# Tesco to cut prices in 11 Stores-Why not all the Tesco Stores!



## NHG (5 May 2009)

I heard on the news earlier this morning that Tesco are to reduce prices in 11 of their stores - why are they not reducing prices in all their stores!


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## dereko1969 (5 May 2009)

they're bringing in different products to copy the UK shops more closely so they're not cutting prices but bringing in different brands of the 'same' product. unfortunately it's likely to mean a reduction in irish brands in their shops - barry's tea was mentioned as one of the 'victims' of this in the papers over the weekend.


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## Simeon (5 May 2009)

dereko1969 said:


> barry's tea was mentioned as one of the 'victims' of this in the papers over the weekend.



What about Lyons tea? For a far more satisfying cuppa.
 No conection. Just a happy supper.


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## NHG (5 May 2009)

Well we will all have to make a more conscious effort to buy our Irish made product, the more irish made we buy, the more jobs and money we will keep in our country.

Money was made to make the world go around - and just look how both the money and the world have nearly come to a stand still!


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## bren1916 (5 May 2009)

NHG said:


> I heard on the news earlier this morning that Tesco are to reduce prices in 11 of their stores - why are they not reducing prices in all their stores!


 
They would make less profit.....


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## UptheDeise (5 May 2009)

The stores in question are the stores that are located on the border with Northern Ireland. It makes perfect sense as Tesco would save a fortune due to the currency exchange rate between the Euro and Sterling.


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## GMD (5 May 2009)

Tesco are selling us a pup here, it has been spun very well. You can currently buy Irish products such as butter in N Ireland cheaper than here. They are telling us now that to help the Irish consumer they will use more non Irish products, it doesn't add up. 
Suggestions are that Tesco Ireland work off a 30% margin with Tesco UK 15%.
They are squeezing the supply chain and Ireland is just like another big UK city really.
They pay little or no tax in this country as the majority of their produce sold is vat exempt. 
Large number of the Irish staff are under 30hrs/week so little or no prsi contribution from employer.


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## csirl (5 May 2009)

NHG said:


> Well we will all have to make a more conscious effort to buy our Irish made product, the more irish made we buy, the more jobs and money we will keep in our country.
> 
> Money was made to make the world go around - and just look how both the money and the world have nearly come to a stand still!


 
This can be difficult to do. There are many "Irish" brands whereby the majority of the manufacturing and ingredients comes from abroad and they are just packaged and distributed in Ireland. Consequently, there are many "foreign" brands which source their ingredients and do some of their processing in Ireland. The latter could be providing more jobs in Ireland than the former. Labelling doesnt help this as it is biased towards the packager.


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## Protocol (5 May 2009)

I thought what they are doing is sourcing non-Irish international brands from the UK, instead of via an Irish middleman.

Example: Flora, Persil, Aeriel, detergents, b'fast cereals, etc.

All of these are made in the UK, so any change won't affect Irish supplier jobs??

So they will buy cereals from Kelloggs UK instead of from Kelloggs Ireland???

And so on??


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## Askar (5 May 2009)

I would not be surpised if the consumer was being cynically scammed by Tesco. I recall some of their previous highly publicised price cuts. They previously put out a media blitz on permanent price cuts. They are always highlighting price cuts in their stores. Media smoke and mirrors IMO. The best they would ever do in my local Tesco was 'match' Lidl prices on selected items - using the ole comparison shopping trolley. In fact, it was that stunt that convinced me of the better value of shopping in Lidl. 

I see they are even trying to spin the still selling irish products. Bit like the Dunnes 'because we're irish' line. Bizarre to suggest that consumer should continue to support extortionate prices to wealthy irish families and UK retailers on patriotic grounds.


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## mcaul (7 May 2009)

GMD said:


> They pay little or no tax in this country as the majority of their produce sold is vat exempt.
> Large number of the Irish staff are under 30hrs/week so little or no prsi contribution from employer.


 
I not a big fan of big business but I have to defend tesco here -

They pay HUGE local rates that go directly to social housing, roads, local leisure facilities, domestic water etc.

PRSI - whilst the emloyee will not have prsi on a short working week, employer prsi still applies.

They buy over €600,000,000 of Irish produced goods every year and much of it is exported to the UK.

They are a public company headquartered in the uK but owned by thousands of shareholders around the world - if you have a private pension, you probably own a tiny piece of Tesco whereas Dunnes profits are shared between a dozen family members! 

They have also committed publicably to continuing ALL irish brands in their stores. - The barrys tea story was false - their along with many other company's stock had been run down in some of the border stores due to the logistics involved in the changes they made.

I still prefer my local super valu!


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## NorthDrum (8 May 2009)

Anybody know the tesco stores in question that are reducing their prices!


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## Bronte (8 May 2009)

csirl said:


> This can be difficult to do. There are many "Irish" brands whereby the majority of the manufacturing and ingredients comes from abroad and they are just packaged and distributed in Ireland. .


 
And what about the scam of the 'Irish' Galtee hamper with not one gram of Irish meat. Just who is foreign and who is not. 

I will not ever trust that anything labeled Irish is Irish ever again and I cannot understand hhow Galtee was not taken to court for false description akin to lying.


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## Curious81 (8 May 2009)

Bronte said:


> And what about scam of the 'Irish' Galtee hamper with not one gram of Irish meat.  Just who is foreign and who is not.



I bought some Donegal catch a while ago and was amazed to see on the breakdown on my receipt that it was not an Irish purchase..... Shocking altogether!

Last night in a tesco express in Dublin the price of milk had dropped from €1.69 to €1.50, I'm quite sure this wasn't on of the 11 stores since they are meant to be stores near the border so I was happy to this price drop.


