Has Dunnes got pricey bags wrapped up?WHEN ANGELA BOLTON asked for a plastic bag in Dunnes, in Dublin, recently, she was told the only bags available were the 70 cent versions, or the larger fabric bags. "This is about the 20th time I've requested a regular 22 cent plastic bag in Dunnes, either at South Great George's Street or Stephen's Green," she writes.
She asked the assistant why there had been no regular 22 cent bags available for so long. “She said she believed they were ‘no longer stocked’. As I had no option, I paid for the 70 cent bag – 48 cent more than I should have had to.” She says that if it is no longer Dunnes Stores’ policy to stock the small plastic bags which attract the 22 cent Government levy, the retailer should make this clear. “I’ve heard so many customers asking for bags (in the two stores I frequent) and being told ‘we don’t have any’. Surely it’s in Dunnes’ interest to give its customers this option, or do they make more money out of the 70 cent bags? Is that the reason why they’re the only ones available? If this is so, surely that would be construed as greed on the part of Dunnes Stores? Better value? Not in this case,” she concludes.
We contacted the store to ask if it had discontinued offering shoppers the 22 cent plastic bags. We also wondered if Dunnes Stores had communicated this fact to its customers and we asked if the store would care to respond to the charge from our reader that its apparent refusal to supply the bags could be construed as greed. The store declined to respond.
Not all biofuels destroy habitats , says Maxol
LAST WEEK WE carried a small item from a reader which was very critical of biofuels in general and Maxol, a company which has invested heavily in the technology, in particular. Tom Noonan of Maxol wrote to say: “The Green Party have regrettably dropped their commitment to biofuels. The comments from Michelle Rogers are a poor defence. She is simply wrong to suggest that all biofuels destroy habitats and reduce food supply. For example, Maxol purchases biofuel, as a bi-product of cheese production, from Carbery Milk Products in Cork,” he says.
“It should come as quite a shock to these environmentally progressive manufacturers that she should link them to people accused of ‘destroying important habitats around the world’. If the cattle who provide the milk that is used by Carbery are guilty of anything, it is of eating large quantities of grass (which is a significant source of CO2 emissions).” He goes on to say that Maxol was “the first and only Irish oil company to embrace the original enthusiasm which the Greens had for biofuels” and says it continues to sell such fuels to motorists who were given green tax incentives to purchase flexifuel vehicles. “It would be interesting to know what response the Green Party and those promoting these fuels have for the plight of these motorists now. As for electric vehicles, Maxol has completed a preliminary study on this subject and looks forward to participating in this project in due course.”
Canesten costs much more here than in UK
A READER WAS charged €31.38 for a 20ml bottle of Canesten solution in a chemist on Leeson Street, Dublin (on prescription) last week, even though it costs just £3.71 (€4.27) in the UK. “I would imagine that chemists across the water are making a reasonable profit on this product,” says the reader from Blackrock. “Could anyone in the pharmaceutical business explain why it is necessary for the product to be seven times more expensive in Ireland than it is in England?”
