Barclays warn of coming 'Inflation Storm'

MissMoneypenny

The supermarkets are feeling the pinch too.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/money/consumer_affairs/article4222239.ece

From The Times

June 27, 2008

"Tesco, the country’s biggest retailer, will reduce the price of 3,000 items by up to 50 per cent from Monday in an attempt to win back customers struggling to cope with record petrol prices and energy bills.

Asda has promised to sell ten staple items, including bread, eggs and butter, for only 50p from today as part of a campaign that it claims will win over thousands of shoppers from rivals.

Supermarkets are having to reduce prices despite soaring costs because cash-strapped families are cutting back on their weekly shopping to afford higher electricity and gas charges, motoring expenses and mortgages."

Lotus-eater

Afaik the Asda 50p deal was only on for the weekend, in other words its already finished.

MissMoneypenny

Interesting that that article said about Lidls and Aldi getting more customers from the big supermarkets, as our local Lidl has been heaving recently and I have heard people comment on how cheap the items are there.

Also from that article

"More than a dozen high street chains have been forced into administration, including Dolcis, the shoe store chain. Sales of furniture and home furnishings have collapsed, with John Lewis reporting a sales decline in all but three of its department stores over the past 20 weeks."

" DSG International, the electricals retailer that owns Currys and PC World, said yesterday that it would be pressing ahead with plans to cut an estimated 1,000 jobs after a collapse in profits. John Browett, its chief executive, said: “The market is going to be very tough and challenging.”"

neverdespairgirl

MissMoneypenny wrote: »

Interesting that that article said about Lidls and Aldi getting more customers from the big supermarkets, as our local Lidl has been heaving recently and I have heard people comment on how cheap the items are there.

They aren't so successful everywhere, though. OH has a mate who worked for Lidl in London, and then was sent to Norway. He's just been moved to Brussels as they flogged off their entire Norweigan operation, AIUI.

neverdespairgirl

Conrad wrote: »

scaling back on Waitrose in favour of cheaper outlets, bulk buying things like rice and cereal,

I don't think Waitrose is actually particularly expensive, myself. Depends what you buy.

lostinrates

Lotus-eater wrote: »

Afaik the Asda 50p deal was only on for the weekend, in other words its already finished.

gosh, a shame our economic hardships couldn't be resolved in such a time scale; hardly a long term benefit to customers :rolleyes:

Conrad

!!!!!!? wrote: »

Conspicuous consumption is very much on the way out.

I hope youre correct. A lot of unhappiness derives from comparitive status. Those that have the Audi Q8 and the £2m home cause many of the rest of us to continually strive in order to try and catch up or we feel a failure as we are unable to capture the status tokens these other Lions have ensnared on the plains.

I have to admit I have succumb to this in the past, although I do note these status token gatherers often pay a high price. A Liberal political beast lives near me and we have heard her grown up kids dissapointment from the fact they never saw thier parents. So the parents collected lots of status tokens, but really in the end what does it all mean?

Lotus-eater

Conrad wrote: »

A lot of unhappiness derives from comparitive status. Those that have the Audi Q8 and the £2m home cause many of the rest of us to continually strive in order to try and catch up or we feel a failure as we are unable to capture the status tokens these other Lions have ensnared on the plains.

I know, I covert my neighbours 2 pigs....... and I think I've broken more than one of the ten commandments there. Straight down for me

tradetime

Lotus-eater wrote: »

I know, I covert my neighbours 2 pigs....... and I think I've broken more than one of the ten commandments there. Straight down for me

You're asking for a nasty infection doing that

WTF?_2

Conrad wrote: »

I hope youre correct. A lot of unhappiness derives from comparitive status. Those that have the Audi Q8 and the £2m home cause many of the rest of us to continually strive in order to try and catch up or we feel a failure as we are unable to capture the status tokens these other Lions have ensnared on the plains.

Personally I've never felt the need to 'keep up with the Joneses'. I figured out a good while back that most of the people flashing wealth are in fact not so wealthy and are living off of borrowed cash.

Most of the 'real' well-off sorts are quite conservative and don't go in for ostentatious shows of their 'wealth' - they have nothing to prove.

The way I look at it is why should I put myself into debt trying to 'keep up' with some idiot who has borrowed up to the eyeballs? I get a much better feeling from having a decent amount of cash in the bank and a surplus every month than I would from a shiny new sports car, a ridiculously overpriced FTB slave box and a massive debt to service.

I'd say that I have a material standard of living that's pretty good so emulating some sort of celebrity 'rich and famous' lifestyle seems pointless anyway.