Shopping in the North - Unpatriotic or what?

shaca

Was shopping in tesco (south) yeaterday. Bought 4pk of ambrosia rice that was flashed 99p. When i got to the counter they charged me €2.79. So it is ok for tesco to make a saving on it but not for me. I will be going up the North shopping. They might call it unpatriotic but they are not the ones living from week to week trying to make ends meet. I have a duty to my family to keep a roof over their heads. Their has been 310 home repossessions this year alone. That is 310 families without a home to call their own this christmas. The government didnt step in and bail them out like they did the banks. And they wont for you or I either.

Where is the best place for toys in the North?

The_Conductor

shaca wrote: »

Where is the best place for toys in the North?

Depends on what you're looking for- Toys'r'us at Sprucefield are quite good- but even the supermarkets or the likes of Zavvi have good sales on limited ranges of items....... Zavvi are incredible for consoles and console games (and misc accessories). Located just off Donegal Square (there is a multistorey carpark around the corner on the Dublin road).

S.

Rockshamrover

Is it patriotic to allow the retailers of Ireland steal from the citizens of this country?

The government didn't feel the need to protect our rights when the vast majority of retailers were taking us to the cleaners. They allowed these guys to get fat and lazy and inefficient and this is the inevitable result.

Have you noticed how much the price of beer has dropped in the supermarkets down here recently? That's purely a reaction to competition. Had we not all headed north that would never have happened.

The simple facts are these. Continue to shop up north and prices will fall in the south.

If we all stopped shopping in the north, the rip offs would continue and the government would do nothing.

hellboy99

Rockshamrover wrote: »

If we all stopped shopping in the north, the rip offs would continue and the government would do nothing.

So if we keep shopping in the north then the government will do something to help, is that why they put VAT up here :rolleyes:

My child could do a better job running the country than Brian Cowen and his muppet brigade.

RobBrn

hellboy99 wrote: »

So if we keep shopping in the north then the government will do something to help, is that why they put VAT up here :rolleyes:

My child could do a better job running the country than Brian Cowen and his muppet brigade.

They put VAT up in the ill judged budget when they still thought they were invincible.

My dog would run the country better than Cowen

Rockshamrover

The simple facts are these. Continue to shop up north and prices will fall in the south.

If we all stopped shopping in the north, the rip offs would continue and the government would do nothing.[/QUOTE]

The only way the retailers here can stay stem the flow is to reduce their prices. They will still make a healthy profit.

RiverWilde

Even if the retailers in the south matched the prices in the North I'd still go North, because if they can afford to match the prices today they could have done so last week etc etc. That being the case they're going to have to pay for their greed.

Riv

The_Conductor

RiverWilde wrote: »

Even if the retailers in the south matched the prices in the North I'd still go North, because if they can afford to match the prices today they could have done so last week etc etc. That being the case they're going to have to pay for their greed.

Riv

Thats cutting your face, to spite yourself.......
You'll continue to go north as revenge for their past misdeeds.......

RiverWilde

No I'm not. It's as easy for me to shop in the North as it is for me to shop here. It's my responsibility to make my money stretch as far as possible so as to better serve my family. The shops in the south displayed and continue to display a total disregard for customer loyalty. I have watched prices increase on an almost daily basis with no apology or explanation.

For the past several years I have been shopping in the North and getting very good value for money.

Why on earth should I support a bunch of gougers in the south?

Riv

vibe666

so spending your hard earned cash in an english supermarket in the south (i.e. tesco etc.) IS patriotic, but buying stuff in a Northern Irish owned supermarket chain in the north is UNpatriotic is it?

and there was me thinking everyone was moving towards a unified Ireland.

oh, and I'd reccomend enniskillen over newry. less dubs clogging it up and plenty of shops, inc. a 24 hours (apart from sunday) asda.

you can make up for the longer journey by going early and missing all the traffic. seems like it'll take you 45 minutes to get into newry anyway from what people told me from the last couple of weekends.

The_Conductor

RiverWilde wrote: »

Why on earth should I support a bunch of gougers in the south?

Riv

Because they are paying taxes which pay for your local school, your roads, your (admittedly appalling) health service etc. If they fail because everything else being equal- people decide to piss off to Newry in revenge for their years of abuse, there is less money to spend on local infrastructure and services.

RiverWilde

Oh there is plenty of money in the south, it's just been spirited away into bank accounts and out of the public coffers. The aforementioned gougers are sitting on it and it's not just the retail sector. I don't see why I should in essence pay a double tax. Cash was raked in during the 'boom' years and if it can be raked in it can as surely as night follows day be returned to the economy for the roads and services you mention.

