This is one of the ways the economy is going down the crapper....

Rolfzilla

Need to let off some steam at some events that p!**ed me of recently.

I need to get a new mouse for my laptop at home, so I looked up the PC World site and found the Logitech LX8 £17.99. I tought ok if the £/€ rate was at abou 90cent that 10% and if I allow another 20% for tax/vat then I would be happy to pay maybe €25. Down to Airside and found the mouse........but holy crap it is €40 that is a 122.9% of a difference.

Now if there is a truck of identical product being delivered to Dublin and to Aberdeen why should we be screwed over for not having UK post code. In fact forget Aberdeen; Derry and Belfast seem to have the same prices so the argument if offered by PC World of crossing the Irish Sea would not hold the lovely glowing Sellafield enriched water.

So what did I do.....complain, absolutely.....that did nothing except bother the frightened manager.....probably just a stand in. He did not set the corporate policy to screw the Irish consumer anyway. After that I walked to Harvey Normans....MS travel mouse €9.....nice.

Dublin_Gunner

The moral of the story?

Unless you like paying over the odds, don't buy anything in PC World.

Could have told you that well before your mouse excursion.

jimmmy

Do not get mad, get even. Set up a shop here in Ireland selling mice. Pay your taxes from the profits you make. Do it better than PC world. Call your business RyanMice, the low cost mice providers.

marco_polo

Do you know if their bricks and mortar UK stores match their online prices? But in general you point about the pricing of most UK retailers holds. Certainly some, but not all of it, can be explained by the fact that this is an expensive country to do business in.

Walking into PCWorld was your main mistake though.

Dublin_Gunner

May I suggest that this thread be moved here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=235

Dannyboy83

Speaking of PC World, I went to get an Iomega hard disk recently, it was on Pixmania for €120, in PC World, it was over €400, a bit over 3x the cost.

I 'perused' the store for a bit, and everything in there seemed to be at least twice the cost of the shops which I would consider to be on the expensive side.
I really cannot understand how they are still in business in this country.

Rujib1

jimmmy wrote: »

Do not get mad, get even. Set up a shop here in Ireland selling mice. Pay your taxes from the profits you make. Do it better than PC world. Call your business RyanMice, the low cost mice providers.

The old adage is "build a better mouse trap, and the world will flock to your door". Now you probably want to tell me to keep my trap shut:eek:

Dannyboy83

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

May I suggest that this thread be moved here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=235

This thread should really be about whats wrong with the private sector and how to fix it.

I'll shoot first: Rents.

Commerical rent is way too high in this country.
Fianna Fail have now adjusted the legislation:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1201/breaking28.html?via=mr

Somebody somewhere should have to take the hit.
It cannot be the retailer, they'll go bankrupt.
It cannot be the consumer, they'll go elsewhere (NI).
It has to be the landlord.

masteroftherealm

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

This thread should really be about whats wrong with the private sector and how to fix it.

I'll shoot first: Rents.

Commerical rent is way too high in this country.
Fianna Fail have now adjusted the legislation:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1201/breaking28.html?via=mr

Somebody somewhere should have to take the hit.
It cannot be the retailer, they'll go bankrupt.
It cannot be the consumer, they'll go elsewhere (NI).
It has to be the landlord.

Wow I agree with Dannyboy on something.
Commercial rates are artificially high because landlords are attempting to keep their profit margins as they have been for the past 10 years, a totally unsustainable position that I personally have fallen prey to and that hit me very very very hard.

jimmmy

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

This thread should really be about whats wrong with the private sector and how to fix it.

I'll shoot first: Rents.

Commerical rent is way too high in this country.
Fianna Fail have now adjusted the legislation:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1201/breaking28.html?via=mr

Somebody somewhere should have to take the hit.
It cannot be the retailer, they'll go bankrupt.
It cannot be the consumer, they'll go elsewhere (NI).
It has to be the landlord.

Its more complicated than that. Some landlords are pension funds. Squeeze them more + you depress pensions more. Some small landlords / developers are going bust / insolvent.. Many businesses either own the property or are paying a mortgage on it, so attacking "landlords" will not help, especially with yields being so low and hany buildings being empty.

The savings to be made are on the government expenditure. Reduce vat and reduce excise duty and people will not shop in N.I. Cut public service wages 40% to the EC average.

