Food Prices

[diamond lil]

I think there is life after Twix though

[jansman]

Has anyone else noticed the stealth price increases in the supermarkets that are perpetrated by lowering the content amounts slightly and keeping the price the same ? Like margerine in 500ml tubs with only 400ml of content ? The BBC did a TV segment recently I believe (dont have a TV) and I know radio 4 "you and yours" featured it some time ago.

Supermarkets, cant live with 'em, cant burn 'em down, p!ss on the ashes and not go to jail

Talking today to family at a funeral we attended. Two of them are butchers like me. We were discussing price increases, and the programmes about 'short measures '. We all were of the same mind ;

Prices are increasing. Unfortunately consumers will NOT pay more. The last decade or so they have got used to cheap everything. Unfortunately everything else is going up, like minimum wage,fuel,water and now business rates.

Personally, I don't want to pay more, but people like their wages to go up and it has to come from somewhere.

That is why pack sizes are smaller, because of consumer resistance to paying more.

[pseudonym]

Since my health problems and a change in diet, my bills have got less, no more ready meals, and crap stuff in the trolley

[shocker]

Has anyone else noticed the stealth price increases in the supermarkets that are perpetrated by lowering the content amounts slightly and keeping the price the same ? Like margerine in 500ml tubs with only 400ml of content ? The BBC did a TV segment recently I believe (dont have a TV) and I know radio 4 "you and yours" featured it some time ago.

Supermarkets, cant live with 'em, cant burn 'em down, p!ss on the ashes and not go to jail

Talking today to family at a funeral we attended. Two of them are butchers like me. We were discussing price increases, and the programmes about 'short measures '. We all were of the same mind ;

Prices are increasing. Unfortunately consumers will NOT pay more. The last decade or so they have got used to cheap everything. Unfortunately everything else is going up, like minimum wage,fuel,water and now business rates.

Personally, I don't want to pay more, but people like their wages to go up and it has to come from somewhere.

That is why pack sizes are smaller, because of consumer resistance to paying more.

I must say I fully agree with you on that - it is the basis of our free market economy, prices go up, wages go up, money goes round. Except these days it seems broken. I was, until fairly recently a meat producer, farming sheep and pigs, and do understand the problem that nobody wants to pay for quality. Or indeed anything at all. What I object to is not smaller businesses raising prices or lowering amounts, its the massive supermarkets that I have a problem with. As I believe I said above. Or maybe I didnt make myself clear. I shall try to be more concise.

[jansman]

Everything has to show a profit. Your meat producing slumped because supermarkets demand cheap products to tempt customers in. In turn those customers come to EXPECT low prices. The 2008 crash was the turning point. That's when folks started ( what I call) bounty hunting. Find a cheap price, then find it cheaper still. For some, if you asked for nothing it would be too expensive!

There's a brutal shock coming.

[shocker]

I think you hit the nail on the proverbial there, Jans

[Hedgie]

We are quite lucky in that our local abattoir (which supplies Sains"") has a shop open to the public - meat there is half the price that Sains sells it for and probably a darn site fresher. We tend to stock up here and bag up accordingly.

Also, our local Budgens has had a closing down sell for the last week - all stock to go and 50% off most items. Needless to say I have been stocking up on Pet Food, Cleaning Products and Wine (£2.50 for a decent Rose - cant be all bad)

[izzy_mack]

I basically have a choice of tescos or lidl because of where i live, to go to any others costs in fuel and time to get there so unless I have a huge shop to do , it wouldn't pay me. I do get to Morrisons or Asda when oh has to go there and i can tag along. I have noticed the price rises and/or shrinking packets and am already adjusting our shopping habits to less "treats" and some things I just can't bring myself to pay the new prices for. Result - probably a better diet of seasonal veg and less chocolate more cheap fruit and less of the exotic types. I already shop as prudently as I can which makes it harder to economise but there are ways and growing more of our own is one of them and no bad thing either, more food security when you are in charge from seed to plate and just think of the exercise and fresh air.

[Deeps]

I basically have a choice of tescos or lidl because of where i live, to go to any others costs in fuel and time to get there so unless I have a huge shop to do , it wouldn't pay me. I do get to Morrisons or Asda when oh has to go there and i can tag along. I have noticed the price rises and/or shrinking packets and am already adjusting our shopping habits to less "treats" and some things I just can't bring myself to pay the new prices for. Result - probably a better diet of seasonal veg and less chocolate more cheap fruit and less of the exotic types. I already shop as prudently as I can which makes it harder to economise but there are ways and growing more of our own is one of them and no bad thing either, more food security when you are in charge from seed to plate and just think of the exercise and fresh air.

This is us too, if we cut out the bevvy we're very frugal on our core shopping and its pretty healthy stuff mostly. I normally toss in a few bits and bobs for the zombie stores but if we're on the poor side (like this week) I keep that to a minimum too. Having the dehydrator helps too, if I have stuff going out of date or whatever it just gets dried and stuck away, I tend to keep an eye out for cheap stuff for the dehydrator too. The allotment helps but we're hardly at the 'Good Life' stage yet, unfortunately.

[shocker]

I am having to try and work on a wheelchair friendly growing space as Im no longer able to till the ground. Luckily we have the only garden on our row and half of its paved so its pallets, hammer and nails and some raised planters as the way forward. That and some old feed sacks for potatos.

Oh, and with the (non mainstream) news about the fukashima leaks and all the dolphin deaths (reached cornwall and devon now) we will be staying away from any pacific sourced fish. Last Aldi visit I saw that the fish fingers were alaskan pollock so they stayed in the shop.

The dehydrator thing is looking more and more like a good idea for us, any advice on budget start up ?