I'm saving a fortune on my shopping?

nuttyp

Our local shop is a 'nisa' store, the veg is brought in from a local farm so that tends to be fresher and cheaper than the major supermarkets. The price of sweets and other items is set from nisa, they are contracted to be a certain store type. But saying that 8pts of milk is £2 and kingsmill bread is £1.09. Both are cheaper than our major supermarket, along with eggs and sugar. Can only guess why.

Its also nice to pop in your local shop, they always seem to be more friendlier and helpful.

thistledome

cigarsmoker wrote: »

......extract from a report in the Telegraph 3 months ago:

Food inflation rose sharply in 2007 and 2008 as the rising price of oil and a series of poor harvests around the world increased food prices.

The worst hit was wheat, which shot up in price after a catastrophic harvest in Australia and other parts of the world. This in turn pushed up the cost of animal feed, causing milk and meat products to rise in price.
But while consumer prices remain high, wholesale prices have since declined, raising questions about whether supermarkets are boosting their profits at the expense of customers.

Some people seem to have missed the OP's point. He says he is not buying any more than he used to buy, and is also taking advantage of discounts/offers, yet his total spend is going up - not down.

I think the answer lies in the quoted extract above. Prices rose sharply a couple of years ago - it was very noticeable at the time, some of the increases were huge. They don't seem to have come down since then, even though the wholesale prices are now lower (according to that article anyway - anybody know for sure?).

I am extremely tight fisted when I go shopping and very rarely buy anything at full price and I've also noticed my bills are very large compared to 3 or 4 years ago, yet my income has stayed pretty much the same in that time and the saving rates have come down.

Are the supermarkets taking advantage of us or is there some hidden inflation going on?

geordie_joe

cigarsmoker wrote: »

Interesting and valid points Geordie Joe, however what do you make of the extract from a report in the Telegraph 3 months ago:

Hang on and I'll tell you as I read it.

cigarsmoker wrote: »

Fresh figures published this week suggested the wholesale price of basic food essentials, such as bread and butter, have dropped by almost 50 per cent in recent years.

I hate that word "Suggested", when used in that sentence it does not mean anything. Either the price of bread and butter went down 50% or it didn't. The figures would confirm this, not suggest it. People use the word "suggest" when what they are saying is not true, but they want people to believe it without them actually coming out and telling a lie.

cigarsmoker wrote: »

But these declines have not been translated into lower prices on supermarket shelves, with customers paying higher prices.

A year and a half ago, when my local Morrisons opened, they sold their instore baked bread for £1.20 per loaf. Now they sell it for £1 per loaf, a decrease of 20p per loaf. They also sold their own brand bread for 60p per loaf, now they sell it for 47p. These figures do not suggest any thing to me, they confirm without a doubt that the price of morrisons bread has gone down in the last1.5 years.

cigarsmoker wrote: »

Experts criticised supermarkets for being unfair to consumers by raising their prices.

Who are these experts? Newspapers are always quoting experts, but we never know who they are or how they came to the conclusions the newspapers say they came to.

cigarsmoker wrote: »

Lee Woodgate, of the National Farmers Union, said: “It’s an unfair situation that has a real impact on consumers. Supermarkets have unwielding power, which is why we need a regulator.”
Dr Tom MacMillan, executive director of the Food Ethics Council, said: “Supermarkets extract high margins because investors demand it and will go elsewhere if they don’t get it.”

I agree that we need a regulator, but I suspect that if we get one all it will mean is the prices will go up even further. The supermarkets will be forced to pay the farmers more, but that extra will not come out of the supermarkets profits, they will just add it to the price and we will pay for it.

Not long ago a nice person from the Isle of Man explained about milk and meat sales there. Regulated by the milk board, nobody can sell milk for more, or less than 57p per pint. If we had a milk boardhere Iceland might have to increase the cost of their 4 pint bottles from £1.10 to £2.28, hows that for an increase?

cigarsmoker wrote: »

The Government proposes introducing a watchdog to settle disputes between supermarkets and suppliers. But many of the supermarkets have resisted the idea of an ombudsman.

A watchdog would be good, but it would need teeth and the willingness to use them.

cigarsmoker wrote: »

Food inflation rose sharply in 2007 and 2008 as the rising price of oil and a series of poor harvests around the world increased food prices.
The worst hit was wheat, which shot up in price after a catastrophic harvest in Australia and other parts of the world. This in turn pushed up the cost of animal feed, causing milk and meat products to rise in price.
But while consumer prices remain high, wholesale prices have since declined, raising questions about whether supermarkets are boosting their profits at the expense of customers.

I'm sure prices do go up, but I doubt it is as much as the newspapers would have us believe. After all, which headline is more likely to make you buy a newspaper?

"Food prices have not gone up much"
or
"Huge rise in food prices"

cigarsmoker wrote: »

But consumers are now paying £1.22 for a loaf of bread compared to £1.12 two years ago.

I've mentioned the price of bread earlier, but the price of butter is also going down.

Now I will tell you what I think is happening.

Supermarkets have begun focusing more on special offers to attract customers into their stores, rather than just claiming they have lower prices.

To accommodate these special offers they hike up the normal price of the items.

As an example, a fair price for a tin of beans should be 50p. They are sold at 50p per tin, then the supermarkets and manufacturers have a bright idea. They hike up the price to 69p per tin for a while, then they have a special offer of 4 tins for £1.

People, and "the experts" see the normal price of 69p and say the price of beans has gone up, which is true. But if you look at it from the supermarket/manufactures point of view it's different. They have sold X number of tins of beans over a year, some at 69p per tin and some for 25p per tin. But the average selling price over the year is 50p per tin.

The same thing happens with many items, tea bags, bread, beer etc. There hasn't been a single week this year when there hasn't been one brand of "buttery type" spread half price in Morrisons. It's a different brand each month, but there's always one.

As I said, I'm sure prices do creep up, but I doubt it is as much as they would have us believe. I think they only do the calculation based on the artificially high prices, and not the offer prices. If you buy a tin of beans for 69p one week, then the next week they are 4 for £1 and you buy 4 tins, then the next week they go back up to 69p. How much are beans and how much did you pay for them?

At that point beans are 69p, gone up from 50p, so that's a big price rise. But you bought 5 tins and they only cost you (69 + 100)/5 = 33.8 pence each.

The headlines in the papers will say the price of beans has gone up, but the price you paid for them has gone down.

Sorry for the long post

All I can say is, prices these days seem to vary a great deal, they can double over night, but just as easily go down to buy one get two (or even three) free. All you can do is stock up when they are at their lowest, so you don't haveto buy them when they are at their highest.

katieclampet

geordie_joe wrote: »

all I can say is, prices these days seem to vary a great deal, they can double over night, but just as easily go down to buy one get two (or even three) free. All you can do is stock up when they are at their lowest, so you don't haveto buy them when they are at their highest.

That's what I do and save a fortune!

katiex