Myself and my work colleagues have been avid supporters of the Farmers’ Market in Mahon Point which is on every thursday. However of late we are getting more and more jaded at the almost weekly price increases by the providers there. It’s a shame that some people seem to see they are doing well and so will exploit consumers who are giving them business. Most of the stalls we visit (apart from O’Conaill’s) seem to have jacked up their prices a LOT over the rainy summer.
For example, the curry stand now charges €7.50 for a bowl of curry or €8 if you want a curry with meat in it. Now, I don’t have receipts from a few weeks back but I could have sworn I didn’t pay more than a fiver for a bowl of curry then and the veggie and non-veggie curries were the same price. 8 quid for a small bowl of curry? Sorry, no. UPDATE: See comments below, it seems this is for a different tub and not the one they server for consumption at the Market.
One of the most popular stands does nice steak sandwiches and Chorizo sandwiches. It is now €6.50 for a steak sandwich, they too were under a fiver at some point in the past few months. Even their pricing lists can’t keep up or their staff who sometimes forget the new prices. Same goes for the Sushi place. A small kebab cost €6.50 yesterday. Yes it was lovely but it was worth €4.50 at most.
I don’t think the Market has hit a tipping point just yet, but they will and people will stop paying through the nose for “organic” food. I thinkI saw some woman pay 4 quid for a few lettuce leaves the other day. Good christ is the country that rich and lazy?
“Good christ is the country that rich and lazy?”
Yes. Yes, it is.q
Farmer markets will keep on fleecing as long as Joe Soaps keep throwing their cash away on ever-inflating, pricey niceties.
While I do agree that the prices appear to have gone up, the examples you gave are not correct.
The curry stand charges €7.50 (€8 with meat) for bowls of curry *to take home with you*. This is the same (overly expensive) price he charged last February. A bowl of curry to eat right away is still €5. However, a young man sometimes works at the stand (when the owner is away) and is very tight with the amount of curry he gives! I use to get a curry every week, but have since moved on to a chicken wrap 🙂
I did pay €6.00 for a steak sandwich last May, but I do agree that €6.50 is expensive.
I have often visited the market and wonder if I should give up the day job and get my own stall!
I knew I had heard the phrase “hippy tax” used in connection with this kind of thing before. Turns out it was Mr Mulley.
http://www.mulley.net/2007/04/10/fluffy-links-april-10th-2007/
Links to Tim Worstall, great blogger that I’ve been reading regularly since.
i too go there and agree the prices are rising, however on what stalls are the prices increasing 50% to 100%? is mulley.net going down the tabloid route of sensationilist headlines?
Lazy is the word, only Irish consumers would put up with this crap. No wonder we’re the Ripoff Republic, we can’t vote with our feet because our feet are too fat to move 🙁
Yes Daithi, that’s really how this site works, tabloid mentality. I’ve been found out after years of doing that.
Now that Dave has pointed out that the 8 quid price tag is for takehome curries and not the tiny bowls of curry I got previously, then that answers that. The 8 Euros price was the only one I saw yesterday though on that stall.
The steak sandwiches were sub 5 euros at one stage and have gone up twice now since I was there. The Sushi girls prices have gone up at 2-3 times since I’ve been going too. I’d love to know was their rent put up or are they just all getting greedier?
Face it, this country is in the throes of a feeding/spending frenzy. The more it costs the more essential it is to buy. Value for money doesn’t come into it.
It’s “new money” displaying their lack of taste or sense…
Don’t pay the listed price. Negotiate a lower price, perhaps with a smaller portion or an item that looks it’s been on offer for more than three hours. I do this and know my American accent helps but my approach has even worked with McDonalds. Everything has a sell-by time. It’s often as easy as telling the counter staff the item they offer for sale has passed its prime.
This cheeky approach works in many parts of the world where it earns respect for customers. I don’t mind politely telling the person at the cash till I’m not paying for something that came half-cooked, cold, or too spicy. And I don’t pay when I’m unsatisfied, even if I’ve wrecked the car or ate the portion.
Your mileage may vary with the terms and conditions encountered.
This is a very late reply sorry!
But i felt that i had to write a quick note to say that i’m sorry some of our customers where unhappy.
I know that alot of the stallholders food costs went up significantly in the past 2 years one example is meat by 20%. There is a policy at the market whereby the stalls are only permitted to source very good quality, locally produced meat. So where other vendors may have looked for a cheaper option, the market stalls continued to buy the best meat and had no choice but to pass this price onto customers.
I sincerly hope that you continue to trust your local farmers markets and prehaps in these changing times we will all become a bit better value. One thing that won’t change is that you will always find the best quality, naturally produced food at the market. Please keep coming …
Hi there….this blog was only just recently pointed out to me at the last Mahon Point market just gone. There’s a concerned comment about the price rises at the market.
It’s true. It seems like prices do nothing only rise up, up and away….Not so at Green Saffron!! We haven’t put up our prices for hot food or sachets since we began back in June 2006….
Note: The next couple of hundred words talking up Green Saffron have been removed as they can fuck off and pay for advertising elsewhere.
….
So please, keep coming to the Markets, they offer such a diversity of fresh, local, ‘cooked-with-love’ produce in a really innovative, friendly, safe environment. Mahon Point Market is growing from strength to strength under the superb stewardship of Rupert and Lydia. I only hope all us stallholders can continue to maintain such standards of excellence they continue to set.
So. Mahon Point Market..? Come check it out for yourselves…now with more than 50 stalls, it’s sure to have you coming back for more…..time and time again!!
The steak sandwich guy who was charging €5.00 is out of business. I make pizzas at Mahon and I buy the best ingredients I can (admittedly often from the market) which is expensive. Speaking for myself only, I put on a realistic margin and in the summer I make OK money and in the winter I work for less than minimum wage. If you want decent food you have to pay decent money. If you want crap food with ‘shite’ in it you need not pay so much.