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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

#941

Post by [deleted] »

oatmeal1 wrote: post #594
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…

> I wonder if inequality increases caused by printing trillions of dollars during COVID are anything to do with this inflation? Could it be that making the rich endless more wealthy and increasing asset prices is bad for society? Making billionaires more wealthy doesn't affect inflation much because they are already consuming as much as they want. That money will just increase the price of stocks and bonds - whatever…

[deleted]

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

#942

Post by zeroonetwothree »

rhacker wrote: post #755
donatj wrote: post #753

I hear the inflation numbers and I'm always like "are they living in the same world as me?" Pre-COVID I used to able to run and get lunch for under $5. Now I'm lucky to spend less than $15.

This is my experience too. I don't know where the CPI ever gets its data. But Inflation is clearly over 100% for restaurants in California. Literally in the last 3 years.

a) The CPI includes many more things than just restaurants. Unless you spend 100% of your income on restaurants, focusing on that specifically isn't very informative.

b) There's no way that inflation is "over 100%" in restaurants in California. For example, a carnitas Chipotle burrito is currently $10. In 2018, five years ago, I ordered the same thing for $8 (I have all the records of my purchases). That is only 4.5% annual inflation over that time period (25% total). I don't feel like checking other restaurants, but I suspect if you actually look at data and not your intuition it will agree with this.

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

#943

Post by zeroonetwothree »

donatj wrote: post #753

I hear the inflation numbers and I'm always like "are they living in the same world as me?" Pre-COVID I used to able to run and get lunch for under $5. Now I'm lucky to spend less than $15.

Where did you buy lunch in 2019 for <$5? I don't think I've paid that little for lunch since the 90s.

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

#944

Post by [deleted] »

kbelder wrote: post #899
symlinkk wrote: post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find comments like this weird, I never think about purchases that small. I honestly have no idea how much I pay for tortillas normally but $7 would not even be a blip on my mental radar

Even if you don't care about a few dollars, careless excess spending can drive prices up. I don't care, really, whether the box of macaroni and cheese I buy is $0.35 or $1.69. But I'll tend to buy the cheaper, just because I don't want to contribute to the success of the higher price point. It's my fight for the common man. All my efforts are completely negated when my wife goes shopping :(

[deleted]

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

#945

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

unmole wrote: post #233
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.

> raising prices as high as possible Why did companies wait until this year to do that?

so gullible people not paying attention to their profits would just blame inflation for the entire price increase rather than recognizing that greed is driving a chunk of it

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

#946

Post by notfed »

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…

I don't think "randomly increasing prices" counts as a dark pattern. It's just a plain and simple economic pattern.

The only reason some companies are able to get away with this is because too many people shop mindlessly without checking prices.

The solution is for everyone to pay attention to prices when we shop: the brands who jump their prices up will have 0 customers.

I'm not saying it's easy, and perhaps grocery store price labelling isn't maximally effective, but when we shop frugally, we actually benefit not only ourselves, but each other.

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

#947

Post by emodendroket »

mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #383
emodendroket wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure I would say that. Inflation is more harmful to those with assets, it generally accompanies a strong labor market, and the means central banks use to fight it amount to deliberately increasing unemployment.

We can say that inflation is good for those with assets, and interest rate hikes are harmful to those with assets, and the two tend to go together -- but not always; that's mainly up to the central bank.

> We can say that inflation is good for those with assets

If the assets are liquid ones not really; that's one of the reasons asset-holders start to clamor for the Fed to do something when inflation is high. I read the introduction of Secrets of the Temple, which is kind of a counter-conventional wisdom explanation of how higher rates of inflation were salutary for regular people at the expense of the ruling class, and it was pretty compelling.

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

#948

Post by vsl »

manojlds wrote: post #905
kumoflow wrote: post #858

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because all of europe is in the same or worse place? No matter how much remainers want to blame brexit for everything, it isnt’t always the case. Central europe is around or a few points less than the um while easter and western europe are higher https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/11zwtif/annual_infl...

That's ok, but UK literally ran out of tomatoes, eggs and many other items

Central Europe: eggs price skyrocketed earlier this year (= supply shortage, aka “ran out”, due to bird flu prevention orders). Medical supplies shortage and running out of some medicines completely.

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

#949

Post by andy_ppp »

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #891
Nifty3929 wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fix is to produce more stuff. It's that simple. It might not be easy though. It would require us to focus on production, remove barriers, streamline regulations, encourage and actively celebrate production. It seems these days we're ambivalent toward the production of stuff, or even antagonistic to it in many cases. So we have less stuff. Combine this with giving people more money and you get inflation.

Yes yes fellow consumers. We should remove consumer protections and lower corporation taxes! Then I’m sure the companies will treat us better!

I know, the rich have never been richer and the poor keep getting poorer. Where is the trickle down we were promised?

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

#950

Post by andy_ppp »

Nifty3929 wrote: post #705
dehrmann wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So much of what supermarkets sell is commoditized that this doesn't work. Toothpaste is in a very different place than EVs.

Commodities need to be produced as well. The more we produce, the more we will have. Giving people more money does not produce any additional bread or tomatoes.

But we didn’t give people more money, there was the largest in history redistribution of wealth from the poor to the rich. I really don’t believe supply is 100% the problem here and there’s just no need for 20% hikes on some goods. The compound interest on this is insane 1 -> 1.20 -> 1.44 -> 1.728 —> 2.0736 so more than doubling in cost every 5 years.

People seem to think inflation is temporary but it seems much more stubborn and central banks are very scared of it, hence rate rises when the banks might collapse.

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