product prices and you just thought.....

[tanoshi]

I was supermarket shopping today and went to pick up a product I always buy to discover it has increased in price by a ridiculous amount and I just thought.
Nah. It can stay there. This list is now growing. Anyone else deciding to just leave products on the shelf because they're not worth the money anymore?
I did it in Costa. I went in for a cappuccino and thought Nah! I'm not paying that anymore and walked out.

Energy costs and minimum wage costs have risen. Energy is a huge one. Some companies want more profit/dividends. Just don't buy it is now my thought (or buy less of it or buy when on offer). Nespresso is now over £4 a sleeve but is on sale in Asda at 2.98 atm so that's when I'll buy it.

I stopped buying so much since covid and Brexit. Being in NI our shelves were empty for a long time, so you just got used to not getting , then when they did come back the price increases were just astronomical

Lamb is only bought at Christmas and Easter, at half price of the reduced price preferably - whole legs last year - £7 - had room for 4 and I sacrificed bread and ice to make room for:) Beef and lamb are luxury items for us now, only bought when on offer and stuck in the freezer. We eat a lot more turkey, pork and chicken . Mince is padded out with lentils and veg

Cant mind the last time I went into a coffee shop. I splashed out on a Sage and really look forward to my own coffee indoors - so much nicer then anything on the high street

Down graded on everything really , shop in lidl for the most part, yellow sticker shop a lot, and tbh we dont buy much in the way of processed foods, biscuits, cakes, chocolate, bread etc. Toiletries that I dont want to sacrifice on brand I get in Savers or Home Bargains. Shopping is no longer a one stop shop.

We drink at home now rather than then the pub. Eating out is rare and has to be worth it. Cant mind the last time we got take out and I near on had heart failure when I parted with a tenner buying 3 small cones for the grandchildren recently

I heard tell that prices are set to rise by another 2% before the year ends

I think you just need to go in with your eyes open and be prepared to make up your own mind - and invest in a little trial and error.

It's also far more nuanced than just brands vs Aldi, as (imho) cheaper, less ubiquitous 'proper brands' like Branston do much nicer tinned beans, spaghetti, ravioli etc. than Heinz.

For me, with brands, the question is whether you're paying more for a brand that represents quality or are you just paying more for the branding and all the advertising.

In my experience (and others will obviously differ), some Aldi/Lidl stuff is better, some is worse and some is pretty much the same. I personally think that Heinz is no better (or even worse) than Aldi/Lidl; whereas Kellogg's is streets ahead.

Also bear in mind that a lot of own brands are actually made by the big brand companies on the sly - albeit possibly with very slightly different specs or ingredients. A worker in Aldi told us once that their own-brand yoghurts are made by one of the big well-known brands (which, coincidentally, also has a German name).

We used to eat out weekly or more. I cant remember when we last did. Apart from being out priced, most of the time the food is crap now.

2 long established restaurants by me have closed. I can see another one closing very soon.

They say that lipstick sales increase when people dont have much disposable income. Maybe instead of restaurants, people are going to Costa?

I took the kids out for lunch at a local Italian restaurant. Four main courses, 2 sides, 4 desserts, 2 glasses of wine and 2 soft drinks totalled £70 which felt good value for money given the food was good quality. It would have cost much more at a chain restaurant. I wonder if the way forward will be smaller family run, local places.

Shampoo and conditioner are RIDICULOUS now! Just the usual brands you find in the supermarket. Does anyone else get annoyed by how the supermarkets still have their "only £xx, amazing value" etc stickers around the place? There is no "only" about charging £6 for a basic bottle of shampoo!

I went into Starbucks last weekend and ordered a sausage bap and a small mocha. £9-something. I swear it used to be £7-ish very recently.

I agree, we’ve got an amazing Sicilian nearby and it’s really good value considering the quality. We still go out to eat a lot as a family and separately with friends. I would always choose an independent place over a chain, mainly because the quality of food is infinitely better (or it is in the ones we end up in!) and the prices feel fair. There’s also a great Turkish restaurant opened up that we went to in the week. I think we paid £150 for 4 of us and the food was great, fresh and tasty. We ordered more than we knew we could eat because we wanted to try so much! Lovely leftovers that I then took to work. Frankly i’d sooner go hungry and thirsty than go to a Costa, I don’t drink hot drinks and their cakes always look like awful mass produced rubbish with no flavour (I’ve not eaten them but a colleague usually pops in for a coffee if we’re passing on our way back from town). Far rather spend my money elsewhere!

I agree about local cafes. We have a great one near us.

