[Misc] price gouging

[beorhthelm]

Of course it's Brexit related!



I have found the price rises very noticeable, particularly on staple items.

In Morrisons (basically the only option round here - but fortunately it's a lot better than down south), I have recently noticed that pasta has gone from 3 x 500g packets for £1 to 2 packets for £1, an 8-pack of poppadoms has gone from 65p to £1.40, etc.

I would say our weekly shop has gone from ~£110 to ~£170 for more or less the same stuff.

blimey, some stark differences there. my pasta was £1/kg, now £1/kg. i do buy poppadoms £1.20, didnt used to though. a lot of choice of supermarkets though so perhaps competition keeping rises in check.

 

[southstandandy]

Where a sly change occurs is often not necessarily the actual prices going up but the quanity of a product being reduced.

One early festive example is the Christmas sweet tin.

In 1998 £5 would buy you a 2 kilo tin of Quality Street and hey ho today the price is still only £5 but you only get 680 grams now. Obviously £5 was worth proportionately more in 1998 what with inflation but at this rate with next years Christmas tub of sweets you'll be lucky to get more than a dozen in a tub.

Same principle happening on almost everything from cereal to crisps and most other pre-packed goods. You're lucky if you get more than 10 crsips in a standard pack these days!

 

[Mr Putdown]

Lots of factors. Some obvious ones:

- Slowed production following pandemic
- High energy/fuel prices
- High inflation
- Carbon emission targets

Anything manufactured in the Far East is costing a fortune in massively increased transportation costs. Pre Covid it was roughly $1200 to bring over a 40’ container, now prices are upwards of $12,000.

 

[sydney]

Queenslanders?

wesfarmers , woolworths, coles , bp , caltex , ampol ...etc etc etc...

 

[sydney]

Anything manufactured in the Far East is costing a fortune in massively increased transportation costs. Pre Covid it was roughly $1200 to bring over a 40’ container, now prices are upwards of $12,000.

because the chinese and americans are hoarding all the sea containers.

 

[sydney]

Where a sly change occurs is often not necessarily the actual prices going up but the quanity of a product being reduced.

One early festive example is the Christmas sweet tin.

In 1998 £5 would buy you a 2 kilo tin of Quality Street and hey ho today the price is still only £5 but you only get 680 grams now. Obviously £5 was worth proportionately more in 1998 what with inflation but at this rate with next years Christmas tub of sweets you'll be lucky to get more than a dozen in a tub.

Same principle happening on almost everything from cereal to crisps and most other pre-packed goods. You're lucky if you get more than 10 crsips in a standard pack these days!

go to the top of the class.

 

[Mr Putdown]

because the chinese and americans are hoarding all the sea containers.

I think you’ll find it’s rather more complex than that.

 

[herecomesaregular]

If only I could still get an 8" Curly Wurly bar, like I did in the 70s as a reward for attending Sunday School.......

True story bro'

 

[borat]

This thread highlights the reason why cryptos and Defi (decentralised finance) are growing year on year. Why leave money/savings in the bank which devalues every year. You can earn 8%+ on USDC or GUSD and allocate a portion to BTC or Eth which are growing assets (but more risk associated than USDC or GUSD)

 

[Gabbafella]

If only I could still get an 8" Curly Wurly bar, like I did in the 70s as a reward for attending Sunday School.......

True story bro'

I bet loads of little boys were offered 8" at Sunday school.

 

[Saunders]

I think the worst of the price rises are yet to come and Brexit will definitely be a factor in that, people who voted for Brexit might not want to accept it but there was always going to be some problems and I thought that this was actually accepted by most Brexiteers?

I own a care business and traditionally many care companies have relied on European workers, now a lot of these have gone, there are far less people looking for work which has made recruiting 100% more challenging. Last year we recruited to a role and had 100 applicants, this year we tried to recruit to the same role and had 20! Its got so bad that a care home in our area is offering £1000 golden handshake! With margins being extremely tight in care as it is it this isn't sustainable in the longer term without price rises.

I suspect that something similar is being seen in other sectors.

Care businesses pay less than minimum wage (you dont count travel time) so not surprising that you are hurting now you have less slave labour to count on.

