Food is not expensive

[ragandbonewoman]

That is it really. I suppose I’m curious as to whether people agree or disagree with me. This follows a conversation I’ve just had with a friend where we disagreed on this point, but it’s something I’ve really noticed as things (life, not just food) have become more expensive. Lots and lots of people complaining that food is “so expensive” We are actually in the fortunate position of being able to spend less than the majority of the rest of the world (relative to our income) to follow a healthy diet.

Yes food has gone up. But (and I admit this is an anecdotal observation) food waste is prolific. I think we need to change our outlook. We should be prepared to pay more, especially for meat, to ensure that suppliers, farmers, animal welfare, are all getting a fair deal. I’ve always found it ridiculous that you can buy a whole chicken for £5! How?! And then people readily admit they throw half of it away.

Is this unreasonable? Food is important. People on the absolute breadline might have little choice, but for those that can take a little slack from elsewhere, they should. And stop complaining that you can’t get a tin of beans for 9p anymore! Stop throwing food in the bin because you feel like eating something else. Or AIBU?

That's not helpful when you don't say what country you live in. Are those dollars US? Australian? Canadian? NZ? Hong Kong?

You do understand that last year food didn't cost as much as it did this year? And that additional amount isn't going directly to the suppliers?

You do know that farmers most years break even and don't make a profit? And yet supermarkets do?

If you don't it's expensive, do you not think it's due to a lack of knowledge about current affairs?

You can rule most of those out based on the use of pounds as a measurement of weight.

Not really, both metric and Imperial are used.

200g ball of mozzarella $10.99

Then later

1lb bag of new potatoes $4.99

Agree with the OP 100%. I’m shocked whenever I step into a supermarket in Europe or the US. Even in Taiwan, where I live half the year, food prices are higher. The UK has cheaper food than any of its neighbours. Just now in Italy and feeling at the price of a loaf.

Then you can't say food is not expensive really.

YANBU. In this country, it’s possible to live very frugally in terms of food budget if you shop at discount stores, are happy to eat yellow stickered food and meal plan around BOGOFs and other deals.

Of course if you want organic beef from your farm shop butcher and high end/luxury groceries…

Food prices in Spain are far cheaper than the UK.

And yet one of our biggest health issues is obesity and childhood obesity. I remember going to a cover a shareholders’ meeting in London in the late 1980s of one of the big food manufacturers for the newspaper I was writing for. They had just launched the first ready meals. I was given some to take away. I was v young. When I got home, I excitedly showed my husband- a farmer’s son and a doctor - and he said “no. We’re not eating these”. In retrospect I’m so grateful to him. We have always cooked from scratched. I’m amazed food manufacturers get away with the food they produce.

Apologies, thought I had said. Canada. I think everything is technically weighed and sold in grams / kg but the bag of new potatoes is 454g so I just say 1lb! Loose veg is labeled in both per lb and per kg but the per lb price is always the largest number on the label (because it seems less!) It’s a confusing dual metric / imperial system - it’s 32 degrees C today but I cooked my supper at 350F. We buy litres of petrol but measure cooking oil in cups / spoons not ml.

Thank you @Emma8888

I’m not sure what your point is ?

Profit and profit margin are different things

On £5 of food they make 10-15p of profit

Describing profits as “record” is meaningless . You expect profits to go up each year with inflation and so each year a new record is set.

Farm incomes have rocketed esp in Dairy and meat production - the idea Farmers are all on the breadline is the NFU/Clarksons narrative but is not correct

The really issue is that food quality has dived and our supermarket shelves are often half empty, supermarkets continue to make huge profits.

Coming back from being in France Germany recently, highlighted the differences.

There should really be a truly independent investigation into price fixing across the retail food supply, not one conducted by the regulator which works hand in hand with the supermarkets.

As do all regulators tbh.

They far out strip inflation.

Its a captive market, one puts up the price of chicken, they all do.

Cheaper ranges have soared in price compared to branded stuff - why? the costs of production have risen equally.

