Are you fed up with stealthy increases in food prices?

MummyHol

Juts read that back and it sounds like i'm having a go, i'm not! Just having a rant

trisontana

MummyHol wrote: »

As far as i'm concerned there could be a million and 1 reasons for rising costs but it doesn't make it any easier to accept that i can barely afford to feed my family, pay for gas, electric and diesel (which i believe costs have gone up 20% for) and have anything left over to throw my son a small party for his 1st birthday next week! In fact i think the vast majority of the UK would agree with me!

And in response to waiting a year for wage increase to catch up with cost of living increases, this years 2.5% wage increase doesn't even cover last years rise in cost of living expenses, so its not really working is it?

Going back to the original subject of this thread, you cannot lay the blame for these price-rises at the door of the supermarkets.

MummyHol

Point taken- like i said i'm just having a rant.

I'm still annoyed with the prices for essential items in supermarkets (i think i heard earlier that av. bread price is up by 20% this year) and the tricks they use to ensure we spend more (for example having multibuys in certain items, but not pricing up larger packs so you don't realise its cheaper to buy the pack not the multibuy offer- hope that reads ok?!) I think its really underhand to do that.

RadoJo

I know what you mean MummyHol, but the supermarkets' job isn't to get you the best deal, it's to get them the best deal. Canny consumers can spot the tricks and aren't fooled by them, and those who take little interest in these things pay over the odds. People spend a huge amount of money on all kinds of things that I consider a rip-off, but they obviously think it's a fair price or they wouldn't pay it.

trisontana

I read somewhere that something like 30% of all food bought by people is thrown away because they buy too much. I suppose this could be blamed on slick marketing methods by the supermarkets. To counteract that, never go food shopping when you are hungry, always make a list and stick to it, and no impulse buying!

souwesterly

We’ve all been enjoying the benefits of a strong economy and competitive supermarkets, but the crunch is now coming.

As other have posted and noted, the whole world is running seriously low on food – for various different reasons. More use of grain to make bio-fuel……poor harvests in large-producing countries (China, Australia, etc) …..an ever-increasing world population…..a change in the world’s climatic conditions, etc, etc.

And now the squeeze is happening. Major exporters have stopped exporting; fuel price rises are biting….and share-holders are still wanting their profits.

So guess who’s going to pay? Yes – us, the consumers.

But we should count ourselves lucky that we still have full shelves. We should count ourselves lucky that we still have virtually full employment. We should be grateful for the Welfare system which prevents our unfortunate unemployed from starving.

If this was Pakistan, Haiti, Egypt or one of many other countries where the crunch has already arrived, we’d be rioting……because we’d almost ALL be starving.

Be grateful that we’re British – and stop moaning about having to spend a bit more to keep up your waistline.
Buy less; eat less; get healthy.
And if the price rises mean that you’ll be a bit short of spending money this month, then think of those who have nothing to spend – and nothing to eat either.

cheapscate

If we can't have a moan here then what is the point of the consumer vent board?

souwesterly

Oops – sorry! Just KNEW I’d wind someone up!!!

But I just had to say something!!

Of course you can have a moan, cheapscate…..it was just that I couldn’t help feeling that people weren’t looking beyond their own pockets and shops.

I moan like hell about the prices but it was just that some of the comments posted gave me the feeling that they only blamed the ‘greedy’ supermarkets and such – rather than seeing the whole picture.

So I feel that if there’s a moan to be raised on this subject then I think it should be directed at the world population as a whole rather than the producers and suppliers.

souwesterly

This morning I did my early-morning wander through the world's new items and was immediately met by the following (very topical) comment:
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Walkers_World_What_food_crisis_999.html
That immediately led me to:
http://www.upi.com/International_Security/Emerging_Threats/Analysis/2008/04/16/walkers_world_frances
which is rather similar.
If you've got a few minutes then they're both somewhat sobering reports.