Booze Runs To The North

I felt sorry for the poor students who were hit by MUP. Not mentioned in this report, but the Students Union in Galway were organising fleets of buses doing Booze Runs. Is that still going on?

https://sin.ie/2022/01/25/minimum-unit-pricing-hitting-student-wallets/

NUI Galway Students’ Union President Róisín Nic Lochlainn was critical of the regressive nature of the measures as a flat tax, saying it will disproportionately impact the less well-off. “Students across the island already experience financial instability with emergency hardship funds seeing thousands of applications every year, and this has only been exacerbated by the pandemic. “It’s also extremely unfair on the family who may like to occasionally drink on a Friday after a long week of work because they simply will not be able to afford it anymore.”

Is rag week now raggier week?

I think it goes without saying that if you were going to take a long trip there you would be getting a load of stuff.

Depends on what you are getting and where you are coming from, but if you get booze and at the same time stock up on pepsi/fanta/coke/sprite etc (which are usually on sale) along with ibuprofen/paracetamol and various toiletries then there are definitely savings to be made.

You need to do your research before you go as to whether it's worth your while or not, no point in simply driving up and going around supermarkets. I've seen deals on Brewdog before but not really familiar with other IPA beers to know what's a deal and what isn't.

You would want to be spending circa €400-500 for it to be worth a trip, that should give €200 plus in savings. The loyalty cards are a must to get the best deals. ASDA, Tesco, Sainsburys and LIDL are always cheapest, run of the mil off licences up there can't compete with their prices.

Tesco ROI loyalty cards don't work in NI. You may be able to get a virtual card by downloading the UK Tesco app

We were over in London last week and a friend sent us the barcode for his UK Clubcard via WhatsApp without any problems.

For the Tesco Clubcard you need either a UK Google account to see the app in the Play Store or else download the APK file of the app and manually install it. You can use a screen grab of a friend's UK Clubcard but sometimes the cashier may not accept this. ROI card not accepted.

The Nectar card which Sainsbury's uses is available as a physical card in-store, no need for apps.

I have family in NI.

No one is taking in to account the cost of the fuel for the trip.

There are a few things that are good value such as Champagne if it's on offer.

Depends on the exchange rate as well.

I do a few runs a year, doing your homework online first and having a shopping list is a benefit. Soft drinks are now a lot cheaper up there since we got DRS here. 24 cans of Coke/Pepsi/Club orange etc for £8. Can't even get the 24 pack down here since DRS started.

If you're ok with slabs of alcohol, normal 'sale' price I get most of them for is 18x440ml for £10.

Also, Asda let you download and use thier Asda rewards app on an Irish number so no messing around with them.

The savings in DRS have more than covered my fuels cost since it came in. And fuel is much cheaper up there at the moment, for example I filled up on petrol at £1.29/l last week (around €1.55/l) V around €1.70/l ish here. Not as good a difference with Diesel but still cheaper.

I used to live in Newry and the amount of cars and small vans with D , W and even LK plates was unreal from November on loading up with crates etc . I still live in the North so beer runs aren’t a thing for me