The irony is we first went 3 years ago, and said “£15 each for a salad, coffee and small cake. Thats extortionate!”

Now it’s “£15 each for a salad, coffee and small cake. Thats great!”

Frankly i’d sooner go hungry and thirsty than go to a Costa, I don’t drink hot drinks and their cakes always look like awful mass produced rubbish with no flavour (I’ve not eaten them but a colleague usually pops in for a coffee if we’re passing on our way back from town). Far rather spend my money elsewhere!

I know what you mean, a takeaway coffee used to be a treat but I make nicer coffee at home now and use a travel cup. I can’t find many places that have cake nicer than I can make at home - the treat was not having to do the work but I’d rather now make it myself, for less and know I’ll have something really nice than spend money on mass produced crap. It just feels like quality in the chains has gone massively down while prices have shot up.

Last night I was tired, and remembered when I’d regularly order an Indian food delivery on a Saturday night, what a nice treat. We just don’t do it now. I thought about it for a while but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It just isn’t worth it! So instead I looked in my empty fridge.. then we raided the freezer and had a weird selection of pizzas and fish fingers, with fresh cucumber and tomatoes and lettuce on the side. We enjoyed it, because we were together. Funny how things change. My parents never ordered take aways, they didn’t exist!

Well yes. Loads of stuff.

I went back for a second plate of veg and Yorkshires!
with my dad giving me side eye

Actually this thread links quite nicely into a thread I wrote on this morning that was talking about people not having fun anymore. I think the price of everything must play a part in that. The cost of going out and eating or drinking is absolutely extortionate. Many people now just don’t go out.

Because there’s nothing wrong with it
I buy ingredients mostly from Aldi and the meat, veg, fruit, rice, sourdough etc is all fine. I sometimes shop at Tesco and don’t notice any difference at all and I really like food and cooking

I can afford Heinz and I do eat their beans (the plastic pot ones) but I choose Aldi tomato soup over Heinz as it still seems to have the right amount of salt and sugar in! I also prefer Aldi mayo

Marks and Spencer’s is now getting ridiculous with their pricing. I get very few things there now. Lamb shoulder was £5.95 a couple of years ago, now it’s around £9. All of their ready made meals have really jumped in price.

Train tickets as well. Was going to be £38 return for (advance) weekend travel to Manchester. ChatGPT says petrol will be £17.

Even factoring in £5 for a tram ticket from the park and ride I will save £16 plus it’s quicker to drive, i don’t have to worry about delays and cancellations or drunk people.

Yes this is really noticeable ( and deodorants) . Shot up in price.

The offers in places like Boots and Superdrug are increasingly buy 2 get 1free rather than being able to just get one on a discount.

If I want anything branded I try to get it in Home Bargains or B and M. Coffee, Heinz tins, crisps, biscuits, sweets, laundry and cleaning products etc. They are good for crackers, nuts and dried fruit too.
Aldi and Lidl yogurts are far superior to most supermarket brands in my opinion. Although I’m a sucker for Longley Farm.
We’ve switched to M and S for their own brand ketchup and mayo although it used to be under £1 and I think it’s not now.
Shampoo and conditioner: I wait till it’s reduced (to what used to be the full price, it’s gone up so much) and stock up.
We don’t eat out unless the kids obsession with meal deals counts!

I think the recipe for Heinz ketchup has changed too - I don’t know what but I can’t stand the smell now, it’s sharp and strong smelling. If the price didn’t put me off the new formulation certainly has.

Ah, the old 'new and improved'.

You have a phenomenally popular product but you still feel the need to change it - presumably for no other reason than to lower quality and increase profits even more.

This is a huge issue too - prices are jumping up, but quantity AND quality are both going down!

I think it's inflation and also cheap credit is no longer available, a triple whammy of price increases, higher mortgages ( less cash available) and cheap credit no longer being so available with lender responsibility being under the spotlight and irresponsible lending claims

Many people lived on cheap credit and the can was kicked down the road.
To my mind many people really couldn't afford all those coffees /subscriptions/ fresh flowers every week in the first place and the bubble has burst

Another thing I noticed, sorry it already mentioned, but toothpaste is so expensive now, with many at £5 for a smallish tube. I have no brand loyalty now, just get whatever's on offer.

The mental gymnastics you have to do in the supermarket now is exhausting! Particularly when trying to work out the best value of toilet roll, when the packs all come in different sizes and the rolls themselves can be normal or ‘longer rolls’ (or those which have the extra large tube for concealed shrinkflation - I see you), and the price tickets don’t give a fair comparison, eg one will say “£1 per roll” and another will say “£0.05 per sheet”. It’s just exhausting.