Rip off Ireland - British Chains taking the p1ss especially

Fighting Irish · 09-11-2008 02:38PM

luckylucky wrote: »

Nothing new I know. When I come home for visits I'm really horrified at the cost of things. Nevertheless I accept that when a country has a higher standard of living then it follows that prices are higher, but what really has got up my goat the last few times I've come home is the likes of Boots and Debenhams. In Debenhams especially the prices are displayed in both Sterling and Euros. Now over the last couple of months the euro price should be roughly 1.25 times the sterling price - but instead items are almost always more than 1.5 times. When I lived in the UK I used to buy a fair few things from Debenhams, in ireland now I'd only buy stuff if it was very reduced. I really think that they are taking the p1ss out of the Irish consumer.

I hear Dunnes Stores might be bought out by Asda - I really hope that either this does not happen or that some euroszone chains come in as an alternative/competition to British Chains.

Like most business's, they charge what people will pay. "Rip Off Ireland" is a joke

Don't like a price, don't pay

thelordofcheese · 09-11-2008 02:42PM

Fighting Irish wrote: »

Like most business's, they charge what people will pay. "Rip Off Ireland" is a joke

Don't like a price, don't pay

This. A thousand times this.
Thread over, folks. Go home.

ArmaniJeanss · 09-11-2008 03:09PM

luckylucky,
lets say the Irish or Portuguese branch of Debenhams made a profit of €50M last year.
If they reduced the € price in accordance with the exchange rate (and sales remained the same) then their profit this year would only be €35M. This would not be a good way to run a business, management would be deservedly sacked etc.

Personally I've more of a problem with the sizing of the prices, the Sterling price often being in a double fontsize compared to the Euro price ( I've been caught a couple of times thinking that I'm getting a bargain when I'm not).

P.S. This is a dangerous place, they are all a bit mental, come back to the poker forum if it all gets too much.

Gummy Panda · 09-11-2008 03:17PM

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

P.S. This is a dangerous place, they are all a bit mental, come back to the poker forum if it all gets too much.

We've-- we've got lumps of it 'round the back!!

Capt'n Midnight · 09-11-2008 03:20PM

Gummy Panda wrote: »

The exchange rate is not the only factor.

like already posted VAT rates, corporate tax, minimum wage costs, energy costs, etc. are all different in Ireland than the UK

for a start corporatin tax is far lower here and by having the uk sell products to the subsideary at a special price you can easily move the profit to the most tax advantageous area. transport costs including ferry are similar from London to Dublin or to Northern England and probably cheaper than to Scotland. Fuel is cheaper here. What % do wages make up of the running cost, and let's not forget that the supermakets in many cases make over 100% markup on food prices

Gummy Panda · 09-11-2008 03:26PM

Yeah i made a mistake on the corporate tax. I mixed up the rates.

I don't believe supermarkets make 100% mark up on all food. This may differ from company to company but i know a lot of common items like bread are sold at a lose to get footfall (this is from a Lidl source)

sdanseo · 09-11-2008 03:40PM

Shop up North if you can. The stores are starting to notice this and if everyone buggers off to the UK to shop, they'll start bringing prices down.

Dyr · 09-11-2008 03:42PM

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Personally I've more of a problem with the sizing of the prices, the Sterling price often being in a double fontsize compared to the Euro price ( I've been caught a couple of times thinking that I'm getting a bargain when I'm not).

Should be illegal to dispaly prices in anything other then euro's. I got caught once when the sterling price was the only price on an item.

luckylucky · 09-11-2008 08:12PM

smccarrick wrote: »

I accept what you're saying as a generalisation- but I would qualify that with an observation that electrical goods (in general) are a total rip off in Portugal. Even if you visit the German multiples (Aldi etc) and price electrical goods there you will find identical goods in their branches in Ireland often for 30-40% less than their Portuguese prices. Visit your local Vodafone shop and price a range of their phones, and compare it to Irish prices (and indeed price plans), once again I think you'll be very surprised.

What really gets my goat though is kitchen ware- such as a simple kettle, toaster, microwave etc- in general these can be gotten for half the Portuguese price in Dublin.........

Also- like to see you wander into a major Portuguese shop selling household goods and buying a couple of things and haggling a 10% discount......... DID Electrical, Powercity and some of the other outlets are more than happy to give you an on-the-spot discount......

Food, alcohol and tobacco are a lot cheaper in Portugal- Electrical goods and fuel are vastly cheaper in Ireland.......

