Reduction in Excise Duty on Whiskey

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Newstalk this morning has reported a possible 20% reduction in excise in an effort to stem the time of those going north to buy alcohol. For whiskey lovers I think that would mean a reduction of just over two euro plus vat (c. €2.50)

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Direct quote from the budget speach

Recent CSO data show that 44 per cent of cross border shoppers buy alcohol. To protect exchequer revenue and stem the flow of cross border shopping, I have decided to reduce excise duty on alcohol products. The reductions will be as follows:

12 cent per pint of beer and cider;
14 cent per half glass of spirits; and
60 cent per standard bottle of wine.

All these reductions are VAT inclusive. I expect the drinks industry to play its part in making the cost of alcohol more competitive. If I find this reduction has not been passed on to the consumer I will reverse today’s reduction

In relation to a half glass of spirits, I presume that is the old term to what is now called a pub measure or 35.5ml.

Therefor it could be a drop of circa €2.76 per bottle of 70cl spirits at 40%

[TheWhiskeyBro]

Okay we'll call it €2.75 off a bottle of whiskey so!!!

[JohnM]

Midleton 20th anniversary down from €5,000 to €4,997.50...

I think the UK is putting up its VAT rate again, so the North might not be as good an option anymore for Irish shoppers.

[Michael Foggarty]

..... so the North might not be as good an option anymore for Irish shoppers.

I actually really wonder was the heading up North really an option?

Ye sure you you saved a few quid on goods, but to make it pay you have to buy lorry loads.

Heres why, first a toll charge in either direction(from/to Dublin) a 3 or 4 hour round trip, everyone else has the same idea so your stuck in a traffic jam moving at a snails pace burning lots of fuel, it becomes a day out rather a quick visit to the offie, you buy crap you didnt need and spend money you didnt want to, all that to save a tenner on a bottle of Jameson!

I reckon i saved money by being patriotic to a country im not even from!

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

The North South issue is a bit of a soap box rant for me .

Firstly I have a very negative view of the Irish retail sector. I'm tired of hearing that Wages, services and rates contribute to what can only be called extreme price differences between the north and the south. Sure Wages and the such are more expensive but even if all those things were 50% dearer down here (which by the way I don't think they are by that much) that would not necessarily mean that stuff should cost 50% (or 1/3) more down here(which by average it does). And believe you me I have seen differences of 100% (or double). And even adding the difference of 6% vat should not show such a gulf between prices.

However let me say that I do not believe it is the cold face of the retail sector that are to blame and I do feel sorry for the retail sector. I know a good few people who have certain retail outlets and they despair about prices before they even get the item for the wholesale price in Ireland. The issue, in a lot of cases, is they cannot buy items at wholesale for less than these items are actually for sale at retail outlets in the north which is ludicrous.

That to me shows that there is something really rotten in the Irish system and they are too many people along the line looking for too high profits. Distributors and wholesalers all in my opinion contribute gravely to the problem. Manufacturers and distributors seem to have an Irish & a UK price which are quite apart and we have been ripped off. Some of the biggest offenders have been the Supermarkets and abusing the week sterling to make extra profit on dim Irish customers. Taake for example a simple tooth brush ... I know of a particular instance where Johnson & Johnson sell it to wholesale for 79Cent but by the time it gets to the supermarket shelf it is 3.69 how can that be justified and that is not an isolated case.

However the message just does not seem to get through ... Firstly people are not complaining enough and taking appropriate action which is the usual Irish reaction ... complain but do nothing about it so what's the point. It is only by voting with your feet that you will get your message across. Secondly the retail sector appear to be slow to take their suppliers to task also. They have seen their turn around drop considerably so they need to react but did not. And this is what got us into this stale mate of over inflated prices in the first place and now people suddenly realised that they do not have the money any more.

This time last year I actually encouraged people to shop up north because if you don't send a message nothing will change and that is one big point about shopping up north. Secondly the savings are unbelievable. We went up in October and stayed for 2 nights which cost us €200 including evening meals, spent €60 on petrol and €70 on sundries (lunches etc) Now strangely I only bought only one bottle of Whiskey but we bought some Wine and beer as well as grocery and children's gear. And even though we made a few days out of it and even deducting that outlay from our total savings we still managed to save over 300Euro compared to Irish prices. Now that to me shows how wrong Irish prices are.

However I will say these last few months have seen big falls in the price of grocery and drink but it is all in special offers. It is a start but it needs to be permanent and the Budget hopefully will help also.

So until all the waffle stops and all sectors get a reality check and weigh into the problem, I'll continue shopping up north as to me that is the only way to fight the horror of overpriced goods. We all have less to spend so the distributors and wholesalers need to anti up too.

Sorry rant over ... phew ...

[John]

Oh God, there's a good chance I could still be writing this post in an hour, so I'll have to control myself

There are very straight-forward procedures for pricing goods and services and if people in business don't know how to do that - well they really shouldn't be in business - that's a fact. The rules for pricing all economic goods are universal and are applied internationally and given all of the international financial comparisons it is clear that we are completely out of step with everyone else. The main reason for that disparity is participants securing continually higher margins throughout the supply chains specific to this country.

Personnally, I vote with my wallet - if I get a deal then that business gets my vote. That's logic; pure and simple! Always was! Unfortunately, for some reason, almost a generation of people got into the habit of accepting whatever they were told, and paid over whatever they were asked for - though they would simultaeneously complain about it. Usless guff of course if you're just going to pay over your money anyway

I remember when I was young, a local elderly lady who would walk into any store and always treat the prices displayed as an opening offer!!

So now, consumer behaviour is evolving once more. We have stepped out of the lethargic consumer rut we were in and we now have tens of thousands of consumers heading North to do their regular and special purchase shopping; an equivalent number of people using search engines and online stores to great effect in comparing consumables internationally and then purchasing them; and the Government (until recently; on the back of report after report on rip-off Ireland) telling people to shop around for the best deal that they can get..... The times they are a changin'.....

Businesses can and will adapt to the prevailing economic situation (well, the smart ones will anyway); they will re-visit the concept of customer loyalty and value for money; and, they will profit because of it. The weaker ones & those who do not have the benefit of someone with a stong business acumen will fail - the reasons for that failure will be as obvious as the long, long queues of people waiting in line to take their business elsewhere.

Just my opinion.

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

Well said John, but let me predicate my above statement by stating that most of my grievience is against the big chains who are blatently cashing in and I realise the likes of Ally can't do much about their costs. I do shop local, by buying all my meat from local butchers and as much locally produced veg as possible. I'm spending 40odd Euro on my locally rared Turkey rather than 15Euro from a supermarket.