Sunday, Jan 31, 2010
But how many price rises they haven't mentioned
Argos: Price Cuts
I picked up the new Argos Catalogue yesterday and have been comparing prices with the old ones
sticking to identical items
Its bad news for the Ipod Generation
160GB Ipod Classic. Autumn 2009 £175 Spring 2010 £ £192.99
Taking a more mundane item Canon Selphy Printer Paper (which I actually use)
Autumn 2008 £9.96 Spring 2009 £12.69 Autumn 2009 £15.99 Spring 2010 £15.99
The equivalent Sony Paper has gone from £29.99 to £44.99
I wonder how long it will be before other things start to creap up in price due to the plummeting £.
Anyone got any examples ?
Posted by tenyearstogetmymoneyback @ 08:07 AM (1351 views) Add Comment
13 Comments
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1. britishblue said...
I think what many people forget is that we have already had a sterling crisis.
Whether we have another one is a matter for debate.
The pound hasn't plummented in the last year, in fact post the first crash, it has been quite a stable currency. It is marginally higher than it was against the Euro 12 months ago and 10% higher against the dollar.
However, prices are still rising as many importers/ manufacturers simply weren't able to put their prices up when sterling first crashed.They either had to weather it or go bust. I know because I ran such a company. Companies, that survived small and large are now easing prices up.
With the problems in Eurozone with Greece, etc and the continuing problems in America we may see sterling do ok against these currencies. Not because there is anything good about our economy, but simply because their situation is getting worse. In a way its a bit like house prices going up because of ridiculously low and unsustainable interest rates. It seems to fool an awful lot of seemingly intelligemt people most of the time.
2. holyroller said...
A lot of prices went up, printer cartridges, camera equipment (my wife is a photographer so she noticed huge increases in prices for some of the professional equipment). I've noticed in a lot of shops showing discounts and savings in one area, they have more than made up for this in other areas.
I noticed that shops like Tesco put quite a bit on the price of TV's and some other electrical goods before christmas, now they show discounts yet the prices are actually higher than 2 months ago.
3. fallingbuzzard said...
Its a bit unfair to point to Argos as the bellweather for prices. They are moving away from being a value and discount leader, expect flat sales this year, with big profit increase. Prices up and volumes down. Ipod Classic is cheaper at John Lewis, not to mention Amazon.
4. little professor said...
iPod Classic was 120GB last year, they upped the capacity to 160GB in September 2009 which is why the price went up.
Printing photos at home is rubbish in quality and high in price - you're much better off using the online printshops.
5. tenyearstogetmymoneyback said...
falling buzzard
I was actually comparing like with like. Spring 2009 the 120GB version was also £175
although I think by the end of the catalogue it was widely available for £150. When the 160GB
one came out the price went up which wouldn't normally have happened.
6. montesquieu said...
At the recent Manchester hifi show 2010 price lists showed at 20-30% hike over 2009 prices pretty much across the board for high-end hifi.
I guess this is the realignment talked about by british blue.
Doesn't seem to matter if it's imported or made here since the components are largely imported anyway and the UK price would have to be adjusted eventually to avoid straining relationships in the supply chain/grey market goings on etc, so distributors have taken the VAT increase as a cue to get things in synch.
Dealers are going ballistic at having to justify the new prices to customers - they are shifting existing stock at the old prices but terrified of the slump to come as buyers get pissed off while at the same time they have to buy their next lot of kit at the new, inflated price from the distributor.
It's having an interesting effect on second-hand values on the forums and on ebay already.
My own amplifier made by a small East Anglia manufacturer jumped from £4600 list price to £6100 in one leap, that's quite a hike.
7. smugdog said...
Wow, exciting life!, comparing the old Argos Catalogue with the new!
You really need to get out a little more.
8. alan_540 said...
We should all get out a bit more, but HPC is such fun.
9. markj69 str05 said...
Working in the engineering industry (OEM), i've seen a wide range of price increases, and most justifications point to the exchange rate/devalued £. Most changes over the past 2 years range from 15-50%. Try passing that on to your customer!
Seen a couple of competitors go bust, and a few suppliers. Luckily no customers.
10. braindeed said...
7. smugdog said...
Wow, exciting life!, comparing the old Argos Catalogue with the new!
.......says the man commenting on the comments about the Argos Catalogue, from his desktop...... Doh!!!
11. tenyearstogetmymoneyback said...
Smugdog... Its' Social History (which is why I have some really old catalogues).
Montesquieu and Markj69 str05 ... Interesting comments. A colleague once told me how
he worked for an Electronic Organ manufacturer when they put VAT up to 25% on
Luxury Goods. Sales of the Organs fell dramatically and he got made redundant.
We can only hope that people in other countries still like British hifi etc.
Braindeed :-)
12. deepak said...
Argos is not an exception. This is a sure sign of inflation caused due to devaluation of currency.
Sterling has fallen between 20-25% against the countries where imports happen. South east asia and Europe.
The reason why you find the price rises coming now rather than last year is due to forward buying. 2009 stock would have been bought in 2008. 2010 stock is being bought now.
Hope this helps
13. Nobody777 said...
This is but the start the kind of items stated prices will several fold over the next decade so get used to a devalued £ because its going to get a lot more devalued so spend spend spend while you can get good value.
Inflation can be cranked up many ways and busting woolworths is a good example less competition = higher prices watch air fars several fold too over the next decade so get your holydays in NOW before you cant afford one.
A printer was £9.99 up to £15.99 thats 60% inflation very few investments would return that level thats why I have said the best hedge against inflation is spend it ASAP and dont be fooled by the 15% or so house prices jump see how many printers a house buys today lets say 10,000 at todays price and maybe 3,000 in 10 years not a very good inflation hedge HAVE FUN AND SPEND suckers save.
Quote me mark wild states the best hedge against inflation is SPEND IT