Rep. of Ireland or Northern Ireland for YOUR Christmas Shopping?

mcaul

hellboy99 wrote: »

Examples ?

under rules I cannot advertise my business, but feel free to check the websites in the sigs.

mcaul

Skopzz wrote: »

You don't get it, do you? Consumers spending habits are changing FOREVER.... Plus the added benefit of cross border shopping to save more money.

You seem to have the perception that 'I'll put up me prices again' - WRONG ANSWER. It will have the opposite effect, I guarantee you.

I certainly won't be putting up prices. My earnings & profits will come from increased business as people spend more and realise that some stores offer excellent value.

Already my greeting card business is up almost 50% this year as I moved to a new pricing model of €2 per card - any card including designer collections. A certain UK multiple charges between €2.50 - €4.95 for the same cards less than a mile from my store. - More custoemrs are coming in and I'm benifitting from increased turnover and will probably break even this year, which I see as excellent performance in the current market.

kippy

-Living in Galway.
-Dont actually need that much stuff, and am sure would probably spend more money in the north because of the perceived "good deals". Stuff that I didnt really want or need.
-Dont fancy the 4-6 hour round trip up north and the costs that entails.
-Theres plenty good deals around town at the minute.
-The internet is close at hand if there isnt.


The whole Northern thing makes sense if you live near enough the border or you have a major amount of shopping to do, otherwise I think people lose the run of themselves.

hellboy99

mcaul wrote: »

under rules I cannot advertise my business, but feel free to check the websites in the sigs.

Not bad, a lot of the board games though are cheaper in Smyths, one example:

Family Fortunes Electronic - your price: €36.95 + €3.50 delivery, only €18.99 in Smyths.

mcaul

hellboy99 wrote: »

Not bad, a lot of the board games though are cheaper in Smyths, one example:

Family Fortunes Electronic - your price: €36.95 + €3.50 delivery, only €18.99 in Smyths.

seems they have it on a half price offer - must have words wth the suppliers and see what they can do as the margin on games is utter Cr*p!

netwhizkid

I will be up North on the weekend of Dec 12 & 13th and will travel up from Kerry for the Christmas shopping. I at least get the satisfaction of not giving the VAT to the criminals in Dail Eireann, the British have more legitimacy in Northern Ireland than Fianna Fail have here.

Davidth88

Went up North on Monday ( missed the Tuesday rush thank goodness )

Saved a fortune.

Saved the tolls and petrol money on 2 gifts alone ( not expensive ones ) . The prices on the toys were working out about 20-25% cheaper , we paid in euros directly so we could compare prices. Some shops were giving as much as 92p per euro , some ( M&S was the worst ) were as poor as 86p

We are lucky we only live approx 1hr away ( or 1.5 from Sprucefield ) .

SJWicklow

Will be trying to do all my Christmas shopping down here. Need to try and keep some of the money in this country then spending it abroad.

Read this last night about getting better value on your Christmas shopping, worth a read - http://bit.ly/8Jg6ow

baubl

I will be staying here in the south, simply i have been laid off 6 months ago, will cut down on cards this Christmas, will be buying little or no presents, it will be needs must, I will shop at the local aldi for everything.
as will alot of people in my position, just trying to keep our heads above water, it is hard. but not half as hard as the guy who also lost his job, and then got his or her home ruined in the floods, wondering where to start without proper income, must feel like the bottom fell out of their world

adamkane

I'm writing an article about people shopping in the north for Christmas. Anyone willing to talk to me about it?

wantolose

We went to Enniskillen this morning. It took 45mins to park the car in Asda carpark, it was chaos:eek:, we headed towards the shop and there was no trollies not one:(, so we went into and one co not move it was packed. You would swear there was a famine, the shop was just mental packed, the trollies were pushing off each other and the shelves were almost empty, people were like savages pulling the stuff of the shelves, it was like pigs with their snouts in the trough. We decided to leave and as we were leaving Asda we noticed the amount of booze people were buying (I ike an odd tipple myself), but this was just disgusting it was mainly drink.
Childern were stuffed into trollies and bawling crying, I know some people might not have a babysitter, but Godsakes if its only for boooooooooooooooze your going shopping ,surely it could wait or leave the kids with somebody, the poor wee things

Anyway we went to tesco and dunnes instead and it was much easier to get around both of these shops. I bought nappies, wipes and baby milk.

Such a day....I think i will be shopping local, I would be in no hurry back!

baubl

who really want that kind of hassle, for a few drinks, food or toiloteries, in a car all day in heavy traffic just to save what, on non essentials like booze, madness, I will be shopping in the local aldi for everything

RiverWilde

Off to Enniskillen in a few hours - for the Christmas shopping. I resent buying anything here in the south, not just because of the prices but because the shower of idiots in Dublin will only waste my tax money on junkets, bonuses and other non-essential expenditure. When the govt. starts spending money where it should be spent - health, welfare, education, housing - I'll consider paying vat down here again.

Riv

TheCandystripes

i assume the scenes of materialistic irish scurrying to get as much drink as possible shows just what a ****ed up country this is

furiousox

Our main reason to go up was to do our christmas toy shopping (smyths newry) and we saved over 150 euro compared to southern prices.
Debenhams is also well worth a look.

