Newry Shoppers

borderlinemeath

TheBigFella wrote: »

Spoken like a true Dundalk shopkeeper. But you'll not steal my dosh!!

Well I doubt I have anything that you want to buy anyway:P
and besides I'm in Drogheda.

RustyBeanTin

borderlinemeath wrote: »

Lots of "non essential" items on your list!
.

Dvds, clothes and and video games might not be essential items 2000 years ago but do you really expect people to do without them now?

RustyBeanTin

borderlinemeath wrote: »

I wouldn't shop in Iceland, I prefer fresh food to frozen.

You are completely missing his point

borderlinemeath

RustyBeanTin wrote: »

You are completely missing his point

My point is I wouldn't fill a trolley in Iceland to compare prices:rolleyes:

Anyhow prices have come way down on groceries, and the stg is stronger at the moment so why waste my time on a pointless exercise?
As I work full time I value the time I have off to relax and wouldn't be bothered driving up north to a supermarket to save a few quid when I have plenty of well priced ones to choose from in Drogheda.

And I would rather keep Drogheda folk in their jobs by shopping local as well.

borderlinemeath

RustyBeanTin wrote: »

Dvds, clothes and and video games might not be essential items 2000 years ago but do you really expect people to do without them now?

dvds, computer games and clothes are classed as "luxury items" by the revenue and are thus subject to 21% tax
Only childrens clothing is tax exempt.

A lot of people go without dvds and computer games, they are hardly the first item on the shopping list of a "typical shopping basket"

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

borderlinemeath wrote: »

dvds, computer games and clothes are classed as "luxury items" by the revenue and are thus subject to 21% tax
Only childrens clothing is tax exempt.

A lot of people go without dvds and computer games, they are hardly the first item on the shopping list of a "typical shopping basket"

I couldn't have put it better myself.

I think RBT needs to go away and reflect on priorities.

**Timbuk2**

All this talk of essentials and non-essentials.

If I did a full shopping for essentials in Dundalk, I might spend €60.

If I went to Newry with that same €60, I could get all my essentials, and even a few non-essentials as well for myself, and that's after factoring in the cost of transport and parking.

DamoDLK

TheBigFella wrote: »

I'm still convinced we're being ripped off here and things are still cheaper up North. Fair enough it's not worth travelling for just one item but most things are cheaper.

New release DVD £14.99 Vs €19.99
New PS3 game £39.99 Vs €59.99 -69.99
Beer 24 cans Carlsberg £12.99 Vs €24.99

Even Aldi or Lidl beer not that cheap, and if your buying in bulk even better value.

KFC or Burgerking Kids meals £2.99 Vs €4.99

As for clothes you only have to look at the shop with the 2 prices on the tags (£ & €) to see how we're being conned. A dress my OH was looking at had £40 / €65 on it. What a joke!!

Hey! If you think its bad at home, try Australia, for 24 beers of quite good beer your talking $60! I love going to Dundalk, even at 25 quid thats like a E1.10 a can, which is bargain! - Granted 55p is better again! Down here, 6 bottles of cheapo 2.4% light beer costs about $15.00.

We have better value at home now, than we did a year or two back. (imo)

LeoB

Some good points being made here.

I have shopped in Newry a few times (with my wife) and thought it good value but what is good value.

Got a packet of rashers you would a newspaper through they were so thin
The bread was disgusting
The Milk was similar to ditch water!
The Pizza's were awful
I found most food stuff inferior to what we get down south

The only way to measure real value is to look at the quality of what you buy and then gauge if you really saved. Yes we came home with bags of stuff but the quality of what we got in Newry was not as good as what we get down here.

One area where I feel they do hammer us is customer care. Their staff are so friendly unlike a lot of the sour faces you have to look at down here where you think you are annoying them by even going in to some shops. Nothing was a problem to them while most thing s seem a problem to our staff

Electronics were cheaper and I purchased a Camera in Jessops £799 (€1,150) and I could haggle to get a few bits and pieces thrown in, 4gig Memory card and Bag for £25 as opposed to €45 for the memory card alone. The service was top class and I will go back but only to for that stuff.

One major factor where I have sympathy for Business down here is the amount of Landlords who wont reduce rent for shops under pressure, but then will the reductions be passed on? Also V.A.T must be under 17% and shops need to show they are passing it on to the consumer

borderlinemeath

LeoB wrote: »

Some good points being made here.



