The Sunday Supplement

Im a southern retailer so im bias, let's continue...

This week we saw the public sector workers go on strike around the country. I don't want to get into a debate on private and public. What I do want to make a point of is...loyalty. How do they expect loyalty towards them in the upcoming budget when they cross the border to pay a 'fraction' less for their 'Christmas piss up'. Lets face it, iv been up there alot in 2009 and it's mainly booze that's bought. Of course other things too but alot of booze.

My anger is not mainly at people who shop across the border but at the Government, whom around this time last year upped our VAT at excatly the same time the UK reduced theirs. What did they think would happen, especially given a weak Sterling. That explains one of the main price differences.

In this Sundays Indo, Brendan Keenan explains simply that the other major pricing factor in us being more expensive is because we are 'thick' yes thick. We've been paying more than we should have been for years and now that we live on fear factor we put petrol in the car and head up North.

The case of Jimmy Choo for H&M explains it perfectly. We were the only country where there were no queues outside for the launch. WHY ?

Last year we had the highest disposable income in Europe. This year we are afraid to spend. We have gone from full boozers to closed boozers in a couple of years. What happened ? In a nutshell, we realised we were paying too much. Don't even start the property debate!

To come back to H&M. They decided to charge ROI shoppers 40Euro more. They were charging what they thought the market could bear. Basically they were trying to screw us.

They can argue rent, wgaes and other cost base scenarios but thats all bullshit. They get incentives to open stores, rent reductions etc. They pay the minimum wages, usually to non Nationals and to be totally honest they screw their manufacturers so that we can buy a top for the price of the car parking. It's not right but...we asked for it. And now that we don't want it, what do we do ? The answer is not run scarred. It's to fight for lower VAT, lower rents and rates, among many things so that you can shop in your own country and not be overcharged. I might add that the cost of NY is no joke either. It's an amazing place but flights, accomodation and living expense do not justify any price difference. I CHECKED.

If ever there was a time you should be shopping at home its now. Millions more leaving the country over the most difficult economic time the country has faced is not the way forward. In fact it puts the country back for you and your kids another year or two. Someone has to foot the evergrowing bill and it's spineless to pass it onto the next generation. Everyone needs to take their share of the pain NOW.