Should we boycott British Stores

holdfast

Well the facts seem to be out there the likes of British owned shops are taking us to the cleaners. They take no account of the exchange rate and we must remember the pound price they sell in the north already has a profit margin in it. So they are ripping us off more than the standard 50%. Should we shop there anymore? I am not shop owner or connected in any way to one. Think it time we stood up and said NO more ripping off. I have taught about the Irish workers but the stores must ajdust there figures amd there should be still room to keep everyone employed

matrim

Are the Irish shops charging the same or more than the british shops here? If they are they why boycott the british shops as they are charging the market rate for the products.

If not then it's just cheaper to go to the Irish stores, so it's not really a boycott.

snubbleste

What a ridiculous poll!
How do you define rip-off?
All shops here charge a higher mark-up than in the UK, not just the UK-owned ones. Even Lidl & Aldi charge us more than in the UK or Germany.

daheff

the way i see it the problem is this:


British stores now feel that Irish people will pay over the top on goods bought in Republic...those who dont want to go up north and buy same goods in same stores for less. The british stores win either way...they make higher profit in republic or their "normal" profit up north.


Its the stupid Irish retailers who use the British Retailers' Irish prices as their price comparison that is the problem. they are thinking "if x&y can charge that here then so can I"

If the Irish retailers cop themselves on to their prices then I think the UK ones might too (to stop losing market share)

Welease

lol Irish stores charge the same prices... going to boycott them also?

and lets equalise VAT, tax, wages, rents, rates etc.. so you are actually comparing like for like in North vs. Republic..

jor el

Welease wrote: »

lol Irish stores charge the same prices... going to boycott them also?

and lets equalise VAT, tax, wages, rents, rates etc.. so you are actually comparing like for like in North vs. Republic..

The recent report by, whatever quango was looking into this, found that the total difference in prices should be 6%. This did not include the VAT difference, so that makes another 6.5% at the moment. The difference between Sterling and Euro prices, for the same item in the same store, should be 12.5%. We are finding though, that it's typically 50%, and can be as much as 100% in some cases.

If you think you're being robbed in the shop, then tell the manager, and don't buy. Buy as much as you can online, and cut everything else to the essentials. Eventually, they'll see that Irish shoppers are no longer willing to put up with the over pricing of goods, and they'll have to change.

ztoical

you'd have to boycott every shop then as they are all charging the same prices, its not some evil plan by just the British shops, its market forces not the shop that drives up the prices. Why not boycott american products? A DS game in the US cost on average $15, here the same game is 50 euro. Why? Different Taxes, regulations, overhead costs, etc etc People need to remember the UK is a different country, I know we often don't think of 'up north' that way but it is and as such has different regulations, VAT, overhead costs then here.

Welease

jor el wrote: »

The recent report by, whatever quango was looking into this, found that the total difference in prices should be 6%. This did not include the VAT difference, so that makes another 6.5% at the moment. The difference between Sterling and Euro prices, for the same item in the same store, should be 12.5%. We are finding though, that it's typically 50%, and can be as much as 100% in some cases.

If you think you're being robbed in the shop, then tell the manager, and don't buy. Buy as much as you can online, and cut everything else to the essentials. Eventually, they'll see that Irish shoppers are no longer willing to put up with the over pricing of goods, and they'll have to change.

Does anyone have a link to this report? I have seen it mentioned several times, but never took down the original link..

Would be interested to read it, to see who commissioned it, and the data they have used..

Personally, I don't see how they can come up with a figure like that and make it believable..
1) You dont drop VAT to define the price.. We pay it, so it needs to be included
2) A cup of coffee cost a lot more in London than it does in Belfast or Liverpool, boiling them down to a single figure doesnt make sense..
3) Rates, Rents, Wages are different in each city, so again what applies in one area does not apply to another..

Boiling it all down to a single 6% figure, i would think it a vast oversimplification of all the factors involved..

And I'm not having a go at you or your post, just interested to read how they came up with this magical 6% figure.

MysticalSoul

I was in M&S the other day, the average prices of their tops has gone up by about €15 since Christmas - Coast works out cheaper now :eek:. Not only that, but they have started tearing off the UK price, and for that reason alone, I will be going up North or shopping online, and getting items from M&S shipped to someone I know up North. I think M&S are doing their own recession

Blue_Wolf

daheff wrote: »

the way i see it the problem is this:

Its the stupid Irish retailers who use the British Retailers' Irish prices as their price comparison that is the problem. they are thinking "if x&y can charge that here then so can I"

If the Irish retailers cop themselves on to their prices then I think the UK ones might too (to stop losing market share)

I find Dunnes stores to be a little bit cheaper, friendlier staff, more compitent staff and the quality of the food better. (their own brand that is)
I hate going to Tesco not because the prices but the sh*t service and crappy attitude of their staff. They are all depressing looking zombies.

Remember that Tesco have a bigger buying power and therefore have more leeway on how much they charge, they can charge less than Dunnes or Supervalu can and still make a profit but they decide to keep them up high. Saying that, your point about Irish retailers charging the same as Tesco may not be the case but Tesco charging the same as Irish retailers when they can afford to reduce the margins more than Irish retailers.

holdfast

Boiling it all down to a single 6% figure, i would think it a vast oversimplification of all the factors involved..

there must be some comparsion figure is it 25% more costly here, but that survey tried to make some handle on it. all I am saying it looks like they are overcharging us and our own are overcharging us as well. They need to be real there cant be a 58% difference in a telly bought in the north verus here. There must some truth in that survey.

What a ridiculous poll!

