Beer ripoff in EuroSpar

skeegan

Price of bottled beer (Schöfferhofer Weisse Beer-500ml). Eurospar shop in Dalkey: €1.99
Eurospar shop in Killiney: €2.49

complete ripoff. Especially considering how close the 2 shops are

kippy

I suppose taking your business else where would be the best way to stop this.
Shop around as they always say.
Kippy

skeegan

fair enough.. but the same brand of beer and the same retailer and a 25% price differential!.. the shops are practically within walking distance of each other..

crosstownk

I find that most Spar shops are somewhat dearer than other supermarkets - and not just for beer. Most SuperValues seem a bit more reasonable.

MOH

Prices seem to vary greatly between Spars. Even in town, between Georges Quay and Tara St, or Westmoreland St, and Grafton St/College green you'll see quite large differences between prices on a range of stuff. Don't think they have a common pricing policy.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Noelie

Spars are franchised out, most spar's are 'owned' by one person, each owner sets his/her prices as they see fit, that's why there are always price differences.

tabatha

spar and eurospar shops are independently owned or else franchised. it is up to the owner what they want to charge. they are the dearest or all the small shops. a lot of products are twice as dear as what you would pay in the likes of dunnes or tesco.

sdanseo

tell the owner that theyre cheaper elsewhere - if enough people tell him, s/he'll realise there's a risk s/he could loose business and lower the price

Noelie

tabatha wrote:

spar and eurospar shops are independently owned or else franchised. it is up to the owner what they want to charge. they are the dearest or all the small shops. a lot of products are twice as dear as what you would pay in the likes of dunnes or tesco.

You can't compare Spar/Mace/Centra prices to that of Dunnes/Tesco they work on completely differnent scales, Spar is a convenience store, most are local and open later than supermarkets( not as much now as in the past). Also very few people go to a Spar to do their weekly shop, just like very few people go to dunnes for a loaf of bread or a litre of milk.

Saying that in town spars tend to be quite dear, i remember seeing a bottle of water, which was dearer than a bottle of coke, how does that happen??

tabatha

Noelie wrote:

You can't compare Spar/Mace/Centra prices to that of Dunnes/Tesco they work on completely differnent scales, Spar is a convenience store, most are local and open later than supermarkets( not as much now as in the past). Also very few people go to a Spar to do their weekly shop, just like very few people go to dunnes for a loaf of bread or a litre of milk.

Saying that in town spars tend to be quite dear, i remember seeing a bottle of water, which was dearer than a bottle of coke, how does that happen??

have to disagree with you on this one. i can and did compare spar with dunnes. spar is no longer a convenience store. more and more there are dunnes and tescos popping up. you said most spars open later than supermarkets, this again isnt true. most dunnes and tescos operate a 24 hour system now or open until at least midnight. the reason very few people go to spar (im talking about eurospar as a normal spar wouldnt cater for a weekly shopper) is because they charge so much. dont know where you get this whole thing of very few people going to dunnes for a loaf of bread or milk. i know a lot of people who do that, cheaper and convenient.

also, for the record, i work for spars head office and have done for over 15 years so i know about the prices etc..

jimmycrackcorm

skeegan wrote:

Price of bottled beer (Schöfferhofer Weisse Beer-500ml). Eurospar shop in Dalkey: €1.99
Eurospar shop in Killiney: €2.49

complete ripoff. Especially considering how close the 2 shops are

If the prices were the same then people would be complaining about the monopoly abuse.

gerrycollins

do you know what the funny thing about all this is, I think both stores are actually owned by the same person,now I stand corrected but if my memory serves me correct they are

Culchie

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

If the prices were the same then people would be complaining about the monopoly abuse.

