‘Golden era’ of cheap food is ending, says ex-Sainsbury’s boss

JJC1956

rhcp said:

Peas have gone down in price as well.  A 1kg pack of frozen peas used to be about £1, now they are around 55p.

Yes but tinned Marrowfat Peas in Sainsburys are now 65p for a small tin, massive increase.

JJC1956

Do you buy bags of carrots? Loose carrots much cheaper, just a shame the major supermarkets don’t sell many items of  veg loose such as Green Beans, Fresh Peas, Mange Tout, Sugar Snaps etc
I bought 3 loose Red Onions in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago, cost 30p, 3 Red Onions pre packed cost 90p, doesn’t make sense.

Rosa_Damascena

PennyForThem_2 said:

Cooking knowledge is crucial.  A kilo of carrots is useless/wasted if you do not know how to cook it into a meal.

I disagree. A peeler and some basic knife skills and my 1kg of carrots provides enough fridge-ready snacks I  for a week. 

GaleSF63

Tesco loose brown onions or one kg bag, 85p per kilo. Pack of 3 brown onions £2.34 per kilo. Doesn't make sense does it? Are they hoping that at least some people will not notice the difference in price and prefer the pack? They are probably right. There are always people who are focussed more on what they need (in a hurry or don't like shopping, for example) than the price of said item. A sneaky bit of increased profit. 

Thrugelmir

MattMattMattUK said:

rhcp said:

I doubt it will be the end to the golden era of Sainsbury's profits.  All these companies seem to do well out of the cost of living crisis.

The supermarkets make fairly small margins, especially on food, the reason the headline profits figure of "billions" sounds large is because of the scale of their operations. The thing is, if they made zero profit food bills would only reduce by a few percent at most.

Sainsbury's overall profit margin is around 2%. 

tastyhog

JJC1956 said:

Do you buy bags of carrots? Loose carrots much cheaper, just a shame the major supermarkets don’t sell many items of  veg loose such as Green Beans, Fresh Peas, Mange Tout, Sugar Snaps etc
I bought 3 loose Red Onions in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago, cost 30p, 3 Red Onions pre packed cost 90p, doesn’t make sense.

And a kilo of red onions is 50p

jon81uk

GaleSF63 said:

Tesco loose brown onions or one kg bag, 85p per kilo. Pack of 3 brown onions £2.34 per kilo. Doesn't make sense does it? Are they hoping that at least some people will not notice the difference in price and prefer the pack?

The three pack is large onions, they seperate off the ones of big enough size and charge a premium for it. If you aren't fussed about that then buy the standard loose ones. Yes some won't notice, but some people may be willing to pay the premium for the size difference.

JJC1956 said:

Do you buy bags of carrots? Loose carrots much cheaper, just a shame the major supermarkets don’t sell many items of  veg loose such as Green Beans, Fresh Peas, Mange Tout, Sugar Snaps etc
I bought 3 loose Red Onions in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago, cost 30p, 3 Red Onions pre packed cost 90p, doesn’t make sense.

At Tesco carrots are the same price bagged and loose. 40p per kilo.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/305953125
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254638565

With the onions its as above, the three-pack are large onions, a sifferent product. standard red onions at Sainsbury's are £1 a kilo both bagged and loose (well the loose are actually on offer at 90p right now but usually £1.
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-red-onions-1kg
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-red-onions-loose
But the larger size onions are hugely more expensive at £2.47 a kilo
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-large-red-onions-x3
The large ones aren't worth a premium in my opinion, just buy an extra one, but maybe if you have a specific use for large ones then people do pay.

In terms of bagged beans, mangetout etc I think the wastage from them being damaged when loose might be too high, generally the pack sizes are fine for two people though, I've never thought of it as a problem really as the pack sizes are so small. Its not like potatoes where I am forced to buy 2.5kg when I only need four potatoes.

JJC1956

jon81uk said:

GaleSF63 said:

Tesco loose brown onions or one kg bag, 85p per kilo. Pack of 3 brown onions £2.34 per kilo. Doesn't make sense does it? Are they hoping that at least some people will not notice the difference in price and prefer the pack?

The three pack is large onions, they seperate off the ones of big enough size and charge a premium for it. If you aren't fussed about that then buy the standard loose ones. Yes some won't notice, but some people may be willing to pay the premium for the size difference.

JJC1956 said:

Do you buy bags of carrots? Loose carrots much cheaper, just a shame the major supermarkets don’t sell many items of  veg loose such as Green Beans, Fresh Peas, Mange Tout, Sugar Snaps etc
I bought 3 loose Red Onions in Sainsburys a couple of weeks ago, cost 30p, 3 Red Onions pre packed cost 90p, doesn’t make sense.

At Tesco carrots are the same price bagged and loose. 40p per kilo.
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/305953125
https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/254638565

With the onions its as above, the three-pack are large onions, a sifferent product. standard red onions at Sainsbury's are £1 a kilo both bagged and loose (well the loose are actually on offer at 90p right now but usually £1.
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-red-onions-1kg
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-red-onions-loose
But the larger size onions are hugely more expensive at £2.47 a kilo
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/sainsburys-large-red-onions-x3
The large ones aren't worth a premium in my opinion, just buy an extra one, but maybe if you have a specific use for large ones then people do pay.

In terms of bagged beans, mange tout etc I think the wastage from them being damaged when loose might be too high, generally the pack sizes are fine for two people though, I've never though of it as a problem really as the pack sizes are so small. Its not like potatoes where I am forced to buy 2.5kg when I only need four potatoes.

I have started buying loose Jacket Potatoes and where possible Loose Jerseys or similar, 2.5kg is just going to sit in my fridge for 2 weeks or more.
Problem I find with buying 1kg bags of carrots is i probably end up throwing some away, so as I am quite near a number of Supermarkets I have started shopping 2 or 3 times a week but obviously that doesn’t suit everybody.

I have just been to my local Sainsbury's this morning, no walk through aisles open, very few self-service open, one of the assistants told me they are replacing ALL of the walk through aisles with self-service, I predict chaos or loss of custom with people that drive, as they will just drive somewhere else.

A._Badger

Thrugelmir said:

MattMattMattUK said:

rhcp said:

I doubt it will be the end to the golden era of Sainsbury's profits.  All these companies seem to do well out of the cost of living crisis.

The supermarkets make fairly small margins, especially on food, the reason the headline profits figure of "billions" sounds large is because of the scale of their operations. The thing is, if they made zero profit food bills would only reduce by a few percent at most.

Sainsbury's overall profit margin is around 2%. 

And yet still Aldi and Lidl manage to undercut them very considerably. Which, if nothing else, shows how unreliable a guide are published profit figures.  

JJC1956

A._Badger said:

Thrugelmir said:

MattMattMattUK said:

rhcp said:

I doubt it will be the end to the golden era of Sainsbury's profits.  All these companies seem to do well out of the cost of living crisis.

The supermarkets make fairly small margins, especially on food, the reason the headline profits figure of "billions" sounds large is because of the scale of their operations. The thing is, if they made zero profit food bills would only reduce by a few percent at most.

Sainsbury's overall profit margin is around 2%. 

And yet still Aldi and Lidl manage to undercut them very considerably. Which, if nothing else, shows how unreliable a guide are published profit figures.  

Yep, totally agree, driving around in a Fiat Uno and making 2% profit isn’t quite the same as driving around in a Rolls Royce making 2% profit