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shopping up north - my experience.

stevoman

well i went up to newry shopping yesterday and this is just my experience for people going up there and a few pointers for people who are thinking of going.

firstly prepare to have a long wait to get to sainsburys for parking. it wasnt busy yesterday and we had to que for a half hour to get to the car park. then had about another 20 minutes driving around looking for a space. we got lucky and got one and headed inside. once there with your trolly picture the panick that comes witha hurricance and thats what its like. the drink is cheap in fairness, litre bottles of vodka and bacardi etc for £14. baby food is also cheap but the pandamonium is just cazy. people are pulling items from boxes before theye even get to the shelves. In my opinion the only saving to be made are in the supermarkets so if its food shopping your going for go to another town that has a supermarket and off license and shop there where it quiter.

so then we made our way to the clothes and game shops which are also mobbed! any game is sold out and the prices on the internet are actually the same price as in the shops. clothes shops are also mobbed and i done a lot of my clothes shopping over the internet this year and found it a lot more handier and just as cheap.

it is also very confusing as you pay in euro and get sterling back in change and after a whle you do not know if you are coming or going.

in my honest opinion if its food and drink you are after go further north, find a quiter town and shop there. if its clothes and console games etc you are after, use the internet such as cdwow, play.com and ebay and get the same if not better deals there.

personally i wouldnt recommmend the north for anyting other than drink and groceries.

thats just my opinion though! hope it helps!

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Nehaxak

greetings wrote: »

my father has an electrical shop and i have seen the figures the likes of WHIRLPOOL or PHILLIPS give him and their crazy,nothin the shop owners can do about it

Yes they can. They can stop stocking from those suppliers and buy from suppliers outside of Ireland. If it's the manufacturers themselves well then go seek alternative options and alternative manufacturers for the products.

UrbanSea

i see where your coming from nehexak,but to make that worthwhile the products would have to be bought in a huge quantity,its like sayin to a corner shop to do it,wouldnt be able to accomadate it. You would need to be the likes of dunnes or tesco for that to be achieveable with the cost of bringing it in and all

Nehaxak

greetings wrote: »

i see where your coming from nehexak,but to make that worthwhile the products would have to be bought in a huge quantity,its like sayin to a corner shop to do it,wouldnt be able to accomadate it. You would need to be the likes of dunnes or tesco for that to be achieveable with the cost of bringing it in and all

Yep, that is true also.

Would it not be possible to ship in via normal road haulage from the UK instead or undertake drop shipping agreements with manufacturers elsewhere in Europe ?

Say someone in North Dublin wanted a fancy washing machine, rather than courier it direct from your store to their house, you drop ship it from the manufacturer directly from their warehouse in the EU to the customers door.
All you need then is a working demo model in your store for browsing shoppers thereby cutting down on actual stock you need to pre-purchase or otherwise have to have in your store available.

Anyway yeah, I take and understand your points.

Shelflife

just a couple of points in relation to shopping in the north.

there are bargins to be had there is no doubt about that, but buying a few bottles of spirits because they are mad cheap doesnt mean you are saving anything, you have only bought something that you didnt need or want.(if thats what you went up for then thats grand)

to those that buy loads of groceries, just take a note of how much of your containerl load of cheap groceries you throw out because you never used it. ( it will suprise you, the more you spend in one shop the higher the wastage).

you will be drawn into the illusion that everything is waaayyy cheaper because the products are priced in stg eg coke £1.59stg all you see is coke for 1.59 which is in effect €1.99 so no savings there .

you have to take into account the wear and tear costs of your car , not just the petrol.

you have to take into account your time that you spent driving up and down , half a days wages just to do the shopping even if its a day off a cost needs to be put on your time.

richardn

Just wondrering what are people's thought's now that the € and £ are almost 1 for 1

My Wife drove from Cork to Asda in Downpatrick 2 weeks ago and we saved a fortune.

Guiness by the tin in Sainsburys at the moment is 86 pence that equates to about 92 cent - now tell me where you can buy a tin of Guinness for 92 cent in the South?

Free range chickens varying in size costing between £3.50 and £4.50 - Dunness equivalant €8.99 so that's half price and they tasted pretty damn good to.

We intend travelling up every 10-12 weeks and spending about £1200 to make the trip worthwhile.

A shop owner I know in our local town reckoned € prices would come down as most suppliers for groceries are UK based. This hasn't happened so travel we shall go. It's a bit like the old trips many people did in England to France, Dover to Calais but without the ferry!

embee

Am going up this weekend, must be mad in the head altogether.

