain is about €5.

Shelflife

The main problem with the min wage is that it creates a very high starting rate for someone with no experience or ability --breathe and walk and you get €17.5k.
The serious problem is when you have good staff that you want to keep and you have to pay them a higher rate which increases annually.

Davidth88

Hi,

Although Ikea offer 75p for the Euro , the other shops were offering 80p , or in some cases 81 p. ( They must be taking a loss to encourage buyers )

I made a basic maths mistake in my OP which I have corrected. If you also look at my OP I make the point that I was sure that insurance etc was higher here.

Superscouse , any idea how those costs compare to the UK ? I know the business rates there are very high. Your point about being able to buy cheaper in the UK than you can from the wholesalers is a point that should be heard ! Doesn't one company basically run most of the wholesalers here ( and own the name/marketing for the big franchises of corner shops ) ? , I have been in one of these wholesalers , Ill be honest I was underwhelmed by the prices , often things were cheaper in my local Tesco.

We are lucky in the ROI to live in a country with pretty low direct taxation , believe me the council tax in the UK is horrible, so maybe things equal out a little if you were resident in the UK/NI

The point I was trying to make is that don't be discouraged from going north.

The news today was full of Tesco ' spin ' that they are going to cut prices to match Aldi/Lidl, so maybe things are moving on.

eth0_

Davidth88 wrote: »

Which caused a rash of comment in the papers , and from TD's basically telling us we are being ' unloyal ' by spending in the north, these are the same people that tell us that we should ' shop around ', they can't have it both ways !

Maybe if we were all on TD's wages it wouldn't be a big deal to us to 'shop around' in the south.

Seriously though - it's not as if the grocery shops here are suffering because of a relatively small amount of people who take the initiative to do their grocery shop over the border.

craichoe

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Well, since the thread is mainly about the service/retail industry. Minimun wage in the UK is £5.52, which xe.com says is €6.99. It's €8.65 here. And that's the UK rates for over 22's, it's even worse..the first rate is £3.40 for 16 year olds. A Spanish girl in work says minimum wage in Spain is about €5.

Minimum wage in spain is about 3.90/hour.

The Netherlands has a sliding scale from age 16 - 25. Its about 1.20 an hour when your 16 and around 7 euro an hour when your 25 with a sliding scale in between.

Ireland is the second highest in the EU, just below Luxembourg.

Could be worse, Bulgarias minimum wage is just 92 euro a month !!!!

Source:

http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=STAT/07/85&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en)

heyjude

I read what people say about higher labour costs and other expenses in the Republic, as an explanation for the higher prices down here, but there are some blatant examples where a service is automated and has a low labour component but still charges rip-off rates.

One such area is premium rate competitions and similar services that are widely advertised on the tv and radio and in newspapers/magazines here. They are typically open to entries from Northern Ireland and the Republic, but to quote the rates from one such competition, Texts cost 125c (NI 50p),maximum 2 texts and Calls cost 150c per min (NI 60p). Now allowing an exchange rate of £1=€1.27, that means that texts cost 63.5c from Northern Ireland and 125c from the Republic, a markup of just under 100%, while entries by phone cost 76c per min from Northern Ireland compared to 150c per minute here, another markup of just under 100%. Its hard to see how they can justify a doubling of the cost of entry and its even harder to understand, when you see the same newspapers that are banging on about the rip-off Republic are quite content to rip people off themselves through these competitions(or maybe its not a rip-off when they are doing it!)

sunny2004

rubadub wrote: »

I buy all my bread in mongolia, much cheaper there. I get it DHL'd in fresh each day.

Who do you get it from ?
Whats the name of the bakery ?

parsi

sunny2004 wrote: »

Who do you get it from ?
Whats the name of the bakery ?

Attila the Bun-maker...