Pet shop prices

gerrymadden1

I had my cocker groomed last week (€45) and decided to buy a grooming tool to keep him trimmed and reduce the number of haircuts each year.

The lady in the pet shop was most helpful & highly recommended a tool called a Furminator. Fortunately, before I brought the item to the checkout, I asked the price & she told me it was €59.95. I nearly dropped!

I went home, got online, sourced an identical item on eBay, bought it & paid the shipping. The total came to €16.50.

Exactly 1 week later it arrived from the USA. Absolutely identical in every way. A saving of €43 after paying shipping from the USA.

Has this country gone completely mad???

andreac

Yes is the answer to that!

I also bought a furminator too online from the uk and paid only €17 all in, a saving of about 30 if i had bought it in the shop, so it deffo pays to shop around and look online.

The furminator is a great comb, takes out all the dead hair.

Paul91

and me, saw the large furminator in the shop for €69.99 bought it on eBay.co.uk for £7.79 (£11.79 with delivery) also saved on petrol - also it works on my long haired German Shepherd and Boxer/lab who has short hair

to be honest, I'm buying more online from the UK than i do from here, the only exception is groceries, everything else - pet supplies (XX large cage, dog food, furminator, bowls, collars etc etc) clothes, toiletries, presents, even birthday cards - they either reduce VAT here or loose money to the UK

FAYESY

Please understand that the poor pet shop owners are not out to get you - things cost us a fortune with the distributors & with tax - add on rates, electric & the cost involved in running a shop & you have higher prices. Yes things can be bought online but in a shop you get to see & try things before you buy them & have some where to take things if they break down etc.

Paul91

FAYESY wrote: »

Please understand that the poor pet shop owners are not out to get you - things cost us a fortune with the distributors & with tax - add on rates, electric & the cost involved in running a shop & you have higher prices. Yes things can be bought online but in a shop you get to see & try things before you buy them & have some where to take things if they break down etc.

that may be true, but 541% increase in price - means i will continue to buy online

Steve30x

I was going to buy |Royal Canin puppy food last week in the local pet shop which was 40 euro for the small bag ofr food so I went to the Vets and got the exact same bag of food for 6 euro 20 cent.

FAYESY

When you say you bought it from ebay - was it new & which country did you buy the product from?

Paul91

FAYESY wrote: »

When you say you bought it from ebay - was it new & which country did you buy the product from?

my furminator - brand new, in packaging - UK

SCI

Unfortunately things are always gonna be priced higher in the south with the present economy. Your vat is 21%,uk's is 15%,your minute wage is €8+ per hr? UK £5.70 ish. Your dole's over 180 euro a week,ours £60.Your cost of living is way above most of the rest of Europe and that will effect the cost of your retail,big time. While the rest of the UK's in a deep recession the border towns in N.Ireland have never seen it better.

Our man in Havana

You have to remember that ebay merchants do not have the same overheads as a physical shop. They don't have staff, electric, rates and rent to pay. Also the way the distributors charge here you would not even buy it into a shop for what you paid for it. Also you have to ask just where did this ebay merchant get them from in the first place.

Paul91

Bond-007 wrote: »

You have to remember that ebay merchants do not have the same overheads as a physical shop. They don't have staff, electric, rates and rent to pay. Also the way the distributors charge here you would not even buy it into a shop for what you paid for it. Also you have to ask just where did this ebay merchant get them from in the first place.

all of that considered, i will still be buying from eBay rather than shops in Ireland, the irish government need to sort out the VAT and the EU need to sort out the price of goods across europe, i need to save money where i can

Kyri

I understand the need to defend your shops but i think the OP was just trying to highlight how stupidly priced things can be in Eire.

I have been shopping online since AIB was silly enough to give me a credit card at 18 lol. Ebay has professional shops and companies selling through it before anyone needs to go suss out how legit the products are that they sell. Not all bargins have to have fallen off the back of a lorry Bond lol.

If a company goes and buys 3000 of these brushes from the source and then tries to sell them on they can afford to sell at these prices. First off they have obviously gotten a huge discount on the quantity, they may not have to worry about higher rates for things like heating, rent, staff etc in order to post things and three they might be getting the end of a range where we seem to get "new" things 6 months after they where orginally released lol. People don't sell things for free so there is some profit being made.

If this item was not produced, packaged etc in Ireland with the expensives mentioned before but was rather produced some where in asia then it still cost the same to the orginal buyer. If the company that sells it to the pet shop adds a stupid mark up and the shop has to also to cover its bills it makes it more senisble to buy from the place that doesn't have to worry about all these "extra" cost's.

Just like when a pet shop gets two companies advertising the same products to sell in their shop they will buy in the one that makes them the most cash.

It's the same reason that people buy so much online you get a broader view on value and as a consumer in a country where they are basically telling you to get the most for your money then /cheer for the amazing bargin you got.

At the end of the day these things probably cost feck all to make and where imported from a country where the mim wage is 20cent. A shop wants to make money and a comsumer wants to save money.

Anyways enough of my rambles nice bargin