Take aways in general. They used to be a midweek £20-30 option when you couldn’t be bothered to cook. Now they are £40 minimum and usually pretty rubbish quality. Hardly bother anymore.
agree all takeaways have gone up but fish and chips disproportionately so - fish and chips used to be the cheap option compared to an indian or a chinese say, they are now at least as if not more expensive.
So why have some things gone up a lot and others not at all? I mean mostly everything has gone up but some drastically so. Is it the supermarkets taking the P or?
What really got me in London over the summer was the radical difference in pricing for similar quality goods/services that has opened up. Some places are obviously trying very hard to stay close to 2021 pricing while others are just letting rip. There are two very, very similar Italian restaurants near my house within 50m of each of other but one is now a solid 30 to 40%% more expensive than the other (and so is now essentially just overflow when the cheaper one is full as far as I can see/is never full).
Anywhere with a premises is paying probably 4x what they used to for utilities at least. They have to get that alone back somewhere, and will mark up cheap stuff (like Coke) further as well as passing on direct ingredient price rises
Also food prices are up for various reasons - transport costs, Brexit, weather (spud prices are apparently through the roof right now) and that before you get to servicing debt etc the cost of which has also risen massively.
Truth is competition drove food prices very low in the UK (which means low profit margins for supermarkets) I think they have been using rising prices generally as cover to increase their margins.
I got a cat flap for my two new kittens when I got them and I literally can't believe I spent £12 a go on bags of sand for the privilege of picking their sh1t out of a tray every day.
It's taken me 44 years, but I have now convinced everyone I know that I really really don't want a fvcking birthday card so please don't buy me one. The world would be a better place if the whole birthday card industry died tomorrow.
On event tat - I have some lovely (if you're into rainbow colours) re-usable birthday decorations from Amazon, suitable for children. They go back into their cardboard wallet every time ready for the next birthday. Lots of similar available though. They've done 5 parties so far.
Yes, HMG decided that wine wasn't contributing enough to the spiralling cost of living so they upped the duty on it with effect from the beginning of last month. C unts.
Dog food. The cost of a 24 tin pack of Gwendog's food went up from £16 to £27 within about 6 months. It wasn't easy to find so I stocked up. Then she decided she didn't like it anymore, leaving me with around a hundred quids worth to donate to the local dog shelter
I used to love Pizza Express as a cheapo/ quick dinner place ie before the theatre or cinema. Remember voucher codes? And all the voucher sites? You'd go for a two course dinner for a tenner. Now the portions are tiny, it's expensive and not very good quality.
The more interesting/worrying thing is the decline in prices of things where retailers were clearly gouging e.g. bags of cement back down to £7 after getting up to £10. Halfords are giving you 25% off their bikes if you trade in a 5 year old Halfords one. Endless BA sale.
Also convenience store pricing is unbelievable. A tin of coconut milk in a Coop was £2.20 for own brand.
Coop are daylight robbers - they lure you in with reasonable prices for some things while randomly having stuff at double what you would expect to pay elsewhere.
Oddly, M&S is one place where the level of price inflation seems lower than its competitors. I read that M&S's financial results have improved. I wonder if there is a connection.
I blame the media for the state of Pret. The Eat takeover should have got some criticism as just a way for Pret to buy out a competitor and increase prices - which is what has happened. Pret talked a lot of bullshit about having lots of Veggie Prets etc. All those Veggie Prets are now closed and the vegetarian/vegan options in regular Prets are no better than four or five years ago.
lots of people have said M&S is no longer much more expensive as prices elsewhere have gone up. Personally not keen because the put too much emphasis on ready meals which I dont tend to eat and dont have a huge range of ingredients. Good for a picnic or finger food party though.
its a well known metaphor meaning something massively overpriced Davos, it is not meant to be taken literally, there are lots of phrases in English like this, perhaps you have come across some others?
(1) Nobody ever look up Ooni on the internet. You will be stalked by Ooni adverts FOR EVER AND EVER AND EVER. Whoever they use for cookies / tracking must be very good, but their marketing bods who think that having adverts follow you everywhere you go will eventually lead to you caving and getting one are stupid
(2) How many nice takeaway pizzas could you get for the price of an Ooni? I'd bet 90% of Oonis ever sold never break even on that analysis.
