Why there are no dollar shops or pound land in Finland

red1 · Post by **red1** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 12:40 pm

Hi

Why are there no dollar shops or poundland in Finland.
Is it not feaseable someone must have thought about it.

**Sponsor:**

MagicJ · Post by **MagicJ** » Sat Jun 23, 2012 1:00 pm

Details in 3rd post

tony webb · Post by **tony webb** » Sun Jun 24, 2012 9:30 pm

Poundland UK specialise in buying stock over runs or manufacturers overuns (job lots) and they mostly concentrate on buying from former eastern block countries.

They also have the purchasing power to have manufacturers produce products for their shops. These often look the same but weigh less or have less volume. A classic example is toblerone chocolate. See this link http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16469761 .

The reality is that although products are priced at £1.00 you get less volume than you would if you bought the product elsewhere. Research has shown that in many cases supermarkets are cheaper when you calculate poundland and supermarket prices on a pro rata basis.

When you go to a pound shop you often don't buy just one thing you look around for other bargains and buy them. That is where they make their profit.

It probably would be harder to get Finns to visit these shops as they are not part of their culture.

The 2€ shop in Helsinki did close down for a while last winter.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 12:55 am

Huh? Whats those junk stores riddling the country all then?

j.juuppeli · Post by **j.juuppeli** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 3:33 pm

Well Finns do visit the Etola, Robin-Hood and all those other places that seem to be cheap but aren't.
I hate those!

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Mon Jun 25, 2012 5:49 pm

tony webb wrote: Research has shown that in many cases supermarkets are cheaper when you calculate poundland and supermarket prices on a pro rata basis.

Got a link for some of that research?

Mita nyt · Post by **Mita nyt** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 5:28 pm

But note.... many go to the "FLEA MARKETS" all the time...Full of (maybe questionable) 2nd, 3rd, 4th hand stuff...so if a person wanted, rent a spot at Flea markets and store stuff at your apartment, storage, etc...

tony webb · Post by **tony webb** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:47 pm

Karhunkoski wrote:
tony webb wrote: Research has shown that in many cases supermarkets are cheaper when you calculate poundland and supermarket prices on a pro rata basis.
Got a link for some of that research?

There is one link in my original post that refers to tobelorone. It's from the BBC.
There is also this link that confirms what I have said;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... /poundland

In this link they also mention that brand manufacturers offer special packaging for pound shops so that they can retail for £1.

When I lived in the UK I used to use the pound shops but then I noticed that some things like washing up liquid where you paid £1 in the pound shop were only 90p in a supermarket.

Last October when I was last home I purchased a multicard reader from poundland so that I can load photographs from my camera card onto my PC. There are bargains but you have to recognise them.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Thu Jun 28, 2012 12:30 pm

There are bargains but you have to recognise them.

Fray Bentos pies in Poundland 1,- ... in Co-Op 2.85 or so...

Karhunkoski · Post by **Karhunkoski** » Thu Jun 28, 2012 8:17 pm

tony webb wrote:
Karhunkoski wrote:
tony webb wrote: Research has shown that in many cases supermarkets are cheaper when you calculate poundland and supermarket prices on a pro rata basis.
Got a link for some of that research?
There is one link in my original post that refers to tobelorone. It's from the BBC.
There is also this link that confirms what I have said;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/ ... /poundland

Without wishing to sound abrasive, I can't see anywhere in either of the articles you have linked to, which shows this type of research:

tony webb wrote: Research has shown that in many cases supermarkets are cheaper when you calculate poundland and supermarket prices on a pro rata basis.

Can you please point it out clearly for me, maybe highlight the text or something, because I can't see it

canuck86 · Post by **canuck86** » Fri Jun 29, 2012 8:25 am

If memory serves me correctly, there's some kind of Euro store in Kaisaniemi...

riku2 · Post by **riku2** » Sat Jun 30, 2012 9:08 am

tony webb wrote:Poundland UK specialise in buying stock over runs or manufacturers overuns ..
They also have the purchasing power to have manufacturers produce products for their shops

These two reasons are why they could not operate so successfully in Finland.

