Boots and Irish Prices

Belmono

Guys
I just can't get over how we're being totally ripped off (still) by Boots here in Ireland. I've noticed prices sneakily creep up on stuff (cf Eucerin 10% Urea was around 12 yoyo last year and has rocketed to over 16 - actually cheaper in certain 'home' pharmacies), alongside the continuing 1: 1.50 conversion rate that is still being brazenly and consistently used. What makes it worse is that on their website boots.com you can clearly see the difference in prices as they all appear in sterling here.
How do they still get away with this?

ejmaztec

Belmono wrote: »

Guys
I just can't get over how we're being totally ripped off (still) by Boots here in Ireland. I've noticed prices sneakily creep up on stuff (cf Eucerin 10% Urea was around 12 yoyo last year and has rocketed to over 16 - actually cheaper in certain 'home' pharmacies), alongside the continuing 1: 1.50 conversion rate that is still being brazenly and consistently used. What makes it worse is that on their website boots.com you can clearly see the difference in prices as they all appear in sterling here.
How do they still get away with this?

Different country, different market, different prices. Cheaper elsewhere? Buy elsewhere. At least their very existence is forcing local retailers to compete.

si_guru

But boots buy all their stock in the UK... it should be 1.1:1...

ejmaztec

si_guru wrote: »

But boots buy all their stock in the UK... it should be 1.1:1...

Lidl, for example, source their goods from the same countries, yet charge different prices for it in every country in which their shops are located.

ian_m

Rents, wages, overheads etc are higher here than in the UK. I personally find it sad that this is the case.

Ireland still has a long way to go in terms of competitiveness.

wmpdd3

Capitalism, if Eucerin 10% Urea is €4 more in Boots who is going to buy it?

Go somewhere cheaper. Same with prescriptions mu OH goes to 2 chemists to fill the 3 items on his script as the prices are so different.
And I pick up his moisturizers in the supermarket saves over €18 per month!

si_guru

ian_m wrote: »

Rents, wages, overheads etc are higher here than in the UK. I personally find it sad that this is the case.

Ireland still has a long way to go in terms of competitiveness.

I have to disagree that wages are not higher... Boots are profitting off of Ireland.

sesna

si_guru wrote: »

I have to disagree that wages are not higher... Boots are profitting off of Ireland.

Yes they are not a charity, they will charge whatever the market dictates. Aside from Eucerin they are much cheaper on a huge range of healthcare items, vitamins and have even been rapped on the knuckles by the government for going too cheap on certain medicines.

mcaul

si_guru wrote: »

I have to disagree that wages are not higher... Boots are profitting off of Ireland.

Whilst I agree Boots do charge quite a bit more than others on no special offer products, I can absolutley say that retail wages are 30% higher in ireland than the UK on every level from management down to store room staff.

As for boots buying everything from the UK - this is also incorrect. Many items are "controlled" and thus may only be purchased from Irish distributors. - Even Over the counter medicines must be approved by the IMB (Irish Medicines Board) and then can only be distributed though official distribution channels.

Different story for toiletries etc - thay can be sourced anywhere.

channelsurfer

examples of boots pricing oral b reverse action tootbrushes twin packs £4.99 newry...8.49euro boots swords. (7.19 in dunnes stores btw).
a certain anti perspirant is 8.95 in boots and in every other independent chemist in ireland i have bought it its 7.45.....so basically it still boots using the old system of 1pound to 1.50euro exchange rate......

rubadub

Belmono wrote: »

How do they still get away with this?

Where else will people go, the chemist next door is probably around the same price and they would be utter FCUKING MORONS NOT to set their prices in line with them. Also they take advantage of idiots who will presume they will be cheaper, and not shop around, so some will mindlessly go their expecting them to be cheap on ALL items, a common trick I have seen woodies & powercity do quite a lot of.

HappyHarry

mcaul wrote: »

I can absolutley say that retail wages are 30% higher in ireland than the UK on every level from management down to store room staff.

