Prices

It’s not extortionate, it’s the price that things are. Milk butter and eggs have been ‘loss leaders’ for years now.

Go to aldi

grannyrebel7, what you regard as 'basics' I've never bought - so it depends on your individual shopping list too. Bread has gone up - along with flour, anything wheat-based. Still, food has been very cheap for a long time.

I agree about previously cheap UK food. The only other place I've lived where it was cheaper was China. Every other country has been more expensive than the UK. Swiss supermarket prices (even at Aldi) made my eyes water.

What are wages like in some of these other countries though? My point being that things can be relative. Switzerland is known as an expensive country to many visiting, but are the wages that the citizens living there receive higher than the wages of those visiting the country receive? China might seem cheaper to visitors, but to the citizens there probably not if their wages are lower.

Yes, you're right of course. However, in Spain, when I lived there, wages were a lot lower yet food still cost quite a bit more.

Butter from Morrisons is £1.89 - cheaper than spreadable ‘butter’ with all of its additives.

I think we are catching up with other Countries higher prices, I just hope that some of it trickles down to the farmers.

At the bottom of the food chain are the farmers. Their costs have gone up, animal fodder has rocketed in price as have fuel costs.

Is grannyrebel happy to see them starve and go bankrupt, so that 'extortionate' prices should not offend her/

No, she isn't! I was merely commenting on how prices have gone up. I hadn't really noticed it before to such a degree that's all. No need for all the negative comments.

Aldi and Lidl beans are 37p. We like them better than Heinz. They also do a range of beans for 29p. We haven't tried those.

Apologies if I offended you but it was the word ‘extortionate’ that wound me up! Supermarkets have under paid for so long and we have been happy to go along with it. Now prices have gone up massively but farmers are still not being paid enough.

grannyrebel It was the use of the word 'extortionate', which suggests that the price rises are unjustifiable that I did not like and felt was unfair to all those in the price chain.

Yes, I quite agree that prices are rocketing up and sometimes leave us breathless, but the price rises are not 'extortionate', merely the culmination of the effect of price rises further down the chain caused by the rise in energy prices and the effect of the war in Ukraine.

GagaJo

I agree about previously cheap UK food. The only other place I've lived where it was cheaper was China. Every other country has been more expensive than the UK. Swiss supermarket prices (even at Aldi) made my eyes water.

Ditto. I’ve noticed it in France and the US. In particular the price of a pack of chicken breasts in a French Carrefour - their Tesco equivalent - really startled me. And they weren’t even the free range I’d buy at home - FR weren’t even available.

(I feel obliged to apologise for buying them at all, but I was making Curry In A Hurry for 18 people! 😱)

Not to mention the cauliflower - admittedly a big one - €4!

Sister from the US once came with me to do a small shop in Asda. He eyes were popping at the bill - I assumed that she found it expensive,
‘No! Cheap!!’

I`ve mentioned it on another thread, Birdseye fish fingers, pack of 30 at Tesco, £7.75!