Shopping in Northern Ireland

Hi guys I'm travelling to Belfast for the first time ever with my husband and new baby. We are looking to get some bargains for the baby and for Christmas - any suggestions gratefully appreciated . I've looked up waterwipes and they are the same if not more expensive . Anyone know of anything in particular we should stock up on ?
Thanks

robyntmorton wrote: »

The Quays are currently building in the car park, so a lot of the spaces are shut down.

What are they actually doing to the car park does anyone know. Its been like that for ages!

Spanish Eyes wrote:

Just wait, there will be plenty of booze bargains in the run up to Christmas down South now.

The duty alone will mean NI will always undercut prices on alcohol here. Most other things there's very little in it.

liamo22 wrote: »

What are they actually doing to the car park does anyone know. Its been like that for ages!

£20M Expansion. I think it was put on hold for a while but it's back on again.

http://www.itv.com/news/utv/update/2016-10-03/newry-set-for-major-shopping-boost/

bladespin wrote: »

Crates of beer for £11, same here for €25(promotional price), I put it down to duty but maybe it's something else, wine is even cheaper for the ewuivalent, the savings are huge.

Beer duty is higher in UK than Ireland.

Prices are lower due to more competition.

dfeo wrote: »

Unless you live within a reasonable distance of the occupied 6 counties, you are wasting time (and fuel) going up there. The savings are negligible, you'd have to be buying some amount to make any sort of significant saving - even with the pound approaching parity with the Euro.

Plenty to be saved some quick examples below first two from smyths, tv from currys, all exact same product

Lego Minecraft crafting box: €48 £35 approx €8 saved or 16%
Barbie Malibu girls: €67 £49 approx €12 saved or 18%
Samsung 32 inch smart: €350 £250 approx €60 saved or 17%

There is €80 saved on a few items, from dublin to newry is 100km so probably 40 - 50 quid in fuel for round trip. I will say could be better getting items posted and using parcel wizard/motel etc. but if buying a lot is worth the drive.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rates-and-allowance-excise-duty-alcohol-duty/alcohol-duty-rates-from-24-march-2014

UK excise duty

The UK have an extra excise on high alc beers.

Beer

Alcohol type Rate per hectolitre per cent of alcohol in the beer

Beer - General Beer Duty £18.37

Beer - high strength:
Exceeding 7.5% abv - in addition to the General Beer Duty £5.48

Beer - lower strength:
Exceeding 1.2% - not exceeding 2.8% abv £8.10

I live beside the border so shopping in the North is a regular occurrence for ourselves. But I would urge a wee bit of caution here when it comes to people travelling long distances to shop in NI and then discover that its not all its cracked up to be at times. When you factor in the cost of diesel / petrol together with the exchange rate there may be no great savings. Im jot down a couple of things that spring to mind.

Im only guessing here but for anyone who has to travel 100+ miles to get there and the same back obviously then you really should be be looking at spending at least £300 - £400 in order to see the savings.

Buy your sterling in advance and do shop around for it. Ring the banks, PO's and credit union and ask how much £400 is to buy. You could save 10-15 euro at times. A lot of the bureau de changes will give better value though. Remember that the exchange rate you see quoted in the news bulletins and indeed on the digital display screens in banks etc is the actual true rate between banks but does not include commission or handling charges which normally amount to about 2%. So if you see on the news that €1 buys £0.90 then in real terms you will get £0.875 approx for your euro.

A good quick example of how your Euros will exchange in sterling currency is first of all check the actual bank rate which for example would be 1 euro buys 89 pence sterling. As stated above you need to allow for handling charges and commission so take about 2.5 p of the rate and this will leave you then with the "in/out of pocket" rate of 1 euro buys 86.5p. So when checking your prices take the sterling cost and divide and divide it by .865 an that will give you a very close price in Euro.

Ring in advance to whatever shops you intend to go to and ask what their exchange rate is. Some of them set a rate on a Monday and keep it the same up to the following weekend while others will just change daily in line with the banks exchange rate. Some of the bigger towns will normally do a pound = Euro in the run up to Xmas but thats depending on the exchange rates of course. When they do run the pound/euro promotion you will find some shops then giving 10% discount for example on sterling sales.