Nice pizza is probably 15 quid, we are a family of four. So min 60 quid a pop. Reckon I have made around 70 pizzas, 60 of them miles better than anything you can buy.
Each pizza probbaly costs 3 quid a go. I'm definitely ahead plus we love it. 100% worth it
I think M&S have been clever at attracting more custom through maintenance of quality (as well as now being the Ocado "guest" supermarket). They benefit from people trading down from eating out to something nice at home as well, and I expect their "core" are locked in (fogies with boomer cash to burn and rich time poor workers).
Rob makes a good point re. Pret. This is the Starbucks approach - loss lead to wipe out the competition then jack the price. This is what supermarket convenience stores have done as well. "Oh it's Tesco, Coop, Sainsbury's", buying quantities of things that don't make you think "fook that's expensive".
The British Retail Consortium's latest figures showed non-food sales down/flat, with food sales going up 8% for the quarter: Confident consumers boost retail sales (brc.org.uk). None of that will be people buying more food - just price jacking. We have a food vendor oligopoly with the participants highly skilled in outwitting regulators so no surprise we are in this position.
surely £15 pizzas are for sharing? Unless you are paying the heinous delivery charges that pizza companies charge by offering a huge discount for collection...
I think the supermarket meal deals work because the jack up the individaul prices to make a deal look good - for example an 2l bottle of coke in my local supermaket is £1,75. A 500ml bottle which is eligible to be part of the meal deal is £1.80. So it looks like a great discount when you get as part of the meal deal but in reality you are only getting about 45p worth of coke which supermarkets probably buy for 25p - see also crisps.
Agreed on M&S not seeming as spenny as other places anymore. Their fresh fruit and veg is spenny but lots of things like tea bags, canned things are cheaper than Waitorse/ Sburys. Also their own brand stuff is great so it can feel better value than cheaper things elsewhere.
I am just totally shocked by this cost of living crisis too - the cost of mooring my superyacht in Monaco for the summer now costs nearly twice what it did a few years ago. Frightful stuff!
2. Fish and Chips - £13 at my local - I remember when they were cheaper than McDs and KFC
Guy I was just about to add fish and chips based on last night's
2 large cod and 1 large chips £20, and the chips were crap (unusually so from this venue) and binned.
Was yours one portion of each? In which case we are both paying broadly the same, but this used to be about £15.
one fish, one chips £13- still large portions to be fair (too big to eat in one sitting). Indeed I would rather see smaller portions and lower prices
Instant coffee. Literally doubled in price.
You can still get fish and chips, and a pint of Doombar, for less than 13 quid at ‘spoons.
Take aways in general. They used to be a midweek £20-30 option when you couldn’t be bothered to cook. Now they are £40 minimum and usually pretty rubbish quality. Hardly bother anymore.
Cat litter
Things in IKEA that I generally expected to be £2 are £17.
agree all takeaways have gone up but fish and chips disproportionately so - fish and chips used to be the cheap option compared to an indian or a chinese say, they are now at least as if not more expensive.
the cost of allowing tories to remain in power: £150bn a year since 2016.
Pizza Express pizzas are now £17.
So why have some things gone up a lot and others not at all? I mean mostly everything has gone up but some drastically so. Is it the supermarkets taking the P or?
I mean cola is ridiculously priced in restaurants now.
Some birthday cards now cost over £4...
great article yesterday in the FT about the price of Pret sandwiches
not yesterday, I read it yesterday
in fact, published 1 September
"The price problem with Pret"
What really got me in London over the summer was the radical difference in pricing for similar quality goods/services that has opened up. Some places are obviously trying very hard to stay close to 2021 pricing while others are just letting rip. There are two very, very similar Italian restaurants near my house within 50m of each of other but one is now a solid 30 to 40%% more expensive than the other (and so is now essentially just overflow when the cheaper one is full as far as I can see/is never full).
Anywhere with a premises is paying probably 4x what they used to for utilities at least. They have to get that alone back somewhere, and will mark up cheap stuff (like Coke) further as well as passing on direct ingredient price rises
Also food prices are up for various reasons - transport costs, Brexit, weather (spud prices are apparently through the roof right now) and that before you get to servicing debt etc the cost of which has also risen massively.
