Friday, September 14, 2012

Titanic Tea - prices vary, but you may want to avoid buying any in the Belfast Welcome Centre - updated with news of a price reduction

Although Belfast boat factories constructed hundreds of ships, one seems to have dominated the headlines! So needing to bring a small gift across to the US I decided that some Titanic merchandise would be appropriate: a book about the shipyard and the people who built the ill-fated liner, and a bag of Titanic tea.



Belfast Welcome Centre
seemed like a good place to pick up Titanic tat until I choked at the £5.99 price for 80 locally blended tea bags.


Tesco proved a lot cheaper at £2.29 - though this was still 20-40p more expensive than other similar packets of non-Titanic branded tea.

I challenged a member of staff at the Welcome Centre about their exorbitant pricing - nearly three times the price of Tesco. "It's even dearer down in Titanic Belfast" he said.

So I checked out his claim - not true.


A quick shifty in the Titanic Belfast gift shop turned up the same tea bags for a modest £2.99 - half the price of the Welcome Centre.

While it's conceivable that the Welcome Centre don't sell too many boxes of tea - particularly at that price - the uncompetitive pricing seems a complete rip off, and one that takes advantages of tourists rather than offering value.

Update - around lunchtime, the Welcome Centre dropped their price to match Titanic Belfast!


4 comments:

Timothy Belmont said...

Is Titanic tea not a rip-off anyway? What's the difference between its blend and, say, the standard blend?

Seems that the company is cashing in on the Titanic market, especially for tourists; and why not? Some might add!

Unknown said...

Impressive result from your consumer action!

Timothy Belmont said...

Good on you, Alan. :-)

Carol, Stormont said...

Carol from Stormont, Belfast, - love Thompsons Tea. Have you tried their Irish Breakfast Tea. Absolutely a lovely blend of tea. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Perfect for American Tourists or Infact any tourist to take home with them as a gift for their family.