Food prices

[Cloud Strife]

Wow, this has moved on since lunchtime.. When I highlighted the difference between the ticket on the doors and the scanned price they simply corrected the error at the till. I also noticed a lot of the printed price tickets were being replaced with electronic ones, looking like the page white kindle screens, just smaller. I gather that it's to reduce the cost of printing pricing labels that now change almost on a weekly basis. Now these can be programmed to display whatever the current amount is.

Yes, these are actually very useful for everyone. There's no need to go and manually check the price in case of dispute, for instance. It allows shops to also change prices dynamically, and the industry is moving towards a point where prices can be adjusted according to actual demand for a product. While it's not quite there yet, the future is that shops should be able to take advantage of yield management systems (think Ryanair and the other airlines) to ensure that they sell everything at the best possible price for themselves.

 

[GusB]

(1.50 / 1.00) * 100 = 150% i.e. 50% higher ......

£1.50 is 50% higher than £1.00, but £1 is 2/3 of £1.50, therefore 1/3 cheaper!

 

[takno]

(1.50 / 1.00) * 100 = 150% i.e. 50% higher ......

Yes, the higher price is 50% more expensive, but the lower price is only a third cheaper. That's just how percentages work

 

[Busaholic]

(1.50 / 1.00) * 100 = 150% i.e. 50% higher ......

Basic numeracy: £1.50 is 50% higher than £1.00, £1.00 is 33.33% lower than £1.50, which was the way the price differential was explained, ok?

p.s. Apologies, hadn't seen the other posts, not trying to rub it in. I'm rubbish at loads of things, but not basic maths.

 

[malc-c]

Yes, these are actually very useful for everyone. There's no need to go and manually check the price in case of dispute, for instance. It allows shops to also change prices dynamically, and the industry is moving towards a point where prices can be adjusted according to actual demand for a product. While it's not quite there yet, the future is that shops should be able to take advantage of yield management systems (think Ryanair and the other airlines) to ensure that they sell everything at the best possible price for themselves.

Well given how frequent prices of some products were changing it was probably costing them a lot of money having price tags printed, only to throw them away days later to be replaced with new ones, which may also need replacing a week later... Having digital tags that as you say, can be updated on the fly may well be expensive for the initial installation, but cost effective in the long run.

As I type this, BBC three counties are discussing people switching from the main supermarkets such as ASDA and Tesco to Ali and Liddl - Majority of the callers are saying they made the switch, but they are people with mobility. A lot of the callers that have stayed with ASDA and Tesco have done so due to the delivery service. Others have said that if Aldi / liddl offered the same delivery and scan and go lots more would make the move. Last time we used Liddl was almost 30 years ago, when it was all in boxes on pallets... gather they have moved on since then...

 

[Gloster]

Branston Baked Beans and Vegetarian Sausages up again to £1.35. That is over a third in a matter of weeks (see # 378).

Morrison’s own brand mild curry instant noodles up again to 55 p. See # 312 for previous rises.

 

[davehsug]

Another shocking example from today, Morrison's baked beans & sausages, last week 85p, this week £1.15! They're actually not much cheaper than Heinz now, which are 3 for £4. They had the nerve to message me via the app about price cuts 2 days ago too!

 

[malc-c]

ASDA's own wholemeal bread... 50p this time last year, moved up to 60p a month or so ago, now 90p. Similar with their white toastie bread, but went to 80p this week.

 

[Silver Cobra]

ASDA's own wholemeal bread... 50p this time last year, moved up to 60p a month or so ago, now 90p. Similar with their white toastie bread, but went to 80p this week.

Interestingly it's the opposite way round in my store: wholemeal is 80p and white is 90p.

In comparison the Just Essentials bread remains at 39p for both white and wholemeal. I guess this is part of Asda's justification for the multiple hikes in the price of the standard loaves in the last month.

 

[BananaRepublic]

Make your own bread, instead of buying that supermarket, imposter crap.
The texture and taste of much of it, is nothing like fresh baked bread.

 

[Jimini]

Make your own bread, instead of buying that supermarket, imposter crap.
The texture and taste of much of it, is nothing like fresh baked bread.

Agreed -- just put a loaf on now, funnily enough!

 

[malc-c]

Make your own bread, instead of buying that supermarket, imposter crap.
The texture and taste of much of it, is nothing like fresh baked bread.

Agreed -- just put a loaf on now, funnily enough!

Oh granted there is nothing like home baked bread... but is it cheaper.... By the time you've purchased the ingredients, and then factor in the energy costs it's probably more expensive. Recently I've been making my one beef pies. It cost me around twice as much as a large readymade "pukka" beef and ale pie. I can't say if it tastes as nice as it's yet to be opened.

