Curry’s & PC World are both selling the Samsung NC10 for €399 here in Ireland. In the north, they’re selling for £320. AT today’s exchange rate, that’s works out at about €340.
Now you might say, but Sean those prices are ONLINE so obviously you’ll get a discount for buying online. Not only that Sean, but Irish VAT is now up to 21.5% -v- the new and improved 15.5% in the north.
Firstly, neither PCWorld nor Currys have an Irish website or deliver to Ireland from their UK websites. That’s probably because they don’t think we’ve a big enough market here to make it a priority. Secondly our government can be blamed for an immediate 3% difference in price. They raised VAT by 0.5% whilst the British slashed theirs by 2.5%. It now brings the difference in VAT to 6%.
Ingenius move by our government, given the fact that over half of the population is within a 2 hour drive from the border. It technically means an instant saving of 6% if you shop in the north. Given the fact sterling is now falling in value by the day, it means not only do we get a 6% discount on pretty much everything, our euro now stretches further due to exchange rates… almost level pegging with the pound. 1 euro will soon be equal to 1 pound.
Anyway, i’ve ordered an NC10 online, for £310 delivered. That should be about €330, even allowing for my bank and credit card company tag-teaming my ass with all sorts of charges and fees. €330 – almost a full €70 cheaper than buying Irish and buying locally.
And the funny thing is, this isn’t even an expensive item – it’s a netbook valued at about €340. If i was buying a 50″ plasma TV or top of the range laptop i’d be saving literally hundreds of €€€ buying online or from Britain.
This isn’t new to me of course, i rarely buy anything electrical in Ireland. The problem now facing our government is that average joe soaps are now realizing they can save big money online & by buying up north (Northern Ireland).
That creates a huge problem for our government – do they cut VAT to remain competitive or do they ride it out like a storm and hope it just goes away after a while? I’d hazard a guess they’ll do the latter and run the economy further in to the ground before they cop on they’ve made a massive mistake. People WILL NOT pay more when they don’t have to, especially not in a recession 🙄
Ryanair have proved that, Lidl and Aldi have proved that… more and more people cannot afford ‘frills’ anymore. They’re reluctant to spend full stop now thanks to scare tactics by our own government – raising VAT, cutting back on all departments, hitting students and elderly people hard…. People will look at two items and buy the cheapest, regardless of where it’s coming from or who’s selling it.
That’s exactly what i’ve done and the above picture is exactly how i see it. I’m not living in 1916, so i’ve no loyalties. I’d buy this netbook from China if i could, only i know i’d be hit with import duties and taxes when it would arrive on Irish shores 😉
Anyway, i’ll be looking forward to getting my NC10. Probably won’t arrive in time for this week (being new year and all), but it should be here between 5th-9th all going well. This netbook is hands down the best out there at the minute. Battery life delivers the killer blow when put up against any other netbook. 8 hours on paper and apparantly, pretty close to that in real life too 
Keep a look out over the next few weeks of the start of price deflation across the globe (its already starting). Because people cant afford to buy shite they dont actually need like HDTV’s etc etc shops will be forced to drop prices to make at least some money/profit and most shops buy their stuff on credit beforehand so to pay that back and buy more stock they need to sell sell sell. Will be the perfect time for someone who’s not in debt 😀
i am hoping that the global economy would recover from this economic recession. life has been very hard with these massive job cuts.