Swings and roundabouts.......

Yeah it was just meant as a generalisation. Luxury goods are more expensive in Portugal alright. Though they have come down in prices in recent years as the market gets more competitive. I live in Portugal so I should know

. Also petrol, diesel and cars are very expensive in Portugal. Booze and eating out is way cheaper in Portugal. Overall it's far cheaper to live in Portugal. But with the low wages here it may perhaps be in relative terms just as expensive if not more.

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

luckylucky,
lets say the Irish or Portuguese branch of Debenhams made a profit of €50M last year.
If they reduced the € price in accordance with the exchange rate (and sales remained the same) then their profit this year would only be €35M. This would not be a good way to run a business, management would be deservedly sacked etc.

Personally I've more of a problem with the sizing of the prices, the Sterling price often being in a double fontsize compared to the Euro price ( I've been caught a couple of times thinking that I'm getting a bargain when I'm not).

P.S. This is a dangerous place, they are all a bit mental, come back to the poker forum if it all gets too much.

While I understand your argument - I don't fully agree with it, your figures of €50 million changing to €35 million are very arbitrary for one thing.
Anyway we could go around in circles again on that one....

On the pricing in sterling - I'd like to know if you could pay for the items in sterling

In regards to the poker forum, I had a look at a thread recently and saw someone recommend a $20k bankroll for playing 5/10 professionally - with people offering such dumbfounding advice I'm in no hurry to get involved there again

Fratton Fred · 09-11-2008 08:44PM

I remember hearing once that when Tesco entered the Irish market, they pitched their prices just below the competition, but not as low as they knew they could go, because they were expecting a price war.... it never came though so the prices stayed high.

There was an article abour this in the Indo and they went into great lengths about the rip offs in Dublin as opposed to Belfast.

Two days later their letters page was full of people asking why the Indo was twice as expensive in Dublin as it is in Belfast.

OPENROAD · 09-11-2008 09:59PM

luckylucky wrote: »

Yip, looks that way alright

Here I'll give it one last go....

I actually asked a guy in a small British owned chain 'Suits You' who again were charging items at approx the same extortionate exchange rate of £1 = €1.50 or even higher, why this was the case. His excuse was that the Irish branches had been contacting their UK head office about it but they said they would get around to it but they would have to change their systems around for the new pricing... sounds like a lame excuse to me, you can be sure they'd get it sorted quick if the rate had gone to £1 = €1.80. Anyway if the Irish branch was asking the pricing to be changed I'd say it's another indicator that the weird hypothesis that several people in this thread advocate that costs in Ireland rose so much in 15 months that prices in these stores should rise in real terms(vis-a-vis sterling) by 20% is not an accurate hypthesis and that the one I advocate that British and other chains are taking advantage of the change in exchange rate to reap extra profit is far more likely. I find it strange that so many people are willing believe in that weird hypothesis and think that big business are not trying to pull the woll over thier eyes

While I agree with you that we are indeed ripped off here, it is is not just UK stores that do it, I have mentioned this twice already, but IRISH STORES with braches in NI are also engaging in the same practice, i.e. in NI the product is significantly chaeper than ROI.

luckylucky · 09-11-2008 10:11PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

While I agree with you that we are indeed ripped off here, it is is not just UK stores that do it, I have mentioned this twice already, but IRISH STORES with braches in NI are also engaging in the same practice, i.e. in NI the product is significantly chaeper than ROI.

Yeah I know it's not just UK stores who do it. The thing is though it's an extra p1ss take when Debenhams and the like actually display the price in both sterling and euro, it's almost like their flaunting the fact that you're being ripped off because they know only a small minority actually care.

Mr. Presentable · 09-11-2008 10:19PM

Of course if they had any respect for the Irish consumer, they'd simply take the Stg price off the tags.

OPENROAD · 09-11-2008 10:23PM

luckylucky wrote: »

Yeah I know it's not just UK stores who do it. The thing is though it's an extra p1ss take when Debenhams and the like actually display the price in both sterling and euro, it's almost like their flaunting the fact that you're being ripped off because they know only a small minority actually care.

I actually find it worse the Irish stores doing it, UK stores it is just easier to place Euro price on the same tag.

At the end of the day the only person who can chage things is the consumer. We had coach loads of people going to NI a few months ago and the sight of Sainsburys welcoming customers with tea and coffee, they even waived their policy by allowing ROI custoners to register for loyalty cards.

