If you have to travel for bargains then you must take into account the time it takes you to travel and also the costs of the travel and that’s whether you walk, drive, take a bus or a taxi. Depending on what the bargain is you might need to buy in bulk to justify the time and expenses incurred. If its fresh food then that’s out as buying fresh food in bulk means you have to eat it all while it’s fresh, or store it, until you need it, at which point it won’t be fresh anymore.
For this example I’m going to use one simple product, the Pint of Guinness.
I live in Cabra where the humble Pint of Guinness is Four euro in the local pubs. They are all within walking distances to and from my home. When I go out I usually have about six pints, (so for this example that’s what we’ll stick with). I walk to the pub and I walk home so no more expenses incurred and therefore my night out costs me €24.
Quite close to me is StoneyBatter, a lovely old Dublin village atmosphere with substantially more pubs and as such with real competition amongst them for customers. There are a number of pubs there, that a pint will cost you three euro eighty cent. That means my six pints will cost €22.80cent, (a saving of €1.20).
However here are the real costs. StoneyBatter is not within walking distance, has no bus service from Cabra, and therefore I have to get a taxi which costs €7.00 there and back, a total of €14.00.
Therefore the real cost of shopping around for six humble pints of Guinness €36.80cent which is €12.80cent more expensive than going to the locals in Cabra.
At this rate I would have to drink 70 pints in one go to justify the cost of transport, to, as the National Consumer Agency puts it, shop around.
So to shop around for a cheaper pint means, I would have to die, because that’s what drinking 70 pints in one go would do to me. I don’t think I’m going to die for the cause of the National Consumer Agency. So that’s it, proof that the National Consumer Agency is in no way going to protect or defend the little people, the consumers.
And that’s just the humble pint, imagine the grief you’d have, to do your normal shopping, especially if you were catering for a family with a couple of children.
An extract from the National Consumer Agency website.
http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/Get_Your_Rights/Prices/Paying%20Too%20Much/
This is not true; there are laws which currently regulate the prices of goods and services, i.e. taxies, and medicines to name just two.