Also bought some groceries in Sainsburys plus about 6 bottles of wine and 2 bottles of spirits, but the amount of drink being bought by "southerners" was nuts, crate after crate of beer and/or cider, really OTT.

rubadub

wantolose wrote: »

We went to Enniskillen this morning. It took 45mins to park the car in Asda carpark, it was chaos:eek:,

Thank god some people are telling the real truth and giving fair warning. I expect many are keeping quiet about such tales rather than admit their idea was not so great. The amount of times you see this "ah sure its just an hour up the road", you could be working overtime with far less stress could earn more money than they would save.

RiverWilde wrote: »

I resent buying anything here in the south...- I'll consider paying vat down here again.

Biting off your nose to spite your face springs to mind. If something was the same price you would buy it here? I would hope so since they are obviously going to have to increase the other unavoidable taxes if so many people continue to avoid the likes of VAT here.

furiousox wrote: »

Our main reason to go up was to do our christmas toy shopping (smyths newry) and we saved over 150 euro compared to southern prices.

Just work it out and research. I got a PS3 for €250 in powercity today, not even an advertised offer. I got 88p/€ on my CC last week, same console is £250 in smyths which would have been €284, http://www.smythstoys.com/playstation-3/ps3-slim-console-g11890pd.aspx?qwSessionID=5018809f-c99b-45ea-ae16-72a777a70cfb

wantolose

I still thinking about all that drink yesterday.................it was crazy:eek:.

How on earth do people need to buy that much drink? I was telling my brother about it when I picked up my litle one from my mothers. He told me he was up there a few weeks ago to buy a laptop and he went to Asda, he was going to get a few bits but it was chaos during the week also.
Anyway when he was leaving Asda he bumped into a local publican.......and they had their trolly full of booze, mainy spirits... now I am not saying they were going to recyle this across the counter and charge for it....but it would make you wonder....oh I am sure it was for their own private use:rolleyes:

RiverWilde

rubadub wrote: »

Biting off your nose to spite your face springs to mind. If something was the same price you would buy it here? I would hope so since they are obviously going to have to increase the other unavoidable taxes if so many people continue to avoid the likes of VAT here.

Biting off my nose to spite my face? No. It's my job to support my family by finding the best grocery and other deals available. It's isn't my job to fix the economy which has been ruined by greed. If retailers find the journey down the costs ladder more difficult than they found the journey up - NOT MY PROBLEM!

This is the EU we're living in ... merchants wanted into it big time so they could sell their stuff ... we're all EU citizens and are entitled to spend our money wherever we bloody well like within the Union.

The same merchant classes, coupled with the church and other interests wanted out of the UK and now 80 odd years later, FF have run the country into the ground. The only option for many people is to do their shopping in the North. Being ripped off for Ireland is not the message I'm going to give my children this Christmas.

Riv

PeteK*

rubadub wrote: »

Just work it out and research. I got a PS3 for €250 in powercity today, not even an advertised offer. I got 88p/€ on my CC last week, same console is £250 in smyths which would have been €284, http://www.smythstoys.com/playstation-3/ps3-slim-console-g11890pdaspx?qwSessionID=5018809f-c99b-45ea-ae16-72a777a70cfb

I actually think PS3 consoles are mainly cheaper in the South. My cousin got one a few months ago in Newry and saw it far cheaper in Dundalk on his way home. He went and got a refund.. no idea how.. and then bought it in Dundalk.

hellboy99

PeteK* wrote: »

I actually think PS3 consoles are mainly cheaper in the South. My cousin got one a few months ago in Newry and saw it far cheaper in Dundalk on his way home. He went and got a refund.. no idea how.. and then bought it in Dundalk.

Myself and a mate went to Newry last week for a look around comparing prices and we were shocked, a lot of console deals at the minute are near the same or cheaper down here as are a lot of games, example:

Lego Star Wars - The Complete Saga (PS3)

Smyths (north): £24.99
Smyths (south): €34.99
HMV (north): £19.99
HMV (south): €15.99

Wii deal in Smyths last week was €199 here and £169 up north, not really worth a trip up north if your just going to buy that and nothing else.

A word of warning to anyone going to Debenhams, I suggest you look round before deciding to purchase any toys from them, the prices of some of the stuff was unreal, most of the toys are cheaper down here in the south. They had a transformer toy, Optimus Prime (the big movie leader class):

Debenhams (north): £45.99 (ROI price on it €70, some exchange rate :rolleyes:)
Smyths (north): £33.74
Smyths (south): €41.24
Tesco (south): €24.99

A lot of toys in Smyths stores both north and south, when comparing prices there are differences of only €1 - €4 with a lot of their toys.

Grocery shopping in Asda and Iceland is cheaper to here, if you don't shop there and decide to go to Dunnes and Sainsburys instead I would suggest you check out the prices here in the south as we found that there wasn't much of a big difference in the prices of a lot of items.

Bandit12

I bought a peppa pig kitchen for my daughter in toy's r us in the North last week for 29.99 pound ( 33 euro). I priced it down here for 49.99 euro in smyth's. If you do your homework for toy's,food,cloths you will find huge huge savings up North. There will alway's be examples of certain things being cheaper in the South but on the whole it is well worth the journey. My advice to anyone is to go that little bit further to Lisburn for the extra bargains and less hassle.:)

kleefarr

Went up last week. Filled the boot up in the CRV. Saved a small fortune, enough to make sure we have heat this winter anyway.