[Finance] Price Increases

[Official Old Man]

What have you purchased recently that has increased the most in the past few months.
Trip to Aldi and their tomato soup is now 57p from 35p. Honey Nut cornflakes £1.09 from 85p. Cheap marg 99p from 59p. Own digestive biscuits 49p from 35p.
Their meat packs have shrunk with 1 kilo packs now containing 750 grams or less.
Inflation is 10% and yet everything seems to be going up by a lot more than that.

 

[Triggaaar]

Inflation is 10% and yet everything seems to be going up by a lot more than that.

Indeed, it's difficult to imagine where the 10% comes from when you see the price increases in the local supermarket.

 

[Biscuit Barrel]

I bought some velcro the other day. What a rip off.

 

[LANGDON SEAGULL]

Went to buy some Vanish last week (the stuff that gets your whites white) - £6!

 

[raymondo]

Gas and electric to heat the house... +125%

 

[Bob!]

Food price inflation has been 16.5% in November, 16.9% in December

Consumer price inflation, UK - Office for National Statistics

Price indices, percentage changes and weights for the different measures of consumer price inflation.

www.ons.gov.uk

 

[Justice]

The suppliers are struggling with the energy costs. A few M&S suppliers especially fresh veg and fruit growers in the UK have gone bust even with the company trying to help them.

 

[Rdodge30]

I own a bakery.

Last March flour that we use went from £440 a tonne to £580 a tonne - such a jump that we got a letter from the flour mill explaining “never known anything like it etc etc” in July it went up to £780 a tonne.

Our major wholesale supplier (14,000+products) sends out a monthly update which always used to have a page of price reductions and price increases, since last March every month this has been 6-8 pages of price increases, many of them have been over 50% increase , some things have more than doubled in the last year.

12.5kg cake margarine £17 - £28.50
12.5kg lard £14.50 - £32
10kg crem pat £26 - £44
5kg raspberry pie filling £13 - £37
Even yeast 12kg £14 - £22

And on and on it goes, every month. All packaging and paper products have doubled.

 

[southstandandy]

A large percentage of our foodstuffs sadly come from the continent and due to the 'B' word do involve consideraby more now in terms of import costs. Add to that the increasing costs of fuel since the war in Ukraine and you have a perfect mix to see prices increase so much.

"Most people think Britain only imports about 50% of its food. But the reality is that 80% of food is imported, including basics such as carrots and tea.
The 50% statistic underrepresents the reality, McCarthy says. In reality, "80% of food is imported into the UK," he wrote. The lower number "defines food processed in the UK as UK food, even though the ingredients may have been imported. For example, tea is processed in the UK, but we grow no tea — it is all imported. When ingredients are counted as imported, the real figure is over 80%. It gets worse. "Much of the food industry is staffed by overseas workers and a major labour shortage is hurting the sector since Brexit. For example, there is a shortage of Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) drivers, with many HGV drivers in the UK coming from central Europe. As one CEO said at our CEO Forum in 2017: 'UK distribution would grind to a halt if free movement of labour was halted and truck drivers went home,'" McCarthy's team wrote." (HSBC Analayst) - A profoundly accurate prediction.

We are too dependent on imports for our food and this is why we are subject to increasing costs together with increased costs involved with extra red tape and paper work. This ain't going away anytime soon.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Indeed, it's difficult to imagine where the 10% comes from when you see the price increases in the local supermarket.

10% is an (out of date) figure bandied around a lot and is an average based on a range of household bills.
Mortgages and rent will always be a big chunk of this but haven't gone up by 10% (yet).
Food is one of the next biggest, with fuel now catching up sharply.

The huge increases in fuel, is affecting every business.
iT is the reason for increased food prices, due to stores and manufacturers' increased fuel bills.

 

[Uh_huh_him]

Yeah it's a factor, but fuel costs are a bigger issue.

 

[pb21]

Indeed, it's difficult to imagine where the 10% comes from when you see the price increases in the local supermarket.

10% is the 'average' on the basis of this basket.

I guess only ~10% on the basis that housing etc. is 31% of the weight but only a low variation.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Vinyl from Resident has gone up around 30% due to import duty and 6 euro admin fee.

 

[Triggaaar]

10% is the 'average' on the basis of this basket.

I guess my baskets are very different the theirs. Unlike MPs, I know the price of the food I buy, and the increase for much of it is shocking.

 

[Eric the meek]

I've just been to the flower shop in Patcham.

Guess how much the Ecuadorian roses were? £50.

It reminds me of the joke 'how many roses should I give my wife for Valentine's Day? 6, 12, or the whole tin?

 

[southstandandy]

Vinyl from Resident has gone up around 30% due to import duty and 6 euro admin fee.

Now if I had my time again and could afford it, I'd set up a Vinyl record processing plant. Very few exist in the UK and with the renaissance in Vinyl I think there is a major window of opportunity there. Ironically my Rolling Stones Vinyl (Grrr Live triple vinyl) arrived today - Made in the EU! Import costs added to overall price.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

It's the combined [global] rises in fuel and energy that are at the root of the cost of almost everything, especially now.

The annoyance is that gas and oil are no more scarce today than they were 5-10 years ago [commodity scarcity with demand will always cost a premium].
Further, the cost of gas and oil production has not [to my knowledge] changed recently to cause price increase.

I think it comes down to one thing - Russian sanctions.
Before the war, Russia was a huge player in gas and oil production which helped keep market price competitive. Take the Russian contribution away and it leaves the other producers of gas and oil in a slimmer cartel.

You only need to see which global companies are making massive [Sheffield Wednesday proportions] of profit in the last year to see where all the inflated product costs of items we buy are ballooning the coffers of their shareholders - here's the top 10 biggest players in order of annual revenue
Saudi Arabian Oil Co. (Saudi Aramco) Rev: $590.3 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: -3.7%
China Petroleum & Chemical Corp. (SNPMF) Rev: $486.8 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 18.6%
PetroChina Co. Ltd. (PCCYF) Rev: $486.4 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 12.5%
Exxon Mobil Corp. (XOM) Rev: $386.8 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 85.6%
Shell PLC (SHEL) Rev: $365.3 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 37.47%
TotalEnergies SE (TTE) Rev: $254.7 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 34.3%
Chevron Corp. (CVX) Rev: $227.1 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 56.8%
BP PLC (BP) Rev: $222.7 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 38.4%
Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) Rev: $173 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 85.3%
Valero Energy Corp. (VLO) Rev: $170.5 billion 1-Year Trailing Total Return: 78.3

It feels like these organisations are holding the world to ransom, they have something we all need, and we'll pay whatever they ask.

 

[dazzer6666]

The price of takeaway food - Indian and Chinese in particular. Seems to have absolutely rocketed.

 

[Albion in the north]

The thing is. If its a price marked pack, the manufacturer will put it up more than neccesary to negate the fact that they will have to put it up again in the near future, saving them the expense of changing their packaging. These things take time to work their way through the system and have caused a lot of the shortages of certain items.
British fruit and veg is fairly stable in price at the market at the moment but the price of imported fruit and veg always goes up this time of year.

 

[Rdodge30]

I’m sure that Brexit has had an effect on British industry - to varying degrees, however I don’t feel it’s the main cause of cost increase affecting my business. Greek currants have increased in price by normal amounts. Undoubtedly the cost of wheat, animal feed and fertiliserafter the Ukrainian invasion has had a massive impact as have the well documented increases in fuel for haulage and electricity for producers.

(Box of 360 eggs £45 - £66 this year alone)