So true

chuckles30

Have you considered the possibility that the shop selling the cheaper beer may have gotten a special offer from a supplier & hence can sell it cheaper while the other shop has not received the special offer or has already sold out of the cheap stuff? I'm not sure if this is the case or not but I have seen it to happen.....

jdivision

Noelie wrote:

You can't compare Spar/Mace/Centra prices to that of Dunnes/Tesco they work on completely differnent scales, Spar is a convenience store, most are local and open later than supermarkets( not as much now as in the past[\QUOTE]
The Spar and Mace brands are owned and supplied by BWG one of the biggest retailers in the country and Centra and Super Valu brands are owned by Musgraves which is the biggest grocery retailer in the country. A lot of the stores are franchises but in many cases people are under the impression that the franchisee owns the one shop.As for Spar I'm not sure if John Clohisey has sold them or not but at one stage if memory serves he owned more than 150 of them. Now at that scale he is getting goods cheap and selling really expensively. he owns the Mace on Camden Street which is possibly the most expensive shop in the country. The Griffin brothers own around 12 Londis and Centras - virtually all of the grocery shops between O'Connell St and St Stephen's Green are owned by them.

tippbhoy

jdivision wrote:

Noelie wrote:

You can't compare Spar/Mace/Centra prices to that of Dunnes/Tesco they work on completely differnent scales, Spar is a convenience store, most are local and open later than supermarkets( not as much now as in the past[\QUOTE]
The Spar and Mace brands are owned and supplied by BWG one of the biggest retailers in the country and Centra and Super Valu brands are owned by Musgraves which is the biggest grocery retailer in the country. A lot of the stores are franchises but in many cases people are under the impression that the franchisee owns the one shop.As for Spar I'm not sure if John Clohisey has sold them or not but at one stage if memory serves he owned more than 150 of them. Now at that scale he is getting goods cheap and selling really expensively. he owns the Mace on Camden Street which is possibly the most expensive shop in the country. The Griffin brothers own around 12 Londis and Centras - virtually all of the grocery shops between O'Connell St and St Stephen's Green are owned by them.

John Clohisey's stores are all franchised, the franchisee is responsible for the pricing. For that reason the store is more likely to be expensive as the franchiser is getting a cut too.

Noelie

tippbhoy wrote:

jdivision wrote:

John Clohisey's stores are all franchised, the franchisee is responsible for the pricing. For that reason the store is more likely to be expensive as the franchiser is getting a cut too.

Clohisey takes a % of the turnover anything left after paying for stock, bills and staff the franchisee gets, some shops have higher costs than others some have more competition than others and some are just run by greedy franchisee's, all these things effect how much each spar charges.

for example the Spar in Ballinteer was selling 2ltr Coke for 2.59 while the Spar in Kilmainham was selling it for 1.99( the recommended price by Spar head office), so obviously the Spar in Ballinteer is ripping people off for the 2ltr Coke.

the point is it's not Spar who set the prices its the individule franchisee, also other people than the frachisee sets the prices, if a franchisee has two or more shops he will probably have managers in each, these managers will set different prices for the same item in some cases. the point is not all franchisee's are ripping people off while some are, and its the some who give them all bad names.

Red Alert

That's why everyone in ballinteer goes to Superquinn. i haven't set foot in Spar in a long long time

failsafe

I read about this a few weeks back that under franchising laws Centra/Spar can't force their shop owners to sell at a certain price, (but they can insist strongly) and that's why prices can vary.

The one in Dalkey village would face alot more competition from O'Briens and shell but the one on the Killiney roundabout is way out there on it's own so the respective pricing strategies make sense.

Centra tried to force all it's shops to sell cheaper and there was uproar because shops in town had to pay higher rent, security etc.

Centra/Spar etc. all started as a small independent retailers banding together to gain the benefits of mass advertising and centralised distribution, and that's pretty much what they are today: seperate shops with the same brand.

mel123

The next time i go to Eurospar and get charged a different price to what is meant to be either on special and isnt coming up correctly at the till, or just an incorrect price, i am reporting them and i really mean it this time so they better watch out no seriously, i am SICK of getting over charged everytime i go around to get a few messages, their pricing system is totally messed up. Its not just my local branch, i know the in-laws wont shop in their local one either for this same reason.