If labor costs are 10% of total sales in UK, and are 30% higher here. You can say that at the same retail price labor costs would be 13% here.
Increasing retail price by 3% will keep profits the same.

Now apply the same rational to rent, insurance etc, and add 3.5% for the VAT rate difference (where applicable)

I could see a justification for 10% - maybe 15% depending on the type of retailer. But not the 30% - 60% that can regularly be seen.

It's unfair that all retailers are tarred with this brush, but there you have it.

ejmaztec

It seems logical that, when the foreigner retailers decided to set up shop in Ireland, they gauged their prices on approximately the same level that the natives were charging. The fact that there seem to be larger gaps than expected, must mean that the natives were charging over the odds in the first place.

Anyone coming to Ireland over the decades will probably confirm that everything here was always more expensive than in the UK, and long before the foreign companies arrived.

Without the foreign competition, consumers would be paying substantially more than they are now.

Mary Hairney

I rejoiced when I heard Boots was opening up in Jervis in 1997 because I felt it would bring down the price of my meds significantly. But things got dearer after they came and if you ask me they had no interest in doing prescriptions or bringing deals to the customer

I think as an irish person my ideas about competition are false- people don't come here to compete they come to take advantage of the market prices and merely push out native businesses without lowering prices.

We're such PaddyIrish for taking all this scam competition !

ejmaztec

Mary Hairney wrote: »

I rejoiced when I heard Boots was opening up in Jervis in 1997 because I felt it would bring down the price of my meds significantly. But things got dearer after they came and if you ask me they had no interest in doing prescriptions or bringing deals to the customer

I think as an irish person my ideas about competition are false- people don't come here to compete they come to take advantage of the market prices and merely push out native businesses without lowering prices.

We're such PaddyIrish for taking all this scam competition !

Do they operate pharmacies in any of their branches? I thought that they weren't allowed to for some reason. I know that the one in Tralee has no pharmacy, therefore doesn't do prescriptions.

I don't think that a native business would be edged out if it were competitive. Many of them are complacent, thinking that they can maintain their customer base by not promoting themselves. They assume that, as they've been there for a long time, their customers won't go anywhere else.

Fighting_Irish

Belmono wrote: »

Guys
I just can't get over how we're being totally ripped off (still) by Boots here in Ireland. I've noticed prices sneakily creep up on stuff (cf Eucerin 10% Urea was around 12 yoyo last year and has rocketed to over 16 - actually cheaper in certain 'home' pharmacies), alongside the continuing 1: 1.50 conversion rate that is still being brazenly and consistently used. What makes it worse is that on their website boots.com you can clearly see the difference in prices as they all appear in sterling here.
How do they still get away with this?

I lol @ people like you, business's are in business to make money. If people are paying €20 for a bottle of water, Boots will sell it for €20

GerardKeating

ejmaztec wrote: »

Do they operate pharmacies in any of their branches? I thought that they weren't allowed to for some reason. I know that the one in Tralee has no pharmacy, therefore doesn't do prescriptions.

I don't think that a native business would be edged out if it were competitive. Many of them are complacent, thinking that they can maintain their customer base by not promoting themselves. They assume that, as they've been there for a long time, their customers won't go anywhere else.

Some, Tallaght for example.

sesna

ejmaztec wrote: »

Do they operate pharmacies in any of their branches? I thought that they weren't allowed to for some reason. I know that the one in Tralee has no pharmacy, therefore doesn't do prescriptions.

I don't think that a native business would be edged out if it were competitive. Many of them are complacent, thinking that they can maintain their customer base by not promoting themselves. They assume that, as they've been there for a long time, their customers won't go anywhere else.

In over 40 locations throughout Ireland and around 20 in Dublin, according to their website

ejmaztec

I think that the Tralee situation is something to do with the other chemists in the town, and that Boots hasn't got a pharmacy as a result of some agreement.