How much of your shopping do you get from the UK or outside of France?
I have spent quite some time researching the cost of weekly food shopping items, building materials, car parts & other items available on the internet(practically everything really) & comparing them with the same or very similar in the UK & other E.U. countries.
Many items here are extremely expensive in comparison to the UK; Royal Canin dog food is 50% more expensive here, it's a French made product! Thus I buy mine from the UK.
I order my tyres for both cars from the UK as they are so much cheaper, even with delivery costs, same with car parts for my Landrover & Peugeot.
I have made comparisons with online companies, comparing ebay.fr against the UK & Germany, always cheaper elsewhere. Compare books on Amazon, there's no competition, we buy elsewhere all of the time.
After all, isn't that what the E.U. is all about, breaking down the barriers between member countries in order to benefit from the economic market, making it easier to trade between member countries?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Hearne on -
I buy everything here in France but after reading what you've said Glen I think I'll try and shop around a bit from now on. The only thing I can think of are the odd cycling components I've bought online which often came from German internet bikeshops using a french site! interesting too about the tyres, what sort of prices are you talking about, I replaced 4 195/65 x 15 fitted, balanced, valves etc for 220 euros (hankook but could have had michelin or goodyear for slightly more) not long ago and a few years before that it was about the same for 205/65 x 16s on offer.
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Permalink Reply by Glen Allsopp on -
The tyres I use on my land rover are big all terrain BF Goodrich, the cheapest I have found them here is €145 fitted, in the UK I can buy them for £89 including delivery to France a I pay €20 per tyre to get them fitted here.
Another example is tins of sardines, in Tesco's they are 38 pence a tin, they are double that here.
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Permalink Reply by Zoe Buckley on -
We also use BFGs, and paid the same for them last time... never thoguht about getting them shipped, but remember they were cheaper in Australia
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Permalink Reply by Tracy Thurling on -
It's scary how much is cheaper outside France - kids clothes and shoes are so much better value in the UK - we always pay a visit to Clarks for decent shoes and various outlets for the kids clothes. We are seriously considering buying more stuff now, having it sent to my parents then using Parcels Please who transport it from mum and dads house to here for £15 for 20kg. I think it will save a fortune, just need to get organised!
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Permalink Reply by Glen Allsopp on
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I'm off to the UK at the end of the month for a week, I'll be returning full up to the gunnells with supplies.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Hearne on
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all noted!
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Permalink Reply by Jane Williamson on -
We ordered a cooker from 3 Suisses on line and it turned up, as promised. We have not used it yet as Jim is in the process of finishing off building the kitchen.
We have ordered a dish-washer, fridge-freezr and micro-wave from C Discount, delivery is supposed to be on Wednesday morning.
By buying these in France, you have a valid guarantee.
I have just ordered towels from 3 Suisses, with free delivery.
Our duvets are coming from John Lewis, because they are breathable, but not too expensive and the delivery is £7.50.
We have ordered all these items on-line because it is too expensive to go and buy them in-store and we need the space in the car for other items when we go back to UK to see our new granchild(not sure if girl or boy) inApril.
I have just ordered three bed-frames and three Sealy mattresses from Bedworld in UK. They are very competitive and if you go to Quidco and set up an account and then place the order through them, you get an extra 7% off. I found it difficult to order all these items at the same time, as the bed frames kept coming in and out of stock. The other thing is that they don't take UK credit cards registered to a french address. We got round this by ringing the bank and they put the transaction through manually for us. If you have family or friends who can order these for you to be shipped out to France, you can then pay them back. I am using Europe Remove for the shipping. £340.00 for shipping to Southern Burgundy, which makes the whole transaction very worthwhile. Bedworld also have a very good range of bed frames, classical and simple wooden, not like the awful ultra-modern stuff you find in France.
We will be buying our bedlinen from Dunelm Mill, 400 thread count hotel quality and arranging to pick them up in store whilst we are in UK.
I had my kindle sent to my daughter in UK, because I was seeing her in Austria shortly after. This enables me to buy e-books from the english site and I do not get the american english version of the books I want to read.
There is no doubt that you can save money by buying in UK, Lakeland, M & S, John Lewis, Debenhams and House of Fraser all have very reasonable delivery charges to France.
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Permalink Reply by Tracy Thurling on
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Jane makes a very good point about the electrical goods and the guarantee, it's also handy not to have to change all the plugs.
Beds and bed linen are a classic thourgh, my parents used to have a bed shop and I can't believe the outrageous cost of beds here - we have a friend with a van that comes back and forth fairly regularly so a bed will be coming out soon. Along with the myriad of tools that my husband uses for his work.
One thing to remember though, I ordered clothes on line for me 5€ for delivery - 13€ for me to return them though when I didn't want them -oops
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Permalink Reply by Glen Allsopp on
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We bought our bed linen on line from M & S, much cheaper & better quality than you can get here & it was only £7.50 delivery to anywhere in France.
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Permalink Reply by Andrew Hearne on
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yep, cdiscount are excellent and about the cheapest, I've bought computors, cameras, printers all sorts from them usually buy other stuff direct in conforama or but, usually conforama who tend to be cheaper - just depends who's the cheapest when I need something. I prefer buying here in France for the guarantee and being able to take it back just up the road if there's a problem.
will bear in mind m&s and the others for other things next time we need any thing
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Permalink Reply by Suzanne Fitzgerald on -
Hopefully without getting a slap from Catharine & James for blatant advertising that isn't my intention - I just wanted to say this is a common finding and the reason why I set up my website www.UK4Me.co.uk because I found prices in France so much higher than the UK - have a look on there for retailers who deliver to France. I need to update the site as it's a little behind since I've been having babies.
There's been quite a few discussions about this on SFN in the past so might be worth having a look through for them.
Since being back in the UK for a while I've been ordering furniture to take back to France when we go back - it's so much cheaper here for excellent quality, especially beds. What is it with french beds? I've just ordered bunk beds for the girls with decent mattresses.
I've also stocked up on kids shoes (and as Tracy and I have agreed in the past - kids shoes are so much cheaper in the UK - startrite is another cheap kids shoe site)
I'm making the most of Ebay too to find my favourite Catimini kids clothes for a fraction of the price in France, most of them are from small UK retailers selling off past stock so they still have tags on for the full price but I end up paying 25%.
One last word - if you see one of your stores advertised on SFN try to remember to go back and click through that advert when placing an order as it supports SFN.
Suz
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