Sprogster Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Apparently coach companies are arranging day trips from France to the new Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, which is Europe's largest, as prices are so much cheaper.It is not only the exchange rate, but the UK has a far more competitive and less government regulated high street.Recently had to buy a replacement fridge freezer in France, which I bought over the internet at the cheapest I could find for Euros 800, compared to UK price of £490! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 Bought last April a full size Bosch fridge only for €420. Was in a "de-stock" shop in Villefranche-Rouergue....the equivalent at John Lewis in Newcastle was very much the same. I had made contact with De-stock in January during their sale and the friendly man gave me what a list of what he had discounted in his shop. Made my internet research and ordered. Paid in full when I collected the item in April.....guess what???!!!! I will be using him from now on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowland Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 What really annoys me is the difference in Ikea prices between UK and France. Bought a wardrobe this summer 199 euros - just checked on the Ikea website and the same thing here is £146. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NickP Posted September 16, 2011 Share Posted September 16, 2011 [quote user="rowland"]What really annoys me is the difference in Ikea prices between UK and France. Bought a wardrobe this summer 199 euros - just checked on the Ikea website and the same thing here is £146.[/quote]But the problem is Rowland, how much would it have cost you to transport the wardrobe from the UK to France. What people forget that in the UK there's lots of competition so sometimes prices have to be more competitive. Also don't just blame Ikea, the blame lies at the feet of the French Government who have protectionist laws Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shimself Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 [quote]Bought a wardrobe this summer 199 euros - just checked on the Ikea website and the same thing here is £146.[/quote]Amongst all the mad prices I think this seems more reasonable. 1 They would have set the prices a year or more ago, when a rate of 1.20 would have seemed reasonable2 Employment costs are certainly higher here (although I suppose land is cheaper) so they might have to add something on.Of the two, 199€ sounds more like the normal price, seems more as a result of a calculation.It would interesting if you could compare the same wardrobe price in Germany, Sweden etcSteve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarkkent Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 OK Let's get down to the really important things ...Even allowing for the pound and the euro at parity, why are bananas in French supermarkets twice the price of those in UK supermarkets?[:@] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted September 17, 2011 Author Share Posted September 17, 2011 I have been fitting out furnished flats here in France and have bought a lot from Ikea, I can just as easily use Lille or Croydon so have been comparing the prices of everything, yes there are differences but not of any significance but it is swings and roundabouts some higher/lower in each country and pretty much evens out.I was looking for mirrors to build into some facades for wallbeds, Ikea list loads, every one had a price difference of up to 12% but it was equally spread between the countries, so mirrors overall cost the same in each country, individually there are variations.One that did stand out though was the set of 4 mirrors called wave I think, they look like wavy lines and are a tesselation for those who recall the geometric term, they are trés tendance in France but now passé in the UK hence they are twice the price at Lille, why? - because they can!!!Mind you they are double that everywhere else in France Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericd Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 [quote user="Clarkkent"]Even allowing for the pound and the euro at parity, why are bananas in French supermarkets twice the price of those in UK supermarkets?[/quote] Because prices need to be kept high in order to protect growers from Martinique & Guadeloupe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Georgina Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 [quote user="Chancer"]I have been fitting out furnished flats here in France and have bought a lot from Ikea, I can just as easily use Lille or Croydon so have been comparing the prices of everything, yes there are differences but not of any significance but it is swings and roundabouts some higher/lower in each country and pretty much evens out.I was looking for mirrors to build into some facades for wallbeds, Ikea list loads, every one had a price difference of up to 12% but it was equally spread between the countries, so mirrors overall cost the same in each country, individually there are variations.One that did stand out though was the set of 4 mirrors called wave I think, they look like wavy lines and are a tesselation for those who recall the geometric term, they are trés tendance in France but now passé in the UK hence they are twice the price at Lille, why? - because they can!!!Mind you they are double that everywhere else in France[/quote]Well over here they were very cheap those mirrors in Brest. They were going for less than 10 euros. So guess we are not fashionably bothered Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idun Posted September 17, 2011 Share Posted September 17, 2011 [quote user="ericd"][quote user="Clarkkent"] Even allowing for the pound and the euro at parity, why are bananas in French supermarkets twice the price of those in UK supermarkets?