Noticed in the Ocado shop last night that Lurpak has come down to less than a fiver, then realised they've reduced the size from 500g to 400g
Truth is competition drove food prices very low in the UK (which means low profit margins for supermarkets) I think they have been using rising prices generally as cover to increase their margins.
Overheads have just gone thru the roof is why. After a post covid lull to get business back. Umpteen whammies
Pet insurance
Lurpak.
Tomato Ketchup.
Milk if you only buy a pint
6 pints still q cheap
Vanish powder - was about £6.99 months ago - was £10 last night
All the chains. Pizza Express salads are now about £16 and are half the size.
vanish powder has limited impact on anything that's not polyester. Great for cricket whites or (shudder) Spurs kits, but naff all use on cotton etc.
Lurpak
pet food used to be £70, last order 102, 97 and 92 respectively so going up by £5 per order
barely anything feels like good value and Ofc with streets littered with shit and well litter it’s all grim af
Jellymonster - I don't have polyester and it's great for white bedding
Went to coop on Sunday and there were no baskets because all the baskets had been nicked i mean wtaf
Mouthwash.
I got a cat flap for my two new kittens when I got them and I literally can't believe I spent £12 a go on bags of sand for the privilege of picking their sh1t out of a tray every day.
It's taken me 44 years, but I have now convinced everyone I know that I really really don't want a fvcking birthday card so please don't buy me one. The world would be a better place if the whole birthday card industry died tomorrow.
The whole birthday industry
If we’re doing pointless landfill reduction pretty much all occasion driven stuff should stop
heartily agree re birthday cards - it does now seem to be increasingly confined to kids and the over 60s thank God.
The shops already full of Hallowe'en tat.
Does me. I can’t bear it. I give book tokens only and don’t do event tat
Oh my goodness yes toothpaste
You can get a toothpaste inTesco for a pound. Made in China though.
On event tat - I have some lovely (if you're into rainbow colours) re-usable birthday decorations from Amazon, suitable for children. They go back into their cardboard wallet every time ready for the next birthday. Lots of similar available though. They've done 5 parties so far.
https://amzn.eu/d/6RBYoxN
Dog poo bags. Cheaper just to let the turds lie where they land.
Chewing gum
Basically everything though except wine. We've started shopping at Aldi now (the horror, the horror) after the Ocado was costing us about £200 a week
My niece (nearly two) absolutely LOVES stickers.
I am sure that when I was a child we had fuzzy felt. I wonder whethr she would like that just as much and endless reusable.
The increase in the price of protein powder has been wild. More than doubled over the last 2 years or so.
A combo of Vanish and Dr Beckmanns works wonders on whites. Both on perma offers on Amazon. Ditto bulk buy toothpaste.
I used to buy broccoli for £1.79 a kilo. Now its £50/per 15g sachet.
Costa coffee from the hospital outlet is now at least £3-4 and a sandwich £5-6
I would never pay this for broccoli. Super-broccoli produced by scientists in laboratory conditions to reverse ageing? Now that’s a different matter.
everything though except wine
Yes, HMG decided that wine wasn't contributing enough to the spiralling cost of living so they upped the duty on it with effect from the beginning of last month. C unts.
I had one (on a Romana base) for less than a tenner last Thursday.
Dog food. The cost of a 24 tin pack of Gwendog's food went up from £16 to £27 within about 6 months. It wasn't easy to find so I stocked up. Then she decided she didn't like it anymore, leaving me with around a hundred quids worth to donate to the local dog shelter
Romana base (have they gotten smaller?) are £16 to £18 round our way. Is cockpit doing a captain coupon? (I approve, faod).
I used to love Pizza Express as a cheapo/ quick dinner place ie before the theatre or cinema. Remember voucher codes? And all the voucher sites? You'd go for a two course dinner for a tenner. Now the portions are tiny, it's expensive and not very good quality.
Also, coffee. I don't drink a lot at home but the jars of the more than very basic stuff are £5-£6.
Just looked Romana is 18 in Esher
Luckily I have an ooni
MM if filter will be good enough for you, check out Amazon. Cafe direct for me. £3 a bag.
Chanel nail varnishes.. £12 in 2006, then £16 in 2011, now £29
Vanish powder?
Is that an alternative to an invisibility cloak?
That might as well be in Urdu for all the sense I can make of it. I recognise 'Esher'.
