Gordon Gekko
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The way Tesco set-out the multi-buy discounts separately at the bottom of the receipt is annoying. It just says “Multibuy discount 0.98c”, for example, without telling you what it is.
Increase in supermaket prices
- Thread starter Fire away
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Yes I have noticed it and especially in the german stores. Initially they were the cheapest for everything and everything was own brand german, then they tweeked their offering for irish consumers , introduced irish own brands and big brands and generally increased quality. Now they are increasing prices on those successful brands. These increases dont get picked up by the CSO because they dont include supermarket own brands in their index
NoRegretsCoyote
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Really, what is your source for that?
Well presumably they use McVities biscuits rather than "Tower gate" biscuits in their "basket of goods" as McVities is a brand sold in nearly all stores whereas "Tower gate" only in Lidl thats if they have biscuits at all. The granular detail of what exactly the CSO include in their index is stangely opaque. Maybe you can enlighten us as you are a CSO employee I think.
NoRegretsCoyote
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I am not an employee and never was.
Indeed their methodology is not clear, but you're making the claims here.
But I'd be surprised if they excluded a category as large as own-brand products.
Hello,
I find it more than a little interesting that the majority of people here feel that prices have gone up, while "official" monitors say prices haven't been going up.
My initial reaction when I saw this thread was to say Yes, prices have definitely been going up. Again, I'm another regular Tesco shopper (although I'm starting to move away from them).
Perhaps part of the reason for the apparent increase in prices is the significant reduction in bulk buy discounts (although they could have easily cut their prices on various goods, or given extra clubcard points etc, rather than penalise the customer).
There's also the possibility that many of us are buying a few more treats, or premium items, which is pushing up the price.
However, I still firmly believe that prices are being pushed up and the someone is taking an extra margin here - not just covering their additional costs.
I find it more than a little interesting that the majority of people here feel that prices have gone up, while "official" monitors say prices haven't been going up.
My initial reaction when I saw this thread was to say Yes, prices have definitely been going up. Again, I'm another regular Tesco shopper (although I'm starting to move away from them).
Perhaps part of the reason for the apparent increase in prices is the significant reduction in bulk buy discounts (although they could have easily cut their prices on various goods, or given extra clubcard points etc, rather than penalise the customer).
There's also the possibility that many of us are buying a few more treats, or premium items, which is pushing up the price.
However, I still firmly believe that prices are being pushed up and the someone is taking an extra margin here - not just covering their additional costs.
Also, are they actually going to the shops & buying a pack of Tower gate biscuits, or looking at the (unchanged) price tag on the empty shelf and instead buying McVities.
NoRegretsCoyote
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They don't buy anything
They look at the price tag on the exact same product where possible every month.
They don't buy anything
They look at the price tag on the exact same product where possible every month.
So the extra euros I spent on branded products because Tesco were out of stock on cheaper own brand equivalent won't show up in any CSO report.
NoRegretsCoyote
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Indeed.
Being the numbers nerd that I am, I keep track of all my spending. Food spending in my household is up 24% on last year. Take out the eating out/lunches from last year and this year to balance out the covid impact, and that food shop increase comes down to 20%.
Still eating the same type of meals, haven't changed the supermarkets we visit, no changes in family numbers except the kids are year older but not that much bigger to be eating 20% more!
It just confirms what many say here and what I have felt for the past couple of years....prices in the supermarkets are going steadily up
Still eating the same type of meals, haven't changed the supermarkets we visit, no changes in family numbers except the kids are year older but not that much bigger to be eating 20% more!
It just confirms what many say here and what I have felt for the past couple of years....prices in the supermarkets are going steadily up
It's a personal conclusion, yes. But it just confirms what I'd felt over the last few years both in the weekly shopping bill and in the amount of bags being filled for said bills
It does seem to ring true with other posters on this thread.
Tell me, do you feel that inflation over the last few years has been close to zero? Have you noticed that in clothes prices, supermarket prices, the price of a pint or a meal out, insurance costs, etc?
It does seem to ring true with other posters on this thread.
Tell me, do you feel that inflation over the last few years has been close to zero? Have you noticed that in clothes prices, supermarket prices, the price of a pint or a meal out, insurance costs, etc?
