Newry = Boom Town *another northy shoppng spree*

Jaysoose

Was up north at the weekend visiting the family and got talking to one of my old mans buddys at the weekend who owns a coffee shop in newry, basically he tells me its like christmas every weekend with all the extra trade he is getting from the southern shoppers.

Then i of course hit my local asda with my list of shopping (courtesy of herself) and bought loads of grocerys at ridiculous prices compared to dublin.

My point is why do the government not do something about the prices down here as the amount of money that is walking out of ireland straight up the north must be enormous and conidering the state they have got us into at the moment would it not be better to try and keep that money in house. Obviously its not as simple as this but the difference in prices is ridiculous. Im not complaining when you consider i got enough meat etc to last us a month and 24 beer (12bud ice for a fiver) for £50. Sheet €50 euro would barely buy enough shopping for a week down here for the two of us.

I know people are going to bang on about vat rates yadda yadda but we all know that things should be cheaper down here considering that most of the major chains use the north for storage and distribution. We are getting the piss taken out of us on a daily basis by these companies.

cute_cow

We went up to Newry not so long ago and I really couldn't beleive how much cheaper my shop was, even with the sterling against the euro.

Also, it was like going to Tesco in Clarehall to do my shopping there were so many Dublin people around, all whispering how cheap everyting was! The car parks were full of southern cars.

I go up every coupel of months to stock up on washing powders and toiletries.

We also went the The Outlet, just outside Banbridge, and was the same there. Bought a pair of Clarks shoes on the sale for £10 and was on Grafton street the next week and saw the same pair in the sale in the Clarks hop for €35!!

What can I say?

derry

cute_cow wrote: »

We went up to Newry not so long ago and I really couldn't beleive how much cheaper my shop was, even with the sterling against the euro.

Also, it was like going to Tesco in Clarehall to do my shopping there were so many Dublin people around, all whispering how cheap everyting was! The car parks were full of southern cars.

I go up every coupel of months to stock up on washing powders and toiletries.

We also went the The Outlet, just outside Banbridge, and was the same there. Bought a pair of Clarks shoes on the sale for £10 and was on Grafton street the next week and saw the same pair in the sale in the Clarks hop for €35!!

What can I say?

easy what can you say

every time you go north post up the list what you bought and prices
Then as more posts go up showing the prices others can copy that trend when they see the low prices from everthing like bog roll through to cheese

Once eneogh shoppers go north the ROI will have no chice but to drop prices

Even Aldi and Lidl ROI shops can charge one extra euro for everry 20 euros as compared to NI prices so they need to also learn that they cant rip our faces in ROI anymore than Tesco superquinSupervalue or Dunnes already do

So bang up the shopping lists in their full glory in sterling if you don't want to convert to Euro

My sister in law will return from NI with about 10 kilos of cheese to keep me going as it cost at least 6.50 euro a kilo in ROI

Derry

C5

Went too Lidl shop in Cork to purchase 4 Luxuary Christmas cakes Republic Price 12.99 Euro / Northern Price 6.99 RIP OFF FACTOR OF 4.05 Euros.

Tesco shop Cork 2 prepacked shirts @ 6.00 Sterling Euro Price 9.00 Euros
RIP PFF FACTOR OF 1.32 Euros. Question I have why are these priced in Sterling only ?

IS IT ANY WONDER SO MANY PEOPLE ARE GOING NORTH

ironictoaster

I bought a pair a of jeans for £30 in topman in Newry 2 weeks ago. My friend got the same pair in Blanchardstown SC yesterday for €50

foggy_lad

derry wrote: »

easy what can you say

every time you go north post up the list what you bought and prices
Then as more posts go up showing the prices others can copy that trend when they see the low prices from everthing like bog roll through to cheese

Once eneogh shoppers go north the ROI will have no chice but to drop prices

Even Aldi and Lidl ROI shops can charge one extra euro for everry 20 euros as compared to NI prices so they need to also learn that they cant rip our faces in ROI anymore than Tesco superquinSupervalue or Dunnes already do

So bang up the shopping lists in their full glory in sterling if you don't want to convert to Euro

My sister in law will return from NI with about 10 kilos of cheese to keep me going as it cost at least 6.50 euro a kilo in ROI

Derry

how often would you eat 10kg of cheese? most people buy a few hundred gramms in a week and it is pointless going to newry for that amount.

