Spar - what a rip off.

Gerry

I think spar would be a prime candidate for a boycott, their prices make me sick. For example: A bottle of coke costs €1.25 in Spar, but only €1.00 in Costcutters. Thats ridiculous profiteering. I'm sure other people will be able to come up with plenty of other examples. Also note how much a packet of crisps costs you these days, rarely under 40c.

Repli

A bottle of coke costs €1.25 in Spar, but only €1.00 in Costcutters

I think that's because Spar don't buy in nearly as much stock as Costcutters, so they're forced to charge more in order to make a profit? I could be wrong..

Turner

ahh in greece i bought a bottle of coke for 39 cents, and they are complaining about euro price hikes HAH!

Gerry

Thats bull repli, I've seen only a few costcutters shops, spar is all over the place. The few costcutters shops I have seen are only the same size as spar anyway.

Makaveli

Spar is a rip-off. I know, I work in one.
Prices get hiked all the time.
But, some are more expensive than others.
Coke is €1.14 in the one I work in, where as it's €1.25 in the Centra down the road and 95c or something in Tesco.
One reason prices are high in Spar is because they are forced to buy from Spar or wholesalers associated with Spar, so it costs more.
It was all explained to me by my manager when I complained about the Lucozade Sport one time. I couldnt understand why it costs €1.25 in the Spar on the Ballymun Road opposite DCU and €1.75 in my Spar.
He explained why but I forget now.

Anyway, chocolate bars are 64c that's a rip off considering in other shops they are like 56c in general.
I have an idea why prices are so high in my shop, but I wont say in case I get in trouble.

Oh and on the Lucozade Sport thing again, one of the newsagents in the Stillorgan Shopping Centre (not Cosmopoliton the other one) charges €1.95 for it. 2 quid for a 500ml drink, what the hell is that all about.

Don't shop in Spar, you'll be robbed blind. :mad:
That includes employess because we get no concessions, well not in my one anyway.
We even have to pay full deli prices, which is a disgrace. Oh and all deli transactions are tax free. Grrrrrr

Gerry

The reason why spar charge such high prices is very simple, its because they can get away with it. I'd be intrigued to hear your managers explanation for that 50c difference in the bottle of lucozade though. I'd just say that the prices are changed to suit different areas, I don't think you'll get too many dcu students or ballymun residents paying €1.95 for a lucozade.

eth0_

Well, I bought a packet of johnny onion rings in centra on o'connell st (the one opposite Easons) the other day for 75c (!!!), bought the same thing yesterday in the Centra on Westmoreland st and it was about 20c cheaper!

But in the westmoreland st one, they now sell beer, have you seen the price? 2.30 per CAN! hahahah!!

Makaveli

Originally posted by Gerry
The reason why spar charge such high prices is very simple, its because they can get away with it. I'd be intrigued to hear your managers explanation for that 50c difference in the bottle of lucozade though. I'd just say that the prices are changed to suit different areas, I don't think you'll get too many dcu students or ballymun residents paying €1.95 for a lucozade.

That's a very good point.
Never thought of that actually. That would also explain why newsagents in town are so expensive. Because people are going to pay it.
But that being said, the Spar I work in is in direct competition with Londis, Centra, another Newsagent, 2 in the shopping centre and well Tesco too.
It's a nothing walk to each one.
Odd how prices vary so much with each one.
I'm sure they all make a fairly nice profit, I dont think their is any collusion. It's down to people too though, walk and extra 5 minutes and pay 20c less or just buy it in the nearest one. If people are not gonna bother then the shops will continue to charge more.
But at the moment Centra is the most expensive, or that one in the shopping centre.
Actually the other day, myself and the other person I was working with took down the price of a load of things. The plan is to compare this price list with the items after Halloween just to see how much the prices have hiked up again. And I guarantee they will have been hiked up.
Oh and I just rememebered. On the drink thing. When the Euro came in the drinks cost €1.08, then they jumped to €1.14. Centra's jumped from €1.04 (or something around there) to €1.25.
I'd love to know how they can explain that one.

