Tesco beats deflation
I always thought I had a reasonable grasp of economics.
I understood the basic principles –
- Shops want more money so they put prices up
- Workers want more money to pay the shopkeepers so they look for a pay rise
- Workers go on strike
- All hell breaks loose until eventually workers get half what they asked for.
- And so on.
That is called inflation?
Deflation is where everything goes backwards.
- Shops can’t sell things so they drop prices
- Workers take pay cuts or lose their jobs.
- No one buys anything because it will be half the price next week
So my understanding is that with inflation, everything goes up?
Deflation is where everything goes down?
I was doing a drop of on-line shopping last night and decided to use Tescos.
I found this –
Now I am really fucking confused.
LOL! You and me both!
Maybe they were hoping no-one would notice 🙂
Welcome Insomniac! “Maybe they were hoping no-one would notice” I may be old, but I ain’t senile. Yet.
Given the “average” math skills taught in school today, most people thought it was a bargin and sales increased.
Jim C – Obviously you are bang on the nail. I just had my order delivered, and they were sold out of Choc Ices!!
ha ha someone must really love their chocolate. Thats always a good thing mind you. Hope your well sorry i havent been on line in ages bloody eircom kidnapped my modem and they are holding it to ransom for a few hundred euros. Bloody savages.
Bloody Tesco.
Last time I was in there I bought a pack of pancakes that should have been half price.
Cue a duty manager still in nappies telling me that they didn’t even stock those pancakes and that I was mistaken.
I took him by the hand to where I got the pancakes and then pulled the price tag off the shelf.
I always check receipts now for the offers that they should have on, but never follow through with. Another woman in front of me had spotted €30 worth of discounts that hadn’t been applied.
I could go on, but they’re all bastards.
Tesco? It sounds like a large machine run by mad scientists and maintained by large men with titles like, “Certified Left-handed belt tensioner technician level 2”.
“The worlds second largest Tesco is coming on line later this year and great things are expected from it’s results.”
“Every little helps” eh? More like “bend over sunshine”
Vicky – Knowing Eircom, you were probably better off without the modem!
Maxi – Please do go on. I like to see a grown man cry.
Brianf – I am no expert in these matters, but I think Tesco is a sort of Walmart without the American accent. They are into everything here – shops, petrol stations, insurance, mobile phones, highway robbery, you name it.
Thrifty – I always bring my KY when I shop in Tescos.
Perhaps not as confused as the underpaid employee in charge of up-dating the TESCO website.
My neighbour says that TESCO stands for “The English Supermarket conning (the) Oirish”, but personally I am more tolerant. There is a free market, with space for anyone who wishes to sell goods to people.
The ‘art’ of good shopping, if I may call it that, is to find the best deals for the lowest possible prices. And in order to do that, one needs to use the old way of shopping around, comparing goods and prices.
As I have to look after myself and do all my shopping, I am meanwhile quite good at that. And it amazes me every week how big the differences in prices are from shop to shop, and even within the same shop. So, with a bit of extra time and the use of one’s brain, one can find bargains all the time.
However, one should also be aware of the fact that Ireland is the most unregulated market in the EU, which means that subsequently almost all goods and services here are on average twice as expensive as they are in most continental countries. (Since you spend your holiday in France, you will have noticed the difference yourself.) Not even to mention the new EU members in the East, where prices are usually only 25-35% of the Irish average.
And I would caution of falling easily for so-called ‘special offers’, where the apparent ‘normal’ price is often astronomical, while the reduced price is about Irish average. The question is: What is the item actually worth?
Only a couple of days ago I saw in a local supermarket a ‘special offer’ for broccoli and cauliflower, neatly packaged in plastic. There was one piece of each in the package, apparently 400g in weight together. But they looked very small. The ‘normal’ price, crossed out dramatically, was given as 3.49, and the ‘reduced’ price as 2.34 Euros.
I find this unbelievable, especially during a recession, and would laugh out loud, if it were not so serious.
The ‘special offer’ price is far too high, and the listed ‘normal’ price of 3.49 borders in my opinion robbery. Only that it isn’t, because no-one is forced to buy the item at these prices. In my local greengrocer’s shop – less than 5 minutes walk from the supermarket and even closer to my own house – I get a complete head of cauliflower for 1.20 (and often even for just one Euro) and two sticks of broccoli for the same price. So I buy my fruit and veg there, and not in any supermarket.
This is only one simple example, but one can find similar conditions all over the country every day. And beware also of the myth that – because we are in a recession – the inflation rate is dropping, and with it prices. In my experience that is a blatant lie.
The inflation rate is falling, yes, but only because it is heavily influenced by mortgage rates and the prices for large items, such as cars. They are coming down quite clearly, although they are still well above European average here.
But the prices for one’s daily essentials, like food and basic household items, are actually rising. They have been rising steadily for the past ten years, during the boom, but they are not falling now. Quite the opposite.
Many items I buy every week have increased in price by between 25% and 60% over the past three years alone, and they are still rising.
The people of Ireland are once again conned, especially by the food industry, and unless people complain or ‘vote with their feet’ and buy overpriced items in a less greedy place where the price is acceptable, they will get away with it.
P.S. – Since we are both pipe smokers, let me just add another significant example for the Irish rip-off culture: 100g of my favourite pipe tobacco is sold in Germany for 13.90, while in Dublin – if it is available at all – the price is 32.50 Euros. A lesser quality second choice tobacco I can buy here locally is priced at 7.70 Euros for only 25g, a packaging unit not even used on the continent.