Irish consumers are still paying up to 40% more than shoppers in the UK, according to a financial journalist.
Irish Times Price Watch columnist Conor Pope told The Anton Savage Show that after 20 years of running the column, he still receives frequent questions about the difference in prices between Ireland and the UK.
“I think that was probably one of the first queries that I got from readers of the column, and up until last week, I was still getting queries of that nature,” he said.
“People still can’t understand why a deodorant that sells in a pharmacy in London costs five euros, and it costs 10 euros in the Republic of Ireland – it makes no sense.”
A woman holds a shopping basket of groceries. (Photo by Matthew Horwood/Getty Images)Mr Pope said this has continued in part because retailers see Ireland as a ‘treasure island’.
“No matter what the retailer is, they’ll always say ‘Oh, well, different market conditions, higher overheads, transport’,” he said.
“All of that stuff might add another 10, 12, 15% - it doesn’t add 40% onto the price of a product.
“But it kind of emerged in 2008 or 2009 that some retailers in the UK had dubbed the Republic of Ireland ‘treasure island’ - and they dubbed it that because they were able to make a bigger margin on their products in the Republic than they were in the UK.”
Stick up for yourself
Mr Pope also said that Irish customers can be bad at sticking up for themselves, which can lead to worse insurance deals.
“What our readers are telling us is that they have seen price hikes between 20 and 40% [on their car insurance],” he said.
“I think it’s a responsibility on us to shop around and try and knock even 10 of 15% off that.
“But of course, the reality is if companies across the board are hiking their prices, people don’t tend to shop around - but that’s another thing I’d say about Irish consumers, we’re not great at that.”
According to Mr Pope, most companies value new customers the most, and will therefore offer them the best deals.
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Featured image: People with Christmas shopping in 2013. Image: Tetra Images / Alamy
