Shopping trip to Newry - 2008 advice?

Was up there yesterday and it was madness,on a wednesday!.Christmas is going to be chaos up in newry the way things are going,you'd wonder when the shops down south are going to start to make a real attempt to be competitive.How much vat/excise duty is the government losing due to the greed of the big multiples ? The drop in oil prices will only encourage the border shopping run !.
 
korpy said:
I'm thinking to go north to buy booze for the Christmas ( beer, wines, whiskey) , do you think is worth?
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It depends on so many variables: distance you would need to drive, how much you're going to buy, etc. I would suggest you begin by checking out to get the prices of the items you wish to buy. Compare them with the prices here (you could use Tesco's or Superquinn's online sites). Calculate how much petrol you would use to get to the North, then see if you'll make a significant saving.

I personally shop north of the border because I live just 30 minutes away from Newry, and I find the prices to be drastically lower than they are here.
 
Stupid question. To get those € to £ exchange rates do you have to bring up cash or can you pay by credit card and have it done as a € transaction to avoid being screwed with a currency exchange charge on the card?
 
I was yesterday in Newry, the exchange rate in the shop was £ 0.778 for and euro and they accept euro in the shop. I went for the booze and I can say that is far cheaper, whisky 1L ( Jameson, Teachers, Jack Daniels) and wodka 1L, about 10 euro per bottle cheaper than here.
Also they had deals for beer and cider ( 15 cans X 440ml) carlsberg, fosters, strongbow 3 for £20 ( € 25.7 ) , that's 45 cans at 26 euro.
 
The best value in booze has to be the alcopops. We went up for drink for my brothers debs and the Barcardi Breezers for example were priced at £7 for 2*4pks. This worked out at €8.75 for 8 bottles (€1.10 a bottle). Here a 4pk costs about €10.30 (€2.57 a bottle). 70cl bottles of it were 2 for £5 about the same price for 1 bottle here. Smirinoff Ice, Blue Wicked etc. had similiar prices. Do the maths. If you are having a party i.e. debs, 21st, New Year's etc and people who drink these are coming it is well worth the trip.
 
The euro is heading for 82p today, an all-time high.

This makes shopping in NI even more attractive.
 
things are definately much, much cheaper than here. we are being ripped off. i went to asda in the north and bought 200 pounds worth of groceries and my car was full. i checked out the same items on the tesco website. after entering just over half of the same items it cost 290 euro!! i know someone who takes orders from people for groceries in the north. he travels up at the weekend collects the groceries and travels down. you get the reciept and pay for the groceries plus 12.5%. it is brilliant because you don't pay before you get them, only on reciept, you don't have the hassle of driving up and waiting in traffic. better than getting your shopping from tesco because you save a fortune on the exchange rate too!!!
 
I live right on the border and NEVER shop in the RoI I'm afraid to say. Simply doesn't make sense. And never has in my 8 yrs living in RoI.

I find the biggest difference is in alcohol prices. The RoI simply can't compete with the deals in NI.

As for making the trek north for others, I heard on the radio today that people are even coming from Cork. Find this hard to believe to be honest (no ice cream bought I hope). You'd need to be buying a MAJOR amount of food and drink to make a roundtrip from Cork to NI.

Also heard that there was 12 mile tailbacks into Newry and a 2 mile trip took 3 hrs. No amount of savings would help me sit through that tbh.
 
I did a quick comparison yesterday between Sainsbury's and Tesco's. On our usual monthly big shop the cost saving on the baby and toddler stuff alone was €75.00

That definatley justifies my monthly trip.

Paul24
 
hi i was just wondering if shopping in enniskillin is the same price wise as shopping in newry? im in westport and travelling all the way up to newry... though the price definately sounds right.... its just too far, but enniskillin is closer and id just like to know if the savings will be as good? thanks
 

Hard to tell. Enniskillen is a much smaller town and has a lot less shops than Newry. Prices shouldn't differ that much. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if some traders in both towns are tempted to take advantage of the "gold rush" mania by setting "paddy prices" for the pre-Xmas tourists.

That said, the journey from Westport to Newry sounds crazy unless you're buying a lot more than groceries & booze. It must be 150 miles each way?
 
A Tyrone man told me to also drive to Craigavon . He said the town has a massive shopping centre , better value than Newry
 
Hi,
we went to Newry yesterday, yes the traffic was bad and to get parking was a nightmare took us about 10 mins to get a spot we were the lucky ones, but the savings are great 18 stg for jack daniels, hennessy 19stg, litre bacardi 14 stg, wine 3 for 10 stg and baby formula sma white 7.21 compared to nearly 13 euro here. we also went to debenhams and noticed tags with 45 stg and 70 euro. It's worth going up if you have lots to buy and your not in a rush would avoid the weekends tho if possible.
 
Sunday Independent last week said Dunnes Stores in Newry were charging Stg 19.98 (circa Eur 24.00) for 2.5 litres of Smirnoff Vodka.

I paid Eur 24.00 for 1 litre in Tesco last week
 
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By the way we called into the toy store in the quays and didn't notice any savings so i wouldn't bother going just for toys.
 
Havealaugh said:
Sunday Independent last week said Dunnes Stores in Newry were charging Stg 19.98 (circa Eur 24.00) for 2.5 litres of Smirnoff Vodka.

I paid Eur 24.00 for 1 litre in Tesco last week
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£19 in Armagh for a litre of Jameson 12 year old last weekend
 
£19 in Armagh for a litre of Jameson 12 year old last weekend
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And what does that retail at here?

Also , I should have elaborated, the 24 Euro that I paid for 1 litre of Smirnoff in Tesco was on "special" reduced from the "normal" price of Eur 29.99 !!
 
Havealaugh said:
And what does that retail at here?

Also , I should have elaborated, the 24 Euro that I paid for 1 litre of Smirnoff in Tesco was on "special" reduced from the "normal" price of Eur 29.99 !!
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O'Briens: Jameson 12 Year old, Was €37.99, Now €34.20 still almost 27% difference in price compared to the £19
 
Easy on lads have you been drinking that drink or what?? I bought 1 litre of gordon's gin 3 weeks ago in ASDA in Cookstown co Tyrone for 13.00 Sterling, not on offer.
 
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