Jaysoose

foggy_lad wrote: »

how often would you eat 10kg of cheese? most people buy a few hundred gramms in a week and it is pointless going to newry for that amount.

Was gonna say the same thing, how would you even go about storing 10kg of cheese? Cheese on your cornflakes followed by a cheese sambo for lunch and a nice cheese pie for dinner?

Cheese in your tea perhaps??? :rolleyes:

andrewh5

I went up to Newry last Monday. A 75Cl bottle of Jamesons cost £14 (€17). They are €27.99 in Dunnes! 12 cans of Guinness were £10.90. Toiletries, washing powder, toilet rolls etc were far cheaper. Disposable nappies are half the price they are here! Decent bottles of wine for between £4.99 to £5.99.

We spent €263 in Sainsburys. It cost about €12 in petrol and €8.36 in tolls. My guess is that we actually saved around €75 plus!

mike65

A few months back in the summer various politicans were exhorting us to shop around including NI, now they are saying shop at home to keep the economy going.

Mike

S.I.R

Jaysoose wrote: »

Was up north at the weekend visiting the family and got talking to one of my old mans buddys at the weekend who owns a coffee shop in newry, basically he tells me its like christmas every weekend with all the extra trade he is getting from the southern shoppers.

Then i of course hit my local asda with my list of shopping (courtesy of herself) and bought loads of grocerys at ridiculous prices compared to dublin.

My point is why do the government not do something about the prices down here as the amount of money that is walking out of ireland straight up the north must be enormous and conidering the state they have got us into at the moment would it not be better to try and keep that money in house. Obviously its not as simple as this but the difference in prices is ridiculous. Im not complaining when you consider i got enough meat etc to last us a month and 24 beer (12bud ice for a fiver) for £50. Sheet €50 euro would barely buy enough shopping for a week down here for the two of us.

I know people are going to bang on about vat rates yadda yadda but we all know that things should be cheaper down here considering that most of the major chains use the north for storage and distribution. We are getting the piss taken out of us on a daily basis by these companies.

last time i was up the north everything bar petrol was cheap.... most of the locals at the boarder actually crossing into the rep. to get their thanks full and save that few euro... or sterling



But irelands a mess, 20 years of reconstruction is needed to rebuild the econemy and ability of the nation...


Chances of that happening ?? not likely.

ntlbell

Yup,

and people will shop at home as soon as they stop ripping us off...

It's rare irish people bother to vote with thier wallet/feet but after seen the amoutn of sourtheren cars all over NI last weekend surley it must be only time before shops down here start to feel it

Jaysoose

mike65 wrote: »

A few months back in the summer various politicans were exhorting us to shop around including NI, now they are saying shop at home to keep the economy going.

Mike

The same politicians would piss on your leg and tell you its raining!!

Its finally starting to be the case were irish shoppers are not tolerating the cartel like price fixing in the south and are taking their money were it represents some value.

mohenley

Hi, I am heading to Newry this Sat for a shop. Do you know if Sansburys (Lisburn) or Tesco is better bet? Also do you recomend paying in euro or using the credit card to get the best deal?

Jaysoose

Its all the same really, pay be credit card and you will get the exchange rate applicable on the day.

nogoodnamesleft

Jaysoose wrote: »

Its all the same really, pay be credit card and you will get the exchange rate applicable on the day.

Ah, no you wont it will depend on the credit card company your with. They will give you a less favourable rate than what is the current going rate. I travel a lot with work and I use my ATM (Cirus of Maestro) card a lot of the time for personal purchases abroad as the rate is a lot better than the credit card. You do get charged a LINKX fee about 1.27euro but it works out a lot cheaper than using the card.
What you could do is since you know you are going and wait for the best possible exchange rate on a particular day

Jaysoose

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

Ah, no you wont it will depend on the credit card company your with. They will give you a less favourable rate than what is the current going rate. I travel a lot with work and I use my ATM (Cirus of Maestro) card a lot of the time for personal purchases abroad as the rate is a lot better than the credit card. You do get charged a LINKX fee about 1.27euro but it works out a lot cheaper than using the card.
What you could do is since you know you are going and wait for the best possible exchange rate on a particular day

It actually depends on the rate the day the transactions are processed, the credit card companies do not set the rate. Its true that there may be an exchange fee worked into the total transaction amount but this varies depending on who your card is with.

dodgyme

whats the woolworths in newry like- thinking mainly in relation to baby stuff - buggies etc?

