New Rip off republic TV Show tickets available

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People who constantly complain about the high prices of wine, coffee shops etc.. can vote with their feet and find cheaper establishments.
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Anyone care to tell me where I can get the following cheaper:

Electricity
TV Licence
Health Insurance
Prescription Drugs
Cinema Tickets
Tickets to a Concert
Bin Charges

I'm sure you can all add to this list where shopping around is meaningless and pointless. If I want to go out for a meal tonight in Dublin, unless I go to McDonalds I'm going to be paying between €2 and €3 for a small glass of Coke.

There was a fantastic piece on the show last night about Trim. The only supermarket in the town was a Super Value. It sold ONE Litre of water for 99c. Lidl tried to open and was blocked by the local council. When the councils decision was overturned after a fantastic campaign by the locals the arrival of Lidl forced Super Value to sell TWO Litres of water for 35c.

The councils and politicians the length and breath of the country are actively killing competition to protect their friends, or in many cases to protect their own businesses.

People who spout the "Shop Around", "Vote with your feet" mantra on this forum and tell us all that there's no ripoff are just plain wrong. You've swallowed the lie hook line and sinker.

Incidently there were dissenting voices on the Show. The Chief Executive of RG Data defended their objection to lifting the Groceries Order. Bertie was there defending his tent at the Galway races.

-Rd
 
fobs said:
People who constantly complain about the high prices of wine, coffee shops etc.. can vote with their feet and find cheaper establishments. Once the prices are displayed before you order then you can make the decision whether to purchase or not. On the otherhand if you are overcharged then THAT is a rip-off
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Yes, that's great in theory, but how much can you save in Dublin city centre on cup of coffee, or a pint of lager by 'shopping around'?

Arguing about the definition of a rip-off is pointless in my view, the media and general public have clearly taken "rip-off" to equate to high prices, not overcharging. You can continue to correct people, but why bother? Does anyone really believe that we are not paying over the odds for many goods and services in this country? That is the issue here, not one of what conforms to the "official" definition of a rip-off.

For the record:

Rip off (slang)
1. To steal from
2. To steal
3. To exploit, swindle, cheat or defraud

From dictionary.com

I don't know about you, but I certainly have felt exploited at times in the last few years (transport costs, insurance, mobile phones etc.), and so have felt ripped off.
 
Sounds like a good show, I'm looking forward to it. Thought I'd try to defend restaurants since the wine thing comes up a lot - they need to charge a certain level over the cost of goods to survive they either need to spread that evenly over everything or load it heavily on items like drinks.
If they spread it equally over everything then the food is more expensive than their competitors, and having more expensive food but cheaper wine isn't a great recipe for a restuarants survival. Coffee is an even more extreme example - probably around 1000% mark up.
 
How about a glass of coke. Free refills are the Norm in the US. But Free was removed from the dictionary in Ireland after 1922. Is it any wonder we have a drink culture. Beer is cheaper than soft drinks.

-Rd
 
daltonr said:
I'm sure you can all add to this list where shopping around is meaningless and pointless. If I want to go out for a meal tonight in Dublin, unless I go to McDonalds I'm going to be paying between €2 and €3 for a small glass of Coke.
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Don't buy the coke if you don't want to be spending €2 or €3 for it.

That's the problem with this country. Leaving aside shopping around (which is possible in some areas, which will save you money to be able to afford other things), people look at the price of non-essential goods and though they don't like the price, they still won't resist the belief that they need to have something and still pay the high prices.
 
ronan_d_john said:
Don't buy the coke if you don't want to be spending €2 or €3 for it.
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It's too easy to say that. Coke is not an 'essential item', but it's far from an expensive import, scarce resource or luxury good. Most of the time, I have tap water with my lunch or over a meal. But sometimes it's nice to have a Coke and not feel like you've been charged for a glass of champagne. We are all entitled to have nice things every so often (without paying through the nose), aren't we?
 
Don't buy the coke if you don't want to be spending €2 or €3 for it.
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You're absolutely right. I should deprive myself of a soft drink with my dinner, in fact deprive myself of eating out altogether. Deprive myself of a Cup of Tea and a sandwich in the City Centre, Deprive myself of going to the Cinema, etc, etc, etc.

Just how many aspects of life do you think I should deprive myself of before I'm allowed to question the value for money we're getting? Perhaps I should buy a Duvet from a charity shop and stay in bed all day.

