NI shopping exodus 'swings and roundabouts'

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SteH

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I know this has been discussed before but another thread never killed anyone...

http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/1128/retail.html

RTE carry a story this morning about people traveling to the north of Ireland to get cheap buys and one of the things that it mentions is that traders and politicians are asking people to be patriotic and to shop in the republic.

On many levels I consider it an insult for any retailer or politician to say that being patriotic means that you shop at home and keep money at home.

You have to ask the question 'Why is there such a massive disparity in prices north and south?". I think most people know exactly why and exactly who is the many beneficiary of the price difference and therefore why it exists (taking tax and and exchange rate out there is still a big price gap). Comments about patriotism should be preserved for speeches that are about the betterment of each individual in the country, not just a single group wanting to line their pockets.

I wonder how many politicians and tradesmen send their wives to new York for shopping every year or go on luxury holidays to far flung corners of the world. How many of them have bought property in other countries or invested in stocks in other countries.

I hope I'm not the only one in this country who is tired of the repeated cycle of greed that eventually filters down to the average punter on the street. There are literally thousands of examples since the year 2000 and this is another one.
 
SteH said:
I hope I'm not the only one in this country who is tired of the repeated cycle of greed that eventually filters down to the average punter on the street. There are literally thousands of examples since the year 2000 and this is another one.
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Your certainly not alone!

I am planning on getting a van/trailer and heading up north for my Christmas shopping plus a few things for my house build. I also intend on using ebay/amazon and various other online shops as the savings are considerable.

Factoring diesel and two nights in a hotel I still save money. Its mad!
 
They were comparing an average weekly shopping list in the sun yesterday. Exact same items on each. 144 in the south, 104 up the north. It's absolute madness.
 
With the "unpatriotic" mindset, people would never leave their town, never mind their country.

Is it unpatriotic for an English person to come to Ireland on holiday when there is plenty of beautiful scenery, pubs, restaurants and music in England? Should that behaviour be discouraged?

I reckon putting money in the tills of Sainsburys in Newry is more patriotic than in Dunnes of Dundalk. At least Sainsbury's is an openly traded company which is bound to have many Irish shareholders and the funds from Irish pensions in it, not like Dunnes where the profit goes straight into the pockets of a wealthy family.

I had to laugh at Robinson saying that the savings will help people with the high taxation and then saying he is not interested in petty point-scoring. He is a vile man but I have had to agree with him today.
 
we should all be careful here, particularly those of us who are paid more than our UK counterparts.

The only way shops down here can compete with shops up north is if their cost base is the same. I think costs are higher. We can't blame the shopkeeper if they have to pay higher wages, higher insurance, higher wholesale prices, higher advertising costs.

The only logical conclsuion is that anyone who is paid more than their UK counterparts should take their pay cut
 
It’s as patriotic to shop in the North as it is to try to screw your fellow countryman by charging ridiculous prices for goods and services.

Irish competition seems to involve matching your competitor’s prices instead of beating them. Also when prices are reduced it seems on the goods of questionable quality.


BTW I never thought I see the day when I’d agree with Peter Robinson
 
theoneill said:
It’s as patriotic to shop in the North as it is to try to screw your fellow countryman by charging ridiculous prices for goods and services.

Irish competition seems to involve matching your competitor’s prices instead of beating them. Also when prices are reduced it seems on the goods of questionable quality.


BTW I never thought I see the day when I’d agree with Peter Robinson
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Just to add to your point, I come from a town in the west of Ireland. A nice town with about 4,000 people. There are about 20 pubs/bars in town and when the breweries up the price by 7 cent the pubs put it up by 15cents. Each pub puts the price up to the exact same price on the same day. Where is the competition. How is it possible that each pub owner thinks exactly the same way? I think the word is cartel or price-fixing or vintners association, not sure which but either way it doesn't just happen in my home town it happens everywhere.

On top of all that the annual town festival which was the highlight of the year when I was younger hasn't existed for 4 or 5 years now because all of the pubs stopped contributing to pay for the insurances and other costs related. They didn't need the business it brought during the boom times but its a different case now.

Why should I be a 'patriotic' customer when they have shown they're not a 'patriotic' business.
 