I think you are right the poll is a waste of time. It was just there to jogs peoples minds. We need to make our view clear alll shop owners need to adjust there price to where the feel the market is and they can make a profit. Not throw it cost more here blah blah and leave it that. Sorry it I upset anyone just an average joe that feels he is been taking for a foll by the retailers of Ireland

ejmaztec

holdfast wrote: »

there must be some comparsion figure is it 25% more costly here, but that survey tried to make some handle on it. all I am saying it looks like they are overcharging us and our own are overcharging us as well. They need to be real there cant be a 58% difference in a telly bought in the north verus here. There must some truth in that survey.



I think you are right the poll is a waste of time. It was just there to jogs peoples minds. We need to make our view clear alll shop owners need to adjust there price to where the feel the market is and they can make a profit. Not throw it cost more here blah blah and leave it that. Sorry it I upset anyone just an average joe that feels he is been taking for a foll by the retailers of Ireland

So, I take it that nobody was being ripped off before the British moved in?

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Oh yes the British Stores are ripping us off charging more than Irish stores and we're flocking to them instead of buying in the Irish shops.:rolleyes:
Nonsense!
Stupid Question!

Idbatterim

What im sick of here is the rip off on everything full stop! If the British retailers can charge more here and get away with it, why shouldnt they? They arent a charity! If there are morons here queing up to give them there hard earned money, why shouldnt they accept. it. If you were running a business would you like someone telling you what you should charge? I do run a business and the notion of someone telling me what to charge is an absolute joke. They cant even make any basic decent decisions themselves. The private companies are the ones providing all the revenue for the cushy public service. The retailers, who our goverment are preaching to could give our government some advice on how to actually manage things, they could introduce them to the concept of budgeting!I think its a bit of the pot calling the kettle black when the governement are investigating the price differences, they should start with the basics, the price of employment, vat, PRSI, PAYE, Electricity, waste, rates, insurance, the list goes on and on! Things that they to a large part are responsible for,companies are being screwed by these, they are a shower of bloody hippocrits! Running a company I know first hand at how ridiculous the cost of doing business here is! I think the current annihilation almost of the economy is a good thing! reset back to normal and reality. And learn from the litany of mistakes that have and are being made! That bloody chancer Bertie Ahern is actually probably the biggest culprit of our current crisis, and Im not talking about the global recession, Ill stop short of blaming him for that! Its all well and good to govern when you have money to burn and can keep everyone happy by buying them off! I really wonder who runs the country, the TD's we elect or the unions! We signed up to a bloody single free Market and think we can actually price ourselves out of everything and just carry on! its about time reality came to bite! I could go on and on! these morons we elect to govern, half of them dont even have a proper command of the English language, cowboys and chancers! I think fora while we were all very smug here looking down on other countries to an extent! well we have realised now what we should have all along, that the government here in general couldnt organise a piss up in a brewery!

MOH

Idbatterim wrote: »

What im sick of here is the rip off on everything full stop! If the British retailers can charge more here and get away with it, why shouldnt they? They arent a charity! If there are morons here queing up to give them there hard earned money, why shouldnt they accept. it. If you were running a business would you like someone telling you what you should charge? I do run a business and the notion of someone telling me what to charge is an absolute joke. They cant even make any basic decent decisions themselves. The private companies are the ones providing all the revenue for the cushy public service. The retailers, who our goverment are preaching to could give our government some advice on how to actually manage things, they could introduce them to the concept of budgeting!I think its a bit of the pot calling the kettle black when the governement are investigating the price differences, they should start with the basics, the price of employment, vat, PRSI, PAYE, Electricity, waste, rates, insurance, the list goes on and on! Things that they to a large part are responsible for,companies are being screwed by these, they are a shower of bloody hippocrits! Running a company I know first hand at how ridiculous the cost of doing business here is! I think the current annihilation almost of the economy is a good thing! reset back to normal and reality. And learn from the litany of mistakes that have and are being made! That bloody chancer Bertie Ahern is actually probably the biggest culprit of our current crisis, and Im not talking about the global recession, Ill stop short of blaming him for that! Its all well and good to govern when you have money to burn and can keep everyone happy by buying them off! I really wonder who runs the country, the TD's we elect or the unions! We signed up to a bloody single free Market and think we can actually price ourselves out of everything and just carry on! its about time reality came to bite! I could go on and on! these morons we elect to govern, half of them dont even have a proper command of the English language, cowboys and chancers! I think fora while we were all very smug here looking down on other countries to an extent! well we have realised now what we should have all along, that the government here in general couldnt organise a piss up in a brewery!

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rubadub

jor el wrote: »

The recent report by, whatever quango was looking into this, found that the total difference in prices should be 6%.

No, it talked of costs, I read the report briefly and never saw them mention prices at all.

jor el wrote: »

This did not include the VAT difference, so that makes another 6.5% at the moment. The difference between Sterling and Euro prices, for the same item in the same store, should be 12.5%. We are finding though, that it's typically 50%, and can be as much as 100% in some cases.

They did not include VAT, but I think the biggest factor of them all is wholesale prices. As I keep saying in other threads coke, ipods, consoles will all have different wholesale values and RRPs across the world.

If a retailer in the UK can get a console wholesale at €200 and sell for RRP €250, how can an irish guy compete if his costs €260 wholesale and sells for €310 RRP (which he could lower but only match the UK guy at a loss). There is no way an Irish retailer could get levis for the price US retailers do.

Tesco would not be allowed by stuff like coke which is branded for the UK and sell here (before anybody says they ship it all here).

Lollipops23

while i think the mark ups are an abuse of the free market, i doubt that anyone will boycott them.