TOPIC:

On the ph5.2. Check the price of star san in the Hop and Grape works out at about 26.99 for the 32oz whereas we charge 19.99. I don’t see anyone highlight this. pH 5.2 is not so popular and so costs a fortune to ship from US for smaller amounts. The government then get there hands on it, charge VAT and excise duty. I can assure you no-one is getting ripped off. The price is what we are paying to have it. It’s very easy to compare the cheapest place to get it with ourselves. The same thing has been referred to with the grain and hop prices. Whereas if people take a broad view of prices they will see that we are not the cheapest but by no way are we the most expensive. We do have overheads- staff, VAT, rent, rates, accountant fees, shipping the list is endless. If it were only as simple as buy for 10 sell for 20, I’m up a tenner, not a hope. It does all add up. It seems very easy for people to come on here and point at the differences without knowing what’s actually involved in running a Homebrew business. We are at it 3 years now and we are still learning. Why not do a price compare with the bigger bricks and mortar shops in the UK. These are the boys who stand the test of time.

Also the suggestion that there is profit on a 20 euro order after free shipping, VAT and expenses is biggest pile of rubbish I believe ever written on here. We matched it but at a loss.

I also believe we should not be posting on each others threads. I have not done so before and won’t be doing so again.

I've been outspoken about many things, including suppliers on here in the past but i would not like to be in the position of any of them right now. They're cutting the socks off each other just to survive and still there's people here convinced they're being ripped off!(Not helped by the naive comments of one new supplier) The two main suppliers were until recently, pricing with the stability of the Irish homebrew market in mind, it's not sustainable and we as brewers will suffer as a result. The price of everything has fallen quite a lot since i started brewing, the selection we currently have wasn't dreamed of a few years ago, not to mention the next day delivery (but a lot of the guys who are giving out won't remember that!). There's a small handful on here who constantly moan about prices and rather than do a proper price comparasion, pick one product from a uk shop and ask "whey don't we get it this cheap?" If you're so unhappy about the situation, join one of the uk forums and tell them how great it is over there, do all your shopping over there if that's what you want but for gods sake, stop with the constant whinging, it's getting soooooooooooooooo old. I know of brewers who won't post on here because of the same people. Is this what Sean was looking for when he started up ICB? I certainly hope not! I know it's not something i'm proud to be part of right now so from now on i'll only be logging in the check my PMs and read "some" threads, i certainly won't be in any way contributing to threads that promote the negativity that some of you are intent on broadcasting on a daily basis.

Competition is very good in the market place, you can see it anywhere form Tesco -v- Dunnes, spar -v- Centra etc..... but in such a small and limited market place its more detrimental than anything else. Take for instance the free shipping on all orders. How is this sustainable, the answer is that it is not and will never be but because one supplier offered it, all other suppliers followed because our customer base is so small,

I for one would rather pay shipping and have the variety of local(ish) Irish home brew stores with their own variety of products available to me than get free shipping for a few orders and see a few of these store having to close.

This site is a great help for homebrewers and I think we should obviously help our suppliers so we can keep the irish homebrewing scene alive on all fronts, supply, production and the drinking!

Mods, down with this sort of thing, lock the thread before we have civil war <!-- s:wink: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_wink.gif" alt="" title="Wink" /><!-- s:wink: -->

I'm with Halite, lock the thread.We can't have freedom of speech otherwise someone will get hurt by the toys being thrown out of the pram. <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: --> <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

I don't think anyone is going to go bust.

New entrants to the market need a way to capture market share, and as consumers we benefit

At the end of the day I always spend my money where I get best value, and will continue to do so.