Shopping in the north, worth your while?

Camera I looking to buy up north comes in at around €460. The cheapest price down here is Argos at around €490. Two shops in town are selling it at around €550. Feck the country and choose what makes most sense for your wallet.

Here is a quick one for everyone to think about.

3 years ago the price of alcohol was ridiculous in the south and so the people here voted with their feet and moved north to buy it.
The next year it was down slightly but people still headed north for the savings.
Last year it was well down and so people didn't need to go and stock up.
This year it is almost parity so people will buy locally.
Is it a coincidence that the prices have come down because people were going elsewhere to buy it or did the retailers just "decide" to drastically cut their prices?
Nothing will change if people just keep paying inflated prices to retailers who are milking their customers.

If this forum has taught us anything, it is that there are always bargains to be found. Whether it be clothing, groceries, drink, electronics, whatever - there are certainly bargains in the North also, but with the terrble FX rate, I'm staying south...

ChunkyLover_53 wrote: »

I agree with you, some of those aren't savings but this thread was 5 pages of people arguing about cross border shopping but no one actually posted any price comparisons.

I made savings on clothes & aftershave/perfume/make-up gift packs in Debenhams and other clothing stores. I posted a cross section of what I got in Sainsbury's so people can compare prices south of the border.

Maybe you missed the thread I posted before you??
Or maybe conveniently ignored because the savings to be made were in the south:rolleyes:

Doing a price comparison exercise for a kitchen renovation -

logged onto Currys.ie and Currys.co.uk for comparisons

Samsung WD87004RJD - washer dryer
currys.ie €549
currys.co.uk £549/€661 A massive mark up in the UK.

Indesit CA55S Fridge freezer €
currys.ie €329
currys.co.uk £269/€324 - massive saving of €5

Indesit FIDI01 double built in oven
currys.ie €339
currys.co.uk £279/€336- saving of €3

Indesit VRM640X - ceramic hob
currys.ie €229
currys.co.uk £249/€300 Cheaper in RO1 even before conversion

Bosch classixx integrated dishwasher
currys.ie €449
currys.co.uk £399/€480

Samsung 32" LE32d400 flat screen tv (for the living room)
currys.ie €309
currys.co.uk €249/€300. (the biggest saving €9)

Total currys.ie €2204
Total currys.co.uk £1994/€2402.

Items were not chosen on the basis of sale price, rather on specification and budget, reliability (in the case of the dishwasher) and size (7kg wash/5kg drying capacity in the case of the washer dryer)

So a saving to be made in the south - and I would guarantee there would be a further rounding down of the prices if you walked into the store and haggled a bit.

I know I would much rather buy local, particularly for electrical goods that may have a chance of acting up. I don't fancy having to travel back up North to return an item that has broken within it's warranty - and with the ever decreasing price on electrical items comes the fact that they don't last as long as they used to and are far more disposable.

ChunkyLover_53 wrote: »

I didn't miss your post, mate, but I wasn't buying anyone a dishwasher for Christmas, I'd spend too much time wrapping it.

5 pages of people arguing about cross border shopping but no one actually posted any price comparisons.

Just to be pedantic, because it's not going to be a Christmas present doesn't mean it's not a valid comparison. There were plenty of posts about toothpaste and shower gel, somehow I doubt they're getting wrapped as christmas presents (along with your felix cat food and fairy washing up liquid:D)

Oh and by the way I got Pedigree jumbone 2 for €3 in Tesco this eve, works out cheaper than the stg conversion that you paid. Also another poster put in the Tesco bargains thread that Terrys Chocolate Oranges are €1.50 there as well at the moment.

was it not 179€ down here??or has it gone back up?

amacachi wrote: »

Must be the distributors doing the ripping off since the tax and excise rates are only a few percent apart between here and the UK.

Musgraves and BWG have been squeezing the retailers for years. I recall a post on boards about a tesco worker who was having a party and had a relatives cash & carry card (could have been musgraves) they went down but didn't buy any booze because they could buy stuff cheaper where they worked. Coupled with what my friend told me, it sounds right.

Musgraves put pressure on super valus in the past couple of years to lower prices, however they didn't lower their cost prices, the SVs had to tighten their margins, it was all a one way street with the wholesaler - take the hit or we'll revoke the franchise.

