Greeks on spending spree .....

BlondeHeadOn

wotsthat wrote: »

They're working with flawed logic then. A €500 telly today will still cost €500 tomorrow so it only makes sense if they are spending money they think will be devalued. Cash in hand isn't going to be devalued.

It's only money in the bank that'll buy half a telly in the event of Grexit.

Isn't part of the Greek austerity agreement to put up VAT? In which case a 500EU TV may well cost more tomorrow...

antrobus

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

Isn't part of the Greek austerity agreement to put up VAT? In which case a 500EU TV may well cost more tomorrow...

I don't think the VAT changes impact on the price of TVs.

They're supposed to abolish one of their lower rates, which effects the price of public transport and restaurant bills, (or something like that) and get rid of the discount the islands enjoy.

wotsthat

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

Isn't part of the Greek austerity agreement to put up VAT? In which case a 500EU TV may well cost more tomorrow...

I suppose but in a country where we're hearing medicines are running short, the banks are shut and there's political turmoil it strikes me as odd that people would be panic buying TV's because of a VAT change.

PasturesNew

The trouble with spending is you do need to either be able to use what you buy, or resell it in the future for the same (roughly) value.

Buying a new TV that you don't want/need would be daft.

I'd probably stock up on tinned food - but there's a limit to how many cans of beans you can buy. e.g. 4 cans for £1, using 2 cans/week is 100 cans in a year. 5 years' worth of beans is therefore only £100 spent.

Hard to be able to justify buying anything except something like gold I guess - and even that's problematical.

Tobacco might be a plan! Tobacco and alcohol can always be resold. Easily stored, easily bought, known value and a potential easy/ready market for resale in the future.

So that's me: beans and fags.

mwpt

Instead of speculating, why don't we just as an Argentinian?

ChiefGrasscutter

PasturesNew wrote: »

I'd probably stock up on tinned food - but there's a limit to how many cans of beans you can buy. e.g. 4 cans for £1, using 2 cans/week is 100 cans in a year. 5 years' worth of beans is therefore only £100 spent.

Come armageddon the thing you really need to stock up on is toilet paper

molerat

The Dixons guy was on TV the other morning and said that there has been a massive increase in card spending in the Greek stores. It seems you can't get hold of it in crisp ones but can still move it around and spend it. In some ways it is helping their economy, reducing the grey cash economy and putting more through traceable taxable legal channels.

antrobus

molerat wrote: »

..... In some ways it is helping their economy, reducing the grey cash economy and putting more through traceable taxable legal channels.

And it is supposed to be very traceable in Greece.

They have a really complicated kind of income tax system, that requires tax payers to produce receipts covering something like 25% of their expenditure in order to qualify for the Greek equivalent of the personal allowance.

remorseless

so now they got all this stuff and they are still with the EUR... are they going to keep everything now or bringing it back?