Pricewatch »

• Not so hunky dory

  April 28, 2010 @ 4:10 pm | by Conor Pope

  Say what you like about the current Hunky Dory ads which have so annoyed so many people over recent days (okay, I will, I think they’re awful – unfunny, clichéd and tedious and I would have insisted the models wore modesty panels at the very least), they have been remarkably effective in positioning the brand at the forefront of the public consciousness. The ads have been reproduced in almost every single national newspaper today (including The Irish Times) and I would imagine the “creatives” at the advertising agency which came up with the wheeze will be getting big fat bonuses come Christmas. I wonder will the campaign generate extra crisp sales for the company? I can’t imagine it will. For every teenage or twentysomething boy who is convinced to buy a bag because of the palaver, there’ll be two other people who might think twice. I’d bet the good (no, great) people at Tayto would never resort to such low-rent tactics to shift their product. What’s that you say? Tayto is owned by Largo Foods too? Dammit!

  Incidentally, speaking of modesty panels, as I was, here’s a letter from Monday’s paper that made me smile.

• Funeral costs survive recession’s deflationary grip

  April 26, 2010 @ 4:47 pm | by Conor Pope

  Coffin showrooms are surreal and deeply unsettling places. Elaborate caskets made out of hand-carved oak and sturdy brass are stacked alongside chipboard boxes with plastic adornments. The bereaved are shown what’s what by softly spoken undertakers and have to decide almost immediately on how much they want to spend.
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• How to get your money back

  April 23, 2010 @ 5:53 pm | by Conor Pope

  Here’s the Q&A I wrote for the paper this morning on getting your money back from airlines…
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• Aer Arann introduces baggage charges

  @ 5:49 pm | by Conor Pope

  It was bound to happen. For years Aer Arann has been the only airline operating out of Ireland without baggage charges but today the company announced that it will impose a fee of €8 on bags of up to 20kg on all bookings made from next Tuesday, at least on its flights to the UK and France. Bags booked at the airport will incur a fee of €12 or £12. People can still check in bags on domestic flights for free.

• Know your rights…

  April 16, 2010 @ 8:56 am | by Conor Pope

  While the travel plans of thousands of passengers who had flights cancelled yesterday are in disarray, this morning they can take some comfort from the fact that their consumer rights are intact.
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• iPhone apps to save you money

  April 12, 2010 @ 8:52 am | by Conor Pope

  HAVING TURNED my nose up at an iPhone for over two years out of a firmly held conviction that those who succumbed to the shiny temptation clearly had more money than sense, I finally caved in last week. Within hours I was in love and thinking “where have you been all my life”.

  Who cares if all the cool apps, the easy access to the iTunes money pit and the mobile phone operators’ irksome tendency to hook us with low fees for our first megabyte of data before charging €100,000 (or something) for every additional kilobyte we download, will see our average monthly bill go through the roof in the weeks ahead?

  And does it really matter that the amount of time I spend talking to real people falls dramatically because I’m suddenly far too busy updating my Facebook profile or tapping away on the ridiculously easy to use Twitter app on the hoof? Last week, to salve a guilty conscience, I went in search of applications which could help save consumers money, encourage them to better manage their finances and make their lives just a little easier. Here are some of the ones I found.
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• Cheap old Dublin?

  April 8, 2010 @ 4:50 pm | by Conor Pope

  I could almost hear the whoops of joy coming from the Failte Ireland headquarters this morning after reports emerged that Ireland has suddenly become one of the cheaper places in Europe to go for a weekend break but before we rush out and celebrate our new found cheapness, it’d be worth looking at the numbers at little more closely
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