Next - VAT rip-off

BenL

There wasa guy in the shoe business on radio 5 this morning advising that prices will be going up in that line of trade due to the poor UK£ exchange rate.

He was asking if any economists have worked out yet how worse off we are as an importing nation with the £ going down and VAT coming down.

Deflation? nah retailers are talking inflation again!

keith99_2

blue_monkey wrote: »

What great news for the British Economy. And then I guess you'll be moaning when you are paying 22.5% VAT in 12 months time and also when the BR of Tax goes up again to cover all the additional unemployment benefits for the people who have lost their jobs. Why not just shop at Primark and pay £5 and stop moaning? No-one forced you to pay for the goods you should have placed them on the counter and walked away.

Are people really expecting that the price tickets in shops are not going to change for 13 months? All this fuss over 33p. Honestly.

The new stuff is out, the new tickets will be on the goods, they could have put their prices up £1 and then deducted the VAT - would that have been more acceptable to you?

Typical business person talking, but we all know from previous posts you are more than happy to keep those measly 33p's becasue of 'all the extra work' or 'my prices are already cut to the bone'.
That 33p is worth more to us than it is a business, at least until you add them all up and see why you want to keep them.:rolleyes:
And i bet if VAT was to go to 22.5% you would waste no time putting it up.

muddy

I agree with the OP - I read the same sign in my local Next and initially thought that meant the till would reduce the cost and then I re read it and realised it didn't mean that at all and that they were not passing on the rate cut to consumers. I do feel the poster was misleading.

However I have just bought an awful lot of stuff at half price or less in their sale so can't really complain about them not giving good value.

blue_monkey_2

keith99 wrote: »

Typical business person talking, but we all know from previous posts you are more than happy to keep those measly 33p's becasue of 'all the extra work' or 'my prices are already cut to the bone'.
That 33p is worth more to us than it is a business, at least until you add them all up and see why you want to keep them.:rolleyes:
And i bet if VAT was to go to 22.5% you would waste no time putting it up.

Of course, and a typical consumer talking - thinks they know all and know nothing attitude! My postage rates have now increased by £1 per item from my main supplier. I do not pass that £1 onto my customer and I cover that loss myself so yes, I have not reduced the price on my items and the items that were reduced from £26 to £8 are still priced at £8. I am still much cheaper than my major competitors on my core lines as they have to pass the rate on so the same people will still shop with me as they did before.

That being said, the value of the £1 means I am getting more people buying from overseas than I have ever done before and my overseas customers this week alone have been 2:1 to UK buyers, so the dismal rate is a good thing for me as people living outside the UK want to spend their money in the UK again. However, I won't be going on holiday overseas this year as the dismal rate pushes the price of goods up outside the UK. All swings and roundabouts.

As for putting the rate up, yes, I guess I would have to as I can't afford a 7.5% loss, as you remember from my comment before, I am already selling at little more than cost and small businesses cannot afford to take the 7.5% loss should the rate go up.

As for 'passing the rise on as soon as I can' I've already had to absorb the £1 an item raise my supplier has imposed on me so if off-setting that with a 20p 'gain' by not giving the tax cut makes me look like a bad person then so be it - my customers will speak with their feet if they think this is the case, but they have not so far and I am doing OK.

As I say, you assume you know everything with your comments, really you know nothing and you show your ignorance of the economy and this is where this problem lies in this country. Ignorance. Prices will be rising much higher than they are at the moment because of the rises being imposed by our suppliers and their suppliers... and so it goes around the chain, unfortuntely the rises have to be paid by the final consumer in the end. And here we all are moaning about the price rises without having any understanding of what is going on in the world - we want it cheap, we want it now and let's all moan if we do not get it. I am lucky as I work from home not on the high street, I pity anyone running a high street store right now, our town centre is already a third empty and it has been getting progressively worse - and I am sure there will be many more to follow as rates and rents increase. Try running a business in the economy we have now and then you'll have a little more understanding of just how bad things are.

I am sure many of you will have a huge shock in the next few months when prices start to rise - the Government might have given you 2.13% extra to spend but this does not even touch some of the increases our suppliers have made. Those of us running businesses though will not show any surprise as we have seen this coming for a long time.

BettiePage

I just posted a similar thing in the vat board about currys. Inlaws just bought a 22" matsui lcd tv advertised for £199.99 not in the sale. That is the rpice they had to pay. Am sure it's a rip-off.

blue_monkey_2

scootw1 wrote: »

It's all very well saying "stop moaning as it's only 20-odd pence" but just imagine if this was a much higher priced item. Alastair Darling cut the VAT rate to encourage spending and even though I personally don't think it will do that, if the shops aren't even passing that cut on then it DEFINITELY won't do that. If a cut has been made the shops should have passed it on. For those saying that the shop might have increased staff costs, bit of a coincidence that staff costs have gone up as VAT just came down, eh?

As I said in my last post, it is a very naive attitude, my husband has had a 3% wage rise, my suppliers have increased their shipping prices by £1 an item (they used to ship free before), just how many business can absorb these rises over and over before they too go bankrupt? Administration leaves a whole chain of people unpaid and possibly in danger of losing their jobs too. The 2.5% VAT cut is not going to make any difference - it might just keep some prices level - for now anyway.

