Utter bastards the lot of them.
I gave up trying to work out what is best ages ago. Smaller products, higher prices, different price from week to week. And every time I notice a change in product size I first doubt myself and then I get annoyed.
I absolutely detest the sneaky way this is insinuating into our lives. As if we are complete idiots.
Don't get me started on packaged cheddar cheese - with some blocks it's a jigsaw game to cover a slice of bread because cheese is too narrow.
I find it very hard to believe prime materials, manufacturing and distribution costs are solely responsible for price increases on so many food products. A lot of is greed trying to maintain previous profit margins.
I stopped buying Andrex toilet paper after Covid. Only brand we ever used. As soon as lockdown started, the rolls became smaller width wide, then the centre hole bigger, and basically less paper.
Supermarkets have had it good during the pandemic, and Brexit or general food shortages as a result of the war in Ukraine have not affected them to the level they want us to believe. But they reduced staff, quality of service, virtually no offers on healthy staple food (for ex. cheese), higher prices everywhere. All hand in hand with producers. I suspect the supermarkets make more profit though.
I don't trust any of the supermarkets (maybe Waitrose, on the basis that they appear to look after their staff).
But really, there's no transparency. So what if a particular supermarket declares lower profits on more recent trade. They started from a very good profit and can afford to go down a bit. If they can't, just go bust. Too many of them. We really, really don't need a choice of over 5-6 different supermarkets per location. And we don't need massive supermarkets either. 3/4 of shelf space is filled up with rubbish products (unhealthy, unnecessary or both.