Not sure this is a case of "rip-off Britain" as much as "rip-off Halfords"...
i think that is jsut a bit unfair without any figures to back your case. Boots plc used to own Halfords until a few months ago. It was sold off a "bargain price" to new owners due to uneconomic operational costs. I have yet to check whether the business is doing any better under new management.
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The DT recently ran a feature on the pros and cons of 'commuting from France' and the general concensus was that, primarily for tax reasons IIRC, it was likely to be very expensive.
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Interesting what you say - considering labour costs are relatively cheap in the UK compared to the rest of the world (even lower than in the US).
Halfords was sold for a song. The previous owners couldn't make a go of it - but then again, what do chemists know about the motor spares game. In the eighties, Boots (when part of the Ward White group) went on an acquisition spree in an attempt to become a retail conglomerate (conglomerates were all the rage then) and ended up with a ragtag of businesses which it failed to make a go of (it owned Do It All for a while) and this included Halfords.
That era of Boots management doesn't look too good now and the outgoing Chief Exec has dragged them kicking and screaming into the millenium but he decided that oil filters and brake pads wasn't part of the new look Boots.
So that's why Halfords was sold for a song - decades of mismanagement. A venture capitalist bought it - only a VC would go near a business like that, but its their business to turn companies around. Especially when there's a few bob in it for themselves.
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>> Not sure this is a case of "rip-off Britain" as much >> as "rip-off Halfords"... >> i think that is jsut a bit unfair without any figures to back your case. Boots plc used to own Halfords until a few months ago. It was sold off a "bargain price" to new owners due to uneconomic operational costs. I have yet to check whether the business is doing any better under new management.
Uneconomic operational costs because they have huge stores full of junk and you only ever see one or two people in there at a time (usually fiddling with the stereos). My local motor factors are in a tiny high street shop but I can buy everything there that I can buy from Halfords (err....except bicycles perhaps), at lower prices. E.g. Haynes manuals, Halfords = £14.99, local motor factors = £10.99...that's just one typical example. Oils and fluids are sure to be cheaper from a motor factors than from Halfords, and the staff are usually a lot more clued up (and you don't have to wait ten minutes before they realise you need serving).
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I am not sure that it is all rates and wages. I used to buy Mobil 1 for $2 a litre, in Germany, when it was £7 plus in UK. I think it likely that all Mobil 1 is made at some refinery in Rotterdam and shipped all over Europe with different labels and prices on it. We pay what the manufacturer thinks the market will bear and they think we can bear a lot! With trips thru Eurotunnel at £9 return for an afternoon and early evening in Calais you don't have to buy much of anything to justify the cost of the journey!
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Not sure this is a case of "rip-off Britain" as much as "rip-off Halfords"...
Hoping to tread carefully here as we are fairly close to breaking the requirement not to name and shame.
Couple of years ago desired to buy a couple of roof rack type cycle carriers from..... a well known motor store. Had looked at the particular range of goods on offer and when the 20% off sale came went back to check the reduced prices.
Found that now the "base price" had gone up by the exact amount to allow for a 20% discount thus ending up back at the original price.
Expressed my disappointment to the store staff, at which they offered, seeing as I wanted two carriers, to knock 20% off the "sale" price.
I forget the actual cash numbers now but the deal we both settled for in the end was for me to pay the full "sale" price for two low spec carriers, but actually took away two much much higher spec versions. Anyway I was well pleased and didn't see much complaint from the sales chappie either.
Actually it embarrasses the hell out of the missus but this national trait we have to pay the ticket price with no questions asked really bugs me.
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I'm not mean, just a careful Yorkshire lad.
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King Arthur was close in his first post. I don't subscribe to the phrase rip-off Britain unless you've done your homework.
Just been in a retail motor shop with the oil mentioned at £11.99 for 5lit...cheaper than "rip-off France" then.
Currently buying same spec (diesel s/syn) major brand oil for £7.45.
It's there if you look for it.
(Hi FiF)
MM
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"cheaper than "rip-off France" then"
:-) nice one MM.
Did you get any/enough rain to get the hay up and on the right path?
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FiF,
Not enough rain really but grass always tries doesn't it. You can lose an un-maintained gravel drive to it in three years.
MM
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In defence of Halfords, I've just got back from my local branch, having purchased two new tyres for the missus's push bike.
I received excellent, knowledgeable, help in choosing the most appropriate construction, but the best bit was the price: TWO high quality 7.00x35 road & trail Michelins for £10.98!
