Sign of the times

Some of the UK retail chains with outlets here have been cashing in big time on the recent fall in the value of Sterling, not compensating at all when it comes to the euro conversion rate. Biggest offender if all, from what I saw both before and after Christmas, has to be Debenhams. They recently took over Roches Stores, a long-established irish chain, and things have not been good since. Until recently, the handy rule of thumb when it came to calculating the euro equivalent of pound prices was to add half as much on again (so £10 became 15 euro, for instance). It's now nothing like that, what with the recent collapse of Sterling to virtual parity with the euro. Debenhams have been very bold about all of this. In many cases they simply don't display a euro price at all on their price tags, and when they do, they use the half-as-much-again rule of thumb. It's become a bit of an issue with the media here, and many customers have insisted on fairer pricing when they reach the till. In my case I prefer to vote with my feet, and simply don't buy.

Against this background it was good to see one of my local supermarkets making a highly visible issue of offering like-for-like pricing on some food items (so, £1.99 becomes 1 euro 99). I don't know how they came to have Sterling-priced items on sale in the first place, but they certainly get lots of plus points for their initiative.