[/quote] Because prices need to be kept high in order to protect growers from Martinique & Guadeloupe.[/quote]Me and bananas, which are still proscribed for another few weeks. I am very fussy about their provenance and would always, if I had the choice, buy them marked Martinique or Guadeloupe, then if there were not any of those would buy from old french or british colonies. Price, well, dearer doing it like that, but it felt like a bit of solidarity really on my part. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gardengirl Posted September 19, 2011 Share Posted September 19, 2011 Amongst the many things packed in to our car coming to France this time was a large hand of bananas and a large bag of Cox's apples, which are my favourites. I'm not keen on French bananas, although I do eat them now, and I still haven't found an apple here which I really enjoy, although I'm still searching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowland Posted September 20, 2011 Share Posted September 20, 2011 My other half loves bananas and eats one most days. We have recently spent 10 weeks in France - our first extended trip since our retirement. The only thing that he didn't enjoy was the fact that he could not find a decent banana!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oboulez Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 We have discovered a clever trick which our local SuperU uses to up their margins. We have caught them out a few times separating 'special offer' multi packs - cartons/packets offering 3 for 2, BOGOF etc. and selling them individually. The latest was we spotted a storeman taking individual bottles of sparkly out of cartons which were specially printed up by the producer indicating "buy 4 bottles - get 2 free", and putting them on the shelves where of course they were individually priced at a higher price. When I suggested that I would like a complete carton, thus getting my 2 'free bottles', he said that he could not do this - indeed that I had not meant to see what he was up to. I was so indignant that I grassed them up to the supplier. I received a stack of vouchers withing days, and funnily enough, the same sparkly was on 'special' last week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederick Posted October 31, 2011 Share Posted October 31, 2011 They do some strange things in French shops I wanted an item from Gi Fi that was among the swim pool bits and pieces ... A girl was there opening cartons and shelf stacking and pricing up. The item I needed was on a shelf with a price 5 euros cheaper than the identical item new stuff she had put up and priced further along the same shelf ...what was that all about ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted November 3, 2011 Share Posted November 3, 2011 The phrase I hear most often in my local car parts shop is "Sorry, we dont have that in stock. I can get is within 5 days or so and it will cost *taps calculator* €xyz"I never bother, as if it needs ordered, I will order it myself as let face it - everything is cheaper online. I only go into the shop for stuff I need straight away. I was in yesterday for a fuel filter and must have caught the guy in a good mood as he let me behind the counter to look through the boxes to find something I could make fit for an odd application.As I was rummaging I heard him giving some other customer the "Sorry, I dont have it in stock" speil. The customer went on to order the part and I happened to glance back to the desk.What was on the computer screen? A stock database perhaps? maybe a suppliers catalogue? no, it was the www.oscaro.com website! The cheeky *** are using Oscaro to supply their stock and selling it at a 20% markup!Edited for language. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chancer Posted November 3, 2011 Author Share Posted November 3, 2011 They will be selling it at far more than 20% markup, maybe they get a massive kickback like the electricians every few months based on the volume of their purchases, or maybe the screen shows a percieved profit margin to dupe a canny customer like you or the shop staff into beleiving they hardly make eny profit at all, many is the occasion I have heard the old "if I give you the discount you are demanding then we would not make any profit at all" and often th staff membery really does seem to believe it, it is however at odds with the huge margins that French retailers charge and the huge charges patronales that they pay out.You chose the right word to describe the cheeky wotsits and it pleases me to see that it got past the filter [;-)]Any chance of an update on your restaurant saga? I am suffering withdrawal symptoms! