Shopping in Southern Ireland

eth0_

I drive a hyundai accent 1.3 and ok maybe it's more like ~1/3 a tank but definitely not a full tank there and back!

This was going from Ranelagh and I could only do it on that amount of petrol if I avoided the rush hour...otherwise I would probably burn a further 1/3 a tank crawling towards the M1.

Maybe my car is a freak of nature because I moved to Edinburgh last month and I drove from my parents house near Drogheda > Belfast, Stranraer>Edinburgh on a full tank and had fuel to spare when I got there.

MOH

So according to the CSO retail sales are down 7.4% on last year. Not really a big surprise, pretty much the same kind of thing that's been in the news over the last few weeks, retailers in the Republic taking a hammering.

What none of these reports seem to mention is by how much retail sales have been going up over the past 5 years or so. Weren't there a couple of record Christmas spends in the last few years?

So are retailers really that much worse off in terms of sales than they were 5 years ago? Or is it not the case that sales were in fact unnaturally high, and are merely reverting back to pre-boom levels?

I'm not stating this as fact, I just haven't seen any figures on it, and I'm wondering if it is the case. It just reminds me a bit of the LVA claim a while ago that some alarming percentage of pubs had closed over a given period, but if you look at the figures they chose to start counting when pubs were at their peak - if they'd started from two years earlier the figure wouldn't have been nearly as high.

Jaysoose

MOH wrote: »

So according to the CSO retail sales are down 7.4% on last year. Not really a big surprise, pretty much the same kind of thing that's been in the news over the last few weeks, retailers in the Republic taking a hammering.

What none of these reports seem to mention is by how much retail sales have been going up over the past 5 years or so. Weren't there a couple of record Christmas spends in the last few years?

So are retailers really that much worse off in terms of sales than they were 5 years ago? Or is it not the case that sales were in fact unnaturally high, and are merely reverting back to pre-boom levels?

I'm not stating this as fact, I just haven't seen any figures on it, and I'm wondering if it is the case. It just reminds me a bit of the LVA claim a while ago that some alarming percentage of pubs had closed over a given period, but if you look at the figures they chose to start counting when pubs were at their peak - if they'd started from two years earlier the figure wouldn't have been nearly as high.

Very true, there is a lot of selective memories in this country regarding this subject.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

Morlar wrote: »

... & yes I know Belfast is further than Newry but not that further if you know what I mean.

In fairness Belfast is another 40 miles each way from Newry which is 60-62miles from north Dublin so over 60% more mileage for a round trip.

I find the whole thing a lot of hype. Newry is 12 minutes from my home and I might go there briefly twice a year. It's not worth the hastle and I value my time too much to spend it in traffic jams and trying to find a parking space.

ch750536

Jaysoose wrote: »

The uk is a hell of alot bigger than ireland so there is more roads...;) to use this as a tool for comparison is certainly massagin the figures to suit your argument.

Compare Dublin to London then.

Congestion Charge?

Compare Birmingham to Cork.

M6 Toll?

mike65

95p today!

The retail environment north of Dublin will be a wasteland soon.

Arciphel

Wouldn't be surpised if we reach parity next week. All we need then is for it to start raining frogs, it's the end of the world I tells ya!

ch750536

Tis for me, I earn sterling, pay taxes in Euro and live in Ireland.

Deflation anyone?