Ground Floor: Since the main topic of conversation during August always seems to be the tragedy that we live in a high-price country, I felt it was time to dust down the unscientific shopping basket again.
This is my personal shopping basket, immortalised in print (though if I'd realised it would still be with me now, three years later, I would've chosen much fancier goods to put in it).
It's an annual comparison between prices in my local supermarket and the supermarket in Spain where I do my shopping when I go there, originally based on a shopping trip I made in 2002.
A recap on the basis for evaluation: they must be branded goods, so that I can make exact comparisons, and price adjusted for the net weight or size, since for some reason packet sizes vary from country to country. Where I couldn't compare a brand I took the cheapest equivalent, but not own-label brands.
The last time I did the comparison, in September of last year, prices in Ireland had gone up less than prices in Spain.
Given that annual inflation in Ireland, at 2.2 per cent, is at the euro zone average, but that Spanish inflation is considerably higher at 3.3 per cent, that situation should still have been the case on my latest trip.
Making it harder, in some instances, to create exact comparisons has been the proliferation in both countries of multibuy offers and the fact that there seems to be many more home-produced products in Spain, which generally bring prices down (that's why I chose branded products to compare).
Anyway, the result of this year's shop compared with 2004 was that the Spanish basket had gone up 33 cent - from €28.54 to €28.87, whereas the Irish basket has gone down from €40.53 to €38.88. Of course that means we're still paying €10.01 more than a Spanish shopper for our goods - less, however, than the €11.83 more we were paying for them three years ago. (Mind you, if the difference in price narrows by only 60 cent a year, it'll be nearly 17 years before we achieve parity!)
Individual goods still vary dramatically in price. Salmon, which had been horrifically more expensive here, has narrowed the gap substantially.
Maybe it's because we're more health conscious and are beginning to lose the Irish antipathy to fish, but there's more pre-packaged fresh fish available these days on our supermarket shelves.
I had to ask for salmon cutlets in Ireland in 2002. This year they were already packaged. Anyway, they cost €2.77 in Spain (up 73 cent) and €3.41 here (down 76 cent). Cheese is also down in price here (from €3.22 to €2.89 for 200g of Brie), but up in Spain (€1.90 from €1.56). Olive oil has come down in price in Ireland (€5.19 from €5.96), while increasing quite dramatically in Spain - €3.75 from €2.95. You can, of course, buy much cheaper oils, but for comparison I've chosen glass bottles of virgin oil.
There's a bit of a problem with the breakfast cereals since I'm not really comparing like with like - 100g of Kellogg's Special K Red Berries is 2 cent dearer in Spain, but I scoured the shelves for it at home and couldn't find it. I used the price of the ordinary Special K, but I have a feeling that cereal with revolting freeze-dried fruit is more expensive.
When I first did the list I was jeered unmercifully by my friends for having the Old El Paso burrito kit in it (and I won't even try to make an excuse), but the price of it has stayed remarkably consistent in Ireland - unchanged in three years at €4.05, although it has fallen in price in Spain from €4.80 last time to €4.20 now. Another blip is Colgate liquid toothpaste, which seems to have vanished off the shelves, so I've replaced it with a standard tube of paste, which costs €1.90 in Spain but €2.19 here. Sanex deodorant is unchanged in price here at €3.29, but has fallen in price in Spain from €2.80 to €2.09.
One of the biggest expenses for an Irish shopper is coffee. As I pointed out before, filter coffee is incredibly expensive here and it's the one thing I always bring back with me. A packet of 250g costs €3.39 in Dublin and a mere €1.50 in Alicante. Of course when we're paying about €3 for a cup of takeaway coffee anyway I guess the market feels we can bear almost the same for an entire packet.
Although it's not part of the basket, I did mention previously that the cost of over-the-counter medicine is cheaper abroad too, in particular generic ibuprofen, which you can pick up at €4.88 for 48. I complained that it was impossible to get generic ibuprofen here and immediately received mail from a number of pharmacists who said otherwise. However, last week I went into a local pharmacy, asked for generic ibuprofen and was offered Nurofen. When I asked if I could get an unbranded product I was told that they "weren't allowed to sell it". Asking why, the response was "because of suicides" - the pharmacist said that packets of 48 are large quantities.
Profit margins come in large quantities too, it seems, since branded tablets are much more expensive than the generic version. So I'm nought for four in the Clontarf/Raheny area in finding generic ibuprofen.
When I wrote about the cost of asthma inhalers here I got a long and detailed letter from the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, as well as from individual pharmacists, basically saying that situations are different in different countries and pointing out that medicines were drugs and had to be taken properly and with medical advice.
Of course I agree. But paying twice the price for a sticker on the front telling you to take it in accordance with the doctor's instructions is hardly my idea of value for money.
The full basket can be seen at www.sheilaoflanagan.net