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mint Posted November 6, 2011 Share Posted November 6, 2011 Pacha, I hope you read this post as I wanted to tell you the following but I couldn't on the Home-made Trailer thread without going completely off topic where we discussed tuning the TV.Anyway, the remote control has been playing up and OH wanted it replaced. So just bought the relevant one from Amazon UK. Price was just under 15 quid; one firm wanted to charge £10 for delivery to France but I found another that only charges £3.50 so 18 quid total.Price from Amazon France: 35 euros and postage of just over 5 euros, making 40 euros.No contest, was it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pachapapa Posted November 6, 2011 Share Posted November 6, 2011 Good luck with the "sync" tomorrow.Lot of good stuff on Arte.Nutcracker/Bolshoi/Christmas Eve/Direct.Cheapest tickets over € 500, now thats real saving.[;-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YCCMB Posted November 7, 2011 Share Posted November 7, 2011 Back, if I may, to Ikea and Bananas.Ikea: Twas ever thus. When we bought in France, and having virtually not a stick of furniture with which to furnish our new place, we hired a van and popped to Ikea. For the preceding several months, I had been going cross-eyed comparing the UK and French catalogues online. Identical layout, different prices/ It definitely IS swings and roundabouts, was then, and apparently from recent posts here, still is. However, nowt, I believe, to do with shipping costs, exchange rates etc...as when we were doing our purchasing it was back in the halcyon days of €1.45/£. Unsurprisingly, Ikea France was much more expensive for dining tables and chairs, cheaper for mirrors (at least, the one we bought: a full-length free-standing one) slightly cheaper for some sofas and chiairs, more expensive for others....and so on, meaning we probably broke even on a housefull of stuff.Bananas: I am so pleased that there appear to be other people who are of the same opinion as Mr Betty with regard to the poor quality and selection of bananas on offer outre-manche. Extensive research has led us, in our local area, to Lidl, who seem to have much better, fresher and often cheaper fruit and veg than either our local Leclerc, Carrefour or SuperU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted November 9, 2011 Share Posted November 9, 2011 BricoDepot today....A replacement pencil-type 78mm halogen bulb for a security floodlight - €4.99 A bit steep, no?The entire lamp, including a bulb - €3.79.[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trastu Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 We have just had to purchase a new camshaft and all 12 followers for our old Laguna. Price quoted in France just short of 1000 euros.Parts sourced in UK (including VAT, shipping and taking into account the exchange rate) just over 300 euros!If anyone wants the details of this supplier feel free to message me. No connection with this company, just one very happy customer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave21478 Posted December 23, 2011 Share Posted December 23, 2011 BricoDepot today....Small wheels with inflatable tyre - €20 each. A bit steep, I thought.3 aisles further down, a basic sack barrow with two such wheels - €23.[8-)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crossy67 Posted January 18, 2012 Share Posted January 18, 2012 Shower fixing kits.We bought a couple of thermostatic shower bars for about €60 each, went to get some raisers, wow, they start at more than the showers for really crappy nasty horrible ones, right up to €300[:@] We left them there and are going to splash out £20-30 in the UK for good quality ones.The fixing kits are a different matter though. €50 for a fitting kit to fit a shower that costs almost the same. Because France has 16mm pipe work there isn't much of an alternative, you might think[:D] I have just had two fitting kits from the UK, the ones the pipe fits into on an olive. In the same box was a 16mm drill bit[I] Five minutes later I had cheap UK fitting kit with 16mm French copper pipe tails soldered in ready for fitting. Total cost £28.50 for two fitting kits.Where there's a will there's a way[:)] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James morris Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 [quote user="dave21478"]BricoDepot today....Small wheels with inflatable tyre - €20 each. A bit steep, I thought.3 aisles further down, a basic sack barrow with two such wheels - €23.[8-)][/quote]Basically it is a French chain of DIY!Yes and here are some links:http://www.bricodepot.fr/selection_depots/http://www.bricodepot.es/http://www.bricodepot.com/en/accueil.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James morris Posted January 25, 2012 Share Posted January 25, 2012 [quote user="dave21478"]BricoDepot today....Small wheels with inflatable tyre - €20 each. A bit steep, I thought.3 aisles further down, a basic sack barrow with two such wheels - €23.[8-)][/quote]Basically it is a French chain of DIY!Yes and here are some links:http://www.bricodepot.fr/selection_depots/http://www.bricodepot.es/http://www.bricodepot.com/en/accueil.php Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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