Food prices skyrocketing again!

Also hyperinflation in the 1970s brought in Thatcher and crap economic times in the US alongside rocketing crime has brought in Trump. I honestly think we are going to get Reform next and god help us.

So the original poster was right. Prices are going up again because of current government policy. They will never come back down. We are in hyper inflation and when that happened in Europe in the 1930s the Nazi party came into power soon afterwards. What could go wrong.

I'm single and £60 used to be a generous, "treat" shop at Sainsburys
£60 is now my every day standard shop at Aldi where I add up as I go round

It's not just you no I ordered my asda shop on 6th January and the mince was £6.80, it's now £7.56. Absolutely disgusting how they can keep doing this

Oddly ours has decreased again, haven't changed shopping habits all that much and have actually added a couple more expensive products but we've gone from spending around £125 a week a few months ago to £100

My point exactly. Especially when those shares are held in my pension fund

I expect food prices to rise again for a number of reasons:

• NMW increase
• employer NI increases
• wage increases
• increased transport costs
• increased seed, fertiliser and feed costs
• not producing enough food in the UK
• farmers, labourers etc. in other countries being paid a fairer wage increasing the costs.
• artificially low prices
• Climate change! This is altering what grows well when. You only have to watch Clarkson’s Farm to see the impact of the weather.

Remember everyone in the food chain needs to recoup salary costs and make a profit. The knock on effect is that food costs more.

Why is it more profitable for British farmers to ‘plant’ solar panels than grow wheat or farm livestock?

The reality is food is going to cost more of our incomes. This adversely affects the poorest the most. A poorly fed workforce (nutritionally) is likely to be less productive, not be as robust at fighting disease etc.

A big issue is when you increase wages you increase the cost of food.

Tesco's current guidance for 24/25 is £2.9bn operating profit, with the hit from higher NI alone at £250m each year.

Would you put up with having your pay reduced by nearly 9 per cent? I am a Tesco shareholder, and would move my money elsewhere before I accepted that kind of hit.

Butter, eggs, ham, chocolate, frozen veg have all gone up by 20p here since Christmas, so a 10-15% increase, across Aldi, Co-op and Asda. At Aldi a few things I buy regularly haven't been available for a few weeks. Co-op and Asda are cutting down their member offers.

This is nonsense. Yes, Portuguese minimum wage went up on 1st January from €822 to €870 a month (albeit 13 times a year) so anyone earning that is poorly paid by Northern European standards.

But no way do Portuguese groceries cost double or more what they do in the UK. Some actual examples: 500g of dried beans or chickpeas are €1.10 in Pingo Doce or Intermarché in PT, they are £2 (equivalent to €2.39) in Tesco. Monkfish is €9.50 per kilo in Portugal, £33 for 360 grams from the Fish Society here - that's £91.67 or €109 per kilo, for something from UK waters that may well have been caught in the North Sea or the Channel by the same trawler.

Portugal has also gone in for supermarket loyalty schemes in a big way, so in reality if you understand the system it is quite easy to knock 10-15% off a big shop or take advantage of various promotions which often knock 25% off by crediting it back to your loyalty card.

I’d love that job!!

Nonsense.

Tescos profits for 2024 were £2.8Billion. Up from £1.8 Billion the year before. Up from £0.88 billion in 2022z

They could have easily absorbed the few extra million the increase of NI has cost them and still posted record profits.

This is all pure corporate greed. No one can claim otherwise.

I work in food. We are increasing costs to the supermarkets by 4% to absorb the impacts of the budget. Supermarkets will pass that 4% on, then have their own increased costs to pass on.

I am very pro labour but I do think the budget has been devastating to the economy.

That oil is £12 in Sainsbury's!

All UK retail is being hammered by higher staff costs. It's not just that NMW is going up and that employers' NICs is going up, it used to be the case that employing three part timers on 12 hours a week each was considerably cheaper than one on 36 hours because of the allowances before employers' NICs became payable. That has been taken away, so any business which has a lot of part time staff in its cost base is facing hugely increased employment costs.

Many retailers are reporting Christmas trading now and over the next few weeks. They are all saying that they're worried about rocketing staff costs. Add in farm- or factory-gate inflation caused by labour costs also rising in suppliers, bad weather (of which there has been a lot in Iberian agricultural areas since October), energy price rises, sterling tanking in the last month or so... it's disastrous for retailers.

Now, I have shares in a number of UK retailers, as does almost anyone with an occupational pension. If the management teams want to use my money to fund their capital investments, provide working capital, and so on, then I expect a competitive return on it. As PPs have pointed out, margins in UK grocery retailing are actually very low. The "huge" or "obscene" profits people like to whine about come from high volumes. To maintain shareholders returns, which is the only duty of the management team, if costs rise prices have to rise too.

Per the Competition and Markets Authority recent investigation UK supermarket operating profit margin is 1.8%.

For every £100 spent their profit is circa £1.80. When the government push up national insurance it eats into those small margins.

It's a ferociously competitive market, to stay profitable prices need to be low, to make a profit they have to manage all costs

Small bag of easter eggs £2.49. I do not recall there were so expensive last year? Anyway, stopped me getting them.

The mini eggs bars have been hiked up this year too. I'm seeing them for £2 or £1.75 on offer. Last year they were £1.00 when on offer.

It's in huge bulk though. An individual tomato/small amount of flour isn't much at all. Dairy is another story and I think that's reasonable to be expensive and should be increased to improve animal welfare. Also organic isn't really the solution with the avoidance of antibiotics involved, I do wonder how often cows are left to suffer through infections in an effort to keep them in the organic herd when they would otherwise be treated sooner.

Have you noticed the product code changes are for smaller packets too, the big pot yogurts 50g smaller recently, lots of the shampoos and conditioners not long ago.

Also shrinkflation. I only realised when making a cake that branded butter is now 200g not 250g

Do you really think a pizza should be 45p, though? I know you’re not getting a handmade sourdough base and Burrata for that price, but think about who is involved in the production of it- who grows the wheat, or produces the flour, raises and farms the cows, produces the cheese, grows the tomatoes, manufactures the plastic wrapping and label. That’s a lot of people’s livelihoods and 45p split between them does not go far.

Food in the UK is ridiculously cheap.

So many ordinary items are now close to £5....a packet of chicken breasts or lamb chops, a pack of dishwasher tablets, a big pack of butter, jar of coffee. It's terrifying to think a £100 shop could only be twenty items.

That's still the case - high salaries to attract the best people. They usually work 24/7 flat out for years then retire. It's very tough role being a ceo of an international company.

If someone doesn't perform at Tesco, they're out.
I know a lot of people who worked there is snr roles.
It's cut throat.

I've noticed an increase in dairy.
I buy Fage yogurt which is now over £5 for a large tub.
Butter is sky high - I only buy organic or grass fed for health reasons.

@cookingthebooks I'm sure you're aware, but can you cut corners somehow? When my kids were small, I made pizza either from a pizza base mix, (just add water) or a pre-baked base where you add the toppings.
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