nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Child Item

Rip off Ireland? (Not complaining...)

marco murphy

Is Ireland a rip off country or are we a load of whinging *****?

Find more posts tagged with

Quick Links

Comments

el rabitos

both

marco murphy

Why is it ripp off?

Are you living in poverty?

el rabitos

have you ever been outside ireland?

Chucky the tree

load of whinging *****.

Blisterman

Well, living in London, with people from all over the world, I'm the only person who doesn't complain about how expensive London is, and is instead, pleased at how cheap it is.

$Photo of DonkeyStyle \o/$ DonkeyStyle \o/

Nah, we don't whinge enough and happily settle for being treated like shít.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Dublin's economically viable so inflation increases. Problem is a lot of other cities are more comfortable places to live in and are now a lot cheaper. Quality of service is a bit better because people are happier. So when you compare us to other European cities, we do appear to be a rip-off.

My question would not be, are we being ripped-off, but are we getting value for money?

marco murphy

el rabitos wrote:

have you ever been outside ireland?

Lanzarote for instance...

Cheap, but the people earn damn all

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

Poblachtach wrote:

Lanzarote for instance...

Cheap, but the people earn damn all

Does that count as "outside Ireland"...?!!

cournioni

Good example for you.

I live in a small town in Cavan. In my local a pint of Bulmers is €3.80.

I spend alot of time in Manchester also, I had been to numerous pubs in Manchester and the price for a pint in most places that served Magners was £2.30 (€3.28).

That should say it all really. I'm not even going to get into the prices of pints in Dublin.

gerrycollins

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

Guy:Incognito

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.

gerrycollins

Stekelly wrote:

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.

i didnt say anything about prices i mean everything customer service,health care, car maintance, anything anyone has something to complain about they should take action over it and not just moan and b***h about it then maybe we will get what we are paying for and deserve
BTW i agree fully with your post its one vicious circle wages go up so do the cost of stuff,stuff goes up in price we demand more wages to be able to afford stuff and do it goes on and on and on

Guy:Incognito

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

galah

It's a rip-off - compared to mainland Europe!
For example, shampoo/most cosmetic products are half-price in Germany, CDs are cheaper, I can go out for a decent meal with 4 people for 60 Euros (including moderate drinking). A pint of lager is 2.30 in most local bars (sometimes even cheaper), wine would be around 2.50 to 3 Euros for something nice, and don't even get me started on car prices, or any consumer goods.

Rent is cheaper, house prices are lower (at least in the area where I'm from, the size of the town is comparable to Galway)...and food products are mostly cheaper as well...

Problem is: no jobs in Germany, what's the use of cheaper products if you have no income...(and Ireland is a good country to live in still!)

FillSpectre

It is just complaining and moaning to the most extent. Many people talk on subject matters they have no idea on and claim it is a rip off. Improvements in Ireland such as a WEE or waste charges are seen as rip offs rather than a good move for the environment. THere may be points of arguement but the positive is lost or ignored by complaining.
I am happy people take less plastic bags and produce less waste. Selective complaining without balance does no body any favours.

jester77

It's a ripoff!
I left Ireland to move to Germany. Same work, same take home pay as the job I previoiusly had but everything here is just so much cheaper. Plus better health and infrastructure! Locals here complain about it being expensive but in fairness it has gotten expensive since the Euro came in, but nothing on the level to which prices have increased in Ireland. The only downside is the high unemployment but if you have a good qualification and work experience it's not so difficult to get a job.

FillSpectre

Jester
good for you but more people are unemployed there so only a section of the population live well. WHile every country has a lower end of society it is better here overall for people. There is massive restrictive control in germany that people here wouldn't like. Forced obligations on children to take care of their parents and parents to kids in full time education.
Swings and roundabouts. A whole pile of new shops and construction cost more than renting buildings that have been there for years. I don't get the belief that everything should cost the same around the world and we should all get paid the same. Why should it?

[Deleted User]

PORNAPSTER wrote:

I live in a small town in Cavan. In my local a pint of Bulmers is €3.80.

I spend alot of time in Manchester also, I had been to numerous pubs in Manchester and the price for a pint in most places that served Magners was £2.30 (€3.28).

Cavan or Manchester? Frying pan or fire?

Forget the price of a pint, I would pay vast amounts to not live in either.

ArphaRima

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

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)

Louisiana

there have always been a lot of monopolies in ireland with eircom and dunnes store raking in heaps of profits, the same deal with price fixing from the garages and the publicans leaving us no other choice but to pay through the nose for everyday items.
i think the introduction of new firms like Lidl and others add a bit of much needed competition.
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.

FillSpectre

Louisiana wrote:

there have always been a lot of monopolies in ireland with eircom and dunnes store raking in heaps of profits, the same deal with price fixing from the garages and the publicans leaving us no other choice but to pay through the nose for everyday items.

How long has Dunnes been a monoploy? WHen did it end becuase as somebody in their 30s a I remember all the other stores here when I was growing up.

Eircom is no longer a monopoly either nor has been for a while.

I don't get your examples at all.

Their are cultural traits also. Beer in a french bar is more expensive not becasue of price but culture. Bottle coke is more expensive here due to culture not price. In the UK they have different pub culture so they sell funny flavoured crisps. etc...

Some things are just different and then other things are economies of scale and the cost of setting up a new business in a new territory

galah

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?

FillSpectre

galah wrote:

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?

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?

ambro25

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.)

ganeagla

i think anyone who has lived outside Ireland for any length of time will agree that we are getting ripped off.

having lived in the US and New Zealand, I can honestly say wages were similar but costs and especially prices were much lower.

my own opinion would be that it is do to the greater competition in most countries. Ireland has fought to keep alternatives (Ikea, Costco) etc, out. But besides just alternative shopping there are just not that many companies to compete with eachother. but I know little about economics, I am just basing that on what I see.

you can say it is an Island nation, but that doesn't explain why things that are produced in Ireland are significantly more expensive than in other countries. VAT has to be taken into account, of course, but that doesn't account for the price difference entirely.

i don't think complaining is the answer, like others, I just buy most of my goods from other countries. speaking with my euros :-)

MySelf56

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

MySelf56 wrote:

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'd like to point out you are behind the times as the grocery order is well gone and made no difference like many analysts said. The media and polliticians made it look like this act was holding back cheap goods. Now that it hasn't happened are they coming out and saying they were wrong?

galah

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).