Shoppers urged to "resist bargains"

kleefarr

Mr.Micro wrote: »

Brian Lenihan diminishes IMO by the day. He is wretchedly woeful. I cannot believe that he thinks that hard pressed people will give up their money to rip off retailers and 21.5% vat here in Ireland when they can get fantastic value in the north. Has he lost the plot?

He has. But not only that, it sounds like most of the politicians think that the general public are dim and cannot think for themselves. That they will follow the instructions and suggestions of theirs and shop where it will cost them more.

It beggars belief really.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

dresden8

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Hello!

Fianna Fail.

Hello!

juuge

Brian Lenihan wants us all to not only stop shopping in N.Ireland but also he wants us to spend 'a little more' . How out of touch with reality is this guy ? He wants us to do the patriotic thing !
The CEO of Fás was caught fiddling (stealing) his expenses and guess what he gets a golden handshake. Very patriotic ! The banks along with the government created this whole sorry mess and guess what, the same minister wines & dines them all in Farmleigh and leaves the same idiots that caused the problem in the first place, still in charge. How patriotic is that?
Why are we putting up with this ???

gurramok

Which is why the more that do shop up there, the further pressure on the retailers down here to match the prices even within 10% on basics.(that will be a good thing)

I shopped in Newry last Sunday and along with the missus we spent about 700euro on basics and pressies, the savings are just unreal. Its not even near 10% after petrol expense, its more like 40% on nearly everything.

Once there is less and less money going to state coffers, that means less and less money for waste in govt and paying more money to the overpaid public sector.

Don't worry, essential front line services won't be cut back as that is a vote loser just like what happened in the budget.

Its not my problem they mismanaged the economy, survival comes first in a recession. Its the govt's responsibility to make this place competitive again to stop hordes shopping around over the border.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

hellboy99

Who the hell does Lenihan think he is, go and **** yourself, I'll shop where I like.

FF got us into the mess we're in and they should do something about it to get us out of it. I'm sorry it's the peoples fault :mad: and it's our duty to fix the mess, the only thing you can blame the majority of the people for is for voting FF back in.
Here's a wee tip for you Mr Lenihan, lower the cost of living here, and as for being a member state of the EU I think it's very unpatriotic when it comes to VRT.

You really have to laugh, so much for wanting a united Ireland, that only works when people from the north come and shop down here. When that was going on you didn't here government in the North saying people were unpatriotic.

This government is so out of touch with reality, I think it's very unpatriotic of them to expect my taxes to pay their wages, they're certainly not value for money.

jmayo

This is one part donegalfella's freee market I very much agree with.
I have for years being buying electronics outside Ireland, either from UK or Germany but now I am going to start buying a lot more day to day items such as grociers etc over the border.

The way Lenihan sounds today, harps back to almost the days of Dev back in the 30s with his protectionist sh***.

The retailers in the South have been screwing us with high prices, under pretence that costs were much higher here.
Costs were/are higher but then when streling exchange rates are more favourable do they pass on the savings ?
Do they F***.
As someone mentioned check out British Magazine prices in Easons, and thus anyone they distribute to. The prices did not drop one iota.

Even if VAT rates were dropped here would our greedly retailers/distributors pass on these savings ?
Then you have a government asking us to be patriotic :mad::mad::mad:

dresden8

jmayo wrote: »

Even if VAT rates were dropped here would our greedly retailers/distributors pass on these savings ?

You may remember McCreevy tried dropping the VAT rate and the retailers f*cked us over for the 1%. When he put it back up they f*cked us over again.

That 1% could end up costing the thieving b@st@rds a lot. Good enough for them.

NOGMaxpower

i have no sympathy for Irish businesses who have been milking us dry since we ever moved to the Euro. Fook them if they go out of business its their own fault, they are the ones who brought the recession our way let them go bust.

In the meantime i'll be shopping up north and or online for bargains.

It really grinds my gears that the same store in Dublin charges 30% more than the same store up north or online

Rip off Ireland you scum are getting what you deserve!

old boy

people will not take that type of tripe any more, for a barrister to come out with that drivel just explains how far from reality the toffs are, i still giggle at the piece on tv where clown cowen says how he was responsible for careful and prudent management of the nations finances while he minister for stupidity

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

endplate

I opened up my own business nearly 2 years ago. We're tied in with the social welfare and HSE so hopefully that will make us resonably recession proof. I never realised exactly how expensive it can be to run a business. In a lot of cases shops have to charge what they charge cos of the costs involved. The proceedures and protocals all cost money along with the cost of living is a major problem which is tied in with the minimum wage.

