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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

#301

Post by dangwhy »

martinald wrote: post #182
samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

Assets are deflating at the moment though. S&P500 is down, property prices are down, etc. Asset prices are highly inversely correlated to interest rates, so for a 'rich' person you are actually much better off without inflation, as interest rates are lower and asset prices rise faster.

> Asset prices are highly inversely correlated to interest rates

I present you the US housing market.

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

#302

Post by gampleman »

tacker2000 wrote: post #204
samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

You are talking like inflation is some conspiracy wielded by “the rich” (who are they? Are they all friends with each other and plan all their schemes together?) against the “others”. Fact is the inflation we are seeing here is caused by the after effects of Covid, the Energy price surges caused by the Ukraine war and in the special case of UK - Brexit, which has lead to huge import shortages due to increased bureauc…

I find it fairly unlikely that the rich in the UK don't actually know each other. The UK probably has the most developed class divide of most western countries, so in-class socialisation is a pretty big deal around here.

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

#303

Post by zhte415 »

robjan wrote: post #192
martinald wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Assets are deflating at the moment though. S&P500 is down, property prices are down, etc. Asset prices are highly inversely correlated to interest rates, so for a 'rich' person you are actually much better off without inflation, as interest rates are lower and asset prices rise faster.

[deleted]

The interest rate is the discount facter. Low asset prices may not be equivalently low.

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

#304

Post by trwhite »

tacker2000 wrote: post #204
samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

You are talking like inflation is some conspiracy wielded by “the rich” (who are they? Are they all friends with each other and plan all their schemes together?) against the “others”. Fact is the inflation we are seeing here is caused by the after effects of Covid, the Energy price surges caused by the Ukraine war and in the special case of UK - Brexit, which has lead to huge import shortages due to increased bureauc…

I think it's in Hackers & Painters that Paul Graham talks about the commonly held view that wealth is like a pie, that one group of people having more somehow means others must have less. He's also immensely wealthy, so I take what he says with a pinch of salt

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

#305

Post by rajin444 »

lifty wrote: post #228
samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

Tell that to the economists, who predominantly say that inflation helps the poor, supposedly because they have loans.

Do those loans have interest on them? Many major religions banned usury because it’s primarily a way for the haves to keep from the have nots.

The alternative where the rich are sitting on piles of money because they can’t profit off loaning would quickly make apparent how they’re leaching off the labor of the people.

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

#306

Post by pjc50 »

hattmall wrote: post #245
dboreham wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also many people don't pay attention to how much food costs, at the point of purchase. It's all things that have low numbers that add up. e.g. when asked, nobody knows the price of a pint of milk.

A pint? I mean no, but that's because milk is sold by the gallon. If you think people aren't acutely aware of the price of a gallon of milk then you live in a bubble of wealthy people. If milk rises above $3 a gallon or falls below $1.50 half of my Facebook feed has something to say about it. Same goes for many other standard products.

This thread title starts with "UK:", where milk is sold in pence per liter (and also "metric pints", which are pint-multiple containers quoted in mililiters)

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

#307

Post by FredPret »

I know this doesn't fit the European worldview, but if only they had Costco.

They make 0-1% margin [0] on their groceries - which by the way is very high in quality.

Essentially all their profit is from their annual membership fee.

You have to buy massive quantities of everything though. This works well if you live in a huge North American house and have an SUV to transport your month's (year's?) groceries.

[0] I saw a newsletter from Ryan Reeves and confirmed it by checking their financial statements

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

#308

Post by pjc50 »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #227
samhuk wrote: post #167

As a person living in the UK, I have definitely noticed a considerable rise in unit prices. One of many examples is that a loaf of my favourite bread increased from £3 to £4 recently, which was a shocker. Toilet roll prices, as ever what the news loves to talk about, has exploded, increasing by around 70% since 2020 by my anecdotal observation. A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or…

> A sad thought I have about inflation is the fact that it is, wittingly or not, a weapon wielded by the rich against the middle and lower classes. I think you have it backward. I think the inflation is the byproduct of their ability to own and hoard assets like land and labor, and reap the most value from those things, while everyone else is unable to get a foothold. Inflation is happening because everyone is making…

> (college loan forgiveness program)

Not in the UK.

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

#309

Post by jldugger »

elevenoh4 wrote: post #239
tacker2000 wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are talking like inflation is some conspiracy wielded by “the rich” (who are they? Are they all friends with each other and plan all their schemes together?) against the “others”. Fact is the inflation we are seeing here is caused by the after effects of Covid, the Energy price surges caused by the Ukraine war and in the special case of UK - Brexit, which has lead to huge import shortages due to increased bureauc…

https://cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuter... You do not get it. This inflation is due to insiders (central bankers) printing money. Covid & ukraine are convenient excuses. Look up where this money ended up.

> https://cloudfront-us-east-2.images.arcpublishing.com/reuter...

Help me understand: is this a stacked chart? Why does a chart that ends in 2021 show inflation in 2022 and 2023?

> This inflation is due to insiders (central bankers) printing money.

If this is about the money supply, why is food more affected than other products? IMO everything is a factor, and there is no one culprit, and therefore no one easy fix.

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

#310

Post by nosianu »

illiarian wrote: post #166
clnq wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The consumer decides what they are prepared to pay for a product, unless the demand is inelastic. And for food overall, the demand is inelastic. Consumers cannot just say "food is too expensive for me, so I think I'm going to to go without it this month". They can choose between the individual products they buy, so it wouldn't be a problem if just some food items got expensive. But the price of food overall is inflat…

> But the price of food overall is inflating. I'm a senior programmer with outrageous salary, and I still paused yesterday looking at the price of beef. Went for chicken instead. I wish inflation numbers would also include things like "percentage of income spent on just living: food and shelter"

Looking at the conditions that "beef" is raised in - feedlots specifically - the price for beef is way too low. Of course it should be raised by laws requiring better living conditions for the animals, not by the operations staying the same but making more profit. Same for all kinds of meat really. I happily eat meat, and of the more pricey variety and not the cheapest I can get, but I'm willing to pay the price (and I'm not earning much) if the animals are treated better.

If that also leads to meat being a side dish instead of the main dish more often that's probably for the better for overall population health too AFAIK.

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