Long Onion

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

This thread should really be about whats wrong with the private sector and how to fix it.

I'll shoot first: Rents.

Commerical rent is way too high in this country.
Fianna Fail have now adjusted the legislation:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/1201/breaking28.html?via=mr

Somebody somewhere should have to take the hit.
It cannot be the retailer, they'll go bankrupt.
It cannot be the consumer, they'll go elsewhere (NI).
It has to be the landlord.

Wait 'till you see what's going to happen to insurance premiums after the flooding!

I think the whole situation is a giant rat's ass to be honest. The only thing that would sort it is if everyone took a 20% reduction across the board on everything - relatively speaking we would be no better off, but the economy as a whole would become much more competitive and we might attract a few more jobs.

Employers PRSI is too high, Utilities are too high, Insurance costs are too high, Professionals fees are too high, the list goes on and on and on ...

future_plans

Have to agree with you lads here. Where I live there are new "mini" shopping complexes with dozens of empty units. Ask anybody who has considered leasing one of them and they will tell you that the rents are so high that one could not run a viable business out of them. If the likes of these owners (who in the post part are developers) can afford to and are able to sit these empty units, then maybe they do have too much cash in their pockets!

ei.sdraob

jimmmy wrote: »

Do not get mad, get even. Set up a shop here in Ireland selling mice. Pay your taxes from the profits you make. Do it better than PC world. Call your business RyanMice, the low cost mice providers.

only if it was that simple

the guy would get a heart attack once he sees the amount of redtape, hidden taxes and paperwork involved

ei.sdraob

Dannyboy83 wrote: »

This thread should really be about whats wrong with the private sector and how to fix it.

I'll shoot first: Rents.

Commerical rent is way too high in this country.

and instead of letting the prices fall in the market due to oversupply

what do FF do?

yep they buy up (NAMA) empty properties and keep them empty to keep the rents high

its obscene

bangersandmash

jimmmy wrote: »

Its more complicated than that. Some landlords are pension funds. Squeeze them more + you depress pensions more.

It's inevitable that pension funds that were too heavily reliant on property are going to suffer. Peak commercial and retail rents are no longer sustainable. The most vocal opponents of banning upward only rent reviews were pension fund managers. But it's obvious that such practices were to the detriment of ordinary retailers.

If we're going to make comparison to the EC or elsewhere, we can't ignore the fact that until 2008 Grafton St was in the top 5 of the world's most expensive retail streets in terms of rents. It's still in the top 10. Our high street rents should be comparable to Manchester or Newcastle, not Manhattan.

Let's be realistic - consumers aren't going to care about the rental yield of the landlord who owns a retail unit. If rents are high and the cost is inevitably passed on to the consumer, then of course they're going to shop elsewhere.

jimmmy

Most rents in the country are not Grafton st. rents. If talking about cars, you do not talk about Rolls Royces. Most rents in the country are not that high - certainly with the rents being achieved no foreign investor is investing in Irish commercial property, as rents are not attractive enough.

MysticalRain

Here's another example of huge price discrepancies:

Sony Reader Touch Edition - Silver. €369.99

Sony Reader Touch Edition - Silver. £249.99 (€275)


That's €95 in the difference.

jimmmy

Set up a shop in Ireland selling them. Pay the taxes in Ireland. See how you get on.

Mcloke

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

The moral of the story?

Unless you like paying over the odds, don't buy anything in PC World.

Could have told you that well before your mouse excursion.

Replace PC World with Ireland :rolleyes:

john_d_baptist

Rolfzilla wrote: »

Need to let off some steam at some events that p!**ed me of recently.

I need to get a new mouse for my laptop at home, so I looked up the PC World site and found the Logitech LX8 £17.99. I tought ok if the £/€ rate was at abou 90cent that 10% and if I allow another 20% for tax/vat then I would be happy to pay maybe €25. Down to Airside and found the mouse........but holy crap it is €40 that is a 122.9% of a difference.

Now if there is a truck of identical product being delivered to Dublin and to Aberdeen why should we be screwed over for not having UK post code. In fact forget Aberdeen; Derry and Belfast seem to have the same prices so the argument if offered by PC World of crossing the Irish Sea would not hold the lovely glowing Sellafield enriched water.