Riv

The_Conductor

RiverWilde wrote: »

Oh there is plenty of money in the south, it's just been spirited away into bank accounts and out of the public coffers. The aforementioned gougers are sitting on it and it's not just the retail sector. I don't see why I should in essence pay a double tax. Cash was raked in during the 'boom' years and if it can be raked in it can as surely as night follows day be returned to the economy for the roads and services you mention.

Riv

I think you're badly underestimating how much damage the stock market collapse has wreaked on all those who you thought had money (totally aside from the property market collapse).

RiverWilde

So the economy is returning to an actual level of wealth as opposed to the 'virtual' one we've been saddled with for the past number of years?

That being the case as far as I'm concerned the gougers can either re-adjust or go out of business.

If they cannot re-adjust they were part of the 'virtual economy.'

Riv

The_Conductor

Or an actual level of debt, as opposed to wealth. Private sector debt is just under 170% of GDP.........

bruce wayne

smccarrick wrote: »

Because they are paying taxes which pay for your local school, your roads, your (admittedly appalling) health service etc. If they fail because everything else being equal- people decide to piss off to Newry in revenge for their years of abuse, there is less money to spend on local infrastructure and services.

Actually no my taxes are being spent on government jets, thousands of un-necessary civil servents & Health service "administrators", tribunals to tell us what we already know and from which nothing will ever happen, TD salaries (when on career breaks from teaching, etc), TD pensions and expense accounts, wasteful public sector spending and jollys, etc

I doubt very much if any of my taxes are being spent on
- my local school (perhaps to buy a prefab or two....rather than fix the bloody things or staff them properly),
- my roads - its either a very bad road, an over congested road or a road they charge you to drive on !!
- my health service - lets just say if I'm ever unfortunantly to 'have' to visit a hospital I can rest easy in the knowledge that at the very least my paperwork will be filled out in triplicate....that is same paperwork by three different people not three forms....and you never know some it may even be right.

I dont think its unpatriotic to shop up north....its well within our rights to find the better price for the same products, and it makes very little difference whether I'm paying Next in Ireland or Next in the UK its all the feckin same to them, although in the long run they will see it as unsustainable to keep branches in the republic at inflated prices and may reduce the prices eventually!

All that said if your accused of being unpatriotic for shopping up north, just tell them you are in fact being exceptionally patriotic and in fact exceptionally republician in so far as you refuse to accept the British claim over the North Ireland counties and are therefore in fact shopping in a part of the island of Ireland !!:):):D:D:):);)

jmayo

hellboy99 wrote: »

...
...
I can buy Guinness cheaper up the north and it's made here in the south...

You better not visit any off licenses/supermarkets in Spain and check Irish Whiskey prices or you will have a heart attack

Yes Irish people do get carried away when they visit off licenses that are cheaper or the night before Good Friday for some reason, but a lot of people are heading up North to buy toys/clothes/nappies/cleaning products/electronics.
All things that are cheaper in the North.

How come our retailers, homegrown and foreign owned ones, have not passed on savings in sterling conversion rates ?
Has anyone noticed how good old Easons, and thus all the newsagents they distribute to, have not decreased the prices of British magazines over the last year ?
They are just as expensive as ever, no price decreases.

It is a bit rich our government ministers and Dublin's lord mayor telling us to be patriotic when we have governmnet ministers being flown around the world on junkets using any pretence, we have public sector executives charging everything and anything to their expenses.
Then we should carry the can.

Do these people live in some la la land?
We don't all have taxpayer provided chaufured cars, subsistence allowances even though living within reach of Dail and go home every night (at least one government TD living in Meath yet drawing this allowance for living away from home even though not), subsidised restaurants and bars.

How many technically obese members of government are fed at our expense ?
The poor dears might have a heath attack and have to suffer our A&E, perish the thought :rolleyes:

Lplated

Thanks to all who have voted in this... seems a fairly definitive response.

Interestingly, Brian Lenihan was on Morning Ireland again this morning, general theme of 'we're living beyond our means' (heard that before??), and we should shop down here in order to fund schools, hospitals etc...

He didn't mention the proportion of any tax we pay which would be sensibly spent on sending key semi state executives on first class trips abroad (only 7 grand a go), or of course that significant proportion of our tax revenue which is wasted every year (according to the Comptroller and Auditor General), and of course there is about half a million to be raised to pay off a recently resigned executive of a semi state body.

So, its Christmas, season for giving, and i'm sure one of the top guys in one of the hundreds of quangos must be due a first class trip somewhere, so ya, i'l amend my nasty habit of shopping for best value for myself straight away.

hellboy99

Lplated wrote: »

Interestingly, Brian Lenihan was on Morning Ireland again this morning, general theme of 'we're living beyond our means' (heard that before??), and we should shop down here in order to fund schools, hospitals etc...

