[Finance] Price Increases

[chickens]

Waitrose darling

Sadly, I find the 40% premium over Sainsbury’s prices difficult to justify, but I’m glad somebody’s keeping the flag flying.

 

[Horses Arse]

Sadly, I find the 40% premium over Sainsbury’s prices difficult to justify, but I’m glad somebody’s keeping the flag flying.

Shocking isn't it!!

 

[LamieRobertson]

Lidl halves my shopping costs compared to Sainsbury’s, but you always run the risk of them not having something you want/need. Stock levels fluctuate wildly. Strangely, when we tried Aldi, the shop was only fractionally less than the Sainsbury’s cost.

Having said that, I went to Sainsbury’s yesterday to get the ingredients for a decent Valentine’s meal, and the fresh produce sections were a wasteland of empty display units. The contrast with pre-Brexit availability still seems incredible, even for crops that can be grown in the U.K.

Good point about Lidl …I quite enjoy shopping (as far as shopping can ever be enjoyable) at the Shoreham store…easy to park…not too big and cashiers friendly…but you get stuffed by it not being on the shelf I’ve got round this by keeping a good stock of things….. I combine a Lidl shop with Tescos and just keep MS for wkd has served me well since I’ve changed my shopping habits

 

[LamieRobertson]

It's not though, it should be at least 30p cheaper for diesel and the delta between diesel and petrol has grown massive, artificially. That drives everything else up too.

As the poster said it has gone down so they are factually correct …diesel 164.9 at my local Tescos station …whether it should be lower is another matter

 

[Horses Arse]

As the poster said it has gone down so they are factually correct …diesel 164.9 at my local Tescos station …whether it should be lower is another matter

It's gone up. If items are artificially increased in cost to then be 'reduced' by a fraction of the increase then the cost has still increased. Its not a price drop.

No wonder the companies behind these increases are posting record profits.

 

[Official Old Man]

Today's moan. Colgate toothpaste at Aldi. Was 99p for 100 ml tube. Today 99p for 75 ml tube. That's equivalent to a 33% increase. What is in toothpaste that costs 33% more.

 

[JBizzle]

Today's moan. Colgate toothpaste at Aldi. Was 99p for 100 ml tube. Today 99p for 75 ml tube. That's equivalent to a 33% increase. What is in toothpaste that costs 33% more.

Shareholder dividends?

 

[Wrong-Direction]

Ahhh Bisto £4.75 🫨

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Massive shortage of eggs and egg related products in local Asda today - especially the cheaper and own brands. Strangely there was still plenty of the really expensive stuff.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

Lidl halves my shopping costs compared to Sainsbury’s, but you always run the risk of them not having something you want/need. Stock levels fluctuate wildly. Strangely, when we tried Aldi, the shop was only fractionally less than the Sainsbury’s cost.

Having said that, I went to Sainsbury’s yesterday to get the ingredients for a decent Valentine’s meal, and the fresh produce sections were a wasteland of empty display units. The contrast with pre-Brexit availability still seems incredible, even for crops that can be grown in the U.K.

What’s the availability like compared to pre Russian invasion of Ukraine? Just out of interest.

 

[chickens]

What’s the availability like compared to pre Russian invasion of Ukraine? Just out of interest.

Honestly, it’s hard to tell. Lidl has always (even pre-Brexit) had an element of lottery about it, which is really the only black mark I can give it.

There were noticeable periods of disruption during the pandemic and post-Brexit, and I can’t say that any supermarket round here seems to have completely overcome those even now, but those events plus the Ukraine conflict seem to have begun segueing into each other in my mind.

It’s impossible from an “end user” perspective to know where to point the finger for what seems fairly significant ongoing supply chain disruption, but Lidl seems to have managed it slightly better than my other local supermarkets, whose fresh produce and meat sections in particular seem prone to ‘boom or bust’ where there’s either nothing there, or they’re stocked full to bursting but with it all expiring in a couple of days time.

 

[Lenny Rider]

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.

Is legislation to make sure all the supermarkets sell 75% of goods produced from the UK viable?

Or has that horse well and truly bolted?