I can’t understand the Irish mentality it’s almost as if some retailers would rather go out of business than reduce their prices. As a consumer it’s my duty to get the best value for goods and services, business crying the poor mouth is not my concern. Politicians insulting consumers for exercising their right to shop where they please when at the same time taking thousands a year out of the average households disposable income in a time of recession is just incompetence with a dash of arrogance.


//end rant


 
The refreshing thing about this debate, not even questioned so far on this thread, is the recognition that Northern Ireland is a foreign country. Thank goodness most of us have got over that delusion, still nurtured by SF, GAA etc. that we are all Irish.
 
I believe the major reason for increased prices here are due to the inefficient public service ie inflated salaries and 33 hr week for councils and other public bodies along with culture of waste, these costs are passed on to the public and businesses in various rate charges.

If Ireland is to survive and avoid a return to very bad times we need to become more competitive and this means salary cuts and cost cuts. This may be a bitter pill to swallow but welcome to the world of commerce.
 
DerKaiser said:
we should all be careful here, particularly those of us who are paid more than our UK counterparts.
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This simply means that Ireland is becoming more uncompetitive. High costs will mean that exports will suffer, especially to the UK, now that Serlling has fallen. High costs will also mean that multinationals will look elsewhere when making investment decisions and the ones that are here will seriously look at pulling out.
 
PaulHoughton said:
Minimum wage in UK: €6.84
Minimum wage in Ireland: €8.65

26% higher wage costs.
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And here in lies the problem and thanks to our trade unions more and more will be squeezed out of jobs. They just dont get that customers like companys/jobs will go where its cheaper, be it the north for shoppers or Eastern Europe for Large employers. Wage inflation has us completely uncompetative but Jack O'Conner et al turn a blind eye this an ever increasing blinding light.
 
wages are hard earned ..... ppl do right to get the best deals they can. Irish (Republic) retailers are well aware of the cross-border shopping threat .... they need to get creative/cheaper if they want to get any of that hard earned cash.

It's about time the consumer became a little more discerning with his/her spending .... for too long we lost the run of ourselves .... greed fed greed ...
 
we were happy enough to see northern drivers head south for cheaper petrol, now that we put enough tax on it to make it unattractive for them (and with a weaker sterling) it seems the tides have changed and we are going there.

Tesco pesto sauce is 2 sterline, its 3.69 in the republic, you can paint patriotism all you want, but with price differences like that what is the motivation to shop elsewhere?

how would it come across if we were encouraged to buy goods or services that were more expensive especially at a time where money is tight?

its called capitalism, and rather than ***** about it we should remove certain costs of doing business here to make us more competitive and able to compete. water finds its own level, this talk of 'patriotic duty' is nonsense.

i'm doing my patriotic duty already by accepting the income levy, by paying more VAT on things i buy and by paying more DIRT on the little savings i have. what more does the state want? where does it end?
 
Supervalue run an advert in their stores listing out around 40 items and comparing the receipt to Dunnes and Tescos.

The prices for all 40 items are exactly the same within all three stores! And supervalue sell this as them being 'good value'. Its a joke.

Surely there is a competition commission to stop this price fixing and abuse???
 
Well Supervalu is more of a convenience store to my mind so I think a price comparison showing them as being the same price is valid and helpful.

There will always be a place in Ireland for smaller retailers. People will always need a pint of milk at 8 in the evening or a bottle of wine on the way home from work.

Who are going to lose out on this are Tesco (English company), Dunnes (owned by one rich family). I couldn't care about either. They will remain profitable, no jobs lost.

And if the exchequer loses out, surely Ireland is better off as part of a system which has allowed us to export computers and pharmaceuticals throughout Europe and gives us the money to go North and exercise our rights as citizens of the EU.
 
imho, we cant compare item to item prices with those in UK since the population of ireland is much smaller and overheads and turnover of the commodities make big difference to the prices... having said so, price difference of more than 20% is not justifiable either... i guess an overhead of 10% over uk prices should be reasonable...
 
brazen_dude said:
imho, we cant compare item to item prices with those in UK since the population of ireland is much smaller and overheads and turnover of the commodities make big difference to the prices..
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We're not - we're comparing item to item prices between ROI and NI, where NI population is much smaller.

SteH said:
I wonder how many politicians and tradesmen send their wives to new York for shopping every year or go on luxury holidays to far flung corners of the world. How many of them have bought property in other countries or invested in stocks in other countries.
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Great points.
 
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