So what did I do.....complain, absolutely.....that did nothing except bother the frightened manager.....probably just a stand in. He did not set the corporate policy to screw the Irish consumer anyway. After that I walked to Harvey Normans....MS travel mouse €9.....nice.

This is where I get all my stuff from, as does PC World and Harvey Norman, time to wise up and cut out the middle man

http://www.dealextreme.com/products.dx/category.305

bangersandmash

jimmmy wrote: »

Most rents in the country are not that high - certainly with the rents being achieved no foreign investor is investing in Irish commercial property, as rents are not attractive enough.

As you say the yields relative to prices are poor, as is the case in the residential market. In both cases the solution is to reduce the price of the property to levels where rents being achieved are attractive to investors, rather than artificially maintaining existing rental levels to the detriment of retailers and consumers.

jimmmy

Most rents in the country are not that high - the average shop in Ireland - think of the tens of thousands of shops in the country - is not paying much more in rent than the average shop in UK or Germany. Government expenditure is the elephant in the room, and the governments attempt to raise enough tax to pay all these inefficient + overpaid public servants by jacking up the price of drink, cigs, cars etc.

bangersandmash

jimmmy wrote: »

Most rents in the country are not that high - the average shop in Ireland - think of the tens of thousands of shops in the country - is not paying much more in rent than the average shop in UK or Germany. Government expenditure is the elephant in the room, and the governments attempt to raise enough tax to pay all these inefficient + overpaid public servants by jacking up the price of drink, cigs, cars etc.

Perhaps. But I'm not sure how that's going to encourage foreign investors to hoover up our overhang of empty over-priced, poorly-built, poorly-located commercial properties.

Raising rents to support zombie developers and mismanaged pension funds doesn't sound like a step on the path to restoring competitiveness.

leninbenjamin

I went to buy a few PC games recently and did similar, priced them on the internet and went into to town to buy them thinking i'd happily enough pay 20-25% over the odds... but when the local prices are well over twice the online price no one in their right mind can justify making such a purchase (in one case 400%).

SkepticOne

Unfortunately for rents to come down it is going to mean bankruptcy for a lot of landlords with fixed loan repayments and tenants leaving. You can kind of see why they might try to maintain rents or even raise them as a means of holding on to their business a little bit longer. The adjustments that need to be made will not be easy.

ei.sdraob

MysticalRain wrote: »

Here's another example of huge price discrepancies:

Sony Reader Touch Edition - Silver. €369.99

Sony Reader Touch Edition - Silver. £249.99 (€275)


That's €95 in the difference.

damn! thanks for link and there was me about to buy one

edit: 289 euro on komplett > http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=508096

jimmmy

bangersandmash wrote: »

Raising rents to support zombie developers and mismanaged pension funds doesn't sound like a step on the path to restoring competitiveness.

Nobody suggests raising rents. No rents are raising - many are falling as it is.
As said already : " Most rents in the country are not that high - the average shop in Ireland - think of the tens of thousands of shops in the country - is not paying much more in rent than the average shop in UK or Germany. Government expenditure is the elephant in the room, and the governments attempt to raise enough tax to pay all these inefficient + overpaid public servants by jacking up the price of drink, cigs, cars etc."

97i9y3941

some stuff is overpriced because they know you cant go anywhere else in ireland for them,instance i was looking for some recordable dual layer dvds,i was looking at €25 for a pack of ten in argos,to which i knew i would probably get it cheaper off the net,to which i obtained a 25 pack from amazon uk for €18..

seclachi

jimmmy wrote: »

Do not get mad, get even. Set up a shop here in Ireland selling mice. Pay your taxes from the profits you make. Do it better than PC world. Call your business RyanMice, the low cost mice providers.

After you go out of buisness he`ll probably realise there were plenty of tools out there still willing to pay pcworld 40 quid for the mouse and another 20 for a 5 year guarentee

nesf

MysticalRain wrote: »

Here's another example of huge price discrepancies:

Sony Reader Touch Edition - Silver. €369.99

Sony Reader Touch Edition - Silver. £249.99 (€275)


That's €95 in the difference.

Much cheaper than that in Waterstones down here in Cork. 280 or something I think.

Dr Galen

nesf wrote: »

Much cheaper than that in Waterstones down here in Cork. 280 or something I think.

OT

maybe so, but wait wait wait. Apple tablet is going to piss all over it!