There's a core group on Askaboutmoney who will tolerate no criticism of value for money in Ireland. Do you people ever travel abroad? I wander around places like Dundum centre and look at the prices being charged for clothes and I wonder if there's something wrong with me.

I've luckily managed to buy all the clothes I need abroad over the past few years, thank goodness for at least some respite. But when did Coke become a luxury item???? Did we lose a war???? Why didn't I get the memo?

Perhaps we should put you in charge of Irelands Tourism Marketing campaign.

"Ireland. Overpriced, but no-one is forcing you to visit."
It's catchy.

-Rd
 
I don't think there are too many fools on this site-differing opinions and positions yes, but most of the thoughts are rational. I don't think that we as a race/nation are any more foolish than any other country in the world. Is this thread going to denigrate into name-calling?

Feck this tit-for-tat quoting, one more and I'm done.

"I spent 90% of my money on women and drink. The rest I wasted."

George Best
 
daltonr said:
How about a glass of coke. Free refills are the Norm in the US. But Free was removed from the dictionary in Ireland after 1922. Is it any wonder we have a drink culture. Beer is cheaper than soft drinks.

-Rd
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Just for the record, I'm pretty sure that Spurs Restaurant in Liffey Valley do free refills of soft drinks. And anyone who buys their clothes in the new Dundrum SC deserves everything they get.
 
Just for the record, I'm pretty sure that Spurs Restaurant in Liffey Valley do free refills of soft drinks.
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A small handfull of restaurants do, but I've noticed the Policy seems to change from week to week in some of those that do. Papagillo's in Stillorgan did one week, didn't the next. Go figure!!!

Spur is off my list of restaurants after a bad experience there. Incidently Spur's food is pretty poor if you are into Ribs. TGI's do fine Ribs but their prices seem to have gone up again and have now gone over my limit.

-Rd
 
Pizza Hut is pretty good. I'd prefer not to go there for a "Nice" meal. Ultimately it's fast food. But yes they do offer free refills.

In the same Market as Pizza Hut....

I can't remember if TGI's do Free refills, but the food has gotten so expensive there that it's only an illusion of free anyway.

Eddie Rocket's Prices are a Joke and have been for a LONG time.

I've just learned to accept that Irish Restaurants won't do Free Refills.
I note they were quite happy to adopt the US tradition of expecting TIPS. But didn't pass on many of the US traditions in terms of service. Funny that isn't it???

It pisses me off more because of the price of the food than anything. I had a fantastic meal (Grouper - Fish) in Florida with all the coke I could drink, and some Salad and fresh cut fries. The whole lot came to $12 (about €8). I ended up leaving a $10 Tip and still only paying $22 (€15) for the whole lot.

-Rd
 
daltonr said:
I've just learned to accept that Irish Restaurants won't do Free Refills.
I note they were quite happy to adopt the US tradition of expecting TIPS. But didn't pass on many of the US traditions in terms of service. Funny that isn't it???
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In fairness, it's the waiting staff that expect/receive tips, not the restaurant owners.
 
The owners can pay the staff less on the understanding that they'll make it up on tips.
waiters in reasonably good restaurants should not be on minimum wage, but many are.

-Rd
 
daltonr said:
The owners can pay the staff less on the understanding that they'll make it up on tips.
waiters in reasonably good restaurants should not be on minimum wage, but many are.

-Rd
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Yes, the first point is interesting-this would lower their staff costs and in theory allow them to lower the price they charge the punter.

What are you getting at with the second point-waiters in reasonably good restaurants shouldn't be getting minimum wage because they make so much in tips?
 
No, a good waiter should be on significantly MORE than the minimum wage. From what I see (admittedly a very limited sample) there are restaurants with excellent staff and expensive menu's getting away with paying minimum wage on the understanding that the TIPS will make up the balance of the Pay.

If they pay minimum wage or close to it that takes a big chunk out of the cost of the meal. If they passed that on to the punter the punter might be more willing to dip into their pocket to reward the staff.

E.g. my almost 100% tip in the states becaues I couldn't get over how cheap the meal was and the service was absolutely top notch. Yes the waiter in the states was probably on minimum wage, but the saving was passed on to me and I passed it on to the waiter.

-Rd
 
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