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TESCO HAS COME under fire after it was revealed that some of the prices it charges for products – which were lowered under a promotion launched yesterday – are still higher than the prices that had been charged for the same products beforehand.
The Irish Times’ Conor Pope revealed that the prices for several goods under the new promotion were higher than the prices the supermarket had charged for the same goods just a few months ago.
One range of Tropicana orange juices, for example, were now priced at €2.49 each, having been charged at €2.59 before the promotion was launched. The same range, however, had been priced at just €2.28 in December – meaning that the same products, though ‘on sale’, were still priced at higher levels than they were just a few months ago.
The new promotion has drawn the ire of the Consumers’ Association of Ireland and of MEP Mairead McGuinness, both of whom have accused the supermarket of unfair pricing practices.
But there’s no legal resource that can be taken against the supermarket – because its actions, although perhaps immoral, are not illegal.
The 2007 Consumer Information Act requires sales promotions, if they’re giving a comparative price for a product now being advertised as discounted, only to use a ‘before’ price that had been in place for a “reasonable period” beforehand.
Although there’s no specified time for how long is considered a ‘reasonable period’, that new law replaced a previous one from 1978 which specifically required that such prices be in place for 28 consecutive days within the previous three month period.
So, for example, a retailer can’t raise the price of a good by a few cent for a day or two, reduce the price again, and then advertise it as having been reduced – the ‘pre-sale’ price would have to have been in place for four weeks solid.
That paradigm is still considered the de facto law, especially given National Consumer Agency guidelines which suggest that the 28-day period is still the best model to use – dismissed only in circumstances where goods are particularly perishable, for example.
So while Tesco might face some ire, or an organised consumer action, for raising the prices before lowering them again, it hasn’t done anything wrong from a legal point of view.
The supermarket, for its part, said natural inflation was to blame for the previous increase in many of its prices, especially given the increased prices of commodities like oil.
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They should take the Pope down for a look when he’s over.
He could give the nuns absolution and all would be ready to start over again with a clean slate.
@Gerry Ryan deG: he should certainly be taken there to visit, but nobody gets a clean slate on this. When he visits he should personally hand over compensation to the countless victims of religious abuses that are still awaiting payments.
The hope for the church when it comes to compensation is to drag it out long enough until all the victims are dead, the only thing the church cares about is itself and its pockets.
@Barry Somers: Bernard law to get a cardinals send off in St Peters with the PR pope attending.. That’s what Rome thinks of its victims http://boston.cbslocal.com/2017/12/20/cardinal-bernard-law-funeral-pope-francis-statement/
Dunno who is worse. The government or the Catholic Church.
@Trevor W: governments can be good or bad, &they can cause hurt or pain as well as do good things.. .we all know that but people expected much more of the catholic church because it was supposed to be holy, godly &Christian. People believed it was caring, truthful, loving Christ -like &compassionate & instead found it to be anything but. in short the catholic church was much worse because it showed itself up as lacking in basic morals, deceitful, uncaring, unloving &concerned only with protecting its image & grabbing money every chance it could get
@Trevor W: Sinn Fein arevtge worst. Then the church then the government
@Trevor W: There was a time that they were one in the same.
When he says “We are all now complicit”, I sincerely hope he is referring to elected representatives who are paid to look after these matters and have the platform to do so, and not the majority of us who spend most of our time working to keep the country running and pay their wages
@JimmyMc: we are all complicit though. We are not forcing the issue with the representatives who are meant to work to achieve what we want.
It’s an absolute disgrace so many places are sold off and bulldozed and the horrors that happened within all but forgotten. It’s not just magdelene laundries but all the mental institutions. People were locked away for all their lives and forgotten by the world. Their treatment was horrendous too. Now no one speaks about those poor people and the institutions are sold off and turned into things like luxury hotel. We have whole sections of society we locked up and treated badly and neglected. We should remember them all properly.
@Catherine Sims: The industrial schools, the Magdalene laundries are all a thing of the past. They were horrendous places, but they belong to history now, those injustices against men, women and children do not happen today.