One area where I feel they do hammer us is customer care. Their staff are so friendly unlike a lot of the sour faces you have to look at down here where you think you are annoying them by even going in to some shops. Nothing was a problem to them while most thing s seem a problem to our staff


One major factor where I have sympathy for Business down here is the amount of Landlords who wont reduce rent for shops under pressure, but then will the reductions be passed on? Also V.A.T must be under 17% and shops need to show they are passing it on to the consumer

On the customer service issue, this really is our own fault.
Throughout the boom we Irish got a terrible sense of "entitlement" and felt it was above us to serve in shops or wait tables.

When the rest of Europe came and took the jobs no-one wanted, we didn't care too much, but now we are quite bitter about it.

I can understand fully that somebody who spent 4 years studying in college to finds it hard to be motivated to sit on a till or finds it fairly soul destroying to fold jumpers all day only to have somebody come and pull them all apart!

On the other hand, customers haven't exactly made life easy for shop workers. Customers can be ignorant, bullyish, and full of their own self righteousness about what they are entitled to regarding refunds/exchanges/faulty goods etc.
You should have a look in the "ranting and raving" section and the "cries of retail" thread! Some of the posts are eye-openers!

bladespin

borderlinemeath wrote: »

On the customer service issue, this really is our own fault.
Throughout the boom we Irish got a terrible sense of "entitlement" and felt it was above us to serve in shops or wait tables.

When the rest of Europe came and took the jobs no-one wanted, we didn't care too much, but now we are quite bitter about it.

I can understand fully that somebody who spent 4 years studying in college to finds it hard to be motivated to sit on a till or finds it fairly soul destroying to fold jumpers all day only to have somebody come and pull them all apart!

On the other hand, customers haven't exactly made life easy for shop workers. Customers can be ignorant, bullyish, and full of their own self righteousness about what they are entitled to regarding refunds/exchanges/faulty goods etc.
You should have a look in the "ranting and raving" section and the "cries of retail" thread! Some of the posts are eye-openers!

Just remember 'the customer's always right'. Ireland (in general) has appauling customer service, simple things like how to greet a customer of remembering to phone someone back at an agreed time are long forgotten skills here.

A job's a job, forget entitlements, the way things are even cleaning tables in McDonalds is a good job these days, whatever puts food on the table, or have the basics of earning a living been forgotten altogether.

borderlinemeath

bladespin wrote: »

Just remember 'the customer's always right'. Ireland (in general) has appauling customer service, simple things like how to greet a customer of remembering to phone someone back at an agreed time are long forgotten skills here.

A job's a job, forget entitlements, the way things are even cleaning tables in McDonalds is a good job these days, whatever puts food on the table, or have the basics of earning a living been forgotten altogether.

No the customer thinks they're always right!

Why should I give in to a customer who demands a refund for something bought six months ago? Well outside the company policy guidelines? Or how about the customer who was going to ring Joe Duffy because I wouldn't take back the mattress she had removed the plastic cover on - after she had been told twice to leave it on before she tried it for size (and it's written on the receipt) the list goes on.

I agree about good manners, a simple hello at a tillpoint isn't too much to ask but I also hate the full on badgering when you walk two steps inside the door of a shop.

jesus_thats_gre

jesus ****

Stephentlig

borderlinemeath wrote: »

No the customer thinks they're always right!

Why should I give in to a customer who demands a refund for something bought six months ago? Well outside the company policy guidelines? Or how about the customer who was going to ring Joe Duffy because I wouldn't take back the mattress she had removed the plastic cover on - after she had been told twice to leave it on before she tried it for size (and it's written on the receipt) the list goes on.

I agree about good manners, a simple hello at a tillpoint isn't too much to ask but I also hate the full on badgering when you walk two steps inside the door of a shop.

Although the logic behind the maxim: ''The customer is always right'' is one that is clearly not logical or warranted, (as you pointed out) I think its more of a maxim that is intended to have a psychological effect in opposition to a logical one, to cancel out all confusion I propose stretching the maxim to say ''The customer is always right until proven wrong'' :pac:

I'm sure if Del boy were a real character he would be partial to buying a bumper sticker with the above maxim printed on it and putting it on his little three wheeler van.:D

Pax Christi
Stephen

LeoB

borderlinemeath wrote: »

No the customer thinks they're always right!