The more interesting/worrying thing is the decline in prices of things where retailers were clearly gouging e.g. bags of cement back down to £7 after getting up to £10. Halfords are giving you 25% off their bikes if you trade in a 5 year old Halfords one. Endless BA sale.
Also convenience store pricing is unbelievable. A tin of coconut milk in a Coop was £2.20 for own brand.
Minimum wage goes up every year, alongside NI and pension. That's a massive fixed cost increase every April for all retailers.
And then you need to pay more to get staff anyway. Or simply cut staffing numbers and let your customers pick and scan their own goods.
Coop are daylight robbers - they lure you in with reasonable prices for some things while randomly having stuff at double what you would expect to pay elsewhere.
Oddly, M&S is one place where the level of price inflation seems lower than its competitors. I read that M&S's financial results have improved. I wonder if there is a connection.
I blame the media for the state of Pret. The Eat takeover should have got some criticism as just a way for Pret to buy out a competitor and increase prices - which is what has happened. Pret talked a lot of bullshit about having lots of Veggie Prets etc. All those Veggie Prets are now closed and the vegetarian/vegan options in regular Prets are no better than four or five years ago.
I rarely go to pret as a sarnie and crisps is about 8 quid. Can get hot food for same
lots of people have said M&S is no longer much more expensive as prices elsewhere have gone up. Personally not keen because the put too much emphasis on ready meals which I dont tend to eat and dont have a huge range of ingredients. Good for a picnic or finger food party though.
Heh at daily robbery on things you can just literally not buy
its a well known metaphor meaning something massively overpriced Davos, it is not meant to be taken literally, there are lots of phrases in English like this, perhaps you have come across some others?
I had a car tyre replaced last week for £27.
Thats incredibly cheap isnt it?
Yes
(1) Nobody ever look up Ooni on the internet. You will be stalked by Ooni adverts FOR EVER AND EVER AND EVER. Whoever they use for cookies / tracking must be very good, but their marketing bods who think that having adverts follow you everywhere you go will eventually lead to you caving and getting one are stupid
(2) How many nice takeaway pizzas could you get for the price of an Ooni? I'd bet 90% of Oonis ever sold never break even on that analysis.
Wtf use a tracker block
Nice pizza is probably 15 quid, we are a family of four. So min 60 quid a pop. Reckon I have made around 70 pizzas, 60 of them miles better than anything you can buy.
Each pizza probbaly costs 3 quid a go. I'm definitely ahead plus we love it. 100% worth it
The car tyre must have been a re-tread.
I think M&S have been clever at attracting more custom through maintenance of quality (as well as now being the Ocado "guest" supermarket). They benefit from people trading down from eating out to something nice at home as well, and I expect their "core" are locked in (fogies with boomer cash to burn and rich time poor workers).
Rob makes a good point re. Pret. This is the Starbucks approach - loss lead to wipe out the competition then jack the price. This is what supermarket convenience stores have done as well. "Oh it's Tesco, Coop, Sainsbury's", buying quantities of things that don't make you think "fook that's expensive".
The British Retail Consortium's latest figures showed non-food sales down/flat, with food sales going up 8% for the quarter: Confident consumers boost retail sales (brc.org.uk). None of that will be people buying more food - just price jacking. We have a food vendor oligopoly with the participants highly skilled in outwitting regulators so no surprise we are in this position.
surely £15 pizzas are for sharing? Unless you are paying the heinous delivery charges that pizza companies charge by offering a huge discount for collection...
I think the supermarket meal deals work because the jack up the individaul prices to make a deal look good - for example an 2l bottle of coke in my local supermaket is £1,75. A 500ml bottle which is eligible to be part of the meal deal is £1.80. So it looks like a great discount when you get as part of the meal deal but in reality you are only getting about 45p worth of coke which supermarkets probably buy for 25p - see also crisps.
Agreed on M&S not seeming as spenny as other places anymore. Their fresh fruit and veg is spenny but lots of things like tea bags, canned things are cheaper than Waitorse/ Sburys. Also their own brand stuff is great so it can feel better value than cheaper things elsewhere.
I am just totally shocked by this cost of living crisis too - the cost of mooring my superyacht in Monaco for the summer now costs nearly twice what it did a few years ago. Frightful stuff!
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