When item x was £2 in 2020 and then went up 50% over the next 2 years, we were all told Ukraine/Covid/energy costs... fair enough but energy has dropped down loads, diesel down from £2l to £1.50 for example as have most commodities, wages have gone up on avg 15% over the same period.
But that item is still £3, and is now going up by 10% so now £3.30, then another 10%, then 5% .... now that item is near £4... cheaper non branded items have been hit the worst, which is what i tend to buy and i see 5 or 10% added regularly, every 2 or 3 months at least.
Why? because this is what we are buying the most often, items that we don't buy very often are not going up as much but production costs should be the same?
Meanwhile the supermarkets are making record profits.... that price matching cuts both way, if they see an item 10p more in a rival, they put up their item by 10p too....
There is no real competition, we all need food and they put profits, record ones too, above anything else.