Why is Currys so expensive?

Esqui

It was one I found earlier today for another reason. Came back to my mind!!

Kite2010

Razore wrote: »

Bought a Dyson DC33 today in Curry's for £199.99.

Same price as Amazon and I was able to take it home and use it this afternoon, as opposed to wait for it to arrive next week.

So I was scammed right?

Yes, because you purchased a Dyson.

Pound

Curry's is completing with the likes of Amazon who pays no Corporation tax.

dacouch

Pound wrote: »

Curry's is completing with the likes of Amazon who pays no Corporation tax.

Currys are not whiter than white when it comes to avoidance.

paddyrg

Electronics in this country are extremely CHEAP compared with a few years ago. Internet shopping has brought down high street prices, most items are now so aggressively priced on the high street that the difference is a few quid. In fact, peripherals is where the high street makes most of its cash now, headphones are peripherals. And it is quite possible those peripherals will be on sale sometime to go down even further. In many cases, I have found it cheaper to buy electronics in Curry's than in Singapore even.

Personally, I do try to buy on the high street where I can. I don't want Curry's to vanish altogether, it is very convenient to walk a few minutes to pick an item off the shelf, know it isn't stolen or a fake (so many fake headphones online it's not funny), know I can go back if the goods are duff (quite a few fly-by-night shops for grey imports/fakes online, or drop-shipping then vanishing when returns are needed), talk to someone, and sometimes even get advice worth hearing. And I even get to try things out before buying, all for an extra couple of quid in most cases. Bargain if you ask me.

Ectophile

George_Michael wrote: »

I bought a new laptop last month, and whilst deciding which model to buy, I looked at a couple in PC World.
Both were Toshiba, and one had an Intel i5 processor, and the other was an i7.
According to the salesman, the advantages in getting a laptop with an i7 processor are that the processor has more memory and because it is more efficient, the laptop battery will last longer. (both comments are total rubbish and any IT salesman with even a shred of computer knowledge should know this.)

At the risk of being picky, an i7 really does have more memory than an i5. According to Intel's web site, an i5 has 3MB of on-chip cache, while an i7 has between 4 and 8MB, depending on the model.

aintshesweet

Currys
+ No need to wait for delivery
+ After sales care
+ Customer service + advice in store
- Large overheads including staff and general bricks and mortar costs

Amazon
- Sell loss leaders (that's right, they don't make a profit on a lot of what they sell)
- Undercut high street stores simply due to their high buying power. Will buy stock from sellers at very low prices due to the high volume they can shift with the online market.

You really can't compare Amazon to high street stores, it's really not fair. Their business models are not the most moral around.

Tax evading, too! Their "preferred merchant" is Jersey based, which, you guessed it - means they can keep VAT costs right down too.

So this is how they charge so little and monopolise the market.

George_Michael

Ectophile wrote: »

At the risk of being picky, an i7 really does have more memory than an i5. According to Intel's web site, an i5 has 3MB of on-chip cache, while an i7 has between 4 and 8MB, depending on the model.

I realise that (but I'll admit that I only found this out afterwards), but the PC World employee was talking about RAM and not Cache memory as he stated that the extra memory in the i7 would enable me to open and run more programs than with an i5.

I know that having a large cache memory may help with some CPU intensive applications such as gaming, but for most other applications the difference between 4Mb and say 7Mb wouldn't really be noticeable.

Currys
+ No need to wait for delivery (many online retailers offer next day delivery, and if you are already signed up with Amazon priime, there is no extra charge for this and with buying online, there is no need to travel to the store.)
+ After sales care (in many cases, extremely poor aftersales care)
+ Customer service + advice in store (Similar to above. In store advice is good provided the salespeople have a good knowledge, but this often isn't the case)
- Large overheads including staff and general
bricks and mortar costs (As already mentioned. If the higher prices are to cover these costs, why aren't the prices from Currys online far lower than in store prices)

Online retailers also have to factor in the costs they incur due to returns under the Distance selling regulations, something which doesn't affect "bricks and mortar" outlets.

Tax evading, too! Their "preferred merchant" is Jersey based, which, you
guessed it - means they can keep VAT costs right down too.

I assume that you are referring to the low Value Consignment Relief for items under £15 (used to be £18).
This has been withdrawn so it no longer enables Jersey based sellers to sell to UK buyers without charging VAT.


If UK highstreet sellers want to compete with online retailers, the first thing they need to do is a return to the time when customer service (both before and following a sale) actually meant something.
Unless there is a real incentive to buy on the highstreet, many people will choose the lower priced online option and who can blame them for this?

dacouch

aintshesweet wrote: »

Currys

You really can't compare Amazon to high street stores, it's really not fair. Their business models are not the most moral around.

Tax evading, too! Their "preferred merchant" is Jersey based, which, you guessed it - means they can keep VAT costs right down too.

With regard to Tax avoidance and morality, as I said before Currys have a history too.

They used to have a complicated system of companies ending on the Isle of Man to avoid tax which was shut down by HRMC due to it being a sham.

They're one of the reasons that the government place Insurance Premium Tax of 17.5% (Now 20%) as their previous Insurance backed warranty had an elaborate scam to reduce their tax and transfer some of the Vat from the price of the electrical item to the insurance policy which was taxed at 2.5% at the time.

It was not a problem for Currys though as they found another way around this by changing their warranties to being insurance backed to being funded by a trust fund controlled by Currys. They pay less tax and the customer loses out on the protection of the Ombudsman, the guarantee of payment an Insurance Policy offers, the back up of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and also the strict regulation of how an Insurance Policy is sold through the regulation of the FSA.

So Currys hardly have the moral high ground as their forfeited their customers protection on their warranties which are very expensive to start with and also their own tax avoidance scheme.

qw3rt7

Businesses are free to set a price, and customers are free to not pay it.

Amazon is a collection of thousands of merchants, many of which might be selling excess stock below cost, where as others on the same amazon site will be far more expensive - does this mean amazon is a rip off?

This also means the quality can vary enormously - try and buy a genuine laptop charger from amazon.

As to the tax issue, there is no moral obligation to pay tax beyond what is legally required.