Price increases due to Covid 19 and/or shortages

p00hsticks

hingston said:

ASDA
Been buying this rice once a month for 6 months now. Normally £12 but occasionally I see it for £10. Upped the price to £15 now.

Rice is one of the staples that has seen a huge increase in worldwide demand as a result of coronavirus stockpiling, so it;s not surprising that the price has gone up

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/08/rice-prices-surge-to-7-year-high-as-coronavirus-sparks-stockpiling.html

suki1964

p00hsticks said:

hingston said:

ASDA
Been buying this rice once a month for 6 months now. Normally £12 but occasionally I see it for £10. Upped the price to £15 now.

Rice is one of the staples that has seen a huge increase in worldwide demand as a result of coronavirus stockpiling, so it;s not surprising that the price has gone up

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/08/rice-prices-surge-to-7-year-high-as-coronavirus-sparks-stockpiling.html

So glad I picked up a 5kg sack about two weeks before the schools shut and the panic buying started. Just by chance, I was in a different town, a different supermarket, thought it were a bargain so picked it up

od244051

Regarding paracetamol. In many European countries, you cannot buy paracetamol in a supermarket like we do. They are only available in pharmacies for €2 for 16, Have some family in France and always buy some painkillers when they visiting us and family in the UK

mac.d

I usually pick up the Alpro Soya milk at 99p when I'm in Home Bargains. It was £1.49 yesterday, that's even dearer than the supermarkets.

maman

Disappointed that Waitrose has increased the price of their own brand Essential baked beans. previously 4 tins for £1.10, now 35p a tin with no reduction for multiple purchase. I make that a 27% increase. 

I suspect that this would have happened anyway. I was suspicious once they stopped wrapping them in 4 packs although, at the time, the offers still stood. So they've just slipped the rise in during lockdown when people aren't shopping around. Poor Show Waitrose.

S_uk

I noticed today at my local Asda petrol station that you can now pay for air by contactless if you want. Costs 50p. Paying by cash is still 20p. Think I'll stick with cash thanks!

Steve_L

I have a bad feeling that the fact that your online shopping is more expensive than it was in store may not be because the price has gone up. Shops don't need to increase prices to get more money. .

My online shopping checkout earlier today was a disaster area. If you believed what you saw on screen, then whole sections of the store must be empty. It was interesting that most of the "low margin" items were shown as "out of stock", but all of the "high margin" versions were available.

Of course, some people will buy the cheaper low margin option first, but the question is how much of these are being supplied? It's not in the store's interest to supply enough to meet the demand for these, so as to shift the demand up to the more expensive higher margin option.

But, shopkeepers have probably been doing this since the Sumerian civilisation.

PS. When I logged out and checked the same items, only a couple, which are always rare to find in store, were shown as "out of stock" or "unavailable".

Interesting.

maman

Apparently there is a policy of carrying fewer lines as that makes the supply chain simpler. It's no surprise that the lines they've chosen are the more expensive ones. ☹️

Steve_L

maman said:

Apparently there is a policy of carrying fewer lines as that makes the supply chain simpler. It's no surprise that the lines they've chosen are the more expensive on

I wondered about this too. However, this isn't reflected online if you don't sign in and in store. If what you see on screen is a reflection of what's on the shelves, then whole sections of the store are empty for days on end.

Of course, if you're shopping online, then they know that you won't be able to check the reality on the shelves.

Items are being shown as unavailable online if you sign in to shop online for some other reason.

molerat

Price increases seem to be showing as not so much an increase but not as much of a reduction.  Things like M&Ms £1.50 bag is only reduced to £1.25 against its usual over 50% of the time £1.00.  Flora 500g usually down to £1 but now £1.50.  Many more like that to be seen.