Price Watch Conor Pope A Malahide reader has been in touch about conflicting weighing scales in the Avoca Handweavers foodhall on Dublin's Suffolk Street.
When buying a salad in the deli there recently, Vincent Hanly found that the price when he weighed it on the publicly accessible scales beside the salad bar was cheaper than the price when one of the store's assistant's weighed it behind the counter. The scales on the shop floor priced his salad at €5.50 while the cost when it was weighed behind the deli counter jumped to €6. "Surely two weighing scales in the same shop should agree with each other and give out the same price?" he asks.
To establish if the discrepancy in prices charged by the different scales in Avoca was a common occurrence, PriceWatch had lunch from Avoca on several occasions recently - no great hardship, in truth, as the salads are very good.
On the first visit the price when the salad was weighed on the shop floor was €2.31, while the cost when weighed by an Avoca assistant climbed to €2.78. On a subsequent visit, the price charged behind the counter was €4 while the price at the salad bar was €3.78. We contacted Avoca to find out what was the cause of the discrepancies in their scales.
A spokeswoman confirmed that the two scales "were programmed slightly differently" with the scales on the shop floor charging €13.90 per kilo (the price for the self-service, exclusively vegetarian salads) while the one behind the counter is calibrated to charge €21.10 per kilo (the price for the more elaborate, mainly fish and meat-based salads).
She said that if salads from the self-service area were weighed on the scales behind the counter, they could be up to 60 cent dearer and staff were under instruction to discount the salad-bar food by that amount. "It should be discounted - there are notices up to remind staff but obviously at busy lunchtime periods it hasn't been happening. We will have to get our scales reprogrammed," she said.
What's more . . .
SHIP CHIPS A reader from Tralee has written in to highlight the high cost of sausages and chips on board an Irish Ferries vessel en route to France. Dorothy Deely went for something to eat in Boylan's Brasserie on the company's Ireland-France route and was given two sausages and "a reasonable helping of chips". She was charged €9.90, a price she regards as excessive. "Is this the most expensive sausage and chips in Ireland?" she asks. She points out that the cheapest flight to Beauvais from Dublin or Cork doesn't cost a whole lot more.
Value4Money AlarmClocks
Habitat's Lennox Lewis LCD Alarm Clock
€50
Highs: Former boxer Lennox Lewis created this digital alarm clock for Habitat because, he said, time was a "defining factor in my life and career". He has come up with a very cool-looking, functional clock. The LCD display is, er, crystal clear and the alarm bell, while quite unusual, will rouse you. It gives you the date and temperature as well.
Lows: Whether knowing the temperature outside your bed is a good thing is open to debate. It's also nearly impossible to read the time at night. The snooze button is hard to reach and when it is activated it starts a three-minute countdown, so there's precious little peace in it. It's also the most expensive of the clocks tried.
Verdict: More style over substance.
Star rating:****
Muji Credit Card Case Clock
€22.95
Highs: Like the Habitat clock, this is a see-through LCD alarm clock, only much, much smaller. It is very dinky and folds out of an aluminium case not much bigger than a credit card case. It is the most traveller-friendly of the clocks tried and has a persistent alarm that will wake you without causing a burst eardrum or a premature coronary. It isn't too expensive and has the added functionality of a stopwatch and a timer.
Lows: Quite why you need such functions is something of a mystery, however. While its small size is to its credit on one level, on another it is its biggest drawback. The buttons are very small and setting it is finicky.
Verdict: Will go anywhere with you.
Star rating: ***
Seiko Alarm Clock
€11.95
Highs: This is a bog-standard alarm clock that forgoes all gimmicks. It's cheap, reliable, small enough for you to bring anywhere and you won't need a manual to work out how to set it or turn it off. Both the clock numbers and hands are luminescent, and unless you're directly related to Rip van Winkle it will definitely wake you up. It also lacks the temptation of a snooze button.
Lows: Yes, it lacks the temptation of a snooze button and is far too easy to knock to the floor in a sleep-deprived rage. Some might find the piercing alarm a little too effective, verging on the distressing. It lacks the other clocks' novelty value.
Verdict: Cheap but cheerless.
Star rating:***
Big Ben Moonbeam Electric Alarm Clock
€45.99
Highs: This is a wonderfully retro clock which wouldn't look out of place in a 1950s parlour. It has a rather novel and very bright light that flashes on and off at the appointed hour in an effort to wake you with having to resort to a nasty, dream-destroying bell. If the light hasn't stirred you after several minutes, the bell goes to work in a comparatively gentle - but still effective - way. It runs off the mains, with a battery back-up, and has a gentle orange, always-on backlight.
Lows: The lemony colour is a bit naff and whether the light will wake you in the summer months with sunlight already streaming into your room is open to question. It's not cheap either.
Verdict: A better way to wake up
Star rating:****
