Applegreen Garage - Sterling Rate - Magazines

Whatajoke

I would be very grateful if someone could clarify where retailers get their Rate of Exchange? can they just pull a rate out of the air!

Last weekend I stopped off at Applegreens Garage in Ferns Co. Wexford and picked up a copy of In Style Magazine, the price on the magazine was Stg£3.60 and Applegreen were charging €6.10! this immediately caught my eye, I probably would never have noticed this before but in these days you notice being ripped off more and more. I questioned where they got their rate of exchange and off course they had no answer. By today’s rate of exchange Stg£3.60 converts to €4.16 therefore Applegreens are adding €1.94 to EACH In Style magazine sold my them!

When I went on their website the first thing I see is a statement from them:

Of course it won't fool anyone, especially not Applegreen customers. They will only settle for the real thing. After all, we give them better value always. Now that's better.

Do they really believe we are complete fools??? :P

Atlantic Dawn

Price is set by the wholesaler and in the case of 99.99% of UK magazines that wholesaler is Easons. Same price everywhere else in this country I am afraid.

Whatajoke

Thanks for coming back to me but you see that is what makes it more bizarre, I should have mentioned I did a bit of investigating and the same magazine was €5.60 in Centra and €5.34 in Supervalu!

Seanohea

There is no tax on magazines in uk, while there is tax on magazines in Ireland, that's another factor

91011

the OP looks like an error by applegreen

magazine prices are as follows

UK price x fixed exchange rate (1.18 I believe)

additional fee for distribution costs in ireland (only 4 million people v 65 million in UK) - this is about 10%

Plus vat @ 13.5% (no vat in UK)

A £3.60 magazine should retail in Ireland for appprox €5.40


Where an error could have occured is there are so many magazines and the prices are entered manually and can change weekly due to promotions etc and retailer go by an official recommended price list supplied by easons / newspread. - an email to applegreen head office would probably explain it.

jahalpin

Unlike the UK, most magazines in ROI are subject to VAT at 13.5%

The sterling rate is also set based on forward contract rates, this allows the wholesaler to know what the sterling will cost them when they pay for the stock.

The additional costs of distributing the product in a country with such a low population density must also be taken into account.

According to fxcentre.com the low rate over the last 2 months is 0.8619

Cover price 3.60
VAT @ 13.5 0.49
Total in stg 4.08
@ 0.8619 4.74
15 % dist cost 0.71

Total 5.45

gerrycollins

91011 wrote: »

the OP looks like an error by applegreen

magazine prices are as follows

UK price x fixed exchange rate (1.18 I believe)

additional fee for distribution costs in ireland (only 4 million people v 65 million in UK) - this is about 10%

Plus vat @ 13.5% (no vat in UK)

A £3.60 magazine should retail in Ireland for appprox €5.40


Where an error could have occured is there are so many magazines and the prices are entered manually and can change weekly due to promotions etc and retailer go by an official recommended price list supplied by easons / newspread. - an email to applegreen head office would probably explain it.

correct but the exchange rate is updated 4 times a year.

Whatajoke

Thank you all for your comments I have written again to Applegreen with the breakdown but have not heard back from either of my mails... there's a surprise..

eth0_

Service station in "charging more than 'normal' shop" shocker.

Applegreen can charge what they like for magazines. They're a service station, they usually charge over the odds for goods.

Ghandee

eth0_ wrote: »

Service station in "charging more than 'normal' shop" shocker.

Applegreen can charge what they like for magazines. They're a service station, they usually charge over the odds for goods.

I don't really agree with that statement.
If they could charge what they liked, that would give them a free go at charging us for things that have a rrp displayed on the packaging.

I understand the whole vat on magazines here, plus the Easons thing, but if a lot of the Irish public would stop adopting this attitude of 'expecting to be charged more by service station' perhaps we might put an end to 'being charges what they (and other shops) like!'

said it before and I'll say it again.....

Vote with your feet folks! Just refuse to pay over the odds, and ALWAYS tell the shop in question you INTENDED to buy something, but are refusing due to their high price!

