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?

That is my pet hate at my local Asda - prices at the till being considerably more than the shelf price (talking amounts like £1.25, £1.75 extra ect, always more and never less funnily enough).

I've complained so many times and don't believe it's accidental any more. I only buy a few items in Asda now and always use self checkout so I can check the price but wonder how much extra some customers pay without realising, especially with a big trolly shop.

I want excellent public services.
I want a generous welfare state.
I don't want to pay any higher taxes personally.
I want to buy my food cheap.

Oh, and I want someone else to pay for this all. Some rich buggers, individuals or corporations, just because they can.

It's tiresome.

You forgot "I want my pension investment to deliver growth to make me richer, but I don't want firms making profits."

More stressful and competitive than being a A&E consultant or surgeon? I doubt it.

Either way - 1980 CEO compensation grown 1,400% (adjusted for inflation) and are now 100-150 x the average FT employees at the same companies.

Are they 1400% better?

Around here I've noticed that both Lidl and Aldi have switched to electronic price tickets on the shelves, which draw the display price from the same system as the checkout till.

Much more accurate, and cheaper too - they don't have to pay someone to go around printing and sticking new stickers on the shelves every time a price changes. It's good to see that pricing labour out of existence is finally working.

BTW, with reference to earlier posts about hyperinflation, I remember 15-20 years ago in Zimbabwe when inflation hit the 11 million percent mark and nothing had display prices because items - if you could actually find any - could actually increase in price between picking it from the shelves and reaching the checkout. Anyone who thinks we are suffering hyperinflation in the UK is a prisoner of their own inexperience.

What’s tiresome? Why are you defending corporations milking consumers?

I’m happy to pay my part in taxes, I’m a net contributor to the system. If my pension pot rose 30% in a year but food prices stayed the same I’d be thrilled.

@RandomButtons If supermarkets made zero profit, the difference to your grocery bill would be tiny, a fiver a week.

Your pension would be in the shit as well. But at least supermarkets aren't 'milking consumers' so everyone's happy?

Since 1980 CEO compensation has grown 1,400% (adjusted for inflation) and is now 100-150 x the average FT employees at the same companies

Yes, this seems to be a common theme too 😭 I’ve noticed this on tubs/bars of chocolate over Christmas!

Are they 1400% better?

They are. With very rare exception, they are better at doing the job they are doing. They are not better human beings, but they are able to hold positions which 99.999% population couldn't hold. If you ever worked with C-level, you'd see this. And having spend approx 30 years in large corporates I can say almost instantly which grad / junior will make it the top and which won't (assuming no major life accidents of course).

I find these discussions a bit bizarre - in a globally mobile world there are rules of the game which no matter how much we hate them we can't change. People and businesses maximise their benefits/profits and adjust behavior accordingly. It's absolute basics but hey we don't like it. And get burned again and again.

Inflation is here to stay.
If BoE cuts rates next week pound will drop like a stone which means even higher inflation and even higher cost of servicing government debt.
Redundancies are coming and it's going to be way much harder for youngsters with no experience to find jobs.

Inflations with rising unemployment is not going to be pretty.

Who do you think makes the rules? You seem to follow them without questioning where they come from. The sky high pay came from philosophy not demand.

Pizza for 65p tho, that's practically free

If you don’t want supermarkets to make profits, go shop at the Co-op, which is member owned. They aren’t any cheaper.

The point about profits and margins has been made several times on this thread.

Thry say that's because of the Nat Ins increases.🤷‍♀️

When I went to Aldi yesterday I was surprised it was cheaper than the last time I went but still felt like I had the same amount. I obviously haven't analysed the difference in what I bought but it was roughly the same amount of food that will last roughly the same amount. I was pleasantly surprised, for once.

Yes I've noticed too. A lot of multibuy offers at Morrisons have disappeared and the individual cost of the items increased too. So the ham I buy was previously £2 per pack or 2 for £3.50, now it's £2.25 per pack no multibuy offer.

The Creme eggs are expensive this year. I'm sure last year it was pack of 6, maybe that was a few yrs ago. I just got a pack of 5 from Morrisons and they were on offer at £3.25 which is 65p and they are tiny! So I'm not surprised it's close to £1 to buy just one.

And all replaced by self service tills manned by a single person who is absolutely rushed off their feet.
It takes so long to put a small trolley load through there.

Have you ever actually lived in Portugal and bought normal food shop items regularly? You've quoted some very specific items.

Basic groceries from continente or lidl are easily double the UK. Fresh fruit and veg is very expensive in comparison. I can do the same shop here in M&S and spend less.

Yes booze, well wine, is much cheaper there.

I know - it's mad!
I wish I'd bought lots of bottles when it was "only" £6.00!

Definitely. As I've said on similar threads I buy 80-90% the same stuff each week so really notice, especially DS's packed lunch stuff.

What doesn't seem to be helping at the moment either is the lack of offers on anything at the moment, I tend towards the clubcard special price stuff but doesn't seem to be too much of that at the moment.

Prices will increase even more this year. Farmers are no longer being paid farm subsidies (Basic Payment) due to the Tory agricultural transition policy. A direct result of Brexit...

Small margins but huge volume. It's the same for your domestic energy supplies.

I buy very little from supermarkets and haven't really noticed a difference in prices recently. If you're buying processed foods the price will increase quicker than whole foods as every stage of the manufacturing and distribution will incur higher costs.

That's true, but absolute majority of population can't buy from farmers directly. I don't buy much of processed food but mere parsnips were 70p per pack and they are 75p now. Yes, not much in absolute terms but still 7% increase.
Lidl petit pain was 29p and it's 33p now - over 10% increase.

Re farmers - I agree completely that prices will rise, but most worryingly a lot of them will sell off due to IHT changes.

I live in Portugal but am back in the UK regularly and when there shop for a relative.

I think it's swings and roundabouts and very much depends how you live, eat and drink. Apart from alcohol, I don't think there is a massive difference in any one item. I'm sometimes amazed that some imported fruit/veg is cheaper in the UK than where it is grown in Portugal which seems to say how little profit margin some Uk supermarkets are imposing. But overall I spend about the same.

Many Portuguese live on very low wages but possibly their meal plans for the week differ from the UK. They will make cheap cuts of meat, lower priced fish options and pulses do many meals.

But overall, in Portugal like the Uk everyone recognises that their COL has gone up so much in recent years. It's tough that's for sure.