We are being totally taken for a ride in the UK

[checkedcloth]

Just had a week in on a Balearic Island
Did 5 supermarket shops.
shelves fully stocked, brilliant choice of food and produce and significantly cheaper than here.
we are being absolutely screwed over by this government, and all the other wealthy robbing companies.

I know some Brexit loving lunatics will be along soon to suggest otherwise….

One of the downsides of democracy is that you get the shit that other people voted for!

I went to Tesco this morning and did a big shop. Smallish Tesco too - I bought artisan bread, two types of olives, cheeses, alcohol, nice chocolate and fresh fruit, veg and meat.

I don’t get it… what could I get on Ibiza I can’t get here? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Never mind the food for now, chemists have barely any stock of the most common over the counter medicines. Don't know if there's a shortage of prescription drugs but there's a definite supply problem. Lloyd's have closed all their in-store franchises and Boots will be closing 700 branches. There's going to be a big problem.

@checkedcloth “I know some Brexit loving lunatics will be along soon to suggest otherwise….”
How very ill mannered. I hear that you are cross, I was cross for decades. 🤷‍♀️

His policies were pretty bog standard I thought. Stuff the Scandinavians have been doing for decades. Stuff the Brits themselves pioneered in many cases.

I’m case not:

https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/12981_19-Easy-Read-manifesto.pdf

I particularly hated the bit about a safer fairer world. What a scumbag he was.

The quality of food in the UK is rubbish because shoppers are willing to put up with it and too many are not willing to use butchers, greengrocers, fishmongers etc We want it clean, wrapped, out of season and for pennies.

That may be true but I’ve known a producing area to ship mass produce far because that’s the income for them. And little sold locally

Well said @ThisOldWoman and @SerendipityJane 👏👏👏

@PinkSkiesAtNight yeah but on the upside you live on a Balearic island 😀

What I don't get is why fruit and veg was expensive in Spain when you grow the stuff, tomatoes especially! I was in a Mercadona on the Spanish mainland in the spring and the price of melons, I can't remember exactly but I was like WTF?!?!

San Miguel still cheap though, and it's the proper 5.4% stuff, not the watered down crap we have in UK.

I've been holidaying in France, Spain Italy all my life and not on a package.

We go to supermarkets.

They have always had better tomato, veg and meats and so on?

Our supermarket shelves are very well stocked around here and I ve noticed some places are trying to bring prices down. But unless you shop at booths / fortnum /whole foods... I dint think you will find anything to match the or supermarkets.

I was just on holiday in Portugal and food in the supermarkets was significantly more expensive and there was less choice than in the UK. This was about 5 different supermarkets over a couple of weeks but I wouldn't know the area super well so may not have been going to the best places.

Where I'm from in the north of Italy food is way more expensive than in England (I'm sure things are different in the south of Italy). My parents who live in the south of England and spend the summer in Italy said to me the other day that their monthly shop is easily EUR 200-250 more expensive than in England (my mum doesn't have many hobbies but she knows the price of every single item in her shop....)

Also I have no problem getting any food in the UK so no idea what the op is referring to.

But buying food in supermarkets was very cheap. Other way round in other countries.

Buy lidl or mercadona own brand sunscreen it's much cheaper and just as good.

I live in both Spain and the UK. This is true.

Prices and wages are both considerably lower in Spain, but costs have definitely risen over the last 18 months. When the weather in Spain was unusually cold at the start of the year, meaning vegetables could not be ripened, there was the odd shortage of them in my local supermarket there as well. Our vegetables and theirs come out of the same fields.

Yes, I noticed water melons in the local market were crazy prices a couple of months ago, but then they went down again.

@MegaManic So much more expensive, were you in the Algarve? Lisbon?

😄very true. I don't complain. It was just interesting to see how much cheaper things were. But yes, fruit here in season, is ridiculously cheap, but out of season it is so expensive.

I took my 'Balearic' boyfriend home with me this time. We struggled to find a decent strength beer that he liked. He didn't like the ales/stouts but the lagers were either too gassy, too weak or too warm! I have to say I did agree with him.

You can’t compare the food prices abroad to the U.K. as a straight comparaison.

eg food prices might look higher in France but total income reflects that. (and tte other way around!)

I was in Ibiza recently, I noticed how expensive everything was, even wine, traditionally available very cheaply, was not far off lidl U.K. prices. No issue with availability in the U.K. either

White goods , electrical stuff and some foodstuff has always been more expensive here I Ireland. We are at the end of a very long supply chain and it used to depend on the UK 'land bridge' for speed and economy.

This is no longer feasible for lots of stuff since Brexit. So goods are shipped direct from the mainland of Europe. There used to be 9 direct sailings per week I believe. Now it is 45. Rosslare port is being expanded. Cruise ships are asked to avoid Dublin as there isn't space for them to berth. So food etc isn't going to get cheap anytime soon.

Having said that I've just returned from a fortnight in England and thought things were a bit pricier than I recalled - booze excepted. Mind you I was travelling about and you always get fleeced at train stations and airports so my experience was far from typical. £35 taxi from Bristol Temple Meads to the airport - 8.6 miles. Laugh at that folks. That fare would get me 20 miles here. Might be an anomaly though as I say.

Bit off topic but I was struck by the poverty in eg Plymouth and Southend compared to places I visited in London. Highbury and Blackheath / Lewisham for comparison. I worked in Southend on Sea decades ago and it seemed - not posh exactly but relatively prosperous. So many people looking older than their years. Youngish people with mobility issues. Strollers, wheelchairs. Not threatening or hassling or even pissed / stoned. All this was in the pipeline long before Brexit of course. The end of the post war consensus I suppose? Perhaps we will all be sitting on a bench talking to ourselves when AI has wrought its subtle magic upon our unsuspecting world. Sorry. My next post will be more optimistic..promise!

What foods have you been unable to get?

Genuinely, the only thing Tesco hasn't had for the last two weeks is their own frozen sweetcorn. I could have bought branded sweetcorn if I was willing to pay silly prices. I haven't seem an issue.

The thing is, they might get a few Euros a tonne more, but by the time you factor in the refrigerated lorries, fuel, the ferry costs, drivers wages, distribution warehouse overheads, and the high potential for perishable goods to go off if they get delayed, the price we pay here will of course be far higher. We're having to pay for all the logistics as well.