Now I'm delighted that so many people are going up the North as it shows this government what sort of a shower of incompetant buffoons they are. Did you see Lenihan doing his C Haughey impression last night on the news not good for his rep.

Costs need to be brought down now day to day stuff needs to be simplified, but instead the attitude from the Dail is lets bury our heads in the sand sure won't it go away.

This Government has supported the public sector for too long and has refused to promote small business and entrepreneurship now is the time to turn that around and get Ireland working again

LostinBlanch

Deedsie wrote: »

announce retail competition review board that will actually review something of the greed, shop owners say transport of goods is to expensive, is it to much to expect them to shop around also in the interest of themselves and there customers?

First of all you're assuming that the govt actually want to promote competition. The govt set up consumer association is just a talking shop filled with party hacks out to give the appearance that something is being done, while they collect their expenses. To see what Cowen really thinks of consumers remember back to him referring to them/us as fúckers to Mary Coughlan in the Dáil.

They have been more than happy to effectively collude in the multiples gouging citizens of this state by not taking competition seriously. In the US price fixing etc is seen as racketeering and is policed by the FBI which isn't afraid to use all the powers it has. There's no chance that CAB would be given such powers and the extra resources to police the multiples who match each others prices, and rip us off here. All the government is concerned about is the appearance of competition.

AFAIK the people going North to shop are doing so not just to get bargains, a good enough reason to go anyway. But also as a big fúck you to the rip off merchants and the incompetent government that has effectively been sanctioning this continued rip off. This is the only hope that prices will come down in the south.

No doubt some FF or Green hacks will appear on here shortly trying to defend the continued rip off.

juuge

old boy wrote: »

people will not take that type of tripe any more, for a barrister to come out with that drivel just explains how far from reality the toffs are.

I couldn't agree more !
What we need to run the dept. of finance is a 'shop-keeper'. Someone that knows the cost of living and the value of a euro. What we have is a group of ministers who collectively have been 'out of society/reality' for the last eleven years. How many of them would know the price of anything? They've been shielded from reality for all this time. They have to go now, for all our sakes.

LostinBlanch

Electricity prices to go down in the North, not here surprise surprise.

A reduction in electricity prices for hard-pressed consumers in the North will be announced before Christmas, it was revealed today.

Prices were increased by 33.3% in the autumn after a hike of 14% in July.

Amid tumbling global oil prices, Britain's Utility Regulator, Iain Osborne, set up a price review last month and confirmed he would have good news for consumers before they hang up their stockings.

“We will make the announcement before Christmas, it is too early to say how much it will go down, but the wholesale market is quite sharply down. Costs have been hedged to a considerable degree and the price drop will not reflect the full fall in the price of crude oil. However, there is room for manoeuvre, he said.

The reduced price would be effective from early in the new year, he said. “If it is to be worth doing I think we need to get it to people in early January.”

However, Mr Osborne stressed: “Doing a review mid-way through the winter given the volatility in the market implies some uncertainty in this.

“But we have brought this forward because this is such a difficult winter for consumers – we are just trying to get what we can to people as soon as we can.”

Meanwhile what did the commission for energy rip off prices do here? Made a song and dance about not increasing electricity prices here, despite the fact that oil is now selling at $43 a barrel rather than the $147 it was selling last July.

jmayo

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

We may disagree on certain things, but I whole heartly agree that the influence of government or public sector entities (ESB, bord gas, corproate rates, water charges) here has helped drive costs and prices up.

We all probably agree that businesses have higher costs here, be they public utility costs or labour costs, but there are also examples of where Irish businesses be they retail or distributor have and are screwing us.
Newsagents, as I have pointed out previously, are screwing us royally on the importation of UK magazines (motoring, flying mags etc). Why did the prices not drop after euro/sterling exchange rates changes ?
This same principle seems to be used on the importation of electronics etc.
Why are items in All-Ireland based retailers upto 40% more expensive in the South ?

