I just don't get it. There is no plausible, possible explanation. It beggars belief. I cannae understand it at aw'.I must, in advance, ask for your indulgence on the nerdy nature of this post, but I really have to put this out to the floor, as it were, and see if anyone, somewhere, can help me figure it out.
As you may remember, our trip to Scotland at Christmas coincided quite fortuitously with a record low in the GBP/EUR exchange rate, so we took full advantage of being rich and spent our euro-pounds in a mad supermarket sweep at Sainsbury's. We bought paracetamol for 23p, parsnips for 50p, and Persil Small & Mighty (known as Skip in France) for about £7. And some other stuff but I can't be expected to remember it all can I? I was truly astonished at how much cheaper some "global" brand goods were in the UK. Even taking the exchange rate into account, French euro prices were looking like an utter piss-take on us put-upon consumers. Even the dog's Pedigree biscuits were cheaper!
So anyway, our bumper pack of Persil has finally run out (why is it all the bottles of laundry detergent all run out at once - bog-standard, wool-care and colour-care all empty!). So picked up some at the supermarché today. And it cost the princely sum of €7.44! I'm livid. 7 quid for 750ml. And how much is a 1.5l bottle from Asda?! FOUR pounds, my friend.
So I'm hoping someone can help me to get my (admittedly sometimes quite blonde) head around this seemingly inexplicable and rather enormous difference in price. Is there some sort of special extra VAT on laundry detergent in France that I'm unaware of? Does it cost very very very much money to print the packaging in French? Or are consumers in France just being utterly and completely ripped off?
7 comments:
Don't know the answer to your question, but maybe a quick trip to Sainsbury's Dover is in order!
I have a similar question with... bananas.
In Canada, they cost about CA$1.60 a kilo. In Nantes, when we visited my parents, they were priced at 2.5 EURO a kilo.
Holy shit! Seriously...
Canada doesn't produce bananas, we import from Costa Rica or Nicaragua. France doesn't produce bananas and prob. import from the French Island (Guadeloupe, Martinique).
So why the high price???l
just a hello while i try to get my google identity working.
hope you're well willie x
All I can say is ... Starbucks.
well maybe it would be time to change your habits and look for other brands, or go to another supermarket.
If you're really only after saving money, here is my best advise: Use savon de marseille, the white one. Usually you can find a block of 300g for less than 2 euro at your local market, and it will last you for over 80 washes. I recommend to use fabric softener with it thu as it has no smell.
I have just received an e mail from a friend concerning
goodyjar.co.uk
who are putting out a questionnaire to enable them to approach U.K.big brands about setting up an organisation in France to make their goods available..apparently without big markups...and payable in sterling.
I haven't examined it thoroughly, but it might be worth a look.
I am sick of rip off prices.
Sally I got my parents to bring me dog food and laundry detergent as well as the usual tea when they were over last month. I'm a nut.
I can't believe the price of the Nantes bananas Zhu. Here they are about €2 a kilo. But everything in France is really expensive these days it seems!
Willie!!! Are you pimping your blog? xx
Well Ghosty I know there is a campaign on Facebook to get a Starbucks in Lille. But I don't like coffee :(
Well Patrick I would be happy to change brand/supermarket if I thought I'd be better off, but the point here is that so many goods are seemingly very much more costly in France than even just a couple of years ago. What is going on?
Hello fly I think I might investigate that link. I too am fed up of paying over-the-odds! Grr.
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