3 ms·

> Food is relatively cheap, if you cook for yourself and don't mind a lot of beans, rice, bread-machine bread, peanut butter, etc. If you want heavily processed

by Jochim 3y ago

> Food is relatively cheap, if you cook for yourself and don't mind a lot of beans, rice, bread-machine bread, peanut butter, etc. If you want heavily processed or prepared food, or restaurant food...that's an order of magnitude more expensive. And many parts of the food industry are far too consolidated to be competitive. The people already doing so are absolutely fucked. While potentially still cheaper, those basic staples have typically seen a disproportionately large rise in their price. The price of porridge oats and milk increased by over 30% in the UK between 2022-2023[0]. Own brand plain dried pasta went up by 41% in one, relatively cheap, supermarket[1]. CPI as a whole is at 8.9% but food is at 19.2%[2]. That's not even accounting for the noticeable inflation in the price of the cheapest goods that occurred prior or energy bills more than quadrupling between 2019 and 2023, even before Ukraine they had nearly doubled. [0] https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/18/cost-of-british-food-basics-increases-by-up-to-80-in-a-year https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/apr/18/cost-of-bri... [1] https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/5682202/food-prices-increase-tesco/ https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/5682202/food-price... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bulletins/consumerpriceinflation/latest https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflationandpriceindices/bull...

s1artibartfast 3y ago
The argument that undermines the price gouging theory is that consumer demand for optional Goods remains High and is also inflating. This indicates that consumers are not responding to higher prices by decreasing demand.
- Jochim 3y ago
  I wasn't arguing the merits of price gouging, rather that as opposed to what CPI figures may suggest, the poorest have been hit much harder, by much higher inflation than those better off. Seeing as we're now on the topic. Demand may be high where you are but that certainly doesn't hold true in the UK. The statistics show clearly that people are buying less[0] and getting less for it. Retail volume is down 3.1% on 2022 across the board, there's literally a chart titled "Divergence between retail sales volumes and values"[1] showing how severely people are being squeezed. Figure 4[2] breaks out the same data for food retail specifically. While certain demographics have been able to somewhat keep up with rising prices, the reality is that some food banks are having to distribute 50% more than they did pre-pandemic[3]. Real disposable income is already well below 2020 levels and expected to erase a decade of "growth" as it nosedives towards that of 2013[4]. [0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023 https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindust... [1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023/33fb5476 https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtr... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023/8dc89c35 https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtr... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/19/record-number-of-uk-households- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/19/record-numbe... depending-on-food-banks [4] https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/CCS0822661240-002_SECURE_OBR_EFO_November_2022_WEB_ACCESSIBLE.pdf https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/CCS0822661240-002_SECURE_OBR.... page 18 (page 22 of the pdf).

by Jochim 3y ago

s1artibartfast 3y ago

The argument that undermines the price gouging theory is that consumer demand for optional Goods remains High and is also inflating. This indicates that consumers are not responding to higher prices by decreasing demand.

Jochim 3y ago
I wasn't arguing the merits of price gouging, rather that as opposed to what CPI figures may suggest, the poorest have been hit much harder, by much higher inflation than those better off. Seeing as we're now on the topic. Demand may be high where you are but that certainly doesn't hold true in the UK. The statistics show clearly that people are buying less[0] and getting less for it. Retail volume is down 3.1% on 2022 across the board, there's literally a chart titled "Divergence between retail sales volumes and values"[1] showing how severely people are being squeezed. Figure 4[2] breaks out the same data for food retail specifically. While certain demographics have been able to somewhat keep up with rising prices, the reality is that some food banks are having to distribute 50% more than they did pre-pandemic[3]. Real disposable income is already well below 2020 levels and expected to erase a decade of "growth" as it nosedives towards that of 2013[4]. [0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023 https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/retailindust... [1] https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023/33fb5476 https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtr... [2] https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtrade/retailindustry/bulletins/retailsales/march2023/8dc89c35 https://www.ons.gov.uk/chartimage?uri=/businessindustryandtr... [3] https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/19/record-number-of-uk-households- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/feb/19/record-numbe... depending-on-food-banks [4] https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/CCS0822661240-002_SECURE_OBR_EFO_November_2022_WEB_ACCESSIBLE.pdf https://obr.uk/docs/dlm_uploads/CCS0822661240-002_SECURE_OBR.... page 18 (page 22 of the pdf).