Its that time of year. What presents do people want and one of the laziest presents on the market is the Gift Card. It's a welcome gift and most people appreciate the thought. but most gift cards have an expiry data, The Consumers Association of Ireland have launch a new campaign to outlaw expiration dates on these cards and many people forget to buy a product with the card and after months of inaction from them they find their gift card is worthless. The CAI have launched a campaign to get the government to move on this issue, Credit Where it's Due, hopes to make government and the retail industry insure consumers get value for their gift cards. Social Democrat co-Leader, Catherine Murphy want to see this issue resolved under her new consumer bill.
The Consumer Price Index was slightly up in October by 0.6%. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation, food and medical care. It is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them. Changes in the CPI are used to assess price changes associated with the cost of living; the CPI is one of the most frequently used statistics for identifying periods of inflation or deflation.
The CSO have released the provisional retails sales index for September and the final retail sales index for August 2017. The figures show a drop in sales in September from August, while also showing an annual increase from September 2016. The CSO state that when car sales are excluded Retails sales are up from August.
Workers at Marks and Spencer will strike in the run up the Christmas. A blow to the retailer as SIPTU members have balloted in favour of a strike during one of the busiest times for retail. The one day strike is happening today the 7/12/2013. The protest is at managements decision to unilaterally close the workers' defined benefit pension scheme. SIPTU represents about 140 of the M&S work force. The union was not consulted when it was announced that the defined benefit scheme would close on the 31st of October. Two more work stoppages will take place on Thursday 7th of December and Friday 20th December 2013.