 

[Jimini]

Oh granted there is nothing like home baked bread... but is it cheaper.... By the time you've purchased the ingredients, and then factor in the energy costs it's probably more expensive. Recently I've been making my one beef pies. It cost me around twice as much as a large readymade "pukka" beef and ale pie. I can't say if it tastes as nice as it's yet to be opened.

Agreed on the energy cost front -- especially in this day and age. The ingredients are dirt cheap though to be honest. Tap water, 500g flour, tablespoon of oil, teaspoon of salt, sugar and yeast, and job's a good'un.

 

[Starmill]

You might be able to get better value from your oven by cooking baked potatoes for dinner simultaneously with a loaf of bread that you're going to eat the next day.

But I'm sure that pre-cooked frozen baked potatoes made in the microwave and a loaf from Aldi would still be cheaper overall, if likely less tasty.

 

[DelW]

ASDA's own wholemeal bread... 50p this time last year, moved up to 60p a month or so ago, now 90p. Similar with their white toastie bread, but went to 80p this week.

Interestingly it's the opposite way round in my store: wholemeal is 80p and white is 90p.

In comparison the Just Essentials bread remains at 39p for both white and wholemeal. I guess this is part of Asda's justification for the multiple hikes in the price of the standard loaves in the last month.

All of those prices are cheap by historical standards though. I can remember the fuss about the advent of the "half-crown loaf" in the late 1960s, and half a crown = 2/6d = 12.5p. At the time, that was about half the price of a gallon of petrol, and about 35% more than a pint of beer. My part-time (unskilled) job at a garage paid 5/- = 25p per hour! (Other measures of inflation are available).

 

[takno]

All of those prices are cheap by historical standards though. I can remember the fuss about the advent of the "half-crown loaf" in the late 1960s, and half a crown = 2/6d = 12.5p. At the time, that was about half the price of a gallon of petrol, and about 35% more than a pint of beer. My part-time (unskilled) job at a garage paid 5/- = 25p per hour! (Other measures of inflation are available).

"Essential" loaves, when they came in the early 90s were usually priced at 29p, against a normal supermarket loaf price of 40-50p. The essential price subsequently dropped to around 19p as it became increasingly used as a loss-leader, but that aside it looks like bread prices have all risen by inflation or less in the last 30 years.

None of which helps a great deal when you're trying to balance a budget sadly

 

[Baxenden Bank]

All of those prices are cheap by historical standards though. I can remember the fuss about the advent of the "half-crown loaf" in the late 1960s, and half a crown = 2/6d = 12.5p. At the time, that was about half the price of a gallon of petrol, and about 35% more than a pint of beer. My part-time (unskilled) job at a garage paid 5/- = 25p per hour! (Other measures of inflation are available).

The issue with comparisons with petrol and beer prices is that both of those are heavily taxed. You would need to look at the untaxed price (now and then) to gain a real insight.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

When did a 4 pint bottle of milk increase to £1.55 at the major supermarkets?

 

[malc-c]

What I have also noticed is that it doesn't matter when you shop a lot of the shelving is empty, where faced with high and often weekly increments of on main brand items, people opt for the cheaper brands or store own brands. I know there was a disagreement between Heinz and ASDA a while back, but ASDA stated if they bowed to Heinz's pricing sales would fall. Well looking at the rows and rows of Heinz tomato ketchup next to the empty shelves where every other brand once existed I would have to agree with them. No one wants to pay £2.80 for a 460g bottle when a 550g bottle of ASDA's own sauce is just 75p. Heck even a 430g bottle of Helman's was priced up at £1.00, so its a no brainer as to why Heinz sauce wasn't moving. People could be overheard saying that they would just see what's in Tesco, Sainsbury's or Lidl as we have all three in walking distance of each other. This could be found all over the store. Shelves full of Pepsi priced at £2.20 for a 2ltr bottle next to empty shelves of their own which was priced at 80p for a 2lt bottle....

 

[LWB]

Incident on WCML made me late back home so stopped in for fish and chips twice (plus a scallop/fish cake)………£18 !
First time visited since before covid, undoubtedly the last time I shall ever visit. So sad after a lifetime of loving fish and chips

 

[ABB125]

Milk prices in Sainsbury's today:
1pt 89p
2pt £1.25
4pt £1.55
6pt £2.19
All price matched to Aldi apparently...

