Shopping in Northern Ireland

What is the best way to pay (with apologies if this has been well dealt with earlier, there are too many pages to sift through) - laser/Maestro, credit card, euro cash or should I go to bank in advance and exchange to sterling?

Update: Left Blanchardstown at 825am yesterday heading to Newry. Did not fanct the mayhem of the dreaded N3 / M50 to M1 so I opted to head out thru tyrellstown, crossing the old north rd (N2 i think ) and merged with the M1 at swords. 25 mins to this point. 1hr from here to Quays carpark. Some traffic on the hill into Newry but no issues compared to weekend posters reports. Plenty of spaces at 10.00am. That said, many Southerners were finished and loading up the cars at 10 :eek: The usual suspects - Alco and food.

As previously posted, great deals on beer, particularly 1lt of Smirnoff = 14£ although you can get it cheaper elsewhere in this thread. Very busy inside the shop. They now accept laser in Sainsburys. Er indoors spent 236£ ( maybe 10 bottles of spirits / good wines / beer and a LOT of groceries and Xmas stuff. Reckon that easily 100€+ saved.

Loaded up the car and headed into the stores. Jack and Jones still on € for £ but beware; the selection is poor :mad: you are not getting the selection of down here - still though, worth a look.

Music stores / game stores were thronged at this time ( 11.30am). PS3 bundles going a storm. Wii games ( €55 in Smyths here ) only £29.99 there. Music CDs, DVDs, blue-ray - I seen plenty of savings

TIP: Xavvi in buttercrane has good deals with a little less queues to contend with.

No doubt you'll head for a peep in Buttercrane S.C across the road.

TIP: If you can, take a spot in the Quays car park close to the exit and WALK across the the Buttercrane !

Arrived in Banbridge Outlet at 3.00pm ( Travel time from Quays S.C - 15mins max. When you exit the Quays, turn right and proceed through the town, well signposted, approx 13km. Carpark empty :eek: surprised. Again, one or two units doing £ for € ( Replay clothing was one ) but again, selection not great, particularly in the Nike / Puma stores. Limited siaes in footwear. Largest mens sizes - 8.5 !!!! Uncanny how the decent trainers in the range were all limited sizes

TIP: Try and pick up a discount booklet if you can. Got one last time ( October ) worth 10% - 20% discounts in many of the stores here so good saving to be has if you find things you like.

Example: Pavers shoes here were selling caterpillar boots ( tanned ) for 62£. Same boots were £44 in Buttercrane ! I've been told that they sell here for approx €100:eek:

Left there at 5.00pm - She had to POP in to Smyths ( its like a drug with her )which you hit on the way back to Dublin ( along with Currys, Halfords, MFI, B&Q etc ). These stores are at the back of Newry so best left to hit on the return trip.

1 hr from here to M50. No traffic issues from here to the 1st roundabout entering Newry and from here - plain sailing. Hit the M1/M50 junction at 7.00pm, heading for Blanchardstown. I'm sure I dont need to elaborate any further on what traffic fun awaited me here:mad:



All in all, well worth a trip. Particularly, early & mid-week !

Enjoy

barongreen wrote: »

Has late shopping kicked in, in newry yet. thinking of going up this evening arriving at 4ish. This madness

Was thinking the same myself. Just think of the killing they'd make if they went 24hour. Hopefully, they'll do it for the week before christmas.

barongreen wrote: »

Has late shopping kicked in, in newry yet. thinking of going up this evening arriving at 4ish. This madness

shops open till 9 or 10 as of yesterday,,

was in Enniskillen yesterday (ON A MONDAY) and the asda car parks were full by 11am. The wait at the tills was over 30 mins. i overheard local people moaning about all the southerners coming up and they cant even go and do their normal shop now because of the surge from the republic. I then headed over to Tesco, where it was calmer. Got some terrific bargins, all well known spirits were 13£ for 1L (Bells, gordons, smirnoff). Wine that I drink was near enough half the price, brought 12 bottles!!! Beer worked out so much cheaper per 100ml (Carlslerg €3.25/l here, €1.51/L in the north!)

Also boots/M&S were fantastic value compared to down here. The boots deodrant i use is 2.49€ here, the exact same one in boots in the north was .97p!!!

Was in Heatons finally, were i brought some plain T shirts, Heatons in Castlebar were selling for 9€, Heatons in enniskillen were selling for 5.79£!!

Argos to was so much cheaper, some presents i was going to buy here were around 40% cheaper at least in argos in the north. the 3 presents i brought here would have totalled 185€, Argos in the north the same 3 presents came to £84 (€108 charged to me CC) plus a £5 voucher!

I done a comparison of the cars in the car park and i would say that 75-80% of the cars were southern reg.

People say its not worth the price of petrol etc for the journey up? well i used just over €20 petrol, the wine alone saved me that!

Are there any other tolls on the way up to Sprucefield apart from the M50?

Is that cash or camera like the M50?

Ah, thanks. Not been on the M1 before, is the toll in Southern Ireland? Euro?

Great. Thanks guys. Heading up a week tomorrow. Hope they have stocked the shelves by then.:rolleyes:

they went 24hour.

But you'll only be able to buy booze up to 11pm.

"tolls + petrol used (especially when in 2 hr tailback) + overcrowding + most of your saturday gone + poor exchange rate in most places = not worth it"

Quite a number here that would disagree with you.
Try going up on a different day.

the groutch wrote: »

if I do go up, it'll be a morning midweek, and will bypass newry and head up to lisburn, banbridge,etc

Yep, sounds about right to me. Leaving Kilkenny at 5am Wednesday week. Will try the M50/M1 route at that time in the morning.