We're in a recession and Argos have put their prices up?!!

Thrugelmir

epz wrote: »

remember the £ is now worth 25% less than a few months ago (thanks Gordon) so anything made overseas will cost more

Also just because the economy is in recession it doesn't mean that goods and services get cheaper!

Retailers still need to trade profitably even on lower sales volumes.

chalkie99

We just don't manufacture any more.

All this stuff is imported and the weak Pound means big increases on everything.

The cost of many items bought for my business has increased by anything from 30% to 50% over the past year and it is impossible to soak up those increases as new stock is bought in.

There will be some nasty surprises this year for people who have not yet realised this.

penguine

I heard something in the news awhile ago about what percentage of the items in the Argos catalogue are imported from China -- I think it was at least 50%. The pound is weaker, so those prices are bound to go up. Plus with Chinese factories shutting down production due to falling consumer demand, I'd expect the Argos catalogue to start getting smaller too -- there's not going to be the same range of goods available to buy.

Austin_Allegro

Weak pound, Chinese inflation and increased shipping costs have caused the increases, I should think.

IveSeenTheLight

I bought a new telly in the New Year.
I recall Argos was selling for £548 reduced from £800.
I notice it is back up to £782, however the sale did have in small print it was only valid till 13th / 14th January.

It's quite possible that the sale is over and reverted to pre-sale prices

jetski690

Austin_Allegro wrote: »

Weak pound, Chinese inflation and increased shipping costs have caused the increases, I should think.

Not strictly true, It's been reported on threads on here it's now 90% cheaper to ship a box from China than this time last year.

Datasafe_2

jetski690 wrote: »

Not strictly true, It's been reported on threads on here it's now 90% cheaper to ship a box from China than this time last year.

Sony reported a little while ago that it would have to increase prices due to the Yens strength against a pound weakened by rate cuts. The same is true for the Chinese Yuan over the past year.

We import more than we export thus the biggest UK trade deficit for a long long while.

Squish_21

Seems to be a new trend of setting prices higher so sales look better! Buyer are gonna need to get smarter!

jetski690

Datasafe wrote: »

Sony reported a little while ago that it would have to increase prices due to the Yens strength against a pound weakened by rate cuts. The same is true for the Chinese Yuan over the past year.

We import more than we export thus the biggest UK trade deficit for a long long while.

I totally agree the price of an item would have to rise because of the pound conversion rate , but things should even out really with much lower shipping charges but you can bet your bottom dollar they don't get passed on to the end user, the customer

carolt

IveSeenTheLight wrote: »

I bought a new telly in the New Year.
I recall Argos was selling for £548 reduced from £800.
I notice it is back up to £782, however the sale did have in small print it was only valid till 13th / 14th January.

It's quite possible that the sale is over and reverted to pre-sale prices

Hope you didn't pay £548! :eek:

Shoking amount of money for a screen to watch rubbish progs on.

Always saw you as a careful-with-money kind of guy.