So basically it's our fault the country is in a mess, thats rich coming from him, not much of a finance minister if he thinks that. Go and cop yourself on Lenihan :mad:

KevR

Not really sure where I stand on this. I'd prefer to be spend my money in the Republic and help the economy but I cannot stand being ripped off.

Had to laugh when people in goverment started saying it's unpatriotic to go up North/abroad to shop. It's hardly the most patriotic thing in the world for retailers/businesses and the goverment down here to be blatently ripping their own people off.

The_Conductor

According to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce- its not the retailers fault- its the fact that customers have to pay for parking. They are calling for parking at weekends to be free...... Like this will really pull their bacon out of the fire.......

Nody

smccarrick wrote: »

According to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce- its not the retailers fault- its the fact that customers have to pay for parking. They are calling for parking at weekends to be free...... Like this will really pull their bacon out of the fire.......

Well you know the stores have to pay so much for parking the lorries unload that the prices simply have to be 30% higher! :pac:

DonJose

Patriotism is irrelevant where value for money is concerned, an online survey has found.

89% of 1,000 people surveyed said patriotism is irrelevant, and nearly half (46%) said they planned to shop in the North before Christmas, the new survey by Empathy Research - a division of Pigsback.com - found.

93% believe that the government should take responsibility for the inflated euro against sterling rate that is offered by many UK retailers. Only 7% believe the reason that it is more expensive to run a business in the Republic.

Over half agree people should spend more wisely in Irish owned stores to restore the economy.

When asked about items that were generally perceived as cheaper in the UK, the list was topped by alcohol and clothes from high street retailers.

Ikea and Asda came out on top for savings, with Tesco and Argos identified as the worst inflation offenders.

http://www.rte.ie/business/2008/1203/retail.html

Colonel Sanders

smccarrick wrote: »

According to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce- its not the retailers fault- its the fact that customers have to pay for parking. They are calling for parking at weekends to be free...... Like this will really pull their bacon out of the fire.......

sweet jesus, desperation anyone?

Lplated

The pigsback survey was talked about on RTE Mary Wilson programme yesterday evening.

Guy from FAshion and Shoe Retailers association responded on behalf of the Industry. His suggestion was that Government reduce the VAT rate to 18%, he felt confident that the 3.5% would result in sales improving again (i'm paraphrasing, but thats what he said).

I would have thought that prices here will have to reduce by a bit more than 3.5% in order to counter the 30 to 50% savings up North. But maybe I just live in cloud cuckoo land.

Jaysoose

smccarrick wrote: »

According to the Dublin Chamber of Commerce- its not the retailers fault- its the fact that customers have to pay for parking. They are calling for parking at weekends to be free...... Like this will really pull their bacon out of the fire.......

Is this the same spokeslady that claimed the savings in the north is a media invention? and we should shop around down here as there are bargains to be had. Somebody should hand then a calculator and let them work it out for themselves.

justcallmetex

dardevle wrote: »

[. My Argos list costs €200 less in the North (6 items) than down here so why should'nt I go 50 mile up the road to get the identical items from the same retailer for €200 less.]



i don't have a problem with shopping around.
what i do have a problem with is people travelling
north and purchasing from the same chainstores
that are ripping us off down here!!

Valid point

justcallmetex

MacBuster wrote: »

I am all for people saving money as they government are pure scum and as the retailers here.

I live in Dundalk and shop regularly in the North but the situation is crazy now as the cheaper prices are attracting every bit of scum from Ireland and blocking the motorway...Currently there are 15KM tailbacks from south to north.

I go the local way and avoid all that but the greed is crazy, as because these people are not up to buy food or necessities but drink on a wholesale level, I walked around Sainsburies about an hour ago and every trolley was stacked with booze it was disgusting to look at, every knacker in a tracksuit from laois to dublin was grabbing booze like it was going out off fashion.

I don't mind high taxation down here on booze as it might save a few lives but apart from that it is a rip off...

My mate has to regularly bring his sick toddler to a certain hospital in belfast and these morons are blocking a major route because they want to fill their gullets with booze it is actually quite sick what people will do for drink..:mad:

WTF?!?

hellboy99

Anyone here the ads playing on LMFM about us being unpatriotic :eek:, I'm not even going to repeat what they say for fear of been held liable, listen for yourselves.

RiverWilde

LMFM? Can't say I've heard of that radio station. However, it won't make me change my mind as regards shopping in the North. The shops here in the south can either compete or close down, their choice.

Riv