Rip off Ireland? (Not complaining...)

gerrycollins wrote:

i think both but what gets up my nose and other places too is people who complain or whinge about something then do feck all about it or take any action

Its about time we put up or shut up

Yeah everyone should complain and get prices lowered. Then wages will get lowered and we will still be where we are.

We pay more because we earn more. i'll bet we pay the same as a percentage of our income, that people in other countries pay.

With high wages come high prices, such is life.

the government should raise the minimum wage to 100k a week. Then raise prices proportionally to match. Then we can all go on holidays and be filthy rich.:D

When I was living in Ireland I bought everything I practically could from abroad. I complained when service was poor and I shopped around for almost everything. That is the only way prices will stabilise.
Of course now I live in a developing country on a good western wage. I live like a king.

MySelf56 wrote:

Whining and complaining is new fashion in Ireland. People are just forgetting basic geography that WE ARE ISLAND NATION. We don’t grow bananas here, we have to import it. We have to Import most of the things from main land Europe which it bit longer distance then UK. Those items not just luxurious lingerie it also includes basic commodities such as vegetables. So cost of transportation is adds up to the every item’s imported and lil higher inflation.

(or Michael O’Leary & company should run a cheap Cargo planes, lol)

So how do you explain that a lot of products are cheaper in Northern Ireland then? (for example, blueberries were almost half-price in Tescos in NI, compared to Tesco here?) Or how do you explain that Irish butter (produced in Ireland) is cheaper in Germany? Or Potatoes?

Louisiana wrote:

there have always been a lot of monopolies in Ireland (etc.)we have every right to complain about poor services and over priced goods cause the gready companies in ireland would just run amoc on us.

Seconded.

To the risk of just stating the *very* obvious, market economy is well and goodly undersood in Ireland, and in boom times, merchants charge what customers will pay (they'd be downright stupid to use a "cost plus" approach) - the added boon in the Republic is that, unlike most other European countries mentioned in the thread, it's a *very* small country with not a lot of people in it, in which vested interests and practices find a highly favourable environment to develop.

Competition comes in from overseas? All they would do is line up on current pricing levels - again, they'd be stupid to undercut when demand for a lot (most?) of items/commodities still outstrip supply (the reason demand keeps outstripping supply? refer earlier in the post to 'vested interests' ).

Example? IKEA (I know they're not over here yet... guess why? ). 50% to 100% price differential between France € and UK £ prices (after conversion of course), believe it or not. € prices in their IE catalogue (as and when... and if) will make for interesting reading, that is for sure . And of course, they'll put it down to logistics (they already do in the UK).

Like an earlier poster, I personally import everything I can, shop around for everything, and am a 1st-class, titanium-grade complaining b*st*rd when things don't go as they should. Value for money might indeed be a better indicator, as a proper definition of 'rip-off' is still as elusive as ever (e.g. I fully agree with comments about WEE, the reason it's there and the emerging pro-activity of the IE gvt about waste etc.)

FillSpectre wrote:

Simple UK pricing model (economy of scale)and different tax rates. Insurance and retail space is more expensive in Ireland and so are the wages paid to staff working in stores.

Can you explain why they should cost the same price everywhere?

I would like add another point here is to protect local business/small grocery stores we have Groceries Act, due to opposition wider public govt is going scrap that law then we might see little price drop (I don’t expect huge drop). Germany/Italy economies are little joke, huge unemployment, protectionist/subsidised economies. We are more dynamic/diversified economy.

FillSpectre wrote:

Simple UK pricing model (economy of scale)and different tax rates. Insurance and retail space is more expensive in Ireland and so are the wages paid to staff working in stores.

Can you explain why they should cost the same price everywhere?

I am not saying that same product should cost the same everywhere - I was just making a point that transport is not a massive factor.

Of course there are differences - but here it seems that anything is way more expensive than it should be - food for example. I don't think you get value for money for most products, and that savings are simply not passed on to the customer (abolishing the Groceries bill has not made a big difference to the consumer, and since people are still willing to pay the high prices, there's no need for big stores to make things cheaper).