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20th December 2016
12:10am GMT
It has always amazed me just how much we get ripped off on our little island. We pay more for food, property, food, drinks, clothes and just about everything else than our European brethren. A good friend once told me that the big Telcos call our country "Treasure Island" because of the amount they can overcharge the dumb paddies. A lot of it was down to the boom and the fact that we are gobshites that just pay it and don't complain. I mean how can we look at labels on clothes...see the prices in Sterling and Euros, see that we are clearly being ripped off and say "ah sure its grand I like the dress anyway I'll just buy it". Well the good news is that online shopping is changing all that and now social media is starting to highlight the worst cases across multiple industries. I spotted a couple of people giving out about overcharging in the service industry in the last couple of days...
50cent fur a cup of hot water @ButlersChocs ???Bit rich eh?? pic.twitter.com/sFG5CsED0V
— Audrey Murray (@audipokery) November 5, 2013
Lets ignore the fact that the coffee costs 3 Euros when you'd get a better product for about 1.50 in Spain, France or Italy and just put that down to the Starbucks effect and the high rents we pay here. I know we have serious water shortages in the capital at the moment but I never thought we'd be charging for it. Whats next? The 5 Euro breathing in air tax?
€7.15 for a pint wow... pic.twitter.com/RcmmlGbXow
— Barbara Murray (@babsbear) November 4, 2013
The 7 Euro pint is a bit of a shocker and people have been going mad about it online. That reminds me of the boom and it is this overcharging that has fucked so many Irish pubs. I've been talking to people responsible for marketing Ireland lately as well as friends abroad and the perception now is that we are expensive and overpriced. Thats a real problem for the tourist industry and Ireland as a whole. Places like Norway can get away with that because they have a shitload of oil and the likes of Paris and London have a boat load of other tourist attractions to bring people in but what are people going to say about Dublin when they are paying 7.15 for a pint and 50 cent for a cup of water when they go home? It's the sort of short term thinking that got us into this fine mess that we are in the first place.
Spot something overpriced in Dublin? Share it here in the comments, tweet us or mail it in and we'll name and shame. At the end of the day customers will decide themselves but showing that we are keeping them honest won't hurt either.
