Indeed. I'm semi-regularly in NI too and, likewise, make a habit of picking up a nice whisk(e)y or two on offer. I might extend that habit to picking up a few bottles of wine but I can't see myself picking up beer, unless it's something I particularly want that I can't get down here. The space taken up by the volume of beer required to make any meaningful savings is just completely impracticable IMO.
Unlike home brewing though it's illegal, and much more likely to kill you if you do it wrong and make methanol.
It is indeed illegal in the Republic to distill spirits though people have been doing it for centuries. Illegal partly to protect accidental poisoning but chiefly as it would compete with excise duties to Revenue.
The new generation of home stills shpuld make the process super safe a kilo of sugar returns 1L of vodka and the process takes about a week so is sure to be popular and providing you are not selling it, it is unlikely that you will get a knock on the door from AGS anyway.
I don't understand this as kfc North and south are the same company with same suppliers.
Must be the orange air up there :)
Yeah except the pubs are dying and have been for years. And they wonder why, so people tell them and they still pretend they can't understand why people are avoiding pubs. Could the pubs maybe take advice and complaints on board? Nah, **** that, let's lobby for years to have the government hobble what we see as competition.
As for the getting Newry stuff, really it's as hard as you want it to be. Even if you're in Dublin, if you can finish work at 5 you'll be in Newry before 7, and closer to 6 for a lot of Dublin. Not sure about right now (winter) but most places around open til 9 either from Wednesday or Thursday. If kids are about just replace a trip to Blanch, extra 1.5 hours but it's a spin for them and they'll sleep better anyway. :P
If someone were doing a daytrip it's pointless without a car. And if you are daytripping it's well worth going 10/15 minutes past Newry and you'll save more again. The Boulevard outside Banbridge (has its own junction with the A1) is great for outlet stores. Got 2 pair of Skechers for 80 quid about 4 years ago still going strong. Hell even the perfume shop last time I had a look was cheaper than most online places. Is it for everyone? No. Will it have the latest tracksuit bottoms (never understood why it matters)? No. Does it have quality stuff at far cheaper prices than are usually easy to access? Yup.
Sure about that? Could be they've switched over, I mentioned on another post last week that the difference has closed up in the last few years but it's been fresher (particular sides and misc. stuff) any time I've got it anywhere outside the Republic.
They're certainly a fuckton cheaper up North though. :P
I travel inot the North Regularly and do pick up the odd bottle of whiskey on special offer. If you don't have a car getting slabs of beer is pointless, but then getting loads of slabs of beer is probably a bad idea anyway because like anything, if I have something in abundance I'm more inclined to use it more frequently.
I do like the 4 x 440ml cans of craft beer on sale on Tesco sometimes for £6 or even £4.50 with a clubcard. Things like Northern Monk and Vocation brewery. That price just can't be matched down South, anywhere.
The other little advantage of heading up north is if there are products you want from Amazon UK but that dont ship here you can ship them to several pick up locations in Newry and collect them yourself, thus avoiding AddressPal fees, An Post processing fee and customs duties if applicable. Ive got about 7 or 8 items in my Amazon cart which I havent bought becasue they wont ship here so this will be a way of finally getting them
I made a few more jokes, but I deleted them. If it floats your boat to drive up and down to make the saving, go for it. I personally just can't see being arsed considering the money involved, but we're all different.
With the price of petrol you wouldn't be saving a whole lot anyway.
And you don't have to go to the north! Win win.
Well, SF certainly shot themselves in the foot then as support for a united Ireland collapsed in the north on Tuesday with the introduction of MUP in the republic.
Fuel costs maybe a fiver more for the trip, another 6 cans covers it.
They didn't just fly for cheaper stuff. They flew so they could enjoy the experience, and to also make them feel better than the people who didn't fly to the US to do the shopping.
They still do it now, it wasn't just back in the days of the celtic tiger.
Maybe the drinkers in NI will see the mess that MUP is and tell their politicians to back off.
Price comparisons from a retailer on some beer and ciders though it doesnt mention can sizes
Good to see Senator McDowell put his spoke in in the Times, I wouldn't agree with him on everything but you will always get an independent logically-based view from him, honestly expressed.
Incidentally, let's nail the lie - and it is a lie, it's factually false - than Ireland (south of border) is or was a country where it is cheap to purchase alcohol, before or after the MAP.
https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210830-1
The cheapness or otherwise is all relative.
Yes our prices pre MUP where higher than the rest of Europe but relative to our income booze was never cheaper.
In the mid 90s a can of beer was about IR£1, and the largest volume you could probably buy was a six pack.
In 2021 you could get lots of options for under €1, and salaries are way ahead of anything they were in 1995.
"our nearly highest prices in the world used to be even higher" isn't a particularly good argument for anything. Except against the gombeen class of Irish retailers that we were stuck with for decades/centuries that is.
I really don't care for these statements that x, y and z are cheaper here there or everywhere based on a Google of the Aldi Sud website.
Such statements don't take into account relative net incomes, the cost of other goods, etc etc
I'm sure prices in Europe are lower than here pre MUP anyway, and so what if they were.
All I'm saying here is that pre MUP alcohol in Ireland was the cheapest it's ever been.
And all I'm saying is that that is completely irrelevant.
Alcohol here was not cheap pre MUP.
But it was.
It was dirt cheap and had been falling in price for years.
Comparing it to the price in other countries is irrelevant.
The fact that it was not as cheap as Ecuador doesn't matter a hoot.
We never had it as good (relative to ourselves) is not a good endorsement.
Just a tacit admission that we were always getting shafted, now even moreso
To claim it was "dirt cheap" you need to make a comparison to somewhere you don't consider it to be dirt cheap.
But you reject comparisons to, say, other high income, high cost economies in Europe because they show that it was actually exceptionally expensive here.
Yes and no, you also need to consider the society too. Example, a free bar would result in very different results with a room full of Americans versus a room full of Irish.
The MUP is similar to the massive taxes put onto smokes. Sometimes the only way to improve the nations health and behaviour is to hit the people in the pocket.
And the state could have increased excise duty (for the first time in a decade) if they wished, but instead they went for this insanity.
Should've done it through taxes then, like the smokes.
Not if the aim is to tackle strong drink available for pittance
Why not increase excise then?
Why not ban below cost selling?
That they went with MUP should tell you everything you need to know about why publicans are in favour of it.
This is not a tax. It's a state sanctioned rip off called for by rent seekers and mandateless NGOs.
Excise and a ban on below cost selling would absolutely do that.
However "strong drink available for a pittance" is basically a line lifted from an AAI press release, so you may believe that only MUP will work for it because that's their usual line. It isn't true though.
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