Madam, - The price survey by the National Consumer Agency and your report on it struck me as shortsighted and unthinking, focusing solely on the notion of saving a few bob - and, as the survey results showed, there really is only a few bobs' difference between Tesco, Dunnes, and Superquinn.
Neither the survey nor your report ("Local stores charging up to 20 per cent more", The Irish Times, July 26th) take account of the ethics of shopping: the fact that it is worthwhile supporting local grocers, shopkeepers and newsagents so that we are not forced to rely on one of the "three main supermarkets". I choose to support locally owned businesses wherever possible, even if it means paying slightly more, because it is important that communities outside of major urban centres retain jobs and social centres.
There is another, more serious, aspect to the hope expressed by Ann Fitzgerald of the NCA that another "outside player" to enter the Irish market and force prices down further: by insisting on saving that few bob, we create knock-on effects for the food producers (most of whom are not known to us; it is required label information only on meat products).
Who is to say that if we insist on cheaper groceries, this doesn't prolong - or, indeed, create - substandard work conditions in a non-EU country? Instead of focusing so relentlessly on that paltry few euro we might save, why not turn instead to local producers when and where we can, and to Fair Trade products when and where we can, and to international conglomerates only when we absolutely have to?
In a society that thinks nothing of paying for an extra sun holiday because we've had more than the usual rain, it surely isn't much to ask that we spend, say, two euro on Fair Trade chocolate instead of 79 cent on a Tesco product, or a few extra cent for peas grown in Ireland instead of a special offer in Dunnes flown in from Africa (and packaged in unrecycleable materials, to make it all the worse).
Purchasing power is one thing, but the ethics of abusing that power quite another; if the Irish consumer is to come of age, s/he needs to be an ethical consumer. That old mantra - think global, act local - applies here, too. - Yours, etc,
OONA FRAWLEY, Trooperstown, Co Wicklow.
Madam, - A price survey by the National Consumer Agency has shown that consumers who do their shopping in local convenience stores are paying up to 20 per cent more than they would in supermarkets.
The elderly often do not have a choice when it comes to shopping. They are captive consumers, in many cases trying to survive on a State pension.
The NCA suggests that people do their main weekly shopping in large multiples and then use convenience stores for the odd top-up. That's all very well for the active and mobile, but it is not an option for many elderly people.
We welcome this survey and we hope that the Government will accept that the people who can least afford it are paying a premium rate for essential goods. We hope that these surveys will be repeated regularly so that the public can see who is overcharging. - Yours, etc,
DERMOT KIRWAN, Friends of the Elderly, Bolton Street, Dublin 1.