What is going on with food prices??

[londongirl12]

A 500g packet of mince in Aldi is now over £5!! What on earth is going on???

My favourite biscuit and a two pack currently sell at Home Bargains for £2.60. The M&S digestives are almost as good and sell for 80p a pack.

Blame Rachel R.

Increase in minimum wage
Increase in NI paid by employers

Supermarkets need to increase prices to cover those.
Their profit margins are low.

For PAYE workers, our earnings are wholly transparent, for those earning over £100k - which seems like a fortune - however their collective tax rate (after losing their personal tax allowance) is 60%. I don’t think this group of people could stomach even more tax being heaped on them.

It is 39% go and put £100k in this website and show me where it is 60% https://listentotaxman.com

Spend less (eg by curbing illegal immigration) lower taxes to attract investment and encourage businesses like Merck to set up in the UK bringing employment and increasing tax take.

It has long been recognised that increasing taxes ultimately reduces tax received.

They are my favourite too!
I will say, I’ve never tried the M&S ones but I’ve developed quite a taste for the Tesco Value ones

Aldo made £500 million profit
Tesco £3.1 bn
Sainsbury £1 bn

and youre trying to say they are struggling ffs

I'm not prepared to compromise on how I eat, so will begrudgingly pay the higher supermarket prices.

But - after yet another holiday abroad, where we ate delicious restaurant food, with attentive service, for around 2/3 of what we'd expect to pay in the UK, I think DH and I are pretty much done with eating out in the UK. It's just not worth it anymore and what we save can go towards our food shopping bill.

What annoys me even more is 'shrinkflation' - you have to be careful that the pack of mince does contain 500g as often the pack looks the same but is in fact 400g.

The supermarkets seem to be making healthy profits.

Aldi is the absolute worst for this
And still declare they’re cheaper, yes because you’re reducing packaging size!

Damn those pensioners getting a 6% return on their pension funds!

You sound like you live in an Enid Blyton novel 🤣 (sounds like heaven)
Round here there is no flour mill to buy a sack of flour from and, fruit trees are a bit thin on the ground in a city centre estate. Not to mention the time and energy cost of the baking and jam making. There are no neighbours keeping chickens to trade for any jam either.
I am lucky as I have a garden and do grow a couple of bits but it would never sustain a family. I am also fortunate that I can, and do, cook from scratch without worrying about my electric or gas meter.
While it would be lovely to live as you do, for the vast majority of families in the UK this lifestyle is nothing but a fantasy.

Youre pathetic

Spend less (eg by curbing illegal immigration)

illigal immigration cost is £5bn

Oil company subsidies are £17bn and railway subsidies are £13bn how about we curb those subsidies which are tax payers money going straight to shareholders instead?

putting up train fares definitely sounds like the way to go…

You don't see this point made that often. I think it is important. I know people want to share practical tips on how to get more but people need to be aware of the profit element.

I don’t agree that it’s anything to do with the war in Ukraine etc. I believe it’s market forces, they keep edging the prices up, we keep buying. If you notice all the big supermarkets are making record profits, if it was outside forces such as produce costing more then that would hit their profits, wouldn’t it?

What we should all do is stop buying. Just buy bare essentials for a month or more from a local market and shop, boycott the big supermarkets. Let them know we won’t accept it, but it won’t happen.

I don’t generally massively budget for food shopping, but I’m astonished by the price of items currently.

stopping the subsidies is the way to go as the profits are taken of the top and given to shareholders - why should there be profit from tax payers?

Prices are out of control.

Try to turn it around and see how it can benefit you. Half a pizza in instead of a whole one, 1 egg rather than 2. This way you control the £s but reduces the lbs.

Other suggestions are
1 meal a day plus healthy snack at other mealtimes
Rice, pasta, jacket potato
1 Coffee (keeps caffeine down) try tea
Treat- Crisps rather than chocolate
Seasonal vegetables
Items on promotion and freeze
Limit meat to once a week
Use flavourings and spices to jazz up your food

What profit do you think would be reasonable for businesses to make? Two percent? One percent?

depends where the profit is coming from

I would starve! Green tomatoes and a sad celery. There looks like some kale is nearly ready though.

Yes, I was also wondering how do they find the time and energy to work and raise children.

But how much does that work out per shopper per year?

Say the total profit for all UK supermarkets is £10bn. There are about 70 million people in the UK. That's less than £150 per person per year on average.

They could make no profit at all and a family of 4's shopping bill would reduce by about £10 a week.

where do you consider it is acceptable for businesses to make a profit?

This!
Look closer to come than global ‘warming’ and Ukraine. The are just simplistic diversionary tactics from the real reason.
Chrap food era is over -of it ever existed -when I was a child food was probably more affordable, but there really wasn’t much choice - no processed food and no ready meals/bagged salads/out of season fruit and veg. People are lazier and expect instant gratification.
My first Saturday job was in greengrocer and food was seasonal - no strawberries except in mid summer etc -no avocados or other items now exclusively imported -ironic that people worried about ‘global warming’ exist for to be transported thousands of miles.
And imported foods are not only increasingly expensive owing to world demand and Labour wrecking the economy and trading capacity.
But supermarket shelves aren’t empty - are full of luxury and unnecessary items and people’s trolley are laden with them.