@Delboy Interesting question. I wouldn't have a clue about clothes prices. I am constantly surprised at the cost of eating out and frankly shocked by how expensive it can be in Dublin. My impression would be that those prices climbed once the great recession eased. I haven't noticed supermarket prices rising though a lot of junk foods seem smaller for the same price - a rise by another name though maybe not a bad thing if portion sizes shrink! Car insurance seemed to go up for 5 or 6 years until this year when mine fell a bit. One thing I would say; I don't know if it's just an Irish thing but I'm tired of friends complaining about the price of something (particularly alcohol) having already bought it. If you've bought it at that price then that's what they're going to charge! Shopping around also means not buying; that's a real message for the seller!
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The problem though is that most of the price of alcohol, unless you are buying premium brands, is tax or one form or another.
You can't shop around unless you shop in another jurisdiction. Our prices for alcohol are among the highest in the EU already.
Thats the thing nobody knows what exactly they incude in their "basket of goods" they used to be alot more open about this years ago. I think inflation statistics are actually a very tightly controlled and probably manipulated statistic throughout the eurozone. It is in everybody's interests to understate it as much as possible thereby maintaining negative interest rates (because there is no inflation) and allowing governments to borrow as much as possible at those negative rates. It also controls the pesky unions looking for more pay rises because of rising prices, because there is no inflation, right.
Early Riser
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The CSO outline their methodology on their website.
"............Personal visits are made to retail outlets by some 80 price collectors on a monthly basis. Approximately 48,000 price quotations are gathered in this way. .............Most prices are collected monthly, some quarterly and others annually. The CSO supplies general specifications to price collectors and price collectors are free initially to select a brand and in certain cases, size. This allows for a wide variety of different brands of the same item to be priced throughout the country. Once selected, the same item/brand is priced on a monthly basis in order to ensure matched price quotations. If an item disappears, substitution can occur but that price is excluded until matched prices are available for the same comparable item for two consecutive months. .................The CPI measures in index form the monthly changes in the cost of purchasing a fixed representative ‘basket’ of consumer goods and services (i.e. Laspeyres formula). Identical items are priced in the same outlet on each occasion so that changes in the cost of this constant basket reflect only pure price changes. The current basket of goods and services consists of 615 representative items which were predominantly selected as part of the December 2016 rebase. The representative share of each item in the basket is proportional to the average amount purchased by all households in the State and foreign tourists ........"
"............Personal visits are made to retail outlets by some 80 price collectors on a monthly basis. Approximately 48,000 price quotations are gathered in this way. .............Most prices are collected monthly, some quarterly and others annually. The CSO supplies general specifications to price collectors and price collectors are free initially to select a brand and in certain cases, size. This allows for a wide variety of different brands of the same item to be priced throughout the country. Once selected, the same item/brand is priced on a monthly basis in order to ensure matched price quotations. If an item disappears, substitution can occur but that price is excluded until matched prices are available for the same comparable item for two consecutive months. .................The CPI measures in index form the monthly changes in the cost of purchasing a fixed representative ‘basket’ of consumer goods and services (i.e. Laspeyres formula). Identical items are priced in the same outlet on each occasion so that changes in the cost of this constant basket reflect only pure price changes. The current basket of goods and services consists of 615 representative items which were predominantly selected as part of the December 2016 rebase. The representative share of each item in the basket is proportional to the average amount purchased by all households in the State and foreign tourists ........"
A study from the UK, but this tallies with the anecdotal evidence on this side of the water:
There was a 15% fall in the frequency of promotions during the first month of lockdown, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found.
This, in part, led to a 2.4% rise in the price of groceries in one month.
Researchers said this was the equivalent of price increases expected for a whole year.
There was also an 8% fall in the variety of grocery products on the shelves during lockdown...
Since then, prices had fallen slightly, but they still remained more than 2% higher than before lockdown, the report said.
"There was more grocery inflation in one month than we often see in a year," said Martin O'Connell, co-author of the report.
There was a 15% fall in the frequency of promotions during the first month of lockdown, research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found.
This, in part, led to a 2.4% rise in the price of groceries in one month.
Researchers said this was the equivalent of price increases expected for a whole year.
There was also an 8% fall in the variety of grocery products on the shelves during lockdown...
Since then, prices had fallen slightly, but they still remained more than 2% higher than before lockdown, the report said.
"There was more grocery inflation in one month than we often see in a year," said Martin O'Connell, co-author of the report.
Coronavirus: Special offers 'pulled from shelves during lockdown'
Shoppers faced a year's worth of grocery price rises in one month as promotions were withdrawn, researchers say.
www.bbc.com