A lot of the bargains are the "specials" that all food and drinks stores run so you need to check locally first what the prices are before heading north. Indeed all the top 4 or 5 stores here do their own specials at different times so watch out for them as it could cost you more in NI the odd time.

Try to go midweek shopping if possible as the weekends are normally very, very busy from mid November onwards.

Watch out if paying in Euro as the shops round up your price to the nearest tenner and charge you the rate and give you your change in sterling. You might buy something that comes to £70 which is the equivalent of €79. The shop will say..."that's €80" but the only notes you have are 2 x 50. They will take that 100 euro, change it to sterling and give you your change in sterling which isn't much use to you in a way. So make sure you are armed with plenty of 10 and 20 euro notes. If you do end up with a lot of loose sterling change then buy a couple of chocolate bars, minerals, crisps etc...anything just to maximise the savings to be made on your trip.

Quite a lot of electrical goods are cheaper in the north as are toys so a good place to start looking is Argos online. Just last week I was looking at a TV in Argos UK and it was selling at £299 which would be about €345 at todays exchange rate but the price of that TV in the Argos Ireland catalogue was €389 so there's a saving of €44 which would buy your cars fuel for the shopping trip . Comparing the prices between the 2 online Argos stores is a must.

Visit the pound shops as they sell a lot of stuff cheaper than some of the big stores like Asda, Tesco etc. Again another example is a 6 pack of Cadburys fudge bars. Asda normally retail them at about £1.35 but you will get the same pack for 99 pence in the likes of the pound stores. The same applies to the large chocolate bars where the pound type shops have them at the same price every week and the bigger stores only reduce their prices every couple of months.

I have known people to split into 2 groups or just 2 or 3 individuals with each individual going to a different shop in the same town. They can check prices on what they propose to buy and then text each other (cheaper than calling in case you are caught for the roaming rate on mobile calls) and then make the decision on where they are getting the best price.

Car tyres and batteries are also normally a good deal cheaper in the north so if you intend to buy either or both then check local prices first an then ring before your trip and see what they are costing. On most occasions you should save on these items.

Those are just a few ideas and suggestions that come to mind but the main point is to do your homework before you plan your journey.

Hope that helps someone.

robyntmorton wrote: »

Great post Muffler.

Obviously, being closer to the border helps, so the further you have to drive, the more it will cost, the more you need to spend/save to make it worthwhile.

With that in mind, have a gameplan in place. Know what you are going to save your money on. That means you have at least covered your trip, and anything else is a bonus.

If I am checking rough exchange rates in advance for card purchases, I use Visa's tool here. As an example, AIB charge 1.5% conversion fee, but other banks may vary. Also bear in mind that the transaction may be delayed a day or two, and the exchange rate can fluctuate a little over the course of the day.

And absolutely, if you can, go midweek. Nothing worse than getting stuck in queues all day at weekends.

Forget about AIB charges, just get a revolut card. put your euros on it, purchase your items in the north in sterling and get no conversion charges. Also the phone app for the card shows instantly how much the item cost in euros. Believe me you will save quite a bit purchasing sterling items in this way. Same goes if you make purchases online with amazon etc.

sitstill wrote: »

I'm looking at heading to Newry on a Sunday. I always park in the Quays to go to Sainsburys. I understand that they only open at 1PM on a Sunday. Does anyone know at what time they open the car park? Thanks

I wish it was more recent but I'm sure I showed up at 12pm a while back and never thought of the 1pm opening. The car park was open but I fannied about for an hour and went back for 1pm. You could always go early and if not open, have coffee in McDonald's in Damolly Retail Park and head back into the Quays for 1pm.

I'm just back from Enniskillen. I wouldn't travel more than 20 miles to shop in the north if you are hoping to save money on groceries. Unless you are buying a boot full of alcohol, car tyres, medication or an expensive electrical good then it's not worth your while.