The volume of products in the sales channel in Finland isn't high enough for there to be lots of stock over runs, you can see this when other shops have a clearance, there is just not a lot of stock to clear and the prices don't have to be dropped as much. A sale in the UK might see 40% or 50% off the price, in Finland a "sale" can be 20% off and the Finns are grateful for it.

And with the lower sales volume selling to only 5M people a Finnish one euro shop would not have the volume to do a deal with a manufacturer to make slightly different package sizes to meet their 1e price point.

You might say that a pan-European chain would work but the problem is that the sales tax (VAT) is different in different European countries and the price on the shelf INCLUDES the tax. So something that would be on the shelf for 1e in the German store would be about 1.05e in the Finnish store and different again in France. There is a much bigger difference in other overheads too (staff, delivery) that would make maintaining a constant price point almost impossible. If they attempted to impose a common price point (say 1e shelf price everywhere) then their margins in Finland would be worse than in Germany, and these stores operate on low margins, so that few % difference would probably mean anything they sell in Finland at the same price as in Germany is sold at a loss.

Dollar stores in the US and Canada have it easier since sales tax is added at the register, not displayed on the shelf or advertisements. This helps retailers a lot - otherwise advertising prices in the US would be very awkward. A newspaper like the New York Times is read in places with sales tax varying from 0% - 10%.

Pursuivant · Post by **Pursuivant** » Sun Jul 01, 2012 10:24 am

Poundland UK specialise in buying stock over runs or manufacturers overuns ..

So guess where KESKO buys all its stuff from

Kielan · Post by **Kielan** » Sat Dec 19, 2015 11:33 pm

riku2 wrote:
tony webb wrote:Poundland UK specialise in buying stock over runs or manufacturers overuns ..
They also have the purchasing power to have manufacturers produce products for their shops
These two reasons are why they could not operate so successfully in Finland.

The volume of products in the sales channel in Finland isn't high enough for there to be lots of stock over runs, you can see this when other shops have a clearance, there is just not a lot of stock to clear and the prices don't have to be dropped as much. A sale in the UK might see 40% or 50% off the price, in Finland a "sale" can be 20% off and the Finns are grateful for it.

And with the lower sales volume selling to only 5M people a Finnish one euro shop would not have the volume to do a deal with a manufacturer to make slightly different package sizes to meet their 1e price point.

You might say that a pan-European chain would work but the problem is that the sales tax (VAT) is different in different European countries and the price on the shelf INCLUDES the tax. So something that would be on the shelf for 1e in the German store would be about 1.05e in the Finnish store and different again in France. There is a much bigger difference in other overheads too (staff, delivery) that would make maintaining a constant price point almost impossible. If they attempted to impose a common price point (say 1e shelf price everywhere) then their margins in Finland would be worse than in Germany, and these stores operate on low margins, so that few % difference would probably mean anything they sell in Finland at the same price as in Germany is sold at a loss.

Dollar stores in the US and Canada have it easier since sales tax is added at the register, not displayed on the shelf or advertisements. This helps retailers a lot - otherwise advertising prices in the US would be very awkward. A newspaper like the New York Times is read in places with sales tax varying from 0% - 10%.

Yes there are never over runs in Finland, Finland under produces for the most part, you see empty shelves even at the big supermarkets, because they don't order in enough stock, I have lived in several European countries and Finland more than any other is not afraid to run out of stock, in fact I would say they have a phobia of having too much stock, or just really tiny tiny stockrooms.

There seems no sign of this changing any time soon, companies like to lose money on empty shelves here, but it seems like companies are willing to produce more for smaller retailers like LIDL, so maybe could be possible if someone where to start a chain of stores, but they would probably have to do allot of negotiation, I'm not sure if feasible to import everything, would be better though.

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