To be horrified at the price of food

[Thorts]

Single pepper, now 60p - everywhere.
Apple juice - 99p everywhere for the cheap stuff

How are people supposed to eat fresh fruit and veg daily (and the right amount) with these prices?

If you were to look at processed food however; pack of ham 20p, custard creams 20p, garlic bread 35p.

You could get two of all the processed items mentioned for less price than one pepper and one carton of 1L value Apple juice.

Surely something needs to be done?

Would bear no relation to ham for 20p! Processed entrails methinks.

Exactly!!

And a pack of Custard Creams for 20p too!

Cups of butter? Cups?

I know the Americans seem to measure everything in cups, but I thought the Canadians were more sensible.

Exactly how much is a cup anyway?

The major grocery chains have made record profits beginning during the covid period.

Because they had record takings because... Covid... People couldn't eat out, at work etc.
So obviously that lead to higher profits

There is this thing called Google that will help you here.

Where is selling ham for 20p or biscuits? Garlic bread is £1 or more too.

I'm guessing this isn't a normal shop you are going to

I thought it was 250ml? I don't see how 750g of butter would be 375ml though.

A cup is 8 fluid ounces, although Americans tend to say just 8 ounces because they generally use ounces as a measure of volume, which is about 235ml. Butter is a bit less dense than water (it's mostly fat and it floats on water), so a cup of butter is about 210g. So 750g of butter is about 3½ cups, rather than 1½.

$6.79 Canadian is about £4. I don't know what 250g of pure lactose-free butter (assuming that is what the PP was getting) costs in the UK. I looked on Tesco's site and only found 250g of "Lactose-free butter spread" which was 50% butter and 25% vegetable oil (presumably the rest is water🙄) for £2.25.

North America is expensive for groceries in general, and when we were in Vancouver a few years ago we found that everything seemed to cost double what we were used to.

So you're not too keen on rhubarb then 😂😂

Essentially yes. Their branded products are cheaper than supermarket own brands. I popped in recently and bought Muller rice 6 pack for £2 (2.65 lidl own), Costello blue cheese for 69p ( over £3 every where else), 4 knorr stock pots for 50p ( £1 plus every where else ), box of halloumi fries for a £1 (£3 in Sainsbury's). Like the poster said before, it's an odd shop as in you can't use it to do your weekly grocery shop because they constantly rotate stock lines, and the every day stuff like tea bags most likely will be more expensive, unless they've got a special job lot. It's a shame they're not everywhere. I dont live local to one but will make a special trip every few months to stock up.

It is expensive. I just assumed my kids were getting older and therefor I was buying more food but I actually don’t think that’s the case. My last weekly food shop was £125 (I did buy extras for a nice Easter roast) I used to spent anywhere between £65-£80.
however that said tesco were doing a lot of the veg for 15p so I did get a few bargains

The one in our town is only branded, yes. It's quite a small one though. I think the milk etc is from local places.
I've not bought tinned stuff or packet stuff from there tbh, apart from one famous Christmas Eve when it was the only place left that had trifle sponges!
My freezer is always full of the fabulous frozen desserts and I've creams though (all branded)
Whenever new flavours appeared on TV my mum would say "oooh lovely, we'll get that when it ends up in Heron".

Heron Foods are seriously cheap. The stuff on their website is the stuff they always have in and is not that cheap. But that takes up very little shop space.
Heron Foods are on high streets in poorer areas. They are used by people who are looking for bargains, and those who have no car and just need somewhere local to shop.

The vast majority of the shop is given over to food near its sell by date or discontinued ranges or food that does not meet manufacturers guidelines e.g. broken items. Its cheapest range is its XSell range. These are unbranded foods made by branded manufacturers that do not meet the manufacturers guidelines. You can buy pack of broken chocolate brownies (£1.25 a pack), hash browns, breaded cod, oven chips and more. What they sell varies each time and none of this is priced on their website.

They often have things that you will never see again. I bought a can of pina colada for a £1 that I have never seen again on the shelves. It is a store you have to physically go into, you can not judge it by browsing on the internet.

This. I agree, but I have lost count of the number of times I have come across this attitude of cooking from scratch with healthy ingredients, being derided, on MN. As if there are better things to do with a person's time, then cook to produce a homemade meal. I think that it is not doing anyone any favours by eating the plethora of ready made meals etc that are in the supermarkets.

And I lover celeriac but rarely have it. It is not a cheap veg in Britain.

@LadyKenya It is easier to sneer at others I agree.
And I cook a lot of home made meals. But after a string of bereavements we ate mainly ready meals as I could not cope with much. Sneer away though.

Who is sneering? I must be reading your post wrong, or something. I am certainly not sneering at anybody.

So more like party foods, not staples?

I spend about 3 months a year at our place in barcelona, a lot of items are much dearer than uk, its odd that some items from spain are to be found cheaper in the uk. we now have a Pepco shop which has uk items cheaper than uk. last summer, oranges were very expensive and cauliflowers, saw some at almost 4 euros yet asda were selling same for about 90 pence...!!

Legit about to say this haha local tesco express £1.10 for 10 slices and big asda next closest £2.75 for the bigger pack haha

Where I live we only have a co-op and a pepper is 85p, 3 for £2, where are you shopping to get things so cheap??

🙄More like £2 to £3 at least

I bought a big red pepper in Lidl yesterday, 59p

£1.25 for 8 slices of reformed ham with added water. Not worth the money, cheese or peanut butter is better value for sandwiches.

So what do you think “needs to be done”? Government subsidies on food? Vouchers for those on benefits? Supermarkets not buying such food as peppers, so that even those who understand why they are expensive but are still prepared to pay, can’t actually buy them anymore? Obligatory allotments for all? We are extremely lucky in the U.K. because we can buy almost anything we want every day of the week and it is still cheaper than most other countries. Many countries only offer seasonal foods.
Just say what you think needs to be done.