You spot the prices, we ask the questions

Sarah Sharkey, from Roscommon, has been in touch in relation to the exchange rates employed at well-known girls' accessories shop, Claire's. The store, which has many outlets across the country, sells jewellery and knick-knacks "aimed at tweenies", according to Sharkey.

"All the kids go in there with their pocket money," she says.

While she has long since grown out of pocket money, she did have cause to visit the store recently and bought a hair-grip with a price-tag of €4.50 and a hair-slide costing €5.50.

Both items also had the sterling prices on the tags. The hair-grip was priced at £2.50 (equivalent to €3.66 based on this week's exchange rate) and the hair-slide cost £3 (€4.39). The euro cost of the two items when converted from the sterling price is €8.05, which compares pretty unfavourably to the €10 she actually paid for them.

"Shocking!" she says.

Last year another reader highlighted the seemingly unfair exchange rate employed by this chain. When we contacted Claire's a spokeswoman said that the euro prices applied in six countries across Europe where the chain has stores and were set "periodically" using predetermined currency conversion tables.

We were told that while the company "does try to have a fair exchange rate policy" it was "simply not possible" to update the exchange rates on a daily basis for pricing purposes.

What's more . . .

MILKING IT Derry Maguire has contacted us with a price spot which really takes the biscuit. Recently, he bought a 200g packet of McVities milk chocolate digestive biscuits at a large Dublin petrol station. Maguire "almost fell over" when he was asked to pay €2.45 for the pack.

"Keep in mind that this is a half-packet of biscuits. I still can't believe it," he writes. "I've seen the full packets in shops for under €2. I know that it's a convenience store and will be more expensive but, my God, are they milking it for all it's worth."

Maguire says that while he paid for the biscuits, he regretted it later. "Have I found the most expensive biscuits in Ireland?" he asks, adding that he "really, really enjoyed and savoured every one I ate".

We went in search of the same biscuits in other outlets and while, unlike Maguire, we did not find 400g packets selling for less than €2, we did find Tesco selling the 400g packet for €2.54 (or €6.35 per kg). This compares with a per-kg price in our reader's local petrol station of more than €12. So has our reader really found the dearest biscuits in Ireland; or can you top this?