The idea of screwing the consumer became all pervasive.
It was done by the government, public sector bodies, professionals such as dentists/doctors/lawyers and the general retail sector did just the same.
It is now time these companies and people started to cop on and realise people are no longer so free with their money and at last we are starting to look at the cost of our purchases.

BTW you are local that you can walk the rest of us have to drive greater distances to avail of the competitive rates. You see there is a big advantage to living in Donegal after all

endplate wrote: »

I opened up my own business nearly 2 years ago. We're tied in with the social welfare and HSE so hopefully that will make us resonably recession proof. I never realised exactly how expensive it can be to run a business. In a lot of cases shops have to charge what they charge cos of the costs involved. The proceedures and protocals all cost money along with the cost of living is a major problem which is tied in with the minimum wage.

Now I'm delighted that so many people are going up the North as it shows this government what sort of a shower of incompetant buffoons they are. Did you see Lenihan doing his C Haughey impression last night on the news not good for his rep.

Costs need to be brought down now day to day stuff needs to be simplified, but instead the attitude from the Dail is lets bury our heads in the sand sure won't it go away.

This Government has supported the public sector for too long and has refused to promote small business and entrepreneurship now is the time to turn that around and get Ireland working again

HSE's spending is being curtailed, the money is going on wages didn't you know :rolleyes:
BTW check out the lovely HSE tender documents, they must have gangs of people working on them :rolleyes:
The amount of documentation that is now involved is ludricous and the government seem to be just generating more of it.

kleefarr

LostinBlanch wrote: »

Electricity prices to go down in the North, not here surprise surprise.


Meanwhile what did the commission for energy rip off prices do here? Made a song and dance about not increasing electricity prices here, despite the fact that oil is now selling at $43 a barrel rather than the $147 it was selling last July.

*Scratches head trying to think of a way to buy Gas and Electricity in the North and transport it down here*

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

cavedave

I just heard the Tanaiste on the radio saying (roughly)

We have to make sure that every penny we spend goes local

How is she going to be transported? Using locally sourced Irish oil?
This is not even remotely possible to only buy Irish goods. Say you buy Irish butter, where is the plastic packaging from?

How does someone think that all money you spend could stay in the Irish economy?

LostinBlanch

Ignore the bit about Tesco and Asda opening in Newry look at the second last paragraph.

O'Hare said he plans to publish a price survey this week comparing prices in Newry with those in the Republic and countries across the continent to show that it was only goods in the Republic that were overpriced.

Permabear

This post has been deleted.

eoinbn

donegalfella wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Hardly surprising given that the average wage in the ESB is ~€70,000. Not bad for 10-15 hours "work" a week.

OP: I think that article is putting words in the ministers mouth. The government has a point when it says we need to buy local, but it's also easy to see why many people feel the need to save money by shopping in the north. However this can only be fixed by wage cuts in the south to reduce costs to make us more competitve.

mrtaylor1981

Mathew Reilly wrote: »

So lets get this...retailers are ripping us off and start of the year Mary Harney advises us to shop around for the best bargains.
Consumers do so,,trips to NY, the north etc and now they're complaining?
some cheek:mad:

So would Mary Harney think a 400 dollar hair do in Florida good bargain ?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

mrtaylor1981 wrote: »

So would Mary Harney think a 400 dollar hair do in Florida good bargain ?

I'd rather she spend a few grand on lipo tbh.

partyguinness

The Fianna Fail/PD governments led the 'free open economy' charage that placed Ireland where it is today .

With the low corporation tax in Ireland, now they know how other EU countries feel about Ireland...how ironic...:D

But I imagine this irony will be completely lost on our politicians when they are resisting EU attempts to creat a uniform tax system.

ednwireland

I wanted some stuff from atown near me its a small tourist town it has 6 gift shops (i wanted stuff to take to family in england )I was there at 11:30am on sat morn. 5 of the shops were closed.
tourists wandering around I think it is indicative of business attitudes

Tipsy Mac

This coming from the same government who's roads authority the NRA bought out the M50 toll road, made redundant all the Irish employees and contracted out the call centre jobs to Northern Ireland, simply unbelievable that they have the cheek to question where a person decides to spend their hard earned.

Mr.Micro

Well for one I am glad that we have the internet and whenever possible I buy all my Dvds and books, art materials online in the UK and even with post etc it still works out cheaper. We get ripped off too often here.

galwayrush

Feels like our Goverment have a future in comedy at least.:D