I rarely visit my local super valu, purely because parking is a nightmare and it's far easier to park at Dunnes or Tesco. However I do go into the one in my OHs home town a bit. It's got to the stage where there's so few staff to restack the shelves there's nobody on the tills - usually customer service is open and they'll ring the bell for more staff if they're under pressure.

Delboy5 wrote: »

ASDA currently selling 15 X 330ml bottles of Miller for £6, how does this compare to southern supermarkets, anyone know how much dunnes\supervalu are selling Miller for ??

shamu2new wrote: »

Tescos were doing 20 bottles of miller for 15 euro last night when i was there. Not sure about supervalu Im afraid.

20 bottles for 15 euro is not the same. If you go on math, the ASDA offer would get you 20 bottles for £8 which is €9.40. That is a huge saving up North.

Sainsbury's is currently doing 3 packs of 15 bottles for £22 (or 2 packs for £16) which is around €25. Great value.

Just looking at the smyths websites here and over the border. Not usually much of a difference between them both. But on one particular thing I'm looking for the difference is €91.99 here to £61.99 there. Sure that covers petrol. Point being check prices on everything before you go

We popped up Thursday to Belfast and did a spot of clothes shopping. The likes of Debhenams and M&S are far cheaper up North, sure all you have to do is look at the euro and sterling prices on the label to see that.
The biggest disparity I found was the Disney store, 20 sterling in Belfast as opposed to 42 euros in Dublin for the Cars all in one suit to give an example. Again they have both currencies on the label so you can see for yourself. So good value to be had in the Disney Sore if that is your thing!
Didn't look at electronics, but on the way back we popped into both Asda and Sainsburys. Asda has some good deals on toys as indeed does Tesco down south.
As far as food shopping is concerned, I think the prices are similar south of the border. Like some one else said there is the novelty factor of buying the odd thing you can't get down south. Beer I personally think is much cheaper picking up a few cases of Bud and Bulmers etc. Most of their deals are buy one for 13 quid odd or 2 for 16quid. Not really familiar with wine comparison but seen a few good deals in both Asda and Sainsburys. Seems to be more in Asda though.
Lastly we dropped into Toys-r-us. Here I picked up the U-Command Buzz Lightyear which is apparently exclusive to the store for 49.99 sterling. I am not sure if they charged me the wrong price as my mind was blown by now. I would be interested to see if it is sold down south?? Or indeed is it a new addition to the Buzz collection here.
We would travel up North every 6 weeks or therabouts and stock up on dogfood, detergents etc. We enjoy the day out and in fact have even taken it a step further this year getting a last minute holiday with easyjet for dirt nothing from Belfast. But thats another story:)

Princess2011 wrote: »

Anyone that goes up the North shopping is a disgrace. I don't know whether it's a case of lack of intelligence or complete selfishness. If you sit for a minute and think about it, you'll realise that it's just going to come back and bite you in the ass. any money that you spend in the North is gone from our economy forever, (they're not coming back down here to spend it). People are loosing jobs, shops are closing everyday all over the country especially in counties near the border because people like you are spending your money in a different country. This means that councils aren't pulling in rates, governments aren't pulling in their revenues and therefore do not have enough money to pay PUBLIC SERVANTS wages, JOB SEEKERS ALLOWANCE, COLLEGE FEES and PENSIONS. You will be the very ones complaining bout any cuts in the budgets. Whatever cut you get is deserved! So if you're a teacher and you've just found out the teacher/pupil is increasing and you might lose your job, or if you're on the dole and it's going to be decreased by €10 on Tuesday, remember you only have yourself to blame. And a suggestion to those ignorant people-start watching Prime Time, Frontline etc.

Indeed and maybe we should say exactly the same to those stupid and unpatriotic nordies who buy all their fuel in the republic of ireland (a situation which has existed for about 17yrs now), who vacate the north for donegal en-masse most weekends from May to Sept (admittedly they probably do the shopping before they leave, as prices actually are significantly cheaper up there for most purchases), who attend gaa matches in their droves in both clones and dublin from May to Sept (on occasion) etc etc etc

Sounds like there are some shop owners and publicans on their high horses in this thread and even going as far as questioning peoples intelligence because they refused to be screwed by the prices down here any longer.

It is funny how they can slash their prices now from what they were a few years ago! Well too little too late for most people I am afraid - the North or the internet, people will go with the best price.

Simple as that.