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I travel to Europe quite a bit (just got back from Munich at the weekend). I have to say that just about everything is better & cheaper in Germany. Food, beer, oil, hotels, you name it. Vehicle technicians get paid more in Germany than in the UK, but garage labour rates are quiet a bit lower - work that one out.
I for one would be very keen to emigrate to Germany (I was offered a job at Bosch, Stuttgart a couple of years ago) - sadly my wife is determined to stay in the UK. I have met large numbers of British (and Irish) over there and very few want to come back to the UK.
BTW - anyone travelled on the new 'ICE' trains in Germany? - they're good enough to make you want to give up driving!
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It's not just rates, rents etc. Fact is that you can walk into ANY supermarket in France (including the middle of Paris and other major cities)and buy oil that is cheaper than in Britain unless you really hunt around - motor factors etc. Same goes for most motoring supplies even comparing like with like (Champion wiper blades etc,) Same is true of hotels. I'm not familiar with the expensive ones but if you take the "Travelodge" type, they seem to be about £50 per night here (I paid about £60 in Leeds), yet IBIS in Paris are about £35 -40 (for a double room) and they also have a decent restaurant and bar where you can get a good meal for about £7 - here you have to eat in the nearest MacDonalds. Main dealer labour rates in a huge Citroen garage in Rennes I noticed were less that £40 per hour (though not having used a main dealer here in years I'm not sure what they are!
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As someone who has lived off and on in France for the past 5 years many of the observations about rip-off Britain do (to an extant) ring true. Ironically, it is not because France is structurally cheaper that makes its off the shelf products any cheaper. Labor rights, minimum wages, paid holidays, business taxes, VAT, employing people are all more expensive/elaborate than the UK. As Gordon Brown says, you can start a business for £60 in the UK. But what he has failed to account for is that your £60 will not go anywhere as far as its equivalent in euros in France. Moreover, 8 out of 10 UK new businesses fold within the 1st year, not a good statistic for entrepreneur Blighty.
I think the reason why the UK and particularly the SE is so ridiculously expensive (London being on par with Tokyo as the world's most expensive city, read this in the Times some months ago) is the profit seeking and monopolization strategies of big business. How many independent traders have folded in the last 10-20 yrs (I bet it's enormous). Halfords are more expensive on just about every product compared to my local parts shop, plus there is never any staff member around and they tend to be bad mooded. The point is that we now have a situation of less competition, not more and monopolization of any product always means price fixing and or increases as there is no other competitor to adjust the market value of the goods on sale.
Working as I do at a language school in Grenoble, I can do more with my Euro salary here than I could do with its greater equivalent in the UK (even if it was augmented to account for standards of living and national salary averages of Britain). All the important things in life, mortgage repayments, paid holiday, food, wine, driving, transport, music are cheaper than any of the places I lived in the UK. For instance, base rate French mortgages are 5% going down to 4.7% for teachers such as myself, and this is fixed to the European base rate which does not fluctuate so I know that I will not get repossessed 10yrs down the line, when the nest economics minister balls's up like the Conservatives of early 90's Britain with interests rates at 14%!
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Hmm: I suggest it's all about several things:
1. UK land and buildings are more expensive: we have a VERY complex and slow planning process - designed to produce work for lawyers and planners and to take a long time:-)
2. UK transport costs are very high becuase of overcrowding and underinvestment.. hence goods will cost more
3. Halfords as mentioned before have high overheads.
4. The UK market will stand high prices.
Local Motor Factors are much cheaper and if Asda did to motor acessories what they did to clothes prices (Asda George brand jeans are very good quality and vlaue for money) then I suspect they would undercut everyone.
If UK supermarkets bothered I am sure they could cut oil prices to French levels.
Expecting anything cheap at Halfords is like looking for cheap food at Marks and Spencer:-)
madf
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Yet the Daily Telegraph article mentioned above also claimed that the 40% tax bracket in France starts at the equivalent of £16,000 annual salary. eeeeek.
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I agree, tax is france is high, but it is direct tax which hits everyone, including the well off and super well off. Most employers here in france get a 13 or 14 month salary to help cope with this tax, plus you get 5-6 weeks paid holidays and bank holidays. Moreover, indirect taxation is a lot lower, such as fuel tax, food tax, VAT on books, kids cloths etc. Moreover, tax de ville (community charge) is about half the English rate on average.
The French do probably pay more tax, but then they get more services: transport, museums, arts, good roads, totally free education including all higher education and vocational courses, health care which were elected best in Europe by WHO need i go on!
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