@Catherine Sims: yes, curious there was enough will and money to develop them into exclusive/elitist/yuppie housing complexes/gated communities acceptable and desirable for the few who could afford them but not for the unfortunate inmates dealing with barrack like vast nightingale wards… Look up Friern Barnet hospital, north London and see how it evolved from an institution to an, eh, institution…
@Tom&Gerry: there should never be forgotten. Burying heading in sand will not make this go away.
Perhaps you should receive compensation from the tax payer for having to grow up near a Magdelan Laundry. Speak to a solicitor. You are a victim too after all!
@Don Shavago: Dumped Christian White already?
Everyone reading this should be aware that this memorial will cause more pain and horror to the men and women who were in orphanages and are still living today, the grown women who made and had choices are thought of more than the kids imprisoned for 14years by courts, we are the children of these women
@David Dineen: what??
@David Dineen: Catholic Church is a corrupt institution and always will be, Why,!! Because it puts its Trust in Wealth, making Money from every conceivable angle, from the day your born to the day you Die. The only way to break that cycle is, break out of it don’t let yourself be ‘Used’ ‘Abused’ by this profiteering religion. And now to Insult us all, our Government is going to pay out €20 millions on the visit of the leader of this Rich money making Machine. !!!
@Mairtín: so how do the church make money out of people? €2 in a collection plate on a Sunday?
Think about it.
You’re talking absolutely bollixxx
@David Dineen: what choices did these women have?
@Mairtín: No The church is paying for the visit
@Steph Duffy:
These women had no choices but the men who made them pregnant definitely got away with not facing up to their responsibilities.
@marg fitzgerald: and where does the church get their money?
@Tom Burke: two plates passed around per service, paying money (€50) to have someone remembered in a mass, more again to have a mass said for them. Christening, Education, Communion, Confirmation, Wedding, Funeral. At every step there’s the church with the hand extended for a bit of wheel grease. Indulgences haven’t entirely gone away either
@Dave O Keeffe:
None of which are compulsory .
@Mairtín: The problem for you is that Ireland is a Catholic country. For me and my family and millions of Catholics in this country, it would be an honor to have the pope visit.
@Dave O Keeffe: And why not, are you saying that priests should not be paid for their time. . Priests have living expenses the same as everyone else. You are not forced take part or participate in any way with anything to do with the church, you are obviously anti catholic. So i suggest you stop bothering yourself with the affairs of a church you have no time for. Just walk away, nobody will stop you.
@Mairtín: I would imagine that all churches survive on donations from their congregations. How else would they survive?
@Tom&Gerry: so your saying a priests wages comes solely from the voluntary offerings of the parish in which he serves? That’s absolute bull. I’m not anti-catholic at all, Catholicism does a world of good for a lot of people but there is no denying the organisations obvious wealth and the corrupt nature of the business side of it. The fact that anyone not donating would have to do so in view of the whole congregation brings another element to it.
@Dave O Keeffe: bullxxxx Dave.
You get a mass said and it’s typically €10 but you decide what you give.
Yes you make a contribution for a wedding or a christening but it’s nominal and if you can’t afford it it’s no problem.
For the wedding the couple and guests will arrive at a clean heated church which is provided.
Go to your local village tomorrow and walk into any premises shop, pub, restaurant, solicitor etc. Very soon you will be approached and the goal is to get your money.
Walk into your church. No charge.
You can go into that church every day of your life and never pay 1c, and you will be as welcome the next day.
You are not being truthful and you know it.
someone please ask micheal woods doctor of tomatoes what sort of crack cocaine he was smoking when he did a lousy deal to help the church out with its compensation deal to the victims of anal rape rape of women and imprisonment of it s flock .
ask michael martin why he voted for its approval maybe.
I wonder about places like this being preserved, “lest we forget.” If you visit “Auschwitz,” apart from the “Work Will Set You Free” over the entrance gates and a huge warning sign shortly after that, the amount of people laughing, joking and taking selfies, you have to wonder if you haven’t stepped into another (albeit morbid,) section of Disneyworld. The visitor’s centre full of memorabilia, dvds, cards and keepsakes also serve to dilute the horror of the place. There has to be a better way of putting a stop on man’s inhumanity to man…
How much would it be to get a few clothes washed? I need a dog bed cleaned too.
Ip
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