Pricewatch

  • They’ve been lying to us!

    December 22, 2008 @ 2:05 pm | by Conor Pope

    After listening for years to the mealy-mouthed excuses from retailers who do business in both Ireland and Britain to justify the ridiculous price differentials between here and there, clear evidence that they have been making it up as they went along emerged today. Every time I have asked a retailer to explain the price gaps, they have wrung their hands and said that it was all down to higher overheads in the Republic of Ireland. Not so. A Forfas study published today has shown that while overheads are higher in the Republic, the difference should only add around six per cent to the prices here and not the additional 30 per cent we are usually asked to pay.

  • ‘I have a complaint about Conor Pope’

    December 20, 2008 @ 1:36 pm | by Conor Pope

    That’s the rather alarming (for me, anyways) headline on the Indo’s TV page today. You’ll not be surprised to learn that, underneath it, the review of the Primetime Investigates I presented last Monday is not glowing.

    Ah well, such is life. The headline made me smile, though!

    Another consequence of the programme saw me being recognised on the street by a complete stranger last night (for the very first time). I was in a Soviet style queue at an ATM (sort out your bank machines, AIB, you’re making us all jittery) when the person just ahead of me turned around and said: “You’re Conor Pope”. Just as we got to the top of the queue he turned round again and said, “You know what, you’re much shorter than I thought”.

    Sigh.

  • Play.com outrage

    December 18, 2008 @ 9:47 am | by Conor Pope

    While I’ve been hearing a lot about the ridiculous price differentials between north and south and the shameful failure of many retailers to pass on the savings that are due to shoppers in the Republic because of the weak sterling, play.com deserves special mention for this bizarre pricing. A bundled Nintendo DS which British-based customers are being charged £140 for costs shoppers in the Republic €399.99. To save you doing the maths, based on today’s rates, £140 costs €149.25. So play.com are charging us €249.75 or over 150 per cent more for exactly the same product which is shipped from exactly the same warehouse in the UK. I know where I won’t be shopping again. Ever.

    UPDATE AT 12.12 Weird thing. When you do a search for that Nintendo bundle now, it doesn’t show up. Here’s the link though, in case anyone thinks I’m bonkers.

  • Not far from the top spot now!

    December 10, 2008 @ 8:40 pm | by Conor Pope

    Ireland is the fourth most expensive place in the world to live and shop, according to an international price comparison survey, details of which appeared in The Irish Times this moring. According to pricerunner.co.uk which carried out the study we are up two places from last year and are number one for pricey condoms. Go us!

  • Total recall of all Irish pork

    December 6, 2008 @ 9:56 pm | by Conor Pope

    Terrible news for Irish pig farmers tonight. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has recalled all pork products – every single sausage – over fears the some pork has been contaminated with carcinogenic toxins. I spent all day following the story and trying to count the amount of times I’ve had pork products since the beginning of September.

  • No Harvey No

    December 4, 2008 @ 10:46 am | by Conor Pope

    Last week the chairman of Harvey Norman, Gerry Harvey, got himself into a bit of bother after he drew parallels between our current economic malaise and the affect it is having on sales in Harvey Norman to the famine.

    Many people considered his comments in bad taste, to say the very least, but it turns out that they were just being too sensitive and need to get a sense of humour.

    Speaking to the Irish Echo in Sydney today Gerry Harvey is quoted as saying: “I would have thought that the Irish sense of humour would be well able for that,’’ he said. “…It doesn’t say much about a people when they can’t take something like that on the chin and get on with it. The Irish situation right now is very, very bad. Something is going to blow over there.”

  • Nothing to see here…

    @ 10:15 am | by Conor Pope

    Interest rates to be cut

    Jobs boost for Cork

    Pay agreement to be honoured

    Listening to the headlines on Morning Ireland today you’d have been forgiven for thinking that everything was just fine.

  • Stop the madness!

    December 3, 2008 @ 9:55 am | by Conor Pope

    Our dear finance minister has repeated his warning to the Republic’s consumers to shop at home and to turn their back on bargains across the border or else our sick won’t be treated and our young won’t be educated. “When you shop in the State, you do help the taxpayer,” he said on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme today. “If you shop at home this Christmas, and shop a little bit more this Christmas and if you recognise that money is going to help educate your children and care for people in hospitals and pay for our medical expenses, which the State has to pay for, I think you’ll realise that it is important to shop at home.”

    Hmm.

    You know what, I reckon Lenihan would be much better off dropping this patriotic line and saying: ‘Listen guys I know you can save money up North but do you really, really want to waste your precious time off in the run-up to Christmas stuck in mile-long tailbacks on the road to Newry? Do you really want to spend an hour-and-a-half finding a place to park and fighting with fellow shoppers for the handful of wonky trolleys left in the trolley bay before discovering that the insainsburys shelves have been stripped of all booze and high price items and things you actually want and can genuinely make savings on long before you arrived?”

    That’d certainly have me convinced.

  • Pub price freeze - is it enough?

    December 1, 2008 @ 4:03 pm | by Conor Pope

    The Vintners Federation of Ireland and the Licensed Vintners have called on their members to respect a price freeze to keep pub prices at today’s levels for 12 months. I had to laugh when I read that the VFI and the LVI were suddenly concerned with their members providing value for money because the provision of good value has not seemed to be at the top of either group’s list for a very very long time.

    When I heard the news this morning it took me by surprise because I didn’t realise the lobby groups had anything at all to do with pricing. I know that when we have complained about rip-off prices in Irish pubs in the past both groups have always been very quick to wash their hands of it and say they have no control over the price of a pint .

    Having said all that, this voluntary “price freeze” is probably good news and it’s hard not to welcome it. Hard, but not impossible - the price of a pint in too many pubs in Ireland is just ridiculous and has been ridiculous for a long time so freezing the price at these levels is hardly good enough.

    A pint of Guinness in some well known pubs in Dublin costs €5.40 up to 11pm and then €6 after that. Six euro for a pint of stout is scandalous. Lagers cost even more and spirits and mixers are even more extravagantly priced. Some pubs think nothing of charging €3 for a pint of water and a dash of blackcurrant. This is a drink on which there is no tax and one which costs the publican around 10 cent, if it even costs them that much. Yet a charge of €1.50 and up to twice that amount for a non-alcoholic drink is not uncommon.

    What I, and I suspect many other people, would like to see is a significant price reduction across the board. That might be the only thing that will bring customers back. A combination of rip-off prices, the smoking bans, stricter drink driving laws and sometimes pretty woeful public transport is what is driving people away from the pubs and this move which a cynic might call a publicity stunt is probably not going to be enough to reverse the tide.

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