More people do it, the more our prices will fall into a more acceptable price!

pfy2k

If you live in Dublin or North Leinster, just do what I do drive up to Newry once a month, and avoid the freestater levies/taxes on magazine, and get other cheaper shopping! Vote with your feet or your car!:D

gerrycollins

Just to let you know that you should be seeing a drop in prices of magazines over the next few weeks. the sterling rate was set and the net result is a price drop

Gamesnash.ie: Pat

Gucky wrote: »

I don't really agree with that statement.
If they could charge what they liked, that would give them a free go at charging us for things that have a rrp displayed on the packaging.

But the RRP is the recommended retail price by the publisher / manufacturer of items. It is up to a shop to price it as they see fit. Mostly it's a case of matching the RRP or undercutting it but that's not to say a retailler can't price it higher. (A foolish move it would be of course )

ScouseMouse

Gamesnash.ie (Pat) wrote: »

But the RRP is the recommended retail price by the publisher / manufacturer of items. It is up to a shop to price it as they see fit. Mostly it's a case of matching the RRP or undercutting it but that's not to say a retailler can't price it higher. (A foolish move it would be of course )

Dont forget, the shop also has to factor in the delivery charge. The charges for my shop are about 100 euro a week.

gerrycollins

also on the delivery charges i know some retailers are questioning news and mags solely on the delivery charges take away any decent margin before losses.

91011

pfy2k wrote: »

If you live in Dublin or North Leinster, just do what I do drive up to Newry once a month, and avoid the freestater levies/taxes on magazine, and get other cheaper shopping! Vote with your feet or your car!:D

as per your post in the peats thread - you will be very surprised when you get your credit card.

laptop €1099 peats

You has suggested that you go up North and buy it for £899

Retail bank rate for sterling is currently 1.2

Cost in NI equates to €1079

A massive saving of 1.8%

+ cost of fuel, cost of time, hassle if repairs needed etc etc.


Yes there's some vat & extra costs on magazines in the south and some other things but we have a far more generous social welfare system, lower taxes (still) & lower fuel prices. - Even beer is cheaper down here these days! (£3.40 pint guinness in belfast 2 weeks ago!)

niamhsiobhan

I work in one of the Applegreen stores in Laois. We are sent doen sheets from Newspread and Easons listing all possible sterling prices for the magazines supplied by them. There are three rates of VAT that can be applied. We have always been told by management we must use the 21% rate of VAT. I guess with the average exchange rate and then the VAT added too, it bumps up the price. We don't pull them from mid air or make them up on the spot as some costumers think. We're just doing what we're told. . . .

ScouseMouse

niamhsiobhan wrote: »

I work in one of the Applegreen stores in Laois. We are sent doen sheets from Newspread and Easons listing all possible sterling prices for the magazines supplied by them. There are three rates of VAT that can be applied. We have always been told by management we must use the 21% rate of VAT. I guess with the average exchange rate and then the VAT added too, it bumps up the price. We don't pull them from mid air or make them up on the spot as some costumers think. We're just doing what we're told. . . .

The vat rate on most mags would not be 21% BUT Easons and Newspread are charging the shop extra, through the nose, for delivery, so this is just building those charges into the selling price.

91011

91011 wrote: »

the OP looks like an error by applegreen

magazine prices are as follows

UK price x fixed exchange rate (1.18 I believe)

additional fee for distribution costs in ireland (only 4 million people v 65 million in UK) - this is about 10%

Plus vat @ 13.5% (no vat in UK)

A £3.60 magazine should retail in Ireland for appprox €5.40


Where an error could have occured is there are so many magazines and the prices are entered manually and can change weekly due to promotions etc and retailer go by an official recommended price list supplied by easons / newspread. - an email to applegreen head office would probably explain it.

My earlier post explain exactly how magaznines are prices here though the exchange rate has probably moved to about 1.23 at this stage.

2hellr2conaght

this was on matt cooper, last word or something like that awhile ago. something to do with the transport was another problem for the price. it was one of the main ones actually

jack presley

eth0_ wrote: »

Service station in "charging more than 'normal' shop" shocker.

Applegreen can charge what they like for magazines. They're a service station, they usually charge over the odds for goods.

Applesgreen's relatively cheap petrol is almost always offset by the ridiculous prices they charge in the shop. I just get my fuel there and never buy anything else there.