You spot the prices, we ask the questions

Liam O'Connor discovered the merit of shopping around when he went in search of Michael Palin's travel book on the Himalayas, which accompanied his recent television series on BBC 1.

O'Connor was shocked to find that there was a price difference of almost €14 between the price in the cheapest shop and the price in the most expensive. For the record, he found last month that Read's of Nassau Street, which charged just €16.49 for the book, came out on top in the good value league in this instance.

The Tesco store in Dublin's Clarehall proved to be the most expensive on this occasion, retailing the book for €29.95. When contacted earlier this week to see if the price of the book had fallen since Christmas, the Tesco branch in question told PriceWatch that it had no copies of it in stock and did not expect to be ordering more.

• Another Dublin-based reader, Denis Kelly, contacted PriceWatch about what he says is a 94.5 per cent rise in the price of Healthcraft lozenges in this country. The lozenges contain vitamin C, zinc and bee propolis and for many years his wife has been able to buy them in his local pharmacy in packets containing four sheets of 14 individually sealed lozenges.

"A total of 56 which, when bought a few months ago, cost €5.75."

She bought the lozenges in November from the same pharmacy, however, and was alarmed to find that the packaging had changed and they are now sold "loose in the bottom of a tub containing 30 lozenges at a cost of €5.99, a price increase of 94.5 per cent."

• Annette Barron got in touch to highlight a fairly significant gap in the price of irons in Dublin. She bought a Philips 3100 Elance iron in Power City for €42.10 recently. Days later she saw the same iron on sale in the Stillorgan branch of Tesco for €54.99.

What's more . . .

Pillage?

Following on from last week's piece on the price of low dose aspirin, Tom Savage from Dún Laoghaire writes to say that while in the US recently he bought a brand of coated aspirin in a pharmacy at a cost of €2.25 for 400.

"Compare that with €2.37 for 28 in a chemist shop in Baggot Street," he says.

• If you notice a significant price increase or discrepancy, let us know by e-mailing pricewatch@irish-times.ie