abitlonely

I went to Newry for shopping for the first time yesterday, buoyed on
by a recent trip to Scotland. I got there about 3pm and getting in and parking was a nightmare.
Next time, I'll go earlier and take the a25 as advised elsewhere here. Cars were parked just
anywhere near the Buttercrane and The Quays. In the end, I got pay parking
(I think it's called Bay 1) across the river from the Buttercrane), charging €1.06 for 6 hours.
I got back to the car after 6 and the pay booth was unmanned
Many shops had signs offering 78-80p/€ and 90p in the Jeweller (Buttercrane?). As for the bargains:

I'd recommend Semichem,
Pearl Drops £1.50, nearly €5 here
2x Lynx Shower Gel £2, maybe €7+ here, £4.50 for a 3 in 1 set.

Lunch for 2 in Sainsburys was £10.
15x 440ml Carlsberg for £10 = 95c per 500ml.
2x 700ml Bacardi Breezer for £5 saves about 60%.
Brie £1.27 for 300g :pac:
Frozen lasagne, cottage pie etc ranges start at 35p.

mad m

abitlonely wrote: »

Lunch for 2 in Sainsburys was £10.

To be fair M&S in city centre had same offer for €12.50 includes bottle wine and main/side/desert....Red wine wasnt half bad either.

RiverWilde

My wife and I have been shopping in Enniskillen for the past few years - we live in Mayo. It's well worth the trip. We'll go up every couple of weeks and hit asda - m&s - Iceland etc. We were up there yesterday and we still can't understand how the prices are so much better than the south. So long as southern retailers continue to rip us off we'll go north. I don't mind funding a southern retailers bread and butter - that's why he's supposed to be in business - but when he wants caviar along with it he can bugger off.

Riv

maurao

I was in the BB's place in the Quays Newry on Thursday, and was charged £2.85 for Latte and a Chocolate Chip muffin. In BBs in Drogheda (Scotch Hall) today, I was charged €4.95 - that works out at an exchange rate of less than .57. The current bank rate is .7925, and means that this is a scandalous ripoff.

We as consumers need to stop facilitating these chancers - all of the companies doing this will be quick enough to put up their prices when Sterling goes back up again. Next time you're in an English chain store in the south of Ireland, ask them what exchange rate they're using!

abitlonely

mad m wrote: »

To be fair M&S in city centre had same offer for €12.50 includes bottle wine and main/side/desert....Red wine wasnt half bad either.

That's a good deal too.:)
The lunch we had would have been ~€27 in Dublin.

Jaysoose

maurao wrote: »

I was in the BB's place in the Quays Newry on Thursday, and was charged £2.85 for Latte and a Chocolate Chip muffin. In BBs in Drogheda (Scotch Hall) today, I was charged €4.95 - that works out at an exchange rate of less than .57. The current bank rate is .7925, and means that this is a scandalous ripoff.

We as consumers need to stop facilitating these chancers - all of the companies doing this will be quick enough to put up their prices when Sterling goes back up again. Next time you're in an English chain store in the south of Ireland, ask them what exchange rate they're using!

Was up at home recently and called into starbucks in belfast for a coffee on my way home, i was looking at the gifts etc and picked up a christmassy starbucks mug and the price was 5.95 pounds. Was in starbucks in blanch last night and the same mug was 9 euro....exchange rate is .66 for starbucks apparently. Its so blatant that we are getting ripped off its ridiculous.

andrewh5

nogoodnamesleft wrote: »

Ah, no you wont it will depend on the credit card company your with. They will give you a less favourable rate than what is the current going rate. I travel a lot with work and I use my ATM (Cirus of Maestro) card a lot of the time for personal purchases abroad as the rate is a lot better than the credit card. You do get charged a LINKX fee about 1.27euro but it works out a lot cheaper than using the card.
What you could do is since you know you are going and wait for the best possible exchange rate on a particular day

Trouble is that Sainsburys don't take laser cards.

mcwhirter

andrewh5 wrote: »

I went up to Newry last Monday. A 75Cl bottle of Jamesons cost £14 (€17). They are €27.99 in Dunnes! 12 cans of Guinness were £10.90. Toiletries, washing powder, toilet rolls etc were far cheaper. Disposable nappies are half the price they are here! Decent bottles of wine for between £4.99 to £5.99.