But there are bargains out there. Super Valu in my town has 12 litres of Coca Cola for 7.99. The big tins of Roses are 6.25.

We are having a house party on December 27th and I'm afraid to say all the drink will be bought up the North. I went and bought 2 bottles of Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine in Dunnes yesterday - 41.98. I'm sure they're far, far cheaper up the north.

Biggins

Don't forget to get sterling before you go into the like of marks & sparks.
Their tags still have the (double the price) rip-off euro prices on them.

Sir Gallagher

I'm heading to Belfast tomorrow and i'm gonna stay the night too, there's a big market on in the city hall so i'm looking forward to that! I'm so glad i dont have to face Henry street or Grafton street this year.

stovelid

I don't (and never have) need a nuclear shelter sized stockpile of food and drink at Christmas. Just enough to feed 5 people well, so i'll leave the queuing, rage, and anxiety to other people this year.

jesus_thats_gre

Go up on a Friday evening between 2 and 4 and go via Carlingford and you will have virtually no problems with traffic or crowds. Have been up there 3 times at that time in the past few weeks and it has been plain sailing everytime.

Captain Darling

MikeySligo wrote: »

There's a few serious honeyz working up in Asda in Enniskillen.
Well worth the 120 mile round trip through Irelands worst roads.

You forgot to add this little dude::pac:

trailerparkboy

Im thinking of heading up on Monday all the way from kerry,driving up in one of the big ford vans, lots of drink will be brought, thinking of buying 480 cans of guinness of lots of other drink, plus lots of food as well, the person driving aws a few ice boxes so that should do for chilled food, ive actually taken orders from the neighbours and people i know as well, for a charge i might add so the pertrol will cost me nothing and ill make a few bob as well:D:p:o

Idbatterim

I manage a family business and at the end of the day am sick to death of the rip off prices and excuses here! If business goes down in January (when ill know how big an effect the downturn will have) its my problem at the end of the day. I frankly dont care for excuses as to why things here are more expensive. The only thing I have a loyalty to is my hard earned money! If i can buy the same product for less, I simply couldnt care less if shopowner a, has higher staff costs, insurance, less buying power! thats his problem, he controls that to a large extent! One of the problems here is we are a high cost location, now if we werent bordering another lower cost economy, due to lower costs and recently due to the plumet of sterling we wouldnt be as effected. Its not as if taking the ferry over to the UK would be very viable. In my opinion for a normal shop, you would either want to be living close to the border or if not doing a very large shop, when you factor in the cons of shopping up north. Another thing! people say lower the vat, if the vat is lowered we are still going to be ripped off! 1 or 2 % when you making massive savings up the north isnt the answer! The government, unions and vested interests, have really got what they deserve and as for those that have been creaming it for years I hope they go to the wall!

Exit

Imagine my surprise this morning, when I woke up and logged on to the CBC website (Canadian news) and saw one of the main headlines was this - http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/12/20/newry-shopping.html

I mean, firstly, why would this news be important to Canadians, and secondly, how is this even news? It's been going on for as long as I can remember.

I don't see the appeal of it all myself.

allybhoy

Exit wrote: »

Imagine my surprise this morning, when I woke up and logged on to the CBC website (Canadian news) and saw one of the main headlines was this - http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2008/12/20/newry-shopping.html

I mean, firstly, why would this news be important to Canadians, and secondly, how is this even news? It's been going on for as long as I can remember.

I don't see the appeal of it all myself.

Ha ha that article is gas. how big do they think Ireland is??

as tens of thousands travel from up to 12 hours' drive away to cash in on Northern Ireland shops pounds..

There is also another paragraph where it says some fella drove 8hours from Limerick, must have went via Kerry

miju

I was up North today in Antrim picked up a new car for €6,000 cheaper (after VRT) for the same model here and then went to ASDA in Ballyclare and proceeded to buy about £150 worth of seriously cheap drink.

Am I sorry my cash is not staying in the South? Am I **** the retailers dug they're own grave as far as I'm concerned.

stepbar

I live close to Enniskillen. Hop in the car and I'll be there in 30 mins or so. However I recently heard that a bus load of people travelled all the way from Cork to shop in Enniskillen. A 10 - 12 hr round trip. So by the time they hired a bus and changed their Euro to STG, they'd probably have saved nothing. Some Dumbasses.... :rolleyes:

Senna

Was looking for a new tv during the week, seen a nice 42 Samsung in Letterkenny reduced to 799e (from 999e i think). Went 20 minutes over the border to Derry, exact same TV for 602e.

Retails can blame higher costs and taxes all they want, but 20% difference in price is greed. (and i'm sure the place in Derry is still making a decent profit).