What I say is fair play to the people who went up, I know the govt were not too happy but with the savings you can't blame people. But it is down to people to make a stand, I commute to London quite a bit and will stock up on certain items there rather than buy here, I have stoped buying Irish newspapers because they are too expensive, I subscribe to UK newspapers for half the price. I subscribe for magazines rather than pay rip off prices in Irish stores.

OPENROAD · 09-11-2008 10:26PM

nipplenuts wrote: »

Of course if they had any respect for the Irish consumer, they'd simply take the Stg price off the tags.

If the Irish consumer had any common sense they just wouldn't shop there if it upset them.

The_Conductor · 09-11-2008 10:30PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

If the Irish consumer had any common sense they just wouldn't shop there if it upset them.

Its a great way of price checking before you go up North though

OPENROAD · 09-11-2008 10:33PM

smccarrick wrote: »

Its a great way of price checking before you go up North though

True

Mr. Presentable · 09-11-2008 10:34PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

If the Irish consumer had any common sense they just wouldn't shop there if it upset them.

Can't argue with that!

KhanTheMan · 09-11-2008 10:50PM

OPENROAD wrote: »

If the Irish consumer had any common sense they just wouldn't shop there if it upset them.

Do what Mary Hearney told us to do. Shop around - up the north

OPENROAD · 09-11-2008 10:53PM

KhanTheMan wrote: »

Do what Mary Hearney told us to do. Shop around - up the north

Indeed.

Fratton Fred · 09-11-2008 11:23PM

I've just been doing my bills for this month and the one rip off that really pisses me off and i can do nothing about, is the stupidly high bill i pay to keep those overpaid bastards at esb in their job for life.

09-11-2008 11:29PM

Don't shop in these places.

Problem solved.

And why are they doing it?

Because they know that they can. The irish consumer isn't willing to shop around. What they are willing to do however is bitch and moan about it, while the problem gets worse. You don't like it, do something about it.

Peteee · 09-11-2008 11:56PM

Business charges what you will pay.

Thats it.

Corruptedmorals · 10-11-2008 12:12AM

Minimum wage is just as bad in the North as it is in the rest of the UK..which is one of the factors in the North being cheaper. Lots of people are saying here 'Granted, minimum wage might be lower than it is here'. It's much, much lower, it's a joke, even if you're over 18.

Nehaxak · 10-11-2008 12:27PM

TKMaxx do this an awful lot in Dublin, a lot of their gear (especially their shoes) will only have sterling price tags.
Bought a pair of shoes from them last week, price was 29.99 - I honestly did think it was in Euro but when I got to the counter the guy pointed out to me that the price tag was in Sterling (it did have a pound sign, I never noticed).

He went off to check their "conversion chart" on the back of some press door behind the counter then said the price would be 44.99 in Euros. Which is 1.50 exchange rate.
Rip off and me arse was I paying that so I insisted on him charging me in sterling on my credit card, which after a bit of arguing, he did. So happy days and I got a decent exchange rate.

It's a scam though and you can complain all you want but they're doing nothing illegal and there's no law against it - so bend over Paddy once more and take it up the jacksie.

Gummy Panda · 10-11-2008 12:32PM

Nehaxak wrote: »

TKMaxx do this an awful lot in Dublin, a lot of their gear (especially their shoes) will only have sterling price tags.
Bought a pair of shoes from them last week, price was 29.99 - I honestly did think it was in Euro but when I got to the counter the guy pointed out to me that the price tag was in Sterling (it did have a pound sign, I never noticed).

Was there no Euro price at all?

The_Conductor · 10-11-2008 12:33PM

Gummy Panda wrote: »

Was there no Euro price at all?

If not- report them to the DCA.

Nehaxak · 10-11-2008 01:10PM

Nope, no Euro price at all. There was also a couple of other pairs of the same shoes on the shelves and I went back to check after paying, they all also had only price tags in Sterling.

Dyr · 10-11-2008 01:43PM

KhanTheMan wrote: »

Do what Mary Hearney told us to do. Shop around - up the north

Its our patriotic duty to take up the swiss from retailers for the good of the nation

Fratton Fred · 10-11-2008 02:01PM

TK Maxx, yet another British company ripping off the Irish

(Hint, check out TJX Inc.)

It all comes down to porter's five forces, there is not enough pressure on sellers to change their prices, because the threats aren't there http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter_5_forces_analysis

Rip off Ireland - British Chains taking the p1ss especially

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