We are fortunate to have a vegetable garden and hens, so we don't buy eggs or many vegetables. However, I have noticed the price of some produce, and meat, and dairy products have gone up. (Do we need to get a milk cow? My husband rolls his eyes at the idea, imagining me knitting a shawl for Bossy when the weather turns cold.) Have grocery prices risen in your area? If so, what specifically has risen, and a guess as to how much. This is not a scientific poll, just curious.
There's just two of us in this house. I have an Open Office running spreadsheet, categorising my credit card spending, i.e. petrol, car, clothes, meals out, sundries, garden, house etc., and "shopping." Today, I did the usual week's shopping. Waitrose, (just meat, but it'll last a week and a half). £52.41 Asda.£90.88 Sainsbury's, (for what I couldn't get in Asda) £21.60. During the the last ten months, I've spent £5,776 on "shopping," that's not just food, it includes some household consumable stuff, like toilet rolls, kitchen rolls, tissues etc., anything like that you can buy in a superstore. But not including replacement equipment. At the beginning of the year I was spending about £500 a month, but for the last few months it's averaged just over £600. This does not include what my wife buys direct from places like Donald Russell etc., that averages about £100 a month.In general, I'd say pretty much everything has increased in price. I'm not that bothered, as long as my projected financial situation shows that I'll have had a bit more coming in than going out, by the end of the year.
Cor, our groceries usually cost about £200 - £250 per month from Tesco. That includes everything - lavvy rolls and soap and bin bags and stuff. Some of the individual items have risen in price, but the shopping list is better organised lately. Since the pandemic started we have it all delivered, which cuts out all the impulse buys. When we used to go to the supermarket in person (s) I had trouble with Zigs - he was always hassling me - ''Mu um can I have sweets?'' ''Mu um, I like dis chocolate, AND dis sherbert fountain.'' The check out staff thought it was funny, and seemed to enjoy my constant pain. Now he has to grow stuff - or never mind sweeties - no dinner
Even though I do not have to worry about prices,,,I was raised to be thrifty ! Still am ! I hate to pay regular prices for most things ! Overall I guess the prices here have risen by at least 25 to 30% ! May be more for some things but that is an overall guess!
Prices are higher here as well. In fact, tonight on the news they were reporting on that very subject, but I was processing the beans at the time and did not hear the particulars. Oh, if I had only paid more attention.
Yes, prices on some items have gone up but because I maintain an adequate stored supply, recent increases are absorbed in the yearly averages. Purchasing in quantity has its advantages. If prices remain high, yes, the average goes up. It takes awhile to be noticed. For now the rising prices are a minor concern. Jerry
Prices have really gone up here because of stupidity - like farmers can harvest their produce but transporters are not allowed to cross borders resulting in tons of veggies rotting away. Like wise for fish too! Most farmers are concentrated in the high lands. I have not had leeks for almost half a year now and really do wish I can grow them by myself. The stupid people had relaxed the ruling of no border crossing for transporters but the damaged is already done. Price of eggs is up by 25% Beef dare not look at the price Pork have to eat - up by about 10~15% Chicken remain stable, many chicken farms here in my state. Fish up by 15~25% Veggies mainly from my mini farm and have added new 2 new types of veggies - luffa shoots and bitter gourd leaves. Leeks availability is almost non existence Broccoli up by 20~30% and are100% imported. My blood is almost boiling so I guess I'll better stop here. Oh those STUPID people!!!
Pricing has always been a bit of a nonsense. The big stores have price bands. Two stores in different locations can sell the same products at different prices. The price band is dictated by location and competition and probably to an extent recently, by availability. A store in Maidenhead will likely be on a higher price band than one in Middlesbrough. Likewise, a store with a major competitor "next door" would be on a lower band. The stores buy centrally. They have buyers for different catogories of the products they sell. Each buyer is given a target gross profit for his/her products. (Bonuses depend on it). Never mind, "pile it high, sell it cheap," the expected overall GP will be well in excess of 30%. Four-weekly promotional prices are decided by a different department, but the buyer still is expected to achieve their overall target GP. They really don't want to sell much at a lower price, that's why these days stores often run out of advertised lines that are supposed to be on promotion at a lower price. This always caused conflict "back in the day" when general store managers like myself had a lot more autonomy. At the monthly meeting with the buyers when the promotions were announced, we'd order pallet loads if we knew we could sell them. The buyers would try to resist, but were always outgunned Now, managers have no imput, so the buyers just send a few cases. Our bonuses depended on the amount of profit we made in excess of the running costs of the store and our portion of the head office costs. What percentage it was didn't matter. Because everything is computer controlled, it's easy to change a lot of prices every week. So buyers are able to do a bit of "juggling." When I was working, I had two full time girls whose job was changing prices and checking that the shelf edge labels matched those in the computer. The system was, that they'd go out and do all the "ups," putting in the new price shelf edge tickets, before activating the change in the computer. Then insert the "downs" tickets. No one would complain if they got something at a lower price before the change up was activated. So no Trading Standards infringements.They'd then scan the lot, an aisle at a time, to make sure there weren't any mistakes. But sometimes the difference in prices between stores can be huge, though the total cost of a "trolley load" could be very similar. As an example we buy Kleenex "ultra soft" tissues, it's a little square box, we get through several boxes a week. They are £1 in Asda and £2 in Sainsbury's. Asda Honeydew melons last week were £1.95, they were 99p in Sainsbury's. Work out the logic there.
Not able to spend as much as usual at the moment. We are still ordering groceries online, and much of the usual list is simply ''not available'' There seems to be a shortage of truck drivers, and there's seemingly still a bit of bickering going on because we left the EU. It won't hurt us to go without some items anyway, we all tend to take far too much for granted. Another jolly good reason to garden
KK NG, how very difficult for you. Thank heavens you have your home garden. Odif, there should be more people like you--not raising prices just because they can, but holding firm and thinking of others. Tetters, we do take too much for granted, getting upset because our favorite brand of something isn't available. Not being able to get an out-of-season vegetable or fruit, too bad! That is a jolly good reason to garden and freeze and can, and share.
Odif—No mate...that’s not stupid. I would do the same thing. Look, I have seen your veg— it is good stuff and you can make your customers very happy and not bankrupt them. What Jane said.
things cost more here than they used to also. I heard at the beginning of the season several of the large growers who supply bushels of beans for the produce auction simply quit this year. they never get enough money for them to cover their costs so they eliminated the loss. that means EVERYBODY is now paying more simply because there are fewer of them available. what makes me the most disgusted is the large grocery store chains who would buy them for far less than they were worth and NEVER pass that savings along. now they aren't available. the neighbor who grows 10 acres of produce had to contract for tomatoes this year at 3.49 a pound. here that is an enormous amount of money for wholesale prices. That said this is the first year we have ever raised our prices, my costs have also gone up. I had several people say they couldn't believe I sold them so cheap before... My beans didn't do the best this year but I didn't mind. they are a lot of work to pick weigh and bag for the markets. other than tomatoes going up by 1.00 my prices pretty much stayed the same but I have sold far more than ever before at the farmers markets. I rarely go to the grocery store so I honestly wouldn't notice I think.