But they know we have switched to so called cheaper ranges, so thats where the prices rises go.

Thats not what the CMA found

Whilst you may think they are working in collusion with big food, they explain their logic in the report and in any event the financial numbers are public domain and easy to verify

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/competition-and-profitability-in-the-groceries-sector

I voted YABU

We are paying for shoplifters because the police do nothing

Yes funny how all the regulators rarely find in favour of the consumer isn't it?

Which is what i said!

But the fact is, all the SM's have hiked prices on the cheaper food stuffs we have shifted too.

Consumer organisations disagree with the CMA.

You must live in an alternate reality.
Money is obviously not a problem for you.

That's an absolutely ridiculous statement and completely untrue!

Rationed to one small meal a day here and often I skip a day else there wouldn't be enough for the others I also need to feed, I try to do healthy meals, for instance we all fancied salad in this heat but even a small amount of fresh salad vegetables came to more than I have budgeted( left after rent/ct/bills ) for the week so no healthy salad for us!

As a general rule I find in the UK that quality and wholesome food is very expensive, but highly processed crap is relatively cheap by global standards, although this masks a number of nuances.

I spend a lot of time in Portugal and do similar food shops in both places. I spend significantly less in Portugal even adjusting for average incomes in each country but that's because my diet is largely Portuguese - fresh fish, fresh seasonal fruit and vegetables, legumes etc. If I ate mostly frozen ready meals, tins, out of season produce, and processed breakfast cereals it would be a lot cheaper in the UK in absolute terms, and even more so relative to wages. To give one example I've used before - 500g of dried cannellini beans is £2 (€2.30) in Tesco, but only €1.05 in Intermarché in Portugal. But a 400g can of cooked beans is 49p (€0.57) here and €0.89 in Portugal.

By European standards the UK grocery market is actually quite competitive, which helps keep prices down compared to peers like the Netherlands or France. However, because our housing costs are much, much higher and we earn less because we're simply less productive the disposable income available a typical British family to spend on food is significantly less.

I'm reminded of when Air Canada went metric in 1983. 22,000lbs of fuel was entered into the computer as 22,000kg and, somewhat inevitably, a Boeing 767 ran out of fuel somewhere over Manitoba.

Obesity and poverty do sadly go hand in hand, and paradoxically obesity is often seen in people who can least afford food.

It's quite easy to see why - it's much cheaper to buy a massive bag of chips, sack of potatoes or bag of pasta and have it with some cheap processed meat than it is to buy multiple ingredients, especially when you factor in things like being time poor, not having good access to facilities to cook in, not having the energy (as in gas and electric) to afford cooking meals. The mental load of putting some frozen processed food in the oven at the end of a long day is so much less than meal planning and cooking from scratch, even for somebody who likes to cook and knows how to make meals.

You then introduce more complex issues that result from food insecurity, like for example struggling to budget properly and spending more on food (especially takeaways), because when you've been eating very poorly you often crave that treat and convenience when you do have money.

I remember when my kids were very little and I was struggling financially. I vividly remember choosing to get frozen chicken nuggets and pizzas from Iceland instead of getting potatoes, a whole chicken, and veg etc like I normally would, because I was on a prepayment meter for gas and electric, and knew that if I bought the ingredients to cook the meals I wanted to, I wouldn't have the money to cook them.

It costs a lot more to roast a chicken and even to boil raw potatoes and veg on the stove than it does to put the oven on once for 20 minutes. It's really fucking depressing having to make those decisions and I'm not well off now, but I will forever be humbled and grateful that at the moment, I at least have enough to comfortably pay my bills so I can cook meals. And I still struggle towards the end of the month.

I'm so sorry you are going through this, I really hope better days are ahead for you 🌻

You are correct to say lower priced goods e.g. value ranges have seen some of the highest price increases.

However this is irrelevant.

Overall profit margins are low as explained in the CMA report, which they supported with fact based evidence.

Do you disagree with the CMA findings on profit margins ?

Are you able to name the consumer organisations that disagreed ?

No, I thought not