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I choose to use shops that offer good discounts and special offers. I wont pay full price for anything electrical. Things are just too expensive now with most working class being paid little more than the minimum wage, and petrol and utilities prices strangling all but the rich. If a store like Comet wont offer the discounts that Argos does, then they deserve to go bust. Too many companies are bled dry by greedy directors, and end up bust nowadays. Consumers are fed up with high prices just being charged to line someone elses fat bank account.
I have to buy more hoover spares online because there is just nowhere local that sells what I want. But I always choose the online suppliers I use based on price and postage charges - the cheapest win the business, the greedy can go swing.
 
Well, I have to disagree, I think electrical goods have never been cheaper and I think they should be much more expensive. Margins on electrical good have always been tight and it is largely through moving much production to China and other such places that we have the cheap prices which we have today.

I also disagree that people who charge more are universally greedy, but this comes from having been in business myself and being in positions where I found items I was selling in my shop were available elsewhere for not a lot more than what I was paying to get them 'cost'. Of course, some companies are greedy, but without seeing cost prices and overheads it is impossible to know who is and who is not being so.
 
Thank you. I must suggest that cheapest is rarely the best, though of course there are a good deal of circumstances where cheapest is 'good enough' if it is that what one is buying is going to get very little use, or conversely a good deal of use and be thrown away or consumed rather quickly. I am not one for offers, indeed I would much prefer a consistent, clear, fair price all year round. Yet I think I am in the minority. If I am not, then why do I have to put up with the racket from that terrible man in the television advertisement who promises to supply and install the windows at the back of my home for free, should I decide to order those at the front first. I am not at all sure who would possibly believe this to be a genuine reduction in price, but then one only has to look at the crowds of people outside a DFS on boxing day to see that money off is what people seem to lust after. Maybe I am just a cynical old man who is just bitter that he can no longer obtain his true bargain in life; a box of Cadburys Misshapes.
 
Cheapest is best if its an item that is usually expensive, like a Miele or Sebo, that is on a substantial special offer like £50 - £100 off, or that has been marked down as a return under 30 day guarantee, or a shop soiled ex display item etc. Then it becomes a very good bargain. People like bargains, and thats a fact. Benny, I'm not saying that you are wrong, thats your opinion and what you like. if you want to pay a higher price for your goods, then you are perfectly entitled to. It all depends on how much income, and savings people have - with those that are better off, preferring to buy the best at high prices, such as a Miele Washing machine for full price at over £1000, or a Miele vacuum at full price from Lohn Lewis, or a BMW 5 series from the dealers brand new - these items are not cheap I can assure you.
I am not well off, and have little money - so that that I do have I want to go the furthest it can. I buy the cheapest but not necessarily the cheapest quality. I live in a cheap house in a cherap area of the country. I drive a cheap 1.0 Toyota Yaris which is 13 years old, and I am happy to do this. However, I dont like reading about company chief Execs that pay themselves hundreds of times that of the lowest paid in the company (Barclays, Lloyds, Tesco, Sainsburys etc). That is greed. Plain and simple.
 
Yes of course, that is greed. I don't deny it. I also don't disagree that if one can find the exact thing one was looking for at a reduced price, then it is worth having. I think we may have our wires crossed slightly, for which I apologise. When you said about not paying full price for anything, you came across to me as one of those people we often see on television who claim to stand in high-street stores demanding a discount for cash or such, or to only buy something which has a reduction on it, even if the product is not quite what we needed it to be. I am realising now that this is probably not your modus operandi and for that I apologise.

I still can't agree that electrical products are too expensive because, as I said, I have never known them to cost less. But perhaps you are right, and that prices need to drop further to suit the modern consumer. I don't know. What I do know is that as a society we have become rather keen on the something-for-nothing attitude, whether this be our expected price of goods in shops or the idea that the country's benefit system is just one huge pot of cash. I am not pointing the finger, I am not blaming any one person or any one factor, all I am saying is that the idea that we may have to aspire to something or wait our turn and so on and so forth is almost becoming obsolete. As prices drop more, I worry where it will all end. The saying "A throw away society" is one we hear a good deal these days. I cannot help but think that if items cost us more, we'd be less likely to dispose of them so soon, assuming of course it was still possible to look after items and get them repaired as necessary, which it so often isn't.

Unlike yourself, I do have some money. It is one of the few things I do have and it is money I have inherited as a result of my father, who worked very hard, but insisted we went without, for most of our lives. My mother only got control of the money less than 18 months before her death, and it was completely wasted on her as she didn't get the chance to make use of it. It arrived too late. She made-do for all her life, she worked for most of it, not knowing how much her husband was hiding away. Having some money however, does not make me rich, because the things which I need now -like someone to help me with those tasks that I am struggling to manage through failing health- cannot be bought at any price. I have no family. The nearest is a step-daughter who is such as a result of a disastrous marriage I underwent rather late in life. She is a god-send to me, but I don't like to bother her as she lives a good distance away.

Anyway, the point I am making so very badly is that I don't go splashing my cash on material objects at any price, I think because I just don't know how to do so. What I have noticed is that I am much more keen on paying more for a good, reliable service. I don't mind paying for peoples time when they do jobs for me. In that respect I am lucky to be able to afford to do so; what is so hard is finding someone reliable and willing to work for people these days.
 
