Cost of living....struggles....rubbish!

[IwishIcouldconfess]

Been into Manchester today.

I'll be honest, shops full, restaurants full, pub's standing room only.

I thought as a country we were in a cost of living crisis, not in Manchester, the amount of cocktails, bottles of wine i saw being knocked back today made me wonder, ate things really as bad as as the narrative we're being sold?

I went to our mall today and it was heaving. Shops full, restaurants full. I’m not in a destination city. Just a normal town, but I am in the SE.

I've noticed the shops can be full but not many carrier bags on their arms.

And it does for lots of people.

People in shops does not mean they are spending money.

It’s payday weekend. End of January. People think they are kings!

Are you suggesting that people are lying about struggling?
Why would they do that?

Tbh I thought this when I went out in my birthday to our local City, couple of days after New Year and everywhere was heaving. Pubs, restaurants full. Shops really busy.
i think lots of people still have a lot of spending power.

Restaurants and bars are too good for the common people?

How many of them did you quiz about their earnings?

I actually think the divide between the wealthy and not wealthy is bigger than ever - so there's huge numbers who can't afford anything. And then others who go out spending all the time

Ah, we have to do the "pretend we can't use our eyes and claim we can't use our learned and lived experience to know that the people in front of us aren't wealthy"

Oh dear

How do your eyes tell you what I earn?

I was in Manchester this weekend and it was as busy as normal. However I noticed the pub cleared by 10pm.

I also noticed the bar wasn't busy so maybe people nurse their drinks to make them last...

COLC is absolutely real for many people, having money to buy food is a real challenge.

Manchester looks like it’s thriving whenever I go there, but then that’s probably because the nearest town to where I live (in East Anglia) is practically post apocalyptic.

Ok dear. We are playing that game then.

Yes it's quite impossible to look at someone and know their virtually certain demographic.

i think lots of people still have a lot of spending power.

Yes, which is what some people here aren't getting. The mainstream media want you to think that the cost of living has adversely affected everyone, but it hasn't.

The mainstream media is bollocks. They also post shite like "if you have one of these 10 health conditions, you can claim £1kpm in benefits", and crap like that.

I honestly think this is a deliberate attempt to provoke.

OP, you describe a snaphot of how some people might be able to afford to be out enjoying themselves, at a given moment.
It isn't representative of the whole UK population.

'In 2023/24, 7.9 million working-age adults, 4.5 million children, and 1.9 million pensioners were living in poverty': Joseph Rowntree Foundation
https://www.jrf.org.uk
We have access to such information at our fingertips.

And you are clearly unable to identify which people can afford to eat in a restaurant,

My observation was identical to OP, but more in the way that, for example, ten years ago we were supposedly not on the bones of our arse as a country, or certainly not like we are allegedly now. But ten years ago, a Saturday out shopping would not remotely have seen all the best restaurants fully booked for the entire service.

But now, we're in supposed crisis, everywhere was choc a bloc, from mediocre to high end.

Perhaps it was the pure coincidence of payday. Is it really such cause for celebration to get your monthly salary?

If that's all you can interpret, despite what's written down, there's not a lot anyone else can do about that.

Yes so true. I remember in the 80s going to friends houses and being totally shocked how they lived. From borrowing tea bags from neighbours to literally having nothing in their kitchens you could call food. No carpets, no sheets on beds, no toilet paper. I'm working class. We wanted for nothing. Our kitchen was so full of food my friends were amazed. Freezer filled every six weeks with the best butcher meat. Fruit bowl overflowing, fridge full, treat drawer, biscuits, home baking. My friends loved coming to ours. My dad would often work seven days a week. My mum worked part time always over several jobs. They retired with 150k in the bank. My dad never earned more than 15k a year and when he got paid off at 55 he went to sign on and was offered £8 a week. He bought a van the next day and started on his own. People need to live within their earnings or do something to better their earnings. That was the way I was taught growing up. I think as well people need to learn to cook properly to save money. We're comfortable but I can make a lot of cheap healthy meals to fit within our budget spend.

I don’t think drawing conclusions based on the state of some high streets are accurate indicators of buying power , some are owned by consortiums that don’t care who rents as long as units are rented out. Some high streets are pretty with independent shops and cafes , others are just Mobile shops , pawnbrokers .
also some business collapse due to being stagnated , they no longer adapt to changing consumer behaviour which has significantly changed during the last decade or so.

Things exactly the same where we live (north east england). If you go out on an evening, weekend pubs and restaurants are packed and if you haven't booked good chance you won't get a seat .
I go out with a friend on a Friday afternoon and every place is packed and if youre having food and one drink you are looking at around £15, one cake and a drink £8-10 .
Obviously I know lots of people are struggling seriously with CoL but it hardly feels it!
BTW what did people do before so many coffee shops/garden centres for a drink - just had friends round!

It amazes me how ignorant people are, that they need to write posts like this.

I think you've missed many posts in the rest of the thread where others of us are saying that the restaurants and cafes are uncharacteristically busy for the week the credit card bills from Christmas drop and that seems very strange when we are supposedly in a cost of living crisis.

It's not that they are busy with people who can afford to pay that is odd, it's that they are much more busy than normal for late January.

I'm wondering if there's a lot of "oh fuck it, I'm never going to be able to buy a house I'll just spend the deposit I was saving for and go out" or if more and more "children" are choosing not to be independent and living low rent or no rent in their parents' home.