Gerry

Fair enough, walk to another shop. Its often the case though, that theres only one or 2 shops in the vicinity, both charging similar prices. Also they will be dearer or cheaper for different things. Like perhaps the rolls are cheaper in centra, but drinks are more expensive. It also depends a lot on what people are mainly going to the shop for. Say shop A is very expensive, but has excellent rolls than the cheaper shop B. People will go to A, and buy all their stuff there, say a drink and some more food as well. So a shop can hook people in, and then rip them off because they don't want to walk to 2 shops on their lunch hour. (for example)

Good work on taking down the prices, hopefully you can post them up here after halloween.

Wossack

Well I for one never know the price of a mars bar off hand, and
generally prices arent shown. So you only know the price when
its rung up, and well, in my view, its bought by this stage. Most
people will just avoid any conflict/embarrasment by paying
whatever figure pops up...

Mercury_Tilt

This post has been deleted.

Makaveli

Originally posted by Wossack
Well I for one never know the price of a mars bar off hand, and
generally prices arent shown. So you only know the price when
its rung up, and well, in my view, its bought by this stage. Most
people will just avoid any conflict/embarrasment by paying
whatever figure pops up...

Why dont you just ask how much it is. Most registers have an enquiry key.
It's hardly conflict if you dont want it, there's also a correction key.

mike65

Well I for one never know the price of a mars bar off hand, and
generally prices arent shown. So you only know the price when
its rung up, and well, in my view, its bought by this stage. Most
people will just avoid any conflict/embarrasment by paying
whatever figure pops up...

Good point, ppl here won't make a fuss. All items should be individually priced like in the old days before scanning
became commen, its all well and good to have the price on the shelf edge but they're often in the wrong place or
fighting for attention with 10 other prices or just not there.

Mike.

Typedef

What amazes me most is the price differential between some shops.

In one shop I get charged €2.10 for 2 litres of coke and in another I get charged €1.80 and yet another it's €1.85. Now I accept that smaller shops have to charge more, but I do remember that there used to be at most a 5 pence difference in a can of coke in most shops before the changeover.

Now call me paranoid, but perhaps the notion has crossed the shop keepers mind that with a new currency he/she/they can add on €0.10 to certain products and the customer will be largely, none the wiser, evidence I have experienced seems to confirm this.

The Irish should take some example from the Greeks and not take what effectively amounts to a huge rip off, lying down.

Maybe that's just the cynic speaking.

OLDYELLAR

i work in a centra but we are about to be turned into spar and we`ve been told that the prices should be lowered , i d`ont really know why but that`s what we`ve been told , but we`ll know in a few weeks whether it`s bull or not , as it stands a bottle of coke is 95 cent and a can is 75 , so its fairly alright but we`ll see.

Makaveli

Originally posted by mike65


Good point, ppl here won't make a fuss. All items should be individually priced like in the old days before scanning
became commen, its all well and good to have the price on the shelf edge but they're often in the wrong place or
fighting for attention with 10 other prices or just not there.

Mike.

I'm not against what you are saying, but it would take ages to price every bar and drink.
I mean there's usually about 50 bars in a box. Maybe I dunno how many different bars there are. 100 maybe...
That's an awful lot of price tags.
If you asked me to do it, I wouldnt tbh.
As for drinks, well there is usually a sticker on the fridge saying how much a bottle is and how much a can is.
With the exception of the Lucozade fridge in my shop.

As for 2ltrs, well they all have plu's under them, just like almost every other product on the shelves.
Except crisps, which I also dont think should have price tags on them because, well, there is a **** load of crisps too.
Just my opinion.

scojones

I know of a Centra outlet that got one of their workers to go around and change the SEL's a few days before the euro came in. Lets say pistachio nuts were £1 which would make the SEL say €1.27. Instead of that it said pistachio nuts were £1.20 and are whatever that conversion is. Follow that?