The something for nothing culture is far from it - this Government is causing untold misery to millions in this country with their "Welfare Reform". Hundreds of thousands of sick and disabled people are being driven to despair by the ruthless cuts to their benefits and allowances that allow them to live any kind of life.
Unfortunately, the actions of a very few people have been blown out of all proportion by Conservative propaganda to tar everyone in the country on benefits - not just Jobseekers Allowance but DLA, Incapacity Benefit, Housing Benefit - of which many claimants work but get paid so little they have to be subsidised by the state - as workshy idle scroungers. This is what they want you to believe Benny. Mr Iain Duncan Smith is so divorced from the actual reality on the streets that its frightening and very worrying. Benny - you are very lucky you have money, as many elderly people in your position with failing health are being made destitute, miserable and homeless - not to mention those in their late 50's and 60's being forced onto work for benefits schemes when they are too sick or incapable - You must have read about the ATOS healthcare assessments that are blighting the lives of the sick and disabled by declaring them fit for work and stopping vital benfits they depend on.
If you have failing health, and have no family and no one else to turn to for help in this day and age, then you need plenty of money to pay for this as the state is increasingly turning its back on people like you.
My father is a Staunch Conservative, probably the same sort of age as you (he's 72) and is not short of a bob or two - but even he thinks the Government are going too far with what they are doing - all because one man - Ian Duncan Smith thinks all welfare claimants are the Something for Nothing, workshy, Idle scroungers.
As I have pointed out, its not just the unemployed who "sponge" off the state, and what the Government and the Right wing Press are doing is causing a class war between the haves and the have nots. Its causing a lot of tension in this country, and a lot of misery for most on benefits - who DO NOT live champagne lifesyles - far from it on the paltry sums they receive which barely allow any existence at all.
The examples of benefit cheats are blown out of all proportion to make it seem to you that everyone on benefits is living the life of Riley.
Benny - look after that money, because the Tory's will bleed you dry with care costs as your health gets worse, until the money is gone. My Gran who died in December 2010 had to spend 6 months in a care home which charged her estate £700 per week and she was treated as nothing more than a cash cow for the care home bosses. I dont like the way this country is going, and if the welfare state is dismantled then I dread to think of the consequences - do you?
 
I can assure you that since 2010, prices have steadily increased - and right across the line of white appliances and others. Take the Argos upright vacuum for example - I originally bought mine for £37 when they made it in blue. Now this is the cheapest of the cheap - a rebadged TTI bagged upright model that is not sold anywhere in the UK other than at Argos under the Argos Value Name. However it increased by £12 to £49 earlier this year - and now Argos, thankfully have slashed the price to £26-99

What were once budget value appliances have seen a massive hike in pricing and availability due to the recession. My ASDA Smart Value slow cooker I originally bought for £6 is no longer on sale and the cheapest ASDA cooker that effectively replaces it is now £15 - not my idea of budget pricing, even if ASDA's "Smart Value" tag incites cheapness from its budget origins. One of my friends tried to get the ASDA slow cooker after she had seen mine and in the end we ended up buying a second hand 1970's Swan slow cooker that offers better quality and cost her a mere £3.

My flat mate's Canon Pixma MG3150 printer cost her £37 a year ago - it now sells at ASDA for £54-99 - a substantial hike.

At the opposite end of the scale though I was surprised the other day to see that three local shops have opened up in my next town selling second hand goods and plenty of those charity shops that have PAT testing on site - thus you can pick up a lot of second hand products at cheap prices - naturally - but then you're also putting up with the condition, functions. use and cleanliness. Most of their bagless vacuums they have are Samsung or Bissell - they are a collector's dream come true where sprucing up the machine is concerned, but then you're also putting up with the hose and the system probably having to be dismantled to clean it through before use.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/4068244.htm
 
Ryan, interesting about the Argos Value upright. Are these cleaners any good? They seem like a fairly decent, basic bagged upright. I really liked the bagged Proaction uprights, they were nice vacs and a great price
 
To be honest Chris I really treated that upright as an upright vacuum - you know -very few worries about bashing the thing or treating it with abuse - although initially I treated it gently due to its thin plastic build and after a year realised it can take reasonable wear. The only downside to the model is that the bags can only be purchased from Argos and you need to do a lot more assembly than just screwing the handle in - a possible reason to why it isn't available on the market elsewhere - you have to screw lock the bin assembly in as well as the cheap clip to hold the hose in and there's one miserly long tapered crevice tool - handily though, I found an old Dyson dust brush could slip on the top of it as it badly needed a dusting brush.

Compared to my old Powerlite, the upright is cheaply made but it has a more streamlined feel and design. It is also pretty good on carpets which is why I bought it at the time. I was a fan of the old LG uprights, which Proaction supplied before using other Chinese brands on their red bagged uprights before the Argos Value tag. Its not all rosy though as my linked review will show and unlike my old Powerlite which that review shows (but isn't correct) there's a piston valve bag indicator on the bin door compared to the Powerlite, which has none.[this post was last edited: 9/11/2012-07:49]

http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/vacuum-cleaner/argos-value-vu-201/1463883/
 

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