I’ve just done the week’s shopping online. I’ve ordered store cupboard items and various one-offs this week, so the total isn’t particularly informative, though it’s substantially up from where it used to be.
What I have noticed is a general rise in prices. Marmalade, for instance, seems to have gone through the roof. It’s one of those things – you can do without heat (just add another layer) or meat (we were cutting down anyway) but there are very few scenarios where marmalade can be replaced with an acceptable substitute.
At one time there was a range of quality and price available, the two things generally going hand in hand. Pay more, get better quality. That doesn’t seem to be happening now, as the cheaper brands seem to be adopting the prices of the more expensive brands. The expensive brands, meanwhile,, don’t seem to be going up that much. I suspect this is one of those cunning price rise strategies we are seeing in operation.
Cheap supermarkets, according to surveys, are putting prices up more than expensive supermarkets. And own-brand food is going up more than other similar food. It might be that they are having to put prices up more just to survive at that level, but my view of modern retail is so jaded I favour cynical manipulation of customers. I’ve seen very little from retailers over the years that persuades me they are determined to give me a good deal unless forced to. Cheap food is about competition and cutting quality, not about feeding people on good food. However, as the consumer seems to favour low cost over high quality who is really at fault?
Plum Jam
I will. Watch this space. 🙂
It IS pretty easy to make your own. I have some favorites–pear-ginger-walnut and strawberry vanilla being among them. Never been a marmalade fan, but if those big tins of seville marmalade oranges haven’t gone up, you should give it a try…
I don’t know whether the price of tinned marmalade oranges has gone up too but it is exceptionally easy to make your own marmalade using them. The result is very tasty.
It’s funny but I almost never buy marmalade or jam or jelly
That is because you are a paragon of virtue. 🙂
Last week I went to buy some blueberries for breakfast and the price was higher than the entrée I planned for dinner!
I don’t know if you have any near you, but out here, we have some discount stores run by the local Mennonites, They take in food from larger chains that doesn’t sell or has not sold by the “best used by” date, and sell it at a significant discount. We shop there a lot, checking out what is available when we are in or passing through the towns where the shops are located as there are none in our town. The main problem is that they don’t have the same things all the time; it is hit or miss. The process gives the phrase “foraging for food” a new meaning.
All the supermarkets donate the food to charities these days – very organised but it tends to be given way. We, of course, don’t qualify . . .
Some of that goes on here, too. One of the organization is called “Gleaners”, and they take food that doesn’t sell at the end of the day from farmers’ markets, too.
We used to have people called “Fregans” who raided bins at the end of the day – so much waste. Giving it to charity is cheaper than providing security.
Not that I’m aware of, Lavinia. We used to have “You Pick ’em” farms, but they are now all housing developments.
Life is going mad. They are nice, they are healthy, but there is a point where you have to think twice about buying them.
And on that train of thought, my cereal is now bare of fruit this week.
We have reverted to bananas at the moment.
Bananas are still reasonably priced.
I love bananas, bu keep being told they aren’t good for me. 🙁
Good idea. I’ve been staying away from them because of the carbohydrates, but they are still reasonably priced.
Yes, we have been steering clear of them, but if I have to eat sawdus for breakfast I need some help.
haha, sounds like you eat the same tree twigs I do!
At our age they call it “dietary fibre”. Twigs is, however, more accurate.
Have you tried marmalade in bread and butter pudding?
Bread and butter pudding is a casualty, like liver and onions and pearl barley, of Julia not liking it. I could make it myself, but I can’t be bothered to do it for myself. However, as I think of bread and butter pudding with marmalade, I feel myself becoming more industrious. Sounds good!.
You never know, she might like it
I will try. 🙂
We have a major grocery store chain merger here in progress which seems to have resulted in prices going way up and selection and quality going down. The local Safeway chain has merged several times over the years and Albertsons, the parent company that bought it, is about to merge again. It is getting harder now to keep track of which chain has eaten whom. Banking is going the same way.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/14/business/kroger-albertsons-merger.html
We have the same thing here – the UK Safeway chain has now been absorbed into other groups.
Should I send you some of our homemade marmalade?
You are putting me to shame with your talk of home made marmalade, as I have grown very lazy in recent years.
Oh pshaw!!💕
That plum jam sure looks pretty. Prices have skyrocketed here, too. Must be so expensive to feed a family. I remember being able to feed a family of five for $90 a week. Can hardly feed two people for that amount nowadays.
Now we really sound old. I remember when I used to earn just over £18 for a 48 hour week and was still, able to run a car. 🙂
Not sure which is more old-fashioned – the £18 or the 48 hour week.
Right?
I used to say I’d never bore people with ales of my youth – no look at me! 🙂