People buying on the internet getting ripped off

A SURVEY showed that when people buy electrical kit on the net they're paying through the nose and should buy from high street shops instead. But that's because

The GFK group, a market research firm, said that the average spend on goods could be as much as 50 per cent more when you buy online rather than use your legs rather than your fingers.

According to GFK, over the last 12 months sales of "consumer durables" on the internet have doubled from four to eight per cent, in a market worth a staggering £42 billion.

The firm produced an interesting chart to show what this means to the pound in your pocket.

	High Street	Internet	% Difference
Irons	£25	£41	+64%
Vacuums	£81	£119	+47%
Kettles	£17	£25	+47%
LCD TVs	£657	£867	+32%
MP3 Players	£90	£103	+14%
DAB Radios	£85	£93	+9%
Mobile Phones	£78	£85	+9%
Fridges	£282	£298	+6%
Digicams	£167	£175	+5%

While tech savvy geeks use the net to buy things like hard drives, GFK analyst James Randall said they may also spend more money than they need to because they buy the latest, high specification items.

As for non-geeks, the research seems to show the rest of us are being royally robbed. µ

L'INQ
GFK