Butter - the great scam continues

Steve059

A._Badger wrote: »

<snip> Once again, I find myself astonished by the complacency of posters who inhabit a forum on 'Money Saving Expert' then act as if excessive price rises are nothing to be concerned about.

We aren't complacent. We are concerned. However, we develop strategies to deal with problems like this.

There was a big increase in the price of butter some years ago. I started to only use it when there was absolutely no alternative. I have therefore only bought a few packs in the meantime.

I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see the ASDA own brand unsalted and salted at £1.00 (and the ASDA SmartPrice salted, and Tesco EV unsalted and salted at 98p).

antrobus

A._Badger wrote: »

Another poster to whom it seems to come as a constant surprise that consumers complain about beyond inflation price rises on a money saving website.

On the contrary, it comes as no surprise to me whatsoever. I have learnt that there are certain things that are a constant here in MSEland; there is always a thread about disabled parking; there is always a thread about postage costs on eBay; and there is always a thread about the price of butter.:)

Steve059 wrote: »

....I was therefore pleasantly surprised to see the ASDA own brand unsalted and salted at £1.00 (and the ASDA SmartPrice salted, and Tesco EV unsalted and salted at 98p).

And some of us have worked out that since ASDA SmartPrice and Tesco EV are comparable, ASDA price match will give you another 10% off that, making it 89p or so for 250g of butter, or £3528 per tonne, which isn't that much of a margin over the £3450/tonne wholesale price.

A._Badger

antrobus wrote: »

On the contrary, it comes as no surprise to me whatsoever. I have learnt that there are certain things that are a constant here in MSEland; there is always a thread about disabled parking; there is always a thread about postage costs on eBay; and there is always a thread about the price of butter.:)



And some of us have worked out that since ASDA SmartPrice and Tesco EV are comparable, ASDA price match will give you another 10% off that, making it 89p or so for 250g of butter, or £3528 per tonne, which isn't that much of a margin over the £3450/tonne wholesale price.

Which assumes that Asda actually pays the notional wholesale price (and I bet it doesn't!). It also shows how those.supermarkets which are ramping the prices up by 10 or 15 pence every few weeks in an apparent bid to establish £2 a pack or thereabouts are overcharging. .

prowla

I just buy less butter.
And I've given up having it on bread.

antrobus

A._Badger wrote: »

Which assumes that Asda actually pays the notional wholesale price (and I bet it doesn't!).

No, that doesn't assume anything. It's a comparison.

A._Badger wrote: »

It also shows how those.supermarkets which are ramping the prices up by 10 or 15 pence every few weeks in an apparent bid to establish £2 a pack or thereabouts are overcharging. .

According to mySupermarket, the current 98p price tag for ASDA Smartprice butter compares to an average price over the last year of 99p and a highest price of 119p. Similarly ASDA sells Anchor butter for £1.60, compared to an average price over the last year of 153p and a highest price of 170p. I don't see any evidence of supermarkets "ramping the prices up by 10 or 15 pence every few weeks".

I just wouldn't buy my butter in Budgens.:)

Callie22

Nada666 wrote: »

But how long has butter been about £1.75? A 13% increase is not beyond 3% annual inflation after a very few years.

I found a Sainsbury's receipt in an old bag the other day and it was from early 2008. The block of own brand unsalted butter was about 60p - and that was from an 'express' store, so it wouldn't have been the cheapest. Butter has risen incredibly over the past few years.

Having said that though, I wouldn't call Anchor a luxury butter, to me it always tastes slightly rancid. Give me some nice creamy stuff with sea-salt crystals any day.

A._Badger

antrobus wrote: »

No, that doesn't assume anything. It's a comparison.

No. What you wrote was: "And some of us have worked out that since ASDA SmartPrice and Tesco EV are comparable, ASDA price match will give you another 10% off that, making it 89p or so for 250g of butter, or £3528 per tonne, which isn't that much of a margin over the £3450/tonne wholesale price." which is indeed an assumption.

You are suggesting a margin based on companies having paid that wholesale price. As you cannot know what they actually paid, that is an assumption. The 'big four' are very unlikely to pay the notional wholesale price for anything.

Meanwhile, back in reality, today the OECD declared that Britain has the highest food and energy inflation in Europe:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/10098624/Britain-has-highest-food-and-energy-inflation-in-Europe-OECD-says.html

The figure quoted is 4.6% which is less than the rate at which butter has been being ramped by the supermarkets and dairy near-monopolies.

And what does the Telegraph's article suggest underlies the inflationary pressure in Britain?

"Economists said UK consumers may be suffering from the low pound but also less competition than other markets.

"Ross Walker, chief economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, said: "The concentration of the big four supermarkets in the UK must given them pricing power."" (sic)

Mr Walker seems to have a gift for understatement.

kookai9

President Butter 250G 2 for £2.00 @ Tesco from tomorrow
Thanks nicster08

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Anchor Butter, 2 for £2.50 at Waitrose. Stock up now.

http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/shopping/findproducts.aspx?query=anchor%20butter&store=Waitrose

[Deleted User]

as someone who bakes almost daily for my family (my grandsons can eat for England ) I use a big 1 kilo tub of Stork margarine for baking at £2.00 a box, this is excellant for biscuits cakes etc and when I make pastry I use half marg half cookeen to make the pastry.I only ever use butter to cook with if I am making shortbread (not often unless its block and on offer)When I see a good offer on block butter I will buy and freeze it.To spread on my daily morning bit of toast I prefer Lurpak lighter which is a little dear than the bright yellow Anchor but its what I personally prefer.If I am making a sarnie I only butter one slice of the bread anyway especially if its a salad sandwich with mayo in.One of my grandsons never eats butter or marg on his bread but in a sandwich will have tomato ketchup insyead to moisten it a bit