Shopping Price Increases

If you fact check you'll find we send electricity to Wales

I did fact check! It’s because we send more of ours to England though paddyann54, not because we need Scottish electricity - we export ours too.

Should have said, it’s because of the way the national grid operates, distributing to the whole of the UK via the shortest routes at any given time of day.

Do none of you get anything from England in return? If you just kept your electricity and taxes to yourselves and had nothing whatsoever, not one penny, from England, and had to stand entirely on your feet, what then?

Germanshepherdsmum

Do none of you get anything from England in return? If you just kept your electricity and taxes to yourselves and had nothing whatsoever, not one penny, from England, and had to stand entirely on your feet, what then?

Of course we do, I wasn’t intending to give the impression that I’m anti England, because I’m not. Wales would struggle without English tourists, they are a big source of income, and we are a net financial gainer from being part of the UK. Our natural resources are what makes the country productive and attractive, we have low population because of the mountains making much of the land unsuitable for crops or industry.

I buy more supermarket own brands and get more basic things without the so called luxuries and treats. I just go shopping once per week. I make things like lentil and veg soup from scratch. Expensive makeup and toiletries aren't worth it, the cheap stuff is just as good.

Germanshepherdsmum

It only applies if you are already on certain benefits.

Exactly. I know from one person I help. The money is coming through automatically.

I don't know about Wales, but I do know that some analysis of the Scottish economy has shown that they could support themselves.

There are some very strange cost allocations made in the GERs analysis by the Treasury. Like Scotland being charged a far greater percentage for some costs than the population of Scotland as a percentage of the UK population actually justifies. And some odd allocations of revenue, too.

I can't go into detail. You'd have to look for analyses by economists that challenge the official one.

paddyanne might know more.

In the matter of benefits, the Joseph Rowntree Report makes grim reading

www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2023#key-findings

You do realise that rising grocery prices are also driven by wage increases in the supermarkets. That’s the vicious circle at play. Get paid more but to live costs more.

ExperiencedNotOld

You do realise that rising grocery prices are also driven by wage increases in the supermarkets. That’s the vicious circle at play. Get paid more but to live costs more.

The minimum wage doesn’t rise until 1st April 2023 ExperiencedNotOld, so increased wages are not a significant reason for price increases, and meanwhile profits have risen.

But some have increased wages already Casdon Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi did so this month.
We all know too fuel costs have risen significantly, so heating of stores, offices, warehouses along with refrigeration all add to the end price.

Jaxjacky

But some have increased wages already Casdon Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Aldi did so this month.
We all know too fuel costs have risen significantly, so heating of stores, offices, warehouses along with refrigeration all add to the end price.

They have announced new rates and that’s great, but they nearly all pay very low wages though JaxJacky, I honestly don’t think in the scheme of things that giving staff a pay increase is a major factor in prices going up. For example Tesco profits are predicted to be between £2.4bn and £2,5bn this year. With the pay rise, staff will get £11.02 per hour from April. I haven’t checked the others, but expect some of the pay rises they have announced are also effective from April

I know Asda’s went up on 17th February, however I entirely agree with your point on wages. Fuel costs do have a bigger hit though, felt throughout the supply chain, in particular smaller retailers.

It’s an interesting topic when you start digging (I know, I’m sad, but I like to know these things)
www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2023/02/22/supermarket-pay-rate-2023/
Here’s the latest comparison I could find. It says Tesco has invested £450m in the past year on improving wages - with profits of £2.4bn, presumably after wage rises are taken into account. Ashamed to say I had to look it up, a billion is 1000 million. So, it’s less than 20% percent of the profits going to benefit staff, at least at Tesco. I expect the others are similar.

I agree with you on fuel prices JaxJacky, I’m sure that’s a much more significant factor because it affects right through the food chain,

Casdon - if I said black was black would you have to contradict? It’s got nothing to do with NMW, it’s got to do with an employer seeking to pay what they think is deserved. And where does the money come from? It comes from people paying more for their shopping.

ExperiencedNotOld

Casdon - if I said black was black would you have to contradict? It’s got nothing to do with NMW, it’s got to do with an employer seeking to pay what they think is deserved. And where does the money come from? It comes from people paying more for their shopping.

No, ExperiencedNotOld, I just like accuracy in posts. That’s not unreasonable I don’t think.

MaizieD

In the matter of benefits, the Joseph Rowntree Report makes grim reading

www.jrf.org.uk/report/uk-poverty-2023#key-findings

But if supermarkets continue to push down the prices they pay to producers, or carry on making farmers subsidise the offers on fresh foods, the farmers will be the ones living in poverty and will give up altogether.

We cannot keep importing more and more fresh food because other European countries are prepared to pay higher prices and it will end up as more than just a short glitch of no tomatoes and cucumbers.

Apparently there are some veg shortages in supermarkets because they (the supermarkets) wont pay the (British) producers the fair price they are asking. The shortages are not because the British produce isn't available. The supermarkets were selling some food products such as milk for less than independent ‘milkmen’ who did door step deliveries could buy it. This resulted in the demise of doorstep milk deliveries in many areas.