Of course prices were going to increase this year - can anyone really not see what is coming? If a supplier increases the cost of their services they have to be passed on. That is how business works I am afraid, while I would love to give stuff for free I do have a family to support with this money too. Your employer makes a profit to be able to pay you, no profit means there will be no money for paying you. The reality is that unless we want to be joining the dole queue we have to do what we have to do to stay in business. And while people do not like price rises they are inevitable. So make the most of the cheap prices while you can, I have been as they will not be here for much longer.

keith99_2

blue_monkey wrote: »

Of course, and a typical consumer talking - thinks they know all and know nothing attitude! My postage rates have now increased by £1 per item from my main supplier. I do not pass that £1 onto my customer and I cover that loss myself so yes, I have not reduced the price on my items and the items that were reduced from £26 to £8 are still priced at £8. I am still much cheaper than my major competitors on my core lines as they have to pass the rate on so the same people will still shop with me as they did before.

That being said, the value of the £1 means I am getting more people buying from overseas than I have ever done before and my overseas customers this week alone have been 2:1 to UK buyers, so the dismal rate is a good thing for me as people living outside the UK want to spend their money in the UK again. However, I won't be going on holiday overseas this year as the dismal rate pushes the price of goods up outside the UK. All swings and roundabouts.

As for putting the rate up, yes, I guess I would have to as I can't afford a 7.5% loss, as you remember from my comment before, I am already selling at little more than cost and small businesses cannot afford to take the 7.5% loss should the rate go up.

As for 'passing the rise on as soon as I can' I've already had to absorb the £1 an item raise my supplier has imposed on me so if off-setting that with a 20p 'gain' by not giving the tax cut makes me look like a bad person then so be it - my customers will speak with their feet if they think this is the case, but they have not so far and I am doing OK.

As I say, you assume you know everything with your comments, really you know nothing and you show your ignorance of the economy and this is where this problem lies in this country. Ignorance. Prices will be rising much higher than they are at the moment because of the rises being imposed by our suppliers and their suppliers... and so it goes around the chain, unfortuntely the rises have to be paid by the final consumer in the end. And here we all are moaning about the price rises without having any understanding of what is going on in the world - we want it cheap, we want it now and let's all moan if we do not get it. I am lucky as I work from home not on the high street, I pity anyone running a high street store right now, our town centre is already a third empty and it has been getting progressively worse - and I am sure there will be many more to follow as rates and rents increase. Try running a business in the economy we have now and then you'll have a little more understanding of just how bad things are.

I am sure many of you will have a huge shock in the next few months when prices start to rise - the Government might have given you 2.13% extra to spend but this does not even touch some of the increases our suppliers have made. Those of us running businesses though will not show any surprise as we have seen this coming for a long time.

Boo hoo, we are here to save money, not listen to the hard done by retailer who tries to justify not passing on VAT reductions, so dont patronise me and tell me that i, and others here know nothing.

blue_monkey_2

No, sorry, you've got me wrong. I do not think I am hard done by, far from it so save your boo-hoos, I have a job that revolves around my family so my children can come first - something that I am sure many working mothers would snap my hand off for. I've a disabled child too so getting a job around him is nigh on impossible, I love the fact my work fits around him as I am the boss and can do as I please - plus because I am cheap people shop with me.

However, you may see it but clearly some people here do not and they do not realise that suppliers are increasing prices and the final consumer will pay for those rises. Comments such as 'For those saying that the shop might have increased staff costs, bit of a coincidence that staff costs have gone up as VAT just came down, eh?' clearly show that people so not understand that costs ARE rising - people turning a blind eye is not going to help that - at the same time companies cannot be loss making machines just to keep the consumer happy - costs are rising everywhere for everyone, each pay rise, supplier rise, utility bill rise means a company has to pay more and in turn the goods have to increase in price to pay for those increases.

So, you say you understand that costs are rising so why are you moaning about having to pay more for some things? Seriously, I am intrigued, are companies supposed to give stuff away for free to keep people 'happy'?

I know how the economy is, I also understand that I am having to pay more for some things so I just get on with it and shop how I have always done, shopping around to get the best deal. Nothing changes, I do not stop shopping somewhere because they are not passing on the rate as they may be the cheapest and that is just daft, I just buy what is the cheapest price. I've got some cracking bargains the last few days, we are all here for the same reason, to save money and this is why I use this site. But, that is also why people choose to shop with me, because I am still cheaper than most other places selling the same goods. No sympathy for me is needed but clearly people do not understand which is why they have made comments such as the one quoted above!!

keith99_2

I am well aware costs are rising and some of the reasons, but this discussion is about not passing on a VAT cut. Dont insult my intelligence and say it may help not laying off staff etc. If a company is in that much trouble to consider it, then it will still happen.
We all want to pay the lowest price but we are sick of the constant excuses, sorry reasons for it. We get that dreaded over used saying, 'credit crunch' blamed for everything, we had the ever rising oil price but now that has dropped rapidly we change to the exchange rate. Next it will be the Israeli troubles. There is always a reason for the rises, but when that reason goes away, far from going back down, they go up because we have another reason.
I accept price rises but not the double digits the likes of Tesco have been pushing on us.

philatio

^
Agreed.
I started this thread about NEXT ripping off it's customers, not so you can have a cry about your poor hard life in these difficult times.