 

[sydney]

I think you’ll find it’s rather more complex than that.

most shipping containers are manufactured in and owned by china , current figures show that china is minus 1.4 shipping containers down due to worldwide strandings mostly in the u.s and europe ....some of this has been put down to the u.s /sino trade war ...the chinese are basically adding to the bottom line on container hire and tariffs on containers leaving their ports and also ports which are owned under lease by them all over the world ....look into it , belt and road project etc.

that doesn't explain why we are getting 40 crisps in a packet.

 

[sydney]

Of course it's Brexit related!



I have found the price rises very noticeable, particularly on staple items.

In Morrisons (basically the only option round here - but fortunately it's a lot better than down south), I have recently noticed that pasta has gone from 3 x 500g packets for £1 to 2 packets for £1, an 8-pack of poppadoms has gone from 65p to £1.40, etc.

I would say our weekly shop has gone from ~£110 to ~£170 for more or less the same stuff.

but it's the same in AUS so it's not brexit related , the rise in fuel prices when oil per barrel is low is not brexit related ....it's blatant gouging.

 

[Half Time Pies]

Care businesses pay less than minimum wage (you dont count travel time) so not surprising that you are hurting now you have less slave labour to count on.

Strange sweeping statement to make! Care businesses that pay less than the minimum wage will get in trouble with HMRC. The HMRC guidance is quite clear on the need to factor in travel time when calculating the minimum wage. For the record we pay travel AND waiting time and significantly above the minimum wage.

 

[Saunders]

Strange sweeping statement to make! Care businesses that pay less than the minimum wage will get in trouble with HMRC. The HMRC guidance is quite clear on the need to factor in travel time when calculating the minimum wage. For the record we pay travel AND waiting time and significantly above the minimum wage.

They dont pay travel time that is how they get around it HMRC guidance or not. From experience and if you are paying significantly above then you would be swamped by the care workers from your competitors

edit just to back me up a national newspaper agrees https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/carer-workers-taking-home-less-24854603

 

[Notters]

but it's the same in AUS so it's not brexit related , the rise in fuel prices when oil per barrel is low is not brexit related ....it's blatant gouging.

Fuel prices are just gradually going back to where they were before the pandemic, which is surely to be expected?

 

[sydney]

Fuel prices are just gradually going back to where they were before the pandemic, which is surely to be expected?

diesel has gone up 30% here , petrol the same ......$2 for a tomato ffs ...thats a pound.

 

[Half Time Pies]

They dont pay travel time that is how they get around it HMRC guidance or not. From experience and if you are paying significantly above then you would be swamped by the care workers from your competitors

edit just to back me up a national newspaper agrees https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/carer-workers-taking-home-less-24854603

They dont pay travel time that is how they get around it HMRC guidance or not. From experience and if you are paying significantly above then you would be swamped by the care workers from your competitors

edit just to back me up a national newspaper agrees https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/carer-workers-taking-home-less-24854603

Well with all due respect we do pay for travel and waiting time and still are struggling to recruit, shows how bad its got!

The mirror is not a great source for a balanced view but I think the practice that is being referred to is where providers advertise a higher hourly rate and hope that it’s sufficiently high enough that when the travel time is factored in a carers wage is still above the NMW. However If a carers wage does fall below the NMW in any one month then they should receive a top up.

The problem for providers that are on local authority contracts is that local authorities often don’t pay enough to cover the true cost of an hour of care, and this includes travel time. Providers are therefore often forced to cut things fine in order to make ends meet.

 

[Iggle Piggle]

Admitedly, this won't affect the price of your bathroom or keep your mrs happy either but there is also a worldwide silicon shortage which has affected lead times and in some cases pricing for everything from laptops to cars or anything that uses it (apart from Apple who jumped the queue). Pricing for some stuff i procure at work is all over the shop as a consequence. Of course, the silicon companies decision to slow down production due to the pandemic whilst consumption of electrical items went the other way was all to do with brexit according to Professor Woke from the University of Correctness.

 

[southstandandy]

They dont pay travel time that is how they get around it HMRC guidance or not. From experience and if you are paying significantly above then you would be swamped by the care workers from your competitors

edit just to back me up a national newspaper agrees https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/carer-workers-taking-home-less-24854603

Not sure I agree with that. The company we use for my disabled father (although we pay privately) pay their carers £14.95 per hour and 20 pence per mile, and they are desperately short of employees. I know £15 an hour is still pretty shit to most of us but it seems us Brits just don't want to work in this sector.