We spent €263 in Sainsburys. It cost about €12 in petrol and €8.36 in tolls. My guess is that we actually saved around €75 plus!

I was in barcelona last week and a bottle of jameson's was 16 euros!!!

Everybody should remember that the sterling has dropped about 20% in value over the last year so everything is of course looking really cheap in the north. It was always about 15% cheaper though before the drop in sterling so that is about 35% cheaper now . I remember when my son was on formula milk and the ready to drink packs were 99c here and 42p in the north. At the time the exchange rate was 1.45 euros to the pound. So the packs should have been 62c, they were making 99c-62c= 37c extra(or 37% increase)
I would like to know how there can be such a difference in costs for the same item. The vat at the time was 3.5% higher here. So where does the extra 33.5% come from.

Xterminator

mcwhirter wrote: »

I would like to know how there can be such a difference in costs for the same item. The vat at the time was 3.5% higher here. So where does the extra 33.5% come from.

While not defending rip offs , the minimum wage here is higher, insurance costs, energy costs, rents are dearer in certain areas like dublin, transpotfrom uk, to ireland on imported goods, savings on economies of scall for larger uk multiples, etc ...there are factors that make Ireland more expensive.

It doesnt make a 33.5 % difference, i dont think that big a difference can be justified, and even aldi and lidl are charging significantly more in the ROI than UK for their items.

inforfun

Xterminator wrote: »

It doesnt make a 33.5 % difference, i dont think that big a difference can be justified, and even aldi and lidl are charging significantly more in the ROI than UK for their items.

Aldi and Lidl look at the prices in the country they do business in and then go below that local price.
Seen the same bottles of beer here in Lidl as well as in Portugal and in Portugal they were not even half the price of what we have to pay here.

Now... how the hell did i end up in a Portugese Lidl again???

DonJose

I started shopping in the North after this years early budget, with the new income tax levies I will be paying a couple grand in income taxes next year. Strange that in other countries when the economy hits the fan they reduce taxes to stimulate the economy, not in this country. :mad:

I've been to the North twice in the past month, we did 2 huge shoppings in Asda Enniskillen and spent a bomb but saved a bomb. We haven't been to our local Tesco or Dunnes this month and probably never agin, when we need milk or bread or veg we shop in our local Asda or Lidl. We used to buy our wine in the local centra when filling up, now we have enough drink to last us until after Christmas.

Asda are so cheap I've recommended them to everybody I know, we even drove to Enniskillen with friends the second time and they'll be going back again. Anyway theres a huge thread on shopping in the North on Bargain Alerts

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055394288

Also check out Asda's special offers, especially the multi buys, click on the red and yellow M icon to see the deal

http://www.asda.com/asda_shop/sys/web_deep_link.jsp?link_type=promotions&promo_type=multibuy

deleriumtremens

I'm from dundalk and the amount of people from here who generally only shop in newry is staggering!!! It really is good to have newry right on your doorstep, the price differences are crazy!!
Sainsburys in newry seems to be known all over the country for its drink prices, I know people from mullingar who have went there!! You cant go wrong with 3 crates of lager/cider for £20...E23.64 at todays exhange rates!! Works out as E7.88 per crate of 15 cans....or 52 cent a can...one eigth the price of a pint in a pub!!!

Only problem is that dundalk get particurly badly hit during a recession with all its business going over the border. Still, in times like these money talks and I'm no different!!!:D

Davidth88

Although I am all for thie thread..... but by posting this

Works out as E7.88 per crate of 15 cans....or 52 cent a can...one eigth the price of a pint in a pub!!!

It can lose credability

Compare like for like please , how much is the SAME lager/cider in Tesco Ireland/Dunnes ? Do remember as far as booze is concerned the retailer are not fully to blame the duty is much higher south of the border.

I find it amazing that in normal economics that I learnt at school if you lower a price then typically demand goes up. The government in this country seems to not subscribe to this , instead of lowering prices we are getting another .5 of a percent on VAT.

I have posted a number of times on this forum about the prices on the high street in NI/UK being so much cheaper than here , I gave up after being shouted down a few times and being told to wind my neck back in.

positivenote

im planning on hitting newry this weekend for the first time. Where do people recomend to go ? we are doing a christmas shop so we'll be looking at getting food/drink and pressies (baby clothes for the nephew aswell)... oh yeah is there a boots?

thanks in advance... appologies if there is a similiar thread already started.