READERS' FORUM:Have your say
Anna from Cabinteely sent us a mail after becoming “increasingly enraged by the inflated price of glossy UK magazines” in Ireland. It was brought home to her just before Christmas when she was on a brief visit to London. “Vogue, for example, sells in Easons for about €6.30. The official UK price is £4. On the current exchange rate, that’s €4.70, and if you add 21 per cent VAT, it’s €5.68. So why are newsagents adding an extra 62c?” she asks.
She says it is standard across all glossies, and in some newsagents prices are even higher. "In my local newsagents, Vogueis currently selling for €6.50. I wonder if they haven't bothered adjusting the prices since sterling and the euro evened out a bit? But whatever the reason, it's a huge rip-off."
We have covered this before and it is something a lot of people find both inexplicable and inexcusable. Wholesalers, such as Easons, use a ready reckoner which they update every quarter to determine the sterling/euro conversion rate. Higher distribution costs in Ireland, higher overheads and VAT rates are also blamed for the Irish and British prices being so out of line.
The other reality is that shops can charge whatever they like for the products and the best response from consumers is to take their business elsewhere – either rival shops or online, where subscriptions for magazines such as Voguecan be sourced for a lot less.
Are the prices high? Oh yes they are
Mary Clarke, a reader from Dublin, recently tried to book some tickets to Aladdin in the Gaiety Theatre for after Christmas. She found the whole "online booking experience frustrating and annoying".
She says the cheapest tickets cost “a whopping €25, with no discounted rate for children, but the only such tickets were for seats at the very top of the building where a child could never see the stage. Instead I opted for the stalls which cost a total of €113, for two adults and one child. There is no choice on the website for seating, instead it is a distinctly take it or leave it attitude.”
She decided to compare the Dublin prices with other cities. “I took a look at Glasgow. There, the venue offered a show featuring John Barrowman, The Kranks and a 3D Genie! It included a choice of seating directly from the seating plan and a discounted price for children. The same amount of tickets for the same date and same seating area came to €79.” She says every day she hears Irish people “complain about the over-pricing and shoddy service we get in this country. I would imagine that the reason the people of Glasgow are getting what is, arguably, a better line-up with tickets for 30 per cent less than we are being charged in Dublin, is because, quite simply, they would not pay any more. Essentially, we get the service and pricing that we are willing to take in this country. So this year, we decided, it’s not good enough! We will not book the pantomime and instead will give an extra donation to our favourite charity. I hope your readers decide to do the same.”
We contacted the Gaiety and were told that the booking process was “similar for most theatre or entertainment booking experiences”. A spokeswoman said the venue offered “a considerable number of price brackets to choose from”. She did accept that the Ticketmaster experience does not “give you a specific seat selection” and instead gives a best available. “I can appreciate where this could be considered a non-user friendly experience." She said the theatre plans to have a specific seat selection available in the new year.
With regard to prices, she said the theatre offered a number of special offers and added that it was “unfair to say we did not offer discounts when they are listed on our website, communicated to patrons via ezines (newsletters), our facebook page and indeed in print media ad copy, so there were a number of communication channels available to Ms Clarke. it is regrettable that Ms Clarke did not see them in order to avail of them.
“We do not make a distinction between adult versus child ticket prices but rather charge a seat price. I have researched other venues in the city (eg NCH, Helix, Olympia, Tivoli etc). None of these venues offer an adult versus child price differential and simply charge a seat price as do we.”
