The business of magazine prices

PriceWatch: You spot the prices, we ask the questions.

Many international magazines carry a recommended retail price for each country in which they are sold. One such magazine, European Business, currently has a listed price of €4.50 for the Republic of Ireland but one PriceWatch reader, Philip McGauran, was alarmed to find Read's of Nassau Street in Dublin was selling it for the substantially higher price of €5.59.

When he queried the discrepancy he was told "this was the price [ Read's] was being charged by the wholesaler and that was that". If the wholesaler had charged Read's incorrectly, he says, "surely they would take this up with them later but the least they could do is charge me the correct price. No effort whatsoever was made to charge me the correct price. If I wanted it I had to pay the €5.59. Needless to say I did not buy the magazine." Next door at Eason's - which is the wholesaler - the magazine sells for €5.59.

When asked by PriceWatch about the price difference, a spokesman for Read's got in touch with Eason's and was told the price of €5.59, based on ready reckoner conversion of the UK cover price of £3.25, was correct. The sterling price of £3.25, when converted, is approximately €4.65. A five per cent "up-lift" imposed by Eason's to cover higher distribution costs in the Republic takes the price to €4.89 and when the 13.5 per cent VAT is added the euro cover price rises to approximately €5.55 - hence the Irish cover price.

Eason's Wholesalers said the euro price listed for Ireland on the cover of the magazine by the publisher was incorrect and said that - outlandish as it might seem - the amount of 4.50 probably referred to punts and not euro. "The price of €5.59 is correct but the price is printed inaccurately on the magazine," the spokesman said. "It is something we will have to rectify; we will take it up with European Business," he said, adding in the meantime Eason's would honour the erroneous cover price for the magazine.

When contacted by PriceWatch a spokesman for the magazine said that price discrepancy appeared to be "a slip-up" and said the company would "rectify the situation".

Making your thin blood boil Bob McMullan from Dublin contacted PriceWatch to highlight the substantial difference between Irish and British prices for EC Aspirin, used to reduce the risk of heart attacks. "A pack of 28 EC Aspirin tablets bought in Boots at Manchester Airport in October cost approximately €2.27," he says. "A pack of 56 tablets bought at Boots in Dún Laoghaire in November cost €6.72 - approximately 48 per cent more expensive per tablet."

* If you notice a significant price increase or discrepancy, let us know by e-mailing pricewatch@irish-times.ie