Cost of Living - Shrinkflation is speeding up at an alarming rate

SpellowHouse said:
I know the supermarkets are doing this. I have been buying food in Europe recently, and prices are falling there. In some cases, I have noticed as much as a 15% fall in some goods that has not happened in the UK.
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UK supermarkets have long term supplier/farmer fixed contracts to 'protect' consumer, which can be good & bad, whereas french/europeans pay the varying market/production rate.
(kinda like the Octopus Agile energy contracts)

....

with us paying less for food than many european countries, I'd like to know the segment where we spend more money - fast food , phones, cars ???,
or, since we are relatively poorer, maybe we have less money to spend.

If the government finds the petrol stations had been taking a higher margin post-covid - I don't wholly disagree with that, to make up some lost revenue.
 
jpaul said:
with us paying less for food than many european countries, I'd like to know the segment where we spend more money - fast food , phones, cars ???,
or, since we are relatively poorer, maybe we have less money to spend.
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Housing costs on one side and poor wages on the other
 
Just had a placement at a major UK supermarket buying department; contracts arnt long lead at all , they are near constantly trying to be changed by either party due to costs. Supermarket has minimum 5% gross profit margin and if that is threatened the tense disacussions start. Do note the reduction in ranges in a supermarket are for that reason - suppliers dont want to pay increasingly extra for mod location and advertising. Transportation are now being tied into the contracts , using only the branded hub/spoke lorries (and not their own) - looking at you warburtons who left tesco for that reason (and others)
 
Freakbro said:
Housing costs on one side and poor wages on the other
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Housing costs are ridiculous.

Rents round here have incread by more since the pandemic than they did in the preceding 10 years. They're up around 35% in three years! House prices are up around 25-30% (which, with current interest rates, means buying is bonkers expensive compared to a few years ago).

And that's just in some small undesirable town in the northern half of the Midlands :cry:
 
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McPhee said:
Housing costs are ridiculous.

Rents round here have incread by more since the pandemic than they did in the preceding 10 years. They're up around 35% in three years! House prices are up around 25-30% (which, with current interest rates, means buying is bonkers expensive compared to a few years ago).

And that's just in some small undesirable town in the northern half of the Midlands :cry:
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Whats the average rent for a 2 bed house?
 
Harlequin said:
Just had a placement at a major UK supermarket buying department; contracts arnt long lead at all , they are near constantly trying to be changed by either party due to costs.
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for what kind of products perishable ? or store-cupboard , ... milk/veg/eggs supposedly have many long term fixed contracts
 
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jpaul said:
for what kind of products perishable ? or store-cupboard , ... milk/veg/eggs supposedly have many long term fixed contracts
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Its everything - take eggs for example. The shortage is down to cost inflation, and its a cost increase the retailers arn`t wanting to do , so theres a shortage of uk eggs. Sainsburys are buying in from Italy as importing is cheaper right now
 
Harlequin said:
Its everything - take eggs for example. The shortage is down to cost inflation, and its a cost increase the retailers arn`t wanting to do , so theres a shortage of uk eggs. Sainsburys are buying in from Italy as importing is cheaper right now
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Yup Tescos have had hardly any eggs for ages, and the few they have are expensive, but there is no shortage of eggs, there are a lot of egg farmers around here have tons of them cheaper than Tesco, you get a discount bringing the boxes back to be re used, as it should be.
 
More farm shops should be set up. They could probably undercut the supermarkets on many goods right now.

My small, local shop has a number of things cheaper than the supermarkets at the moment.
 
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BUDFORCE said:
Yup Tescos have had hardly any eggs for ages, and the few they have are expensive, but there is no shortage of eggs, there are a lot of egg farmers around here have tons of them cheaper than Tesco, you get a discount bringing the boxes back to be re used, as it should be.
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Its that 5% gross margin , Tesco wont dare break it. So customers suffer with reduced availability (but as you said product is available)
 
Nasher said:
More farm shops should be set up. They could probably undercut the supermarkets on many goods right now.
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They are, literally.

I live in the middle of nowhere in Cambridgeshire fens and we started shifting away from supermarkets more recently.

Potatos, onions, eggs all cheaper. Use the butcher more and more for meat. Use eBay to bulk buy things like dishwasher tablets.

I still go Tesco as it's convenient for lots of things but the cost of everything has gone up I reckon about 50% in the space of a couple of years.
 
BUDFORCE said:
They are, literally.

I live in the middle of nowhere in Cambridgeshire fens and we started shifting away from supermarkets more recently.

Potatos, onions, eggs all cheaper. Use the butcher more and more for meat. Use eBay to bulk buy things like dishwasher tablets.

I still go Tesco as it's convenient for lots of things but the cost of everything has gone up I reckon about 50% in the space of a couple of years.
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If you read The Grocer (retail media) , food inflation is above 20%
 
Some people have no financial priorities or unable to budget.

A family a few doors away had a Sainsbury’s Just Eat delivery. My friend who works at Sainsburys with a JE says an order for £25 probably costs £18 in the store. Then have takeaways most days.

Served the mother yesterday and asked me to stop close to £10 as has nothing. Then had to void off something so she could get a bag!

Stop having takeaways. Stop having groceries delivered by JE and its cousins. Reuse bags.
 
Nasher said:
More farm shops should be set up. They could probably undercut the supermarkets on many goods right now.

My small, local shop has a number of things cheaper than the supermarkets at the moment.
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Some farm shops are expensive. Took a TooGoodToGo bag (an app to get food which would normally gets wasted for a few quid) from one a few months ago. There were some cheese scones in them (bloody marvellous) and on the bag it said £1.75 each. I wouldn’t pay that for one.
 
yes I don't know where these cheap farm eggs are in Cambridgeshire - two local farmers £1.40 , £1.50 half dozen -
they are free range (wander along the road - but they can't fix the pot-holes) but more expensive than Aldi rspca free-range assured, but do make a better omelette, JS organic which are nice too, more than £2.

Harlequin said:
Its everything - take eggs for example. The shortage is down to cost inflation, and its a cost increase the retailers arn`t wanting to do , so theres a shortage of uk eggs. Sainsburys are buying in from Italy as importing is cheaper right now
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but because the supermarkets weren't prepared to pay uk egg suppliers more (and increase consumer price), they went out of business, so supply was reduced with need to source from abroad, a vicious circle;
if they had paid supplier more from the outset prices would now be lower.
 
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