Border shopping: the price is right
Border shoppers Cecily Leonard, Breda Heaney and Samantha Byrne from Dublin shopping in Sainsbury's in Newry. Photo: David Conachy
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FOR certain folk, the long-awaited opening of IKEA in Ballymun may have removed the only incentive to take a shopping trip across the border, but it's clear that the North remains a mecca for many shoppers in the Republic.
This is thanks mainly to the continuing weakness of sterling against the euro, which has lured many to shopping centres and outlets in places like Newry, Belfast and Derry.
Recent figures from research group TNS Worldpanel indicate that 250,000 households in the Republic are now crossing the border to Northern Ireland to do their shopping, an increase of 25pc on last year.
Another survey by market research firm Nielsen Ireland suggests that off-licence sales in the North are up 30pc, but are down 7pc in the Republic.
InterTrade Ireland, a North-South business development body, has compiled figures that show southern-registered cars now make up 70pc of the spaces in shopping centre car parks in Newry, Enniskillen and Derry -- up from 40-50pc during the summer.
Savings
Given some of the savings that are currently possible by shopping in the North it's not surprising that the flow of shopping traffic across the border is rising fast, particularly in the run-up to Christmas.
Although sterling is currently weak, the view from economists is that it should strengthen again against the euro, but not until the New Year at the earliest.
We had a quick look at some of the prices on the websites of a number of retailers in the North and the Republic and examined the price discrepancy.
For instance, a 975g box of Cadbury's Roses costs £5 (€5.60) in Asda, but €9.99 in Tesco or Superquinn in the Republic.
The savings are higher for alcohol products because of the lower VAT and duty on alcohol in the UK.
But even with retailers who have stores both in the North and the Republic the sterling difference alone does not account for some price variations.
For instance, Argos in the Republic of Ireland offers an Xbox 360 Elite console for €259.99. The same item retails at £194.77 (€217) from Argos in the North, a saving of over €40.
Researchers at the Consumer Association of Ireland's (CAI) 'Consumer Choice' magazine recently made some comparisons of Tesco's food prices both North and South and found that prices were still about 18pc dearer here on average than in the North.
In response, Tesco accepted that prices were higher in stores in the Republic, but said the average gap across thousands of goods was 12pc, not 18pc as the CAI claims.
A major report earlier this year by the Competition Authority found that taxes and the high cost of doing business here were partly to blame for the higher prices -- factors that most retailers here, including Tesco, have been quick to cite.
But the agency also blamed consumers' failure to shop around.
Dermott Jewell, chief executive of the CAI, says the businesses who now appeal to shoppers to support the local economy are the same ones who "bled consumers dry for too long".
Mr Jewell says that it should not be surprising that shoppers are flocking North. "They are doing what they have been told to do; they are shopping around," he said.
"They are availing of a nearby border on our tiny island which, once crossed, provides affordability."
So if you are planning to make a shopping trip across the border, what are the options?
Needless to say there is no official guide to cross-border shopping, but popular online forum Boards.ie now has a forum dedicated to "Northern Ireland bargain alerts".
There are many useful pointers there about where to go and which particular shops to try, but any advice or information proffered by posters about anything to do with exchange rates, using credit cards or whether shops accept euro cash may not be very reliable or up to date, so anything that is relevant to you should be double-checked carefully first.
Not surprisingly, many people recommend heading to Newry and Lisburn because they are the cities closest to Dublin on the Belfast road and therefore have a number of reasonably large shopping centres between them.
But depending on which direction you are coming from, other possible shopping destinations include Derry, Strabane, Enniskillen, Armagh and Belfast.
While the cost of travelling to shops in the North may offset some of the savings, many shoppers will tend to buy as many items as possible during any single trip in order to maximise the savings.
But if all this sounds like too much hassle, there are now businesses devoted to sourcing and delivering items from Northern Ireland to addresses in the Republic.
One such firm is Dealhunter, which was set up in January this year and has a depot in Belfast from which it delivers nationwide.
Managing director Alistair Smith says that including the delivery fee, which can range from €10 upwards, his service can save customers between 10pc and 40pc on similar items in the Republic.
He says demand has remained consistent even with the fluctuations in sterling over the past year.
"There is definitely a rise in business as the sterling weakens but not only that, even when the sterling was stronger than it currently is there was a lot of interest as customers were still making savings buying from the North in comparison to prices in the Republic," he said.
- John Cradden
Irish Independent