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## theresa1 (8 May 2009)

In my opinion border shoppers are now being subsidised by other Tesco shopper's -this is wrong but this is Ireland and we will put up with it.


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## Protocol (8 May 2009)

First, the milk price drop is nothing to do with the border shops, it is just coincidental.

Raw milk prices have dropped, some farmers are now getting under 20c per litre for manufacturing milk. As a result liquid milk prices have fallen.

Second, just because it is labelled Donegal Catch, does not mean any of the following happens:

fish caught off Co. Donegal
fish processed in Co. Donegal

In fact, I think that neither is true, though I'm not 100% sure.


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## Protocol (8 May 2009)

Loads of "Irish" products are not processed in Ireland.

Take "Wexford" cheddar. The milk may come from Wexford, but on the packs I've seen, the cheese is make in the UK, as per the EU production code

[broken link removed]


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## MandaC (9 May 2009)

Protocol said:


> Loads of "Irish" products are not processed in Ireland.
> 
> Take "Wexford" cheddar. The milk may come from Wexford, but on the packs I've seen, the cheese is make in the UK, as per the EU production code
> 
> [broken link removed]



Am well disgusted with that.

Always bought this because of the happy farmers on the front from Wexford.

Aldi and Lidl all the way for me too now.


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## breakdabank (9 May 2009)

Are we to believe that Tesco now has two separate supply chains (one for border stores and another for the rest) for each and every product with a price change?

Are we to believe that the cheaper bottle of Heinz ketchup we buy in Drogheda comes from a different source than the same bottle in Dublin?

Tesco's deliveries to stores in Drogheda and Dundalk go through the same Donabate distribution centre as deliveries to Dublin stores. It would only add to Tesco's costs to maintain distinct supply chains from supplier to store for each product. 

There is no excuse for Tesco not applying the price reductions in all their stores immediately.


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## breakdabank (9 May 2009)

MandaC said:


> Am well disgusted with that.
> 
> Always bought this because of the happy farmers on the front from Wexford.
> 
> Aldi and Lidl all the way for me too now.



The EU code in the little oval only indicates the last point in the production chain - the cheese may be genuine Wexford cheddar that was packed in the UK. Similarly, you will find genuine Italian and Spanish foods for sale in Aldi & Lidl with DE in the little oval, as they were packed in Germany.


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## Swallows (9 May 2009)

Hi, the Carrick-On-Shannon branch of Tesco was closed for two days to reorder their store and to 'drop prices' which they have done. A tin of Whiskas cat food which was previously over 90 cents is now 70 cent. There are a lot of items dropped by 50 cents or more. They have introduced new brands as well. They  are still not able to match Asda in terms of choice though.

 Many people go North not just for Asda alone. They go for other shopping as well. For instance at Enniskillen you have Tesco and Asda together so you can hop between the two. You have the Erneside shopping centre with M&S, Argos.  Dunnes Stores a short walk away.The high Street with all the shops along there. This is for us people who are not within travelling distance of Dublin.

I think if someone with vision was to build a shopping centre our side of the border, at Blacklion for instance, they would make a fortune.


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## mcaul (10 May 2009)

My guess is Tesco are planning another batch of stores over the next couple of weeks - Tesco in Newbridge were out of quite a lot of stuff yesterday, even basic items such as mixers, (all brands incl Tesco, schweppes, Club & fnches)  certain biscuits, tins etc. 

If Irish goods are affected badly, I'd be disapointed.


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## Protocol (10 May 2009)

breakdabank said:


> The EU code in the little oval only indicates the last point in the production chain - the cheese may be genuine Wexford cheddar that was packed in the UK. Similarly, you will find genuine Italian and Spanish foods for sale in Aldi & Lidl with DE in the little oval, as they were packed in Germany.


 
Fair enough.

Though it seems a great waste to pull milk out of cows in Wexford, turn it into cheese, ship it to the UK, pack it, and then ship it back here for sale.


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## Bronte (11 May 2009)

Protocol said:


> Fair enough.
> 
> Though it seems a great waste to pull milk out of cowsin Wexford, turn it into cheese, ship it to the UK, pack it, and then ship it back here for sale.


 
Well there must be a reason for doing so, maybe it's cheaper to process in the UK or there is some tax advantage.  

I consider that if the milk comes from Wexford cows then it is Wexford cheese.  I buy Kerrygold butter abroad (one of the top Irish branded goods sold worldwide) but I know that while the butter comes from Ireland the packaging is done abroad, but maybe it's not butter from Ireland.............

To understand why Tesco is reducing the prices in some stores, one has to understand how they think, they are not reducing the prices for consumers, this has to be about market share.


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## Celtwytch (12 May 2009)

NorthDrum said:


> Anybody know the tesco stores in question that are reducing their prices!


 
From Tesco's website:

Stores involved are at Bailieborough, Ballinamore, Cavan, Carrick on Shannon, Dundalk (x 2), Drogheda (x2), Letterkenny, Monaghan and Sligo.


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## Askar (12 May 2009)

According to last Sunday Times and to-days Irish Times they operate at 50% higher profit marins in ROI compared with UK stores (9.3% compared to 6%). Even with the smoke and mirrors of recent price cuts they are expecting to improve this operating profit margin. 

The Sunday Times also pointed out that the 'irish' factor was important for consumers. I think this is what Dunnes exploits; but as a small economy with a relatively tiny consumer population, you would think that our producers would be looking to exploit their comparative production advantage to supply such international retailers as Tescos, Lidl and Aldi - much as the New Zealanders did back in the 80s when they stopped the subsidy culture.


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