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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

#311

Post by Tryk »

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…

Consider the comparison between Norway and Sweden, two extremely similar countries in almost all respects.

Food inflation in Sweden is 22.1% over 12-month [0]

Food inflation in Norway is 8.8% over 12-months [1]

Obviously someone is making money hand-over-fist from this 12.7% discrepancy.

Comments like the one above are really disruptive to any constructive conversations. It is not a conspiracy.

The comment above is (at best) astonishingly naïve. While it is a emotionally plausible argument, we can see it does not hold up if we compare the rates of inflation over similar countries.

[0]: https://www.scb.se/en/finding-statistics/statistics-by-subje... [1]: https://www.ssb.no/en/priser-og-prisindekser/konsumpriser/st...

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

#312

Post by colossal »

__MatrixMan__ wrote: post #277
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…

"rich" and "poor" are just holdovers from conquerer and conquered. Just because the mandate that one group acknowledge the other's right to create value by fiat (e.g. by stamping Caesar's face into a coin) is no longer delivered by guys with swords doesn't make it not a conspiracy by one group to keep another group in its place.

well it still is delivered by guys with swords in a sense -- now they're just guys with guns and jumpsuits bearing the words "US ARMY."

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

#313

Post by ajmurmann »

RC_ITR wrote: post #237
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…

It’s hard to grok but inflation is just the “price of money” in terms of goods and services. (I.e. I can ‘buy’ one pound with X good) Inflation only negatively affects the poor in that their wages are sticky and do not adjust in time (so in effect, their wages in goods and services terms declines) The same thing happens to rich people, it’s actually a “capital owner vs salary man” divide. (A small building owner is i…

I first really liked the athlete example, but now think that that also depends on where the athlete is in their career and what they have done with their past income. A athlete a little bit later in their career, should have substantial investments unless that more than make up for the inflation impacting the value of their current salary. They probably also have a steady stream of sponsorship deals that get (re-)negotiated more frequently than salary at McDonald's

Very similar dynamics probably hold almost by definition for anyone who is wealthy.

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

#314

Post by SkipperCat »

ThunderSizzle wrote: post #293
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…

[flagged]

The war in 100% the result of Putin. Putting the responsibility of this on Biden doesn't make sense. Besides, Russia was sending troops into eastern Ukraine since 2014, way before Biden took office.

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

#315

Post by mellavora »

dangwhy wrote: post #301
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.

> Asset prices are highly inversely correlated to interest rates I present you the US housing market.

I don't quite understand. Are you commenting on the much discussed U.S. Housing Prices Fall for First Time in a Decade" stories? https://time.com/6217372/us-housing-prices-fall/

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

#316

Post by FollowingTheDao »

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…

It is called "Greedflation".

To say it is a conspiracy is true, in that corporations are conspiring against consumers to make more profit.

Some articles:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/24/greedflatio...

https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/greedflation-food-brands-may...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/12/global-gree...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/02/ecb-looking...

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

#317

Post by okeuro49 »

juniordev7 wrote: post #86
chatmasta wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Europe is also experiencing high inflation.

War ends sooner or later but Brexit and it's effects are here to stay forever.

The UK will last longer than the EU. The EU has a fundamental schism of a shared monetary policy, without a shared fiscal policy (see euro sovereign debt crisis). It also has a problem regarding the population becoming increasingly sceptical of freedom of movement, voting for more socially conservative parties.

Hopefully the EU can be reformed to go back to a trading bloc, with a liberal visa regime for member states, rather than an idealistic United States of Europe model, punctuated periodically by brutal austerity.

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

#318

Post by pjc50 »

FredPret wrote: post #307

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…

We do have costco. That doesn't make any difference. https://www.costco.co.uk/

(Practically, Aldi/Lidl are where one goes for cheap UK groceries, or Farmfoods if you want frozen/nonperishables)

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

#319

Post by ajmurmann »

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…

> everyone got a bunch of during covid Is this true? It seems like poor people got checks over a few hundred bucks whereas businesses got millions.

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

#320

Post by bryanlarsen »

deusum wrote: post #252
sebzim4500 wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, people could eat cheaper food. Not to mention that most people eat too many calories.

Expecting everyone to just give up meat and bread for rice and beans is nonsense. And eating too many calories is unhealthy, but who are you to decide. You're blaming the victim.

Steak consumption is down 20%. I presume hot dog consumption is up a similar amount.
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