To think prices are still going up almost weekly?

Well the price of a tray of organic chicken on Ocado has now gone down to £8.63 since the OP posted in march

Price elasticity depends on a heap of other things. Like - £400 for a cooking pot? Most people would say “that’s insane” and yet Le Cruset charge this and people buy them, because they rely on branding to stretch the price elasticity. You wouldn’t spend £400 on a cast iron pot from Tesco as you don’t perceive the value of that.

Supermarket brands like “taste the difference” do the same.

You’re talking about figuring out the price elasticity of certain foods (in economic terms) and you’re right - at some point, you reach the point where people go “nope”, but this is different for every product.
So for example, for you, you might grudgingly pay £10 for chicken, but at £15 you would say to yourself “nope, I’ll make something else instead”. You have reached the price elasticity of chicken.

The more “vital” the item, the more price elastic it is. For example, most people NEED to drive, so even if fuel is extremely expensive, they still fill up, although they may look at other things like taking a paying passenger or driving less.

Food generally is quite price elastic as people need it, although they will look around for alternatives.

So there is definitely a point where the price has increased so much that people will no longer buy it. Shops will push their price to as close to this level as they can, without risking pushing you to a cheaper competitor. It sounds like Ocado have breached this line with you.

£1.30 for a can of coke. We've been watching it rise in our local shop. We couldn't believe it when it went to £1.05 not long ago. I wonder how much more they could actually charge without it being completely ridiculous and untenable.

Even Lidl is changing their prices every week cheeses up , eggs are up,gherkins are up nuts are up and lots of other items like wine etc.

Sainsburys have had poor sell by dates since Brexit. Always empty shelves too.

Well they're only going to get higher.

Wait until the min wage and NI increases hit in April.

Thank you for saying that. It really read like that to me too.

I was pretty sure I had interpreted it correctly when I wrote my original comment so I felt badly that I had misunderstood

Food has been very cheap for a long time.

With regards to the chicken, the egg would’ve been laid, put under a heat lamp, the chick fed and cultivated to an adult, then the bird would’ve been slaughtered, plucked, dismembered, and the food packaged and stored correctly while being transported to your supermarket. This takes at least a year.

What would be a fair price for this?

I am constantly shocked by how little I have in my basket to how much it costs!
I'm thinking of changing from Sainsbury's as the use by dates are awful! Maybe different warehouses.

Yes I shop with Asda and get delivery's and it's usually one of the cheaper shops but recently I want in my local co op and noticed some things were actually cheaper in there than they are in Asda now!

It’s not you @FeministUnderTheCatriarchy - I read it as heavy sarcasm about middle class privilege too.

I think crisps have gone up a lot. Sainsbury’s own finest used to be £1 for ages - now £1.60.
Kettle chips are about £2.50 a bag now - I only buy when they are on special offer.

My food shopping bill has increased massively since Covid, its scary how much we spend on food now.
Ive been using this cashback app (you buy gift vouchers to pay for your shopping and use them instead of cash. It won't save you massive amounts but 4% back on a £100 weekly shop soon adds up.
https://app.jamdoughnut.com/SNSL
Just for transparency that is my referral link.

I found this receipt, Tesco in 2014 which was interesting

Yes literally on everything! I only buy non essentials when they are on a good offer. We've cut back on crisps and chocolate as i refuse to pay the extortionate amount, not to mention they constantly keep increasing if!

For meat and poultry, try your local butcher, you'll get it much cheaper!

Hard to find data on historic bread prices but UK spending on food as a percentage of household income has fallen over the past 60 years - ONS quotes a fall from 33% in 1957 to 16% in 2017:

https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2018/01/18/celebrating-60-years-of-family-spending/

Spending in recent years has fluctuated a little but not by much:

https://www.gov.uk/government/stati

Ukraine usually produces a huge amount of food including oils. The war has impacted on food production as well as energy prices (which will themselves have an effect on food production & transportation costs)

I use sainsburys. I haven't had any major issues with sell by dates or quality and found ocado and waitrose much more expensive.

Id love to see a ratio of something really simple like the cost of a loaf of ordinary bread (not posh artisan loaves) vs median hourly wages over time.

Prices are rising but wages are too. Ive hired four people in the last few months and we are having to pay a lot. Supermarkets are paying their staff more. Their profit margins are wafer thin so they have to recover the costs by charging more for food.

I was using Ocado but my trial delivery pass ran out and I have recently had a couple of 50p deliveries and a free one from Sainsbury's but the dates on chilled food, fruit and veg are not so good, like they had just picked the nearest one to the front. I didn't find Ocado particularly expensive unless buying some of the M&S food which never seemed to be on offer and more expensive than in M&S. I will probably go back to Ocado soon.

My favourite Oatibix went up to about £4 which is daylight robbery but I did spot it in Asda for £2.98 so sent DH down for 6 boxes😳. I don't generally like Asda but it is down the road so handy if we run out of milk

I also think cookies are gaming prices. I've noticed the same within a couple of hours and if I look on an incognito browser the lower prices show again. It's been like that for just over a week for me at least. I did wonder ifnit was to do with the tracking cookies on here at first but I don't think they start until the end of the month

Interesting that you classify Ocado as 'Premium' as whilst it does stock premium goods, Ocado can be much cheaper than Tesco.
I have just compared identical items (same item, same brand, same size, same weight) from my Ocado shop with the items on Tesco online. All of the items were things I buy on a weekly/monthly basis.

Ocado £46.44

Tesco £54,95

That is a huge difference,