 

[Easy 10]

Heinz soup in Tesco now £1.70 a can. I can't recall what it was pre-shitfest, but that made me blanch and not bother.

The price of cereal these days absolutely blows my mind.

 

[raymondo]

Today's moan. Colgate toothpaste at Aldi. Was 99p for 100 ml tube. Today 99p for 75 ml tube. That's equivalent to a 33% increase. What is in toothpaste that costs 33% more.

It's the Red Stripe, officer

 

[portlock seagull]

Most people still seem able to drive round a Range Rover, it’s almost the most common car on the roads these days; and/or have 5-6 vehicles in 4 person household. We are far from impoverished. This or people have for their priorities astonishingly wrong if citing food is expensive (it is, but cars more so!!)

 

[Albion in the north]

Is legislation to make sure all the supermarkets sell 75% of goods produced from the UK viable?

Or has that horse well and truly bolted?

If you want or ever wanted 75% of produce to be home grown, you wouldnt be eating Tomatoes and 101 other things this time of year. Thats post/pre/during and before we ever invented the word Brexit.
The main reasons for lack of fresh produce on supermarket shelves is that for a long time theyve screwed over the producers in their incessant race to the bottom with 69p veg etc. Add tp that, the problem with the harvest in Spain at the moment and that has brought about the lack of cheap veg. Supermarkets, generally , sell Class 2 veg. That is the veg that was bought cheap when the harvest was abundant, has been stored and artificially kept fresh or was not that fresh in the first place. Hence the fact that a few days after youve bought it, it doesnt look so good. Now, everybody wants what little veg there is thats good so the market is dictating the prices. Some fruit and veg (mainly veg) has doubled in price, and more, this week at the wholesale market.
The only answer is to eat seasonally and appreciate the salads, strawberries etc when they arrive in the summer and not expect them all year round.

 

[vegster]

Is legislation to make sure all the supermarkets sell 75% of goods produced from the UK viable?

Or has that horse well and truly bolted?

You can't easily grow Tomatoes and salad crops here in the UK at this time of the year without huge expense of heating the greenhouses...when part of the EU we could easily buy winter salad crops from southern Europe but now its a pain to import them thanks to the paperwork.

Many of the fruit and veg that we have come to accept as supermarket staples we can't grow enough of cheap enough. Its basic physics, cold weather and 6-7 hours of daylight means plants don't grow. So, artificial lighting and heating is required.. just when energy costs tripled.

 

[Weststander]

Most people still seem able to drive round a Range Rover, it’s almost the most common car on the roads these days; and/or have 5-6 vehicles in 4 person household. We are far from impoverished. This or people have for their priorities astonishingly wrong if citing food is expensive (it is, but cars more so!!)

The have’s and the have-not’s.

With many of the have’s having moderate income, but being by choice up to their eyeballs in card and car lease/PCP debt ….. they would say “life’s too short”.

 

[beorhthelm]

If you want or ever wanted 75% of produce to be home grown, you wouldnt be eating Tomatoes and 101 other things this time of year. Thats post/pre/during and before we ever invented the word Brexit.
The main reasons for lack of fresh produce on supermarket shelves is that for a long time theyve screwed over the producers in their incessant race to the bottom with 69p veg etc. Add tp that, the problem with the harvest in Spain at the moment and that has brought about the lack of cheap veg. Supermarkets, generally , sell Class 2 veg. That is the veg that was bought cheap when the harvest was abundant, has been stored and artificially kept fresh or was not that fresh in the first place. Hence the fact that a few days after youve bought it, it doesnt look so good. Now, everybody wants what little veg there is thats good so the market is dictating the prices. Some fruit and veg (mainly veg) has doubled in price, and more, this week at the wholesale market.
The only answer is to eat seasonally and appreciate the salads, strawberries etc when they arrive in the summer and not expect them all year round.

not just the veg, wheat, sugar, pulses have large volume imported, usually from the old colonies.

 

[Easy 10]

I love a tangerine, and the prices don't seem to have gone up ridiculously. However, more often than not when I peel them now, even a day or two after purchase, they've often already started drying out. I can't be doing with that, so I don't bother any more.

I assume this is probably because they're stuck on the HGV's for much longer these days, trying to get through our gummed-up borders.