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

grocerygazette.co.uk

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

#151

Post by hkt »

Yet another sector where investment is low and prices are high.

Over winter tomatoes were in short supply, not because we couldn't grow them, but because the methods of heating greenhouses were too expensive. CO2 heaters use gas in largely uninsulated greenhouses. A bit of creativity (solar thermal with storage supplying radiators) or just modernity (air source heat pumps) would have solved this problem.

Alas, there is little guidance and support. The economic case for fossil fuels continues to weaken and the government does absolutely nothing to support a transition to cleaner sources of fuel which provide shelter from the volatility of energy markets. So we pay instead.

What absolute rot.

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

#152

Post by treeman79 »

londons_explore wrote: post #37
baggy_trough wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some reason they didn't want to cash in before?

Consumers notice price changes. So you don't want to adjust prices unless most of your competitors are also doing so. Therefore you can see prices fixed for years, and then suddenly a sudden flurry of lots of manufacturers all raising prices 50%.

Free market economics means that if absurd profits are being had, then new people coming to the game will offer slightly cheaper prices.

A price were willing occur until surviving companies are making minimal amount of profits.

Related is if someone figures out how to produce the same amount for less effort/cost.

If someone is making absurd profits for long periods, then usually some major factor such as government regulations is preventing new players from entering the market.

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

#153

Post by pc_edwin »

It's perplexing how some are quick to place all blame on "greedy price gouging capitalists" while you have a massive elephant in the room.

As a society, we pride ourselves on being logical yet we ignore the predictable consequences of injecting trillions into the economy amidst heavily damaged supply chains?

I'm not even referring to the downstream consequences such as the extreme fragility leading to blow ups like SVB. Just consider what might happen when you have trillions in new money competing for fewer goods.

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

#154

Post by tom_ »

debacle wrote: post #77
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?

I have a lot of friends in the UK, and my perception 15 years ago was that it was a country in decline. There was a general feeling of malaise, with not many hopeful for the future. Has only gotten worse, it seems.

2008 was probably not the best time to ask that question - and it's probably not the best time to ask it now either. (Unless you want a negative, doom-laden answer, in which case you got lucky both times!)

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

#155

Post by cscurmudgeon »

clnq wrote: post #47
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/...

In an ironic way, the consumers decided to leave the EU and expose the UK to higher inflation. Though much of the world has been seeing severe inflation at this time, it would have probably been better if the UK had access to a broader food market.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1286407/eu-food-inflatio...

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

#156

Post by kderbyma »

andy_ppp wrote: post #137

I cannot believe supermarkets these days, it is insane the increases in prices, I’ve seen £5 for a tube of normal toothpaste and £6 for a tiny Pizza that is sometimes available for £3. How people on modest salaries survive I don’t know. Quite often I’m starting to notice dark patterns in pricing where things you normally didn’t worry about will have randomly increased by £2-3 and you get the checkout and you’ve spent…

most definitely. the wealthy are parasites beyond 1-2 magnitude of difference.

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

#157

Post by dukeyukey »

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

_Probably_, but German food inflation is running about 22%, and the UK is pretty comparable with most of Europe, so Brexit is probably a minor effect at best.

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

#159

Post by johndunne »

crop_rotation wrote: post #31

The UK politics seems like a separate level of dysfunction. It seems like all the worst decisions being made together. For some reason people voted for Brexit. The PM who was the chief Brexit Campaigner (Boris Johnson) had to resign because of entirely avoidable mistakes. The next PM had to resign too soon due to trying to bring policies which were not well thought out. The current PM had to be annointed since it did…

You’re spot on calling uk politics a separate level of dysfunctional. It feels like we’re stuck with a shower of gobshites for a while! Exporting immigrants to Africa is a particularly shambolic/shameful recent effort. And don’t mention ‘the Brexit’ - I’m not saying it’s the only reason but it’s certainly a huge pain point on many fronts. I think UK politics is at a rock bottom at present but hopefully it’ll spur enough of us on to hold our representatives to a a higher standard…
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