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

platinum87 said:
If you believe that large supermarkets are bleeding the public dry, nothing wrong with having that as a hypothesis or assumption

Your next step would be to look at financial statements from say Tesco, and Sainsburys, and if you do that you will find that, margins have declined, thus gross/net profit is less in 2022 compared to 2021.

And so the answer is no, what you've done is just take an assumption or idea and declare it as fact, the above information i just quickly searched in 2 minutes.

You cannot put caps on food, the result of that will be people stop doing things that are not profitable. You'll go from food being too expensive, to food being scarce.

Its government intervention thats bleeding the public dry, the covid lockdowns and the resultant money printing/furlough schemes, destruction of the economy that have resulted in todays situation.

The biggest problem is the cycle of government intervention causing problems which causes people to want more government intervention because politicians manage to blame someone else, or mostly, the "other" party.
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Poor tescos they only made 753 million profit this year :(
 
Kelt said:
Aldi raspberry conserve jam, was a favourite of mine.

Now it's been watered down so much, that after a few spoonfuls, you can pour it out of the jar. :(

Another product crossed off my list.
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It's still good in the USA, but it's likely made by a different manufacturer that is a lot closer to (my) home.
 
sigma said:
"The UK has the highest food inflation rate in the industrialised world, according to recent data. The LSE researchers calculated the cost of food in the UK had rocketed by 25% since 2019, but this would have been only 17% without post-Brexit trade restrictions, nearly a third lower."

I guess securing our borders and sovereignty (leading to record numbers of migration) comes at a cost eh.
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When Spain had poor weather for tomatoes earlier this year, what few crops they had, they took them to EU countries and not UK due to red tape.
 
I have noticed its very common to keep packaging the old size as well.

Plenty of examples, pot noodles are still the same size, and they even keep the water fill line in the same spot, which if you fill to that point its too much water.

The mini chocolate rolls they removed one, but now is space for one more in the package.

Some yoghurts now have a large empty area.

Its even more amusing when considering people claim packaging is a big part of the cost to try and justify the single person tax on foods.

WKD moved to cans in a remarketing exercise from bottles, the bottles were 275ml, the cans are 250ml.

Crisps are shrinkflating as well.

My previous employer, food production factory of my first job, ex colleagues I do keep in touch with, they are in on it as well, and of course since its cheaper to produce smaller sku's on a per gram basis (despite the claims on here), the factory loves the move. Profit margins have gained nicely.

I do consider shrinkflation better than price increases though, although its sneaky especially when packaging isnt reduced, it prevents further base line cost increases and will help with obesity a little bit when its snack type stuff, crisps, sweets etc. I would rather pay £1 for 90 grams vs £1.10 for 100 grams. (when old price was £1 for 100g).
 
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platinum87 said:
If you believe that large supermarkets are bleeding the public dry, nothing wrong with having that as a hypothesis or assumption

Your next step would be to look at financial statements from say Tesco, and Sainsburys, and if you do that you will find that, margins have declined, thus gross/net profit is less in 2022 compared to 2021.

And so the answer is no, what you've done is just take an assumption or idea and declare it as fact, the above information i just quickly searched in 2 minutes.

You cannot put caps on food, the result of that will be people stop doing things that are not profitable. You'll go from food being too expensive, to food being scarce.

Its government intervention thats bleeding the public dry, the covid lockdowns and the resultant money printing/furlough schemes, destruction of the economy that have resulted in todays situation.

The biggest problem is the cycle of government intervention causing problems which causes people to want more government intervention because politicians manage to blame someone else, or mostly, the "other" party.
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How about you actually go down to the local supermarket? I mean, no disrespect, but you can prove anything using articles from the internet. Get down to the supermarket. The prices are way higher than the media is reporting. And prices in the EU are a lot lower. Now it's true, my data is not all encompassing, there are only a limited number of things I buy every week, but it certainly doesn't align with what the media and the government are telling us.
And no, I don't believe your "hypothesis" either. There have to be some controls, or we end up in a total financial mess. Oh, wait! We are already in one!
 
200sols said:
No, they sold them to the EU because they paid more.
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No, they sold them in the EU because there is lower costs, in part due to Brexit.

The reality is the fruit and veg shortage in the UK had many contributing factors because the food supply chain is actually quite robust so it took many different issues in combination yo have such an effect. The problems start with the energy crisis which meant that norther european countries reduced production over winter in heated greenhouses. Weather was unfavourable in some parts of spain and morroco so their production was down slightly. This created a classic supply-demand issue that had nothing to do with Brexit. But Brexit then had an impact on where the producers would ship the product. Of course they want to maximize profit so reducing logistics costs is critical. Brexit import costs and red-tape had a critical part in reducing the attractiveness of importing in to Britian, especially with the risks of substantial delays which are critical for fresh produce.

