Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

grocerygazette.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 1001 posts

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#81

Post by guerrilla »

illiarian wrote: post #29

Meanwhile in Sweden the CEO of ICA, the largest supermarket chain in the country (53% of the market) said yesterday: "It is actually the consumer who controls what they are prepared to pay for a product. In the end, it is they who decide." https://omni.se/icas-vd-det-ar-kunderna-som-avgor-matpriset/...

Also note that Lidl droppeded its prices and the others came out "predicting" lower prices just hours after Svantesson (finance minister) came out of that meeting with the oligopoly and complained about the lack of competition. I think they got the message, but will it be enough? I doubt it.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#82

Post by 908B64B197 »

noelsusman wrote: post #12

Is this at least partially Brexit related? For comparison, the US has seen food go up by around 10% over the same time period, which is pretty high but also far from 18%. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.t02.htm

It feels Europe is becoming increasingly poor and unsafe, and the situation in the UK has worsened quite a bit since the start of Brexit.

Anecdotally, seems there's a lot of British and European expats here in the Valley and they don't seem too keen on returning. We've been getting a lot of international applicants (but work from home was supposed to mean Europeans could avoid moving to the "dangerous" US but work for American companies?).

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#83

Post by bbayles »

boc wrote: post #35

Demand for food is inelastic, so it makes sense that companies are raising prices as high as possible since people still have to eat. Generally this leads to price competition from other food brands, but when single companies own dozens/hundreds of food brands it’s easy to act like a cartel and keep prices high.

Let's check this empirically. Which cartel-like brands are publicly traded and publish financial reports? We can look at their profit margins next quarter.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#85

Post by mytailorisrich »

illiarian wrote: post #29

Meanwhile in Sweden the CEO of ICA, the largest supermarket chain in the country (53% of the market) said yesterday: "It is actually the consumer who controls what they are prepared to pay for a product. In the end, it is they who decide." https://omni.se/icas-vd-det-ar-kunderna-som-avgor-matpriset/...

There is something called price elasticity of demand, which is how much demand reacts to changes in price.

Here we're discussing food... People have to eat so demand for food, at least staples, does not change much when prices rise as long as people can afford to pay (and by and large currently they can).

It should also be noted that in developed countries the price of food has collapsed as a proportion of people's income over the last 100 years. So the reality is that even if prices double demand will probably not change much apart from some arbitrages (go to cheaper brands/supermarkets, drop in demand of a few luxury items and non food items).

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#88

Post by foxandmouse »

Not related but The price of poultry has gone up significantly in the GTA, and a friend who works for the government informed me that there is an outbreak of bird flu in Ontario that's affecting poultry farms. Unfortunately, farmers can't talk about it due to ag-gag laws.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#89

Post by meerita »

boc wrote: post #35

Demand for food is inelastic, so it makes sense that companies are raising prices as high as possible since people still have to eat. Generally this leads to price competition from other food brands, but when single companies own dozens/hundreds of food brands it’s easy to act like a cartel and keep prices high.

If it owns all brands and they raise the price, then start your own food company offering lower prices, you will turn up the market to you like from day to nite.

Re: UK: Food inflation rises to 18.2% as it hits highest rate in over 45 years

#90

Post by indy »

GalenErso wrote: post #10

As someone who doesn't live in the UK, the impression I get from headlines is that the UK is becoming poorer by the day, the NHS has collapsed, crime is exploding, poverty is rising, most people can't afford anything anymore, the Royal Mail is hanging by a thread, and the economy is in free fall. What's the reality? In London and outside?

Living in London: food is more expensive, there's greater political polarization and it seems like there's a strike every week.

So things are getting noticeably worse but I wouldn't use words like collapse just yet.

Post reply on HN