Price cuts 'not a sign of rip-offs in past'
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PRICE slashing seen in recent months is a desperate battle for survival rather than a sign that retailers were ripping people off in the past, a retail expert claimed last night.
Retailers are cutting prices further and further in a bid to get through the current gloom, said IBEC's Retail Ireland director, Torlach Denihan.
"You take the furniture and white goods sector and others where there's a direct correlation with the housing market, and they've been desperately hit by the downturn, it's a question of just getting through the next few months, and I don't know that we've even hit bottom yet," he said.
"The market is collapsing around us, and it's all a strategy of survival."
In other areas, such as fashion, there had been a marked downward trend in prices over the past number of years, as CSO figures would show, Mr Denihan said.
The situation with food was slightly different because it was less discretionary, as everyone had to eat, but here retailers were switching their supply chains so they could bring prices down to benefit consumers.
Retailers were also having to cope with the fact that the sector had expanded massively in the past few years, with new shopping complexes opened all around the country. And now suddenly there were fewer people in the country, and everyone had less money to spend, so there was no option but to cut prices, he added.
- Aideen Sheehan