There were other factors outside Brexit, one being simple geography that there is added cost and time in shopping to Britian vs european mainland. This makes it more attractive to sell within the EU, but it it also highlights why Britian needs to take every step necessary to reduce any additional costs and red-tape, otherwise there is always a natural disincentive.

So as always, it is never 100% the fault of Brexit. Brexit just increases these effects and interacts more subtly to impact Britian's economics. It is easy to pretend that Brexit is not to blame when you can also pick out other factors, in this case energy crisis and bad weather, but that doesn't mean Brexit doesn't play a part. As the original article aid, without Brexit UK would have faced a 17% increase in vegetable costs, but Brexit pushed that up to 25%.
 
D.P. said:
No, they sold them in the EU because there is lower costs, in part due to Brexit.

The reality is the fruit and veg shortage in the UK had many contributing factors because the food supply chain is actually quite robust so it took many different issues in combination yo have such an effect. The problems start with the energy crisis which meant that norther european countries reduced production over winter in heated greenhouses. Weather was unfavourable in some parts of spain and morroco so their production was down slightly. This created a classic supply-demand issue that had nothing to do with Brexit. But Brexit then had an impact on where the producers would ship the product. Of course they want to maximize profit so reducing logistics costs is critical. Brexit import costs and red-tape had a critical part in reducing the attractiveness of importing in to Britian, especially with the risks of substantial delays which are critical for fresh produce.

There were other factors outside Brexit, one being simple geography that there is added cost and time in shopping to Britian vs european mainland. This makes it more attractive to sell within the EU, but it it also highlights why Britian needs to take every step necessary to reduce any additional costs and red-tape, otherwise there is always a natural disincentive.

So as always, it is never 100% the fault of Brexit. Brexit just increases these effects and interacts more subtly to impact Britian's economics. It is easy to pretend that Brexit is not to blame when you can also pick out other factors, in this case energy crisis and bad weather, but that doesn't mean Brexit doesn't play a part. As the original article aid, without Brexit UK would have faced a 17% increase in vegetable costs, but Brexit pushed that up to 25%.
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Yeah but were british, were happy to pay more for less!!!11!!!1!!!!
 
SpellowHouse said:
How about you actually go down to the local supermarket? I mean, no disrespect, but you can prove anything using articles from the internet. Get down to the supermarket. The prices are way higher than the media is reporting. And prices in the EU are a lot lower. Now it's true, my data is not all encompassing, there are only a limited number of things I buy every week, but it certainly doesn't align with what the media and the government are telling us.
And no, I don't believe your "hypothesis" either. There have to be some controls, or we end up in a total financial mess. Oh, wait! We are already in one!
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I am not reading articles i am reading financial statements, i dont have a clue what the media is reporting.

The price increases you see in stores reflect increases in operating costs and costs of goods, not price gouging.

What dont you understand here exactly, Tesco/Sainsburys are public companies that publish audited financial statements, we can simply have a look and it does not appear to be any profiteering as you suggest.

I absolutely agree there should be controls, and those controls should be placed on the government and the central banks. The mess you describe is caused by covid lockdowns and the creation of new money as the central banks buy government bonds.

Previously inflation was limited to assets, i.e. property and equity, furlough schemes and similar change that, you give money to normal people, instead of rich people essentially.

You can have a look at supermarkets in the soviet union to see how controlled economy and price fixes work out.
 
platinum87 said:
I am not reading articles i am reading financial statements, i dont have a clue what the media is reporting.

The price increases you see in stores reflect increases in operating costs and costs of goods, not price gouging.

What dont you understand here exactly, Tesco/Sainsburys are public companies that publish audited financial statements, we can simply have a look and it does not appear to be any profiteering as you suggest.

I absolutely agree there should be controls, and those controls should be placed on the government and the central banks. The mess you describe is caused by covid lockdowns and the creation of new money as the central banks buy government bonds.

Previously inflation was limited to assets, i.e. property and equity, furlough schemes and similar change that, you give money to normal people, instead of rich people essentially.

You can have a look at supermarkets in the soviet union to see how controlled economy and price fixes work out.
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You haven't read the financial statements close enough. Tesco STILL made £753m last year whilst shifting less volume. How do you shift less volume but make more revenue?
 
dLockers said:
You haven't read the financial statements close enough. Tesco STILL made £753m last year whilst shifting less volume. How do you shift less volume but make more revenue?
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I think what is really going on (and sure, I am not a financial expert) is that their sales have decreased because people are unable to buy as much, so they have had to keep prices high to try to maintain their profit. But this is grossly unfair. I don't know, like I say, I am not an expert, but this situation should be looked in to. Certainly, in store prices seem wildly higher than they should be.
 
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dLockers said:
You haven't read the financial statements close enough. Tesco STILL made £753m last year whilst shifting less volume. How do you shift less volume but make more revenue?
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Sales increased 5% and profits reduced by 50% to £753m. Products are selling for more but they are making less. I don't think the 'greedflation' claims have much merit.
 
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