When I started university two years ago, it was 80p for 2pt, and about £1.15 for 4pt. I wonder how much of this increase is going to the farmers? Probably far less than should be...

 

[Busaholic]

Milk prices in Sainsbury's today:
1pt 89p
2pt £1.25
4pt £1.55
6pt £2.19
All price matched to Aldi apparently...

When I started university two years ago, it was 80p for 2pt, and about £1.15 for 4pt. I wonder how much of this increase is going to the farmers? Probably far less than should be...

Only a 30p difference between 2 pt and 4 pt, but then another 64p to take it up to 6 pt. How come? Anyway, I thought capitalism was meant to bring price competition, or is that a delusion?

 

[Bald Rick]

I wonder how much of this increase is going to the farmers? Probably far less than should be...

A fair bit I imagine. A fair bit will also be going to Wincanton, who do Sainsbury’s distribution, as their costs will have risen significantly (notably fuel and drivers’ salaries).

Anyway, I thought capitalism was meant to bring price competition, or is that a delusion?

Matching your lower priced competitor is the very definition of price competition!

 

[Baxenden Bank]

Only a 30p difference between 2 pt and 4 pt, but then another 64p to take it up to 6 pt. How come?

It would be interesting to see the relative costs for packing, distributing and retailing the various sizes of milk bottle and whether that is reflected in the prices charged. Out of the cow, collected and transported to the dairy, processed and ready to bottle the costs must be equal to that point. Only in bottling and beyond can there be any difference.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Milk prices in Sainsbury's today:
1pt 89p
2pt £1.25
4pt £1.55
6pt £2.19
All price matched to Aldi apparently...

Another way of looking at this is that the 1 pint bottle is priced at 89.00 pence per pint, the 2 pint bottle works out at 62.50p per pint, the 4 pint bottle works out at 38.75p per pint and the 6 pint bottle at 36.50p per pint.

So maybe the question is why the smaller-sized bottles seemingly have such a large mark up?

 

[Trackman]

ASDA's own wholemeal bread... 50p this time last year, moved up to 60p a month or so ago, now 90p. Similar with their white toastie bread, but went to 80p this week.

Never rated Asda's fresh bread, On the other hand Lidl's is top.

When did a 4 pint bottle of milk increase to £1.55 at the major supermarkets?

Asda £1.55 for 4 pints too.

 

[ChrisC]

When did a 4 pint bottle of milk increase to £1.55 at the major supermarkets?

I didn’t realise that it was still as cheap as that!
Living on my own, I never buy anything larger than a 2 pint bottle of milk, and had noticed how expensive 1 pint and 2 pint bottles have recently become. I seriously didn’t know that the price of a 4 pint bottle in comparison was as low as that, and thought it must be creeping up towards at least £2 these days.

 

[takno]

4 pints is slightly cheaper to pack, but also sells faster, and takes far less handling per pint than other options - in fact the price difference between 4 and 6 pints seems more likely to reflect that. I suspect that the one pint cartons reflect a normal supermarket mark-up, while the 4 pinters were the subject of intense competition and acted as a loss leader for a while. They'd probably like to massively hike the 4 pint price, but can't do it without losing a lot of customers

 

[Irascible]

Make your own bread, instead of buying that supermarket, imposter crap.
The texture and taste of much of it, is nothing like fresh baked bread.

Getting the right flour is not easy down my way, although pretty much everything not produced locally has been awkward for a couple of years now. Fortunately there *are* things produced locally must be qutie awkward some other places.

 

[DynamicSpirit]

(Discussion about prices scanning higher than the shelf labels)

I imagine it's not deliberate (although that's no defence!). I expect it's down to a combination of frequently changing prices, and a shortage of staff to update the tickets.

I think in most cases you're correct that this will often be a case of people mistakenly not replacing labels.

However there's a related issue which do wonder whether it is deliberate: Multi-buy deals that only apply to one variant of a product, but you only see the restriction if you read the very small print on the price labels. I would say, Morrisons is by far the main culprit here: Typical example I encountered today :4-pack Bliss corner yoghurts advertised on the shelf as £2.25 each or two for £3.00 (As I recall, that offer has been ongoing for some months, and I've taken advantage of it on several occasions). But today when I scanned my purchase, the yoghurts came up without the discount. I questioned it, so the staff went and checked - to inform me that the offer now only applies to the raspberry flavoured ones - which is not clear on a quick glance at the shelf labels.

It's impossible to be certain, but I've encountered this kind of thing on several occasions at Morrisons - and it looks very suspiciously as if they are relying on lots of people not looking at the yellow offer labels too closely and not checking their receipts before they leave the store.