To think M & S are taking the absolute p... with Dine in

[petitfromage]

Popped into M & S to buy the usual Dine in £12 for two. Lovely food and a great option that we use regularly.

It's now £15 for what is basically EXACTLY the same thing in slightly different packaging with Tom Kerridge's name on it. That's a 25% price increase. Are you kidding me M & S?? I don't seem to remember inflation suddenly jumping up overnight...

A few years ago it was £10 for 3 courses including a bottle of wine. Then they took the wine away. Then they increased it to £12 but no wine added back in. I felt £12 was a lot but the food quality was good... I just feel this is a complete p-take putting the food in different packaging with a celeb chef name on and thinking we will pay 25% more for the privilege. Well I didn't and I won't.

I presume a chunk of this has been paid to Tom Kerridge for his branding. I'm sorry but I'm not bank rolling your lifestyle.

Am I just being a stingy northerner or have M & S completely effed up one of the best things they did and will find that there is a barrier to how much we will spend on a ready meal we have to cook ourselves and they have just hit it??

Do yourself a favour and get their haddock kyivs next time you’re there! I think they’re relatively new. They are amazing and very much worth the price as a treat

I don't normally shop at Asda or rate their food but their dine in bistro meals are delicious and on par with M&S & Waitrose...still no wine though! But starter, main, side and dessert!

Oh cries, I’d forgotten that it used to include the wine!

I went in the other day and looked at what they had, and they had a £10 fish dinner option, but the sides were awful. You could pick from 4 different carbs, or mushy peas/coleslaw/something else cheap!

I ended up getting some of their micro curry’s, but instead of getting the offer (it was £12/15 I can’t recall exactly). I got two of the curry’s not in the offer, and some of the really nice naans from the bakery. Better quality and worked out much cheaper!

In the end though it’s the difficulty of sourcing decent ingredients, the cost of electricity and gas to cook the items, the transport, the electric at the stores to run them, the staff wages which with the cost of living will undoubtedly have gone up.

Just think hoping for a £10 dine in option with wine is lala land.

Dont get me wrong. I miss the good old days. We didn’t know how good we had it.

Covid messed things up. Then Russia, and add in climate change and the ever greedy 0.5% that keep hoovering up profits… not letting the money flow in the system. And there you have it: 99.5% of us fucked and paying 50% extra in 6 years.

Do you know what the answer is either order through Hello Fresh & cook the food in 20 minutes for most meals or order a take away or go in when they put all the yellow stickers on everything (you could become the reduction ladies stalker) 😂😂😂

@BIossomtoes not sure why you've @ me? To explain something I'm aware of and had no relevance to my comment. My point was most people pay more for "branded" item eg Nike trainers over non branded trainers, Mulberry bag over Primark, Colgate over Asda smartprice

The cheaper supermarkets all charge £12 so maybe they went up to £15 so they can seem more special ? Waitrose is £12 no wine too.

As long as they undercut a takeaway I think that people will continue to buy them- £15 is pretty much the price of a McDonalds for two these days

I bought a refill pouch of Merry Munch to fill up a kilner jar I already had at home. Same mass of product for £6.50 instead of £10 for stuff in the tin which costs £3.50 and you can't even eat it 😆

Asda dine in is still a tenner

It is not good quality - it tastes amazing, but the quality is very poor, full of additives. Lasts longer than a pet.

Nae chunce Markies - I’m oot.

Asda is ten pounds you don't get wine

I stopped buying when they took the wine away.

It does a bit... actually only £1 per course. But I think the headline price just pushes me over the edge. I'd rather get the £12 pizza deal and feed the whole family as others have mentioned. If they increase the price of that one..... 😤

And Asda is awful.

I shopped last week for an easy M&S dinner, not much choice on sides for the gastro ones so got £10 deal - southern fried chicken fillets, large coleslaw and large pack of fries, this fed 4 adults, added green salad and there was a yellow sticker quiche thrown in too. I normally would cook but this was a really nice change, felt like good value and there was a bit left for next day too. We made pud 😇

The Coop have increased their membership by 1 million this last year so someone must like the new scheme. Also spent lots subsidising members' food prices etc and giving staff 10%+ rise. etc.

I really don’t think that anybody buys ready meals expecting a healthy dinner..

Waitrose is still £12 for main and side and starter or dessert. I got one the other week and the starter and the side I chose (onion tarts and mac and cheese) actually made mains for the two of us with a side of veg bought separately so it was not bad value for 3 nights dinners

Do they offer anything non-alcoholic?

Makes sense. I do like a good pizza. Their mark up on pizza is much higher though I expect

What are you doing to your pets??

It hasn’t gone up overnight though, it’s a short term ‘celebrity’ version which is more expensive. They’ve still been doing the standard dine in and will still do it.

They’re now making women’s underwear so that it fits men, and sharing their voyeristic reviews on their (moderated) website. I think that’s the bit that takes the piss, personally.