Kalina

I paid around 60c for a tiny milky-bar and 1.28 for a bottle of lucozade in Spar. I understand that they can't buy in bulk so much as companies such as Tesco or Dunnes Stores but surely they can't get away with adding up to 30c peer product!

LFCFan

I used to live near a Spar and the stuff I saw going on in there made my blood boil. Here's an example:

1. After totting up a few things once the manager noticed that he had forgotten to up the price on a packet of biscuits I had bought and had the cheek to ask me for the extra 25p he wanted for them. No chance mate.

2. The place is always full of scumbag little kids who do nothing but cause trouble and give the 'bouncers' hassle. Imagine having to have bouncers in a convenience store.

3. 2 days after the changeover I bought a tin of beans. It still had to £ price on it. That was £0.62. It also had the € Price. That was €1. I complained to the manager(who was a total prick) and his reaction was to remove the old price and tell me if I didn't like it I could go elsewhere. Needless to say, I put down all the stuff I had just gathered together, told him he was a moron and walked out, never to return again. I sent a mail to the Spar head office to complain but of course got no reply.

Needless to say, I have never set foot in Spar since and after telling this story to some of my friends and family they have vowed never to set foot in one either. The only way these theiving bastards are ever gonna get the message is by voting with our feet. In other words. BOYCOTT! The only way to hit these people is in the pocket.

DMC

Spend Pounds And Regret.

(thats what those intitals stood for me, which hasn't been converted to Euro, unlike the prices plus interest......)

decob

One of the main reasons for the price differences in different shop is the different markups used by different shop owners. When talking about the likes of SPAR and Centra one must remember that these are independent shop using the SPAR/Centra name in return for purchasing their stock from with BWG foods/Musgraves.

I'm not 100% sure on how SPAR works, but i do know about centra, basically every week we do get price changes that Centra set prices on... based on sales to date of that product, stuff like that, but generally the the mark-up on most products in the shop i work in is between 25 and 30%, but other products are alot more, for instance the markup on bottled water is crazy..

jd

Try the centra in eastpoint.. a large captive population (it takes too long to get to fairview at luchtime so no competition)...ouch.....

The Corinthian

What the fsck are people complaining about? Spar, Centra, et al have always been expensive in comparison to supermarkets, long before the introduction of the Euro. As Merc rightly pointed out, you’re paying for the convenience - nearby, open late/24 hours, etc.

Go do your shopping in Tescos, Dunnes or Superquinn and stop moaning, all of you.

Cork

But certain items have got very expensive since the introduction of the Euro. Stuff like soft drinks, toothpaste, shampoo, deoderant?

Where is the rip off happening?

Typedef

Perhaps what the issue really is, is indirect tax.

Par example, Irish direct tax rates are not particularly high, this is a given, but it is the taxes on cars, the extreme price of insurance, the extreme price of houses, even has The Corinthian and Mike65 have pointed out in another thread, the price of renting a shop space in the city centre (I personally got quoted £100,000 for a lease for a shop space in Drumcondra (before a lick of paint or equipment for an internet cafe was factored in, thus utterly pricing me right out of the market)), or the price of simply renting a room in Dublin or Cork for a night. The government contributes by adding ludicrous taxes onto goods (like cars) in an environment where Ireland has on of the highest if not the highest rate of inflation in the EU and price increases by profiteers can go ostensibly unchecked, due to people's lack of adjustment to the new currency.

For me the rip off is in insurance, I'm utterly throttled with 2,400 to be divied up for third party only on my motorcycle, that means if it gets robbed that is just my tough. Is the cost of motor insurance the fault of the Euro? It's a factor for sure, but the insurance industry's 'non existant' cartel is the main reason.

Still it would help if interest rates in the Eurozone were lowered, this would take inflationary pressures off the Irish economy somewhat and I have difficulty in asking people to accept less wage in the hopes inflation will come down, because if it doesn't then the people on less wage will loose out, again lowering of interest rates would help, so in a sense that's one thing the Euro changeover has indellably set in stone, Ireland's total lack of any real form of inflationary redress, bar asking it's people to accept less money for the work those people do.