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

371–380 of 1001 posts

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

#371

Post by fifticon »

gampleman wrote: post #302
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…

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.

they very much do, and they go to the same schools. They even have a parliamentary chamber with socalled nobles.

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

#372

Post by lepus »

symlinkk wrote: post #336
UncleOxidant wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw $6.99 for a pack of 12 flour tortillas yesterday. Could not believe it. At that price I'll try making my own.

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

If you don't know anyone who thinks about everyday purchases like this then you're in a social bubble. This is a normal concern for a lot of people.

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

#373

Post by dangwhy »

jacquesm wrote: post #363
dangwhy wrote: post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But can't they switch to lower priced foods. I don't understand why its inelastic.Thats something I've done personally. Why does higher priced food keep inflating too if consumer has no control.

> But can't they switch to lower priced foods. They could always eat cake.

whats this supposed ot mean

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

#374

Post by Wildgoose »

ch4s3 wrote: post #147
titzer wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's both increased wholesale food costs and price gouging. Profits have never been higher all along the board. Everyone in the chain is "passing the cost on" and also taking a little extra cut.

Those are nominal profits, everyone is trying to take "an extra cut" to stay ahead of inflation. Grocery has razor thin margins to begin with and the usual direction of prices is downward. Inflation will absolutely put a grocer out of business if they can't stay ahead of rising prices.

Wholesale margins are razor thin, but retail ones are relatively fat. (I work in Wholesale/Retail software).

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

#375

Post by madaxe_again »

legitster wrote: post #114
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.

This is a pretty lazy narrative. Prices are rising even in non-branded goods and markets. Smaller retailers are not-undercutting the bigger retailers. Couscous and margarine and eggs being more expensive across the board at the supplier level. This does not speak to any sort of cartel behavior.

You’d be surprised at how few importers actually provide most of the imported foodstuffs in the U.K. - Lamex and IPL for instance. Brexit has made importing untenable for a lot of smaller operations due to the red tape, and many have moved their buying to import agencies or domestic wholesalers.

There are quite a few significant supply bottlenecks in the U.K. food supply chain, from supermarkets to wholesalers to importers, and they do allow for price fixing - demonstrably so in the case of supermarkets and domestic produce.

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

#376

Post by [deleted] »

random_upvoter wrote: post #264

There seems to be a widely accepted and unchallenged consensus that political power is unable to address inflation. Maybe it ain't necessarily so? In 1971 Nixon froze prices and wages by executive order. But these days the political world seems oddly submissive to whatever the market wants to do. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock

[deleted]

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

#377

Post by notShabu »

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…

There is a counter-argument (which I don't necessarily agree with, but is interesting to note) where the ability to accumulate assets that keep pace with inflation is the only thing that motivate extra work.

e.g. the ability to accumulate "Tokens of Power" (vs the equivalent of arcade game tokens for commodities) is what motivates the Steve Jobs and Elon Musks to do their universe denting.

This is quite different than say tribal societies where extra resources do not maintain their value across time. An abundance of meat and other resources can only be transmuted into common cultural power via Feasts and Festivals.

Metaphorically, "gold" creates "dragons" because it allows immortal hoarding. Dragons are the only thing with influenceable agency that can reshape "nature". Controlling dragons allows this dominance (for better or for worse) at the cost of dragon externalities (burned towns, randomly devoured livestock)

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

#378

Post by dwallin »

makomk wrote: post #232
benjaminwootton wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure why you are being downvoted. Stock prices are on the slide and property prices and rental yields are extremely precarious. I also agree that low rates were good as you could invest in property with leverage and in businesses which could borrow and raise money to cheaply to grow. Nobody is having a good time right now.

Because the British media feeds this narrative by making it look like the rich always win. The only changes in their wealth that the media draws attention to are increases, and if there's a drop that just gives a new baseline for the next round of headlines about increases. High inflation and increased interest rates got assets down across the board? Well, that means that the better off are getting lots of "unearned…

Because they do always win (in aggregate, in relation to other income brackets). With changing economic situations, those with more resources have more options, and are therefore on average able to adapt more effectively. Sure there will be winners and losers in every tax bracket but a quick look at a graph of income inequality over time should disabuse you of the notion that the rich are somehow at a disadvantage in all this.

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

#379

Post by fifticon »

wouldbecouldbe wrote: post #323
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…

"They" are the wealthy people, property owners and such, in society who make a scene if their wealth gets taxed any higher. Every western society heavily taxes working, where often for me as a freelancer it hardly pays of to work more then 6-8 months per year. But taxes on wealth are very low. And owning property often has many tax cuts, and tends to benefit from low interest rates. The effect of it is is that either…

it is known since the french revolution and marx, little has changed in that regard.

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

#380

Post by purpleturtle22 »

symlinkk wrote: post #336
UncleOxidant wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw $6.99 for a pack of 12 flour tortillas yesterday. Could not believe it. At that price I'll try making my own.

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

This is because you probably make tech money (I do too).

My family was poor growing up and we shopped by cent per oz, and noticed any significant price changes and went for alternatives.

Planned dinner/produce/meat based off what was on sale, etc.

Many, many people notice when milk goes up 50 cents. I still do.

Post reply on HN