Why should I give in to a customer who demands a refund for something bought six months ago? Well outside the company policy guidelines? Or how about the customer who was going to ring Joe Duffy because I wouldn't take back the mattress she had removed the plastic cover on - after she had been told twice to leave it on before she tried it for size (and it's written on the receipt) the list goes on.

I agree about good manners, a simple hello at a tillpoint isn't too much to ask but I also hate the full on badgering when you walk two steps inside the door of a shop.

Fair comment. I deal with the public every day for last 31 years and some are obnioxious. There are so many chancers out there its scarey.

My wife and I went to buy a sofa last year in a major store, it was on special in the window for €999 but when we went back the next day It was €1,499. I asked was it the one in the window the day before for €999 and his reply was 2you either want it or you dont". I asked your man in the shop if he would give it to me for €1,000 cash and I took out the money and he just walked away. We went to another shop and saw the same 1 for €1,050 delivered (same manufacturer) so I bought it. I went back to previous shop being a bit stubborn and asked for manager and put the same proposition €1,000 cash the manager sniggered rolled out all the spin until I produced the recipt from the other shop. I read a week later they were gone bust. I phoned the shop and said if you treated your customers a little better you would still be in business and explained what happened. From what I was told on phone this was common with some of the staff in that store. I was sorry to see staff losing their jobs but what a pathetic attidtude.

A point made on R.T.E a few weeks ago by some guru was we have to many non nationals serving in small shops and it has been proven this is not good for business, Derek Mooney refered to it yeasterday. I know the argument a lot of Irish people would not do these jobs during the boom. But should we not now start looking after our and maybe this would encourage more of us to shop local? Thats a question not a racist rant

However the point I was making was If shop owners invested a few bob in customer care it would pay them big time. It definatley influnces where I shop.

borderlinemeath

LeoB wrote: »

Fair comment. I deal with the public every day for last 31 years and some are obnioxious. There are so many chancers out there its scarey.

My wife and I went to buy a sofa last year in a major store, it was on special in the window for €999 but when we went back the next day It was €1,499. I asked was it the one in the window the day before for €999 and his reply was 2you either want it or you dont". I asked your man in the shop if he would give it to me for €1,000 cash and I took out the money and he just walked away. We went to another shop and saw the same 1 for €1,050 delivered (same manufacturer) so I bought it. I went back to previous shop being a bit stubborn and asked for manager and put the same proposition €1,000 cash the manager sniggered rolled out all the spin until I produced the recipt from the other shop. I read a week later they were gone bust. I phoned the shop and said if you treated your customers a little better you would still be in business and explained what happened. From what I was told on phone this was common with some of the staff in that store. I was sorry to see staff losing their jobs but what a pathetic attidtude.

A point made on R.T.E a few weeks ago by some guru was we have to many non nationals serving in small shops and it has been proven this is not good for business, Derek Mooney refered to it yeasterday. I know the argument a lot of Irish people would not do these jobs during the boom. But should we not now start looking after our and maybe this would encourage more of us to shop local? Thats a question not a racist rant

However the point I was making was If shop owners invested a few bob in customer care it would pay them big time. It definatley influnces where I shop.

I agree with a lot of what you are saying but at the end of the day the problem is cyclical.
Shoppers go North as they perceive it to be better value.
Southern shops are not achieving anywhere near their budgets which for many are set well below the previous years actual figures.
Cutbacks are made, first thing to go is staff - the easiest cost to control.
Now you have a short staffed shop, staff run ragged, customers snappy as they aren't getting the service they want.
Complaints are made, staff morale is down and the next day it starts again.

It's really hard to not take customers insults personally and stand there and take it. I had a woman in yesterday who tore strips off me because she had paid for something and it didn't fit in her car - two weeks ago.
In she saunters and with no receipt, no name of the staff member that served her she roars at me that she wants her purchase - and want's it now.
Only from some digging on the computer did I find her transaction and verify who served her and in turn find her purchase. She was meant to return the following day for the box that didn't fit and was told to bring in her receipt as the staff member wasn't working the day she was meant to come in. Lucky enough she was in yesterday to verify the customer as policy dictates that nothing that is claimed to be paid in full is let out of the store without a valid receipt.
But around a dozen or so customers heard her giving out hell to me and the perception is that we gave bad customer service.