I was talking to a chap who runs a mail order astronomy business about the VAT decrease. He felt it was a ploy by the government to shift blame by saying we have reduced prices now you pass it on or the public will know who is to blame. As he tells it, due to a weakening pound prices for goods made abroad have been increasing but these increases have been absorbed by businesses like his to stay competitive. There is also the tendency when selling to mark something as 'less than X' as in "Get your camera for under £100 - it's only £99.99 from us". Given these two trends he sees a good percentage of such items staying at the same price and not coming down. Of course by doing this the seller might be slated by the government spin doctors as profiteering while in fact he is still charging less than he did before the crunch while absorbing the difference in price as the pound slides.
--- On Tue, 11/25/08, Brian J Goggin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Brian J Goggin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [canals-list] Re: VAT To: [email protected] Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 4:54 PM On Tue, 25 Nov 2008 16:08:14 -0000, "Neil Arlidge" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] lub.co.uk> wrote: >So what with the weak pound, Europeople will be flocking to bargain basement >Britain! I've just bought Yorkshire. And if you thought it was grim up north before .... bjg [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
