Food prices skyrocketing again!

[cookingthebooks]

DH disagrees, says it’s all stabilised out now and slowed down but he’s not actually done the shop in forever.

This month I’ve just been walking around the supermarket aghast. The price hikes that are going on, my favourite bar of ‘cheap’ dark chocolate has gone from 65p pre Christmas to £1.10!!! Fishcakes from £1.80 to £1.95 and the kids mini pizzas from 45p to 65p all pretty much overnight. There’s lots more and fruit/fresh food have all risen too. I’m really struggling to do the full week shop for our family of four for less than £150 a week now (everything included, pull ups, all work/school lunches, cleaning and toiletries)
Some weeks it’s closer to £170 and I’m very frugal I hate it!

tell me this isn’t just me?

The profits are small based on their turnover. In 2024, they earnt £227 million profit on revenue of £32,700 million. That's tiny.

Def noticed a hike whenI went to get things the other day. Just left them

I’ve noticed this, especially on dairy. Double cream up from £1.20 now £1.50 in last two weeks. Butter now cheapest is £2 where two weeks ago it was £1.69. I shop at Tesco and Ocado and both are the same.

Food is going to be the least of everyone's worries - water bills (mine going up 31%). Council tax will be the big one though ☹️

Definitely. Waitrose bill hit £210 last week - normally ~ £180 for 3 (+ midweek top up)

Yes, things have gone up. I notice people are talking about chocolate, mini eggs, pizza. No judgement but I feel that is a change in my eating habits. The junk is cheap and filling. Pack of hot cross buns £1.00. Decent fruit £4.00.

That seems an astronomical amount of money. But probably mine is close to that for 2 if I factor in all the silly dribs and drabs and top ups.

Only because back in the late 80s early 90s there as a philosophy that you should pay sky high salary to CEOs etc to get the ”best people”. Thus pay in certain sectors rose exponentially out of proportion to others lower down the same sector and also to other professions like doctors, head teachers etc.

The result though isn’t particularly better performance - just overpaid Paula Vennells.

It’s not all imported. Seasonal U.K. veg are available everywhere, but if you prefer e.g. sugar snap peas or baby sweetcorn, of course they’ll have been flown in.

I do price control in a supermarket. All the increases that we have come down rom HO are massive. Not just 5p, 10p but 30p, 40p 50p increases 😭 Food shopping is very much still going up.

Well quite, it’s Sainsbury’s this week!

Before Covid it was ~ £150 pw (not incl top up).

Thing is many people won’t have any money left after mortgage/rent,utilities and food now,that’s if they can afford them anyway,people won’t be buying new clothes ,furniture for example,where one gains another loses,our weekly food shop is ridiculous,aldi isn’t cheap anymore,their quality isn’t worth the price.

I've just had a long holiday in Australia. The COL is better there than in the UK! Petrol is much cheaper. You can get a bottle of wine from the supermarket for £2. Eating out is cheaper.

I was in the USA last year. Yes, the huge cities are expensive, but if you go to a non-tourist town, things are cheap, and they have loads of happy hours and offers. For eg. we had a meal out for 4 people, and at least 10 cocktails each, and the bill was £140. Try doing that, for £35 a head in the UK.

I'm in the USA and our grocery prices are terrible right now. We've all been comparing egg prices because of the bird flu. Here in the DC area a dozen eggs (battery, not organic) are $5, but apparently in CA they are almost $9. Boneless thighs (not the cheapest but not organic) are $5.59/lb. Salaries here are higher, but prices have gone up much more quickly than our wages.

I've noticed an increase in dairy.
I buy Fage yogurt which is now over £5 for a large tub.
Butter is sky high - I only buy organic or grass fed for health reasons.

@cookingthebooks I'm sure you're aware, but can you cut corners somehow? When my kids were small, I made pizza either from a pizza base mix, (just add water) or a pre-baked base where you add the toppings.
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That's still the case - high salaries to attract the best people. They usually work 24/7 flat out for years then retire. It's very tough role being a ceo of an international company.

If someone doesn't perform at Tesco, they're out.
I know a lot of people who worked there is snr roles.
It's cut throat.

So many ordinary items are now close to £5....a packet of chicken breasts or lamb chops, a pack of dishwasher tablets, a big pack of butter, jar of coffee. It's terrifying to think a £100 shop could only be twenty items.

Do you really think a pizza should be 45p, though? I know you’re not getting a handmade sourdough base and Burrata for that price, but think about who is involved in the production of it- who grows the wheat, or produces the flour, raises and farms the cows, produces the cheese, grows the tomatoes, manufactures the plastic wrapping and label. That’s a lot of people’s livelihoods and 45p split between them does not go far.

Food in the UK is ridiculously cheap.

Also shrinkflation. I only realised when making a cake that branded butter is now 200g not 250g

Have you noticed the product code changes are for smaller packets too, the big pot yogurts 50g smaller recently, lots of the shampoos and conditioners not long ago.

It's in huge bulk though. An individual tomato/small amount of flour isn't much at all. Dairy is another story and I think that's reasonable to be expensive and should be increased to improve animal welfare. Also organic isn't really the solution with the avoidance of antibiotics involved, I do wonder how often cows are left to suffer through infections in an effort to keep them in the organic herd when they would otherwise be treated sooner.

The mini eggs bars have been hiked up this year too. I'm seeing them for £2 or £1.75 on offer. Last year they were £1.00 when on offer.

Small bag of easter eggs £2.49. I do not recall there were so expensive last year? Anyway, stopped me getting them.

Per the Competition and Markets Authority recent investigation UK supermarket operating profit margin is 1.8%.

For every £100 spent their profit is circa £1.80. When the government push up national insurance it eats into those small margins.

It's a ferociously competitive market, to stay profitable prices need to be low, to make a profit they have to manage all costs

All UK retail is being hammered by higher staff costs. It's not just that NMW is going up and that employers' NICs is going up, it used to be the case that employing three part timers on 12 hours a week each was considerably cheaper than one on 36 hours because of the allowances before employers' NICs became payable. That has been taken away, so any business which has a lot of part time staff in its cost base is facing hugely increased employment costs.

Many retailers are reporting Christmas trading now and over the next few weeks. They are all saying that they're worried about rocketing staff costs. Add in farm- or factory-gate inflation caused by labour costs also rising in suppliers, bad weather (of which there has been a lot in Iberian agricultural areas since October), energy price rises, sterling tanking in the last month or so... it's disastrous for retailers.

Now, I have shares in a number of UK retailers, as does almost anyone with an occupational pension. If the management teams want to use my money to fund their capital investments, provide working capital, and so on, then I expect a competitive return on it. As PPs have pointed out, margins in UK grocery retailing are actually very low. The "huge" or "obscene" profits people like to whine about come from high volumes. To maintain shareholders returns, which is the only duty of the management team, if costs rise prices have to rise too.