Supermarkets exploiting cost of living crisis

You should try feeding a large family where a block of cheese can last a couple of days not weeks.

I’m guessing it’s at least 100%.

Gotta be at least twice that 🤔

No need to throw away food. Make a family's worth of portions and freeze some.

If you’ve got a large family then this probably doesn’t apply to you. You buy food and the gannets Hoover it up before you get a chance to put it in the fridge!

Or if you're two adults and two children. GANNETS THE LOT OF US, well mainly me.

This goes back to that "can you cook?" thread...

Food delivery boxes. The right amount of raw ingredients delivered to your door. The only reason I go to supermarkets now is for basics like milk, cereal, coffee, fruit etc.

Everything else is right there in one box, no waste, no wondering what'll be left in stock.

Alternative is to do batch cooking. Buy what you need in bulk to make up a load of pasta sauce/bolognese etc and freeze it.

It's always been that way in supermarkets anyway. I remember doing shelf stacking in my mid-teens and there always being loads of 2-for-1 offers, buy 2 get 3rd free, buy any 3 of x for the price of 2... Always been way cheaper cooking for 2 or more people than cooking for 1.
Same if you buy a regular tin of beans, it's 20p, if you buy a half size tin, it's 18p.

When I think food delivery box. I think expensive way of buying veg. I’ve done no recent research on this.

Chest freezer and online supermarket shopping for me, mostly.
Fridges are for milk and beer.

Freeze stuff, or batch cook it. I batch cook. I've had freezer surprise 3 days a week when in work for the whole of January, and we are a family of 4 adults. Cook enough for 4, freeze the rest for lunch/tea.

So why is it that if I want to buy some cheddar cheese I have to buy a block the size of a house brick? Why can’t I buy a small tub of cream, not a ‘supersized’ pot. Why can’t I buy a single mango, or avocado, or clove of garlic? I want a courgette, not three of them. The same goes for many other products that only a year or so ago I could buy from the same shops in smaller portions.

It costs near enough the the same for the retailer to sell a cheese weighing 100g as it does one that weighs a 1kg - it'll cost fundamentally more.

Those small stores also have limited shelf space, so they do have a limited range.

Have you considered going to 'proper' local shops, depending on your area they may be those aimed at 'ethnic' groups?

Odd title too, based on your complaint.

the fact is that the economics of small pack sizes don't add up. The non food cost (packaging, transport, other overheads) of a small and large can of baked beens is almost the same so which is why the 400g tin is only a few pence more that the 200g one.
Im sure there was something in the Guardian last week about the premium of being single. As others have already said the answer is either to make in bulk and freeze or plan so that different meals in one week that have fresh ingredients share those ingredients.

Cheese keeps. Mangoes, avocados and courgettes also last pretty well. Mangoes and Avocados are never ripe when bought, buy a few and keep them to ripen.

Sounds to me like you want convenience rather than anything else but there's a cost to that.

Living in a city centre, the only shops available are the myriad mini supermarkets, which serve a community of singles and couples, not families.

...unlike the family homes, which are located handily right in the out-of-town retail parks alongside the big supermarkets?

I don't think supermarket food portion sizes have changed since the cost of living crises began.

Unless the fruit or vegetable is sold loose, which of course does happen, it is going to be more than just one portion, it's always been like that.

And imo you can buy fairly small quantities of cheese. Obviously it is sold in qualities larger than just one portion but I reckon most single people are happy to buy more cheese than they can eat in one go.

How do you feel about being forced to buy more than two slices of bread or one egg? Exploitation of the cost of living crises?

Try living on an island - the only shop here decided to change (well, Co Op head office did) from a supermarket to a convenience store. We have no own brand stuff, just premium brands at silly prices - no 30p tins of beans, just Heinz for £1.20. Fruit and veg range is derisory, short-dated, poor quality - we often go weeks without basics like oranges - avocados and mangos? Exotica we have to go to the mainland. We do have freezers chock-full of ready meals, frozen pizza, ice cream and ice cubes. Mrs DB came out with 6 items the other day for 18 quid, including a small bag of flour costing £2.40 (99p on the mainland).

Having been single, a couple and now a family I understand your problem but when I was single I solved it within about a month of moving away from home.

I just went to a big supermarket, planning basic meals packed my one shelve on the fridge well and froze some small portions. Now if I could solve all my other problems so easy i would be sorted

Who would only want to buy one clove of garlic? Buy a tube of convenience garlic and squeeze one out
Although occasionally I buy one carrot if cooking mince as that's all I require, I do get strange looks but maybe only costs 11p

or eat beans on toast. cheap and contains all 10 amino acids

This reminds me of when As lad I worked in a stationary shop and one customer came to the till with 1 envelope and told me it was 3.7p (or whatever but it wasn’t a round pence). They’d split a pack of 50 and The label gave a per unit cost. Since the concept of buying the whole pack was the usually accepted approach was lost on them I refrained from asking him why he chose that envelope when he could have had the exact same one for 3.5p if he’d taken it from the 100 pack!

Average cost per unit is fairly standard labelling now so have you considered a just buying what you need from each pack?!

I don't understand. Why would you not want a brick 'o' cheese? It's a great comfort to know that just on the other side of the fridge door there is a block 'o' cheese with the dimensions and heft of a housebrick.

Shopping when single is easy. Just go to deli counter.

When I’m in away for work and get fed up eating out I just ask for cheese for one, just enough ham to put in a sandwich.

Next trick is high end delis 30 mins from closing. Before you know it you walking out with beef Wellington at 70% off.

I want a courgette, not three of them.

Horrible things. Why do you want them at all?

As far as the cheese problem goes, just make a huge dish of lasagne and freeze single serving portions. Then you can have lasagne breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day.

Batch cooking and plan ahead. The only veg I have trouble using up is the mystifyingly massive bags of spinach - I put a load into a batch of aloo gobi that I made last night, but still have a fridge full. Not much in financial terms, but I hate food waste.

Eat more.

I thought this was going to be about the fact supermarkets made megabucks during lockdown yet now "are forced" to increase prices due to global fubar. Same with fuel, heads we lose tails they win.

I thought at one stage they were going to stop the 3 for 2 offers as it encouraged buying wastefully. I only but what I need, even if the special offer gives me something for free, but if I don't need it, it is staying on the shelf.

Most major cities will now have a zero waste shop - Locavore are great ones in central Scotland. Go in there and buy exactly what you need. The veg is actually decent as well.

Batch cooking, buying the biggest quantity of non perishables, late shopping for bargains of perishables

etc

Is there a market (street market type place) near you? These stalls usually sell loose fruit and veg, cheeses, meat products etc, where one can buy as much or as little as needed.
Supermarkets are always ripping people off, but it's usually the farmer.

I thought at one stage they were going to stop the 3 for 2 offers as it encouraged buying wastefully.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-delays-restrictions-on-multibuy-deals-and-advertising-on-tv-and-online

There’s also transport from the shop that can be an issue. I often do my family shopping on the way home from work on my bike. This means I have just 2 panniers of volume available. Then the supermarket decides that loo roll will only be in packs of 16, how the **** am I supposed to fit that on the bike?

Likewise tinned tomatoes are nearly half the price per tin if bought as a pack of 4. Same tins but with an additional cardboard wrap. I get the logistics saving mentioned above but in this case all they save is the shelf stacking as the shipping units for 4xtin and individual tins are identical.

The end result of this is that I end up being forced to do a trip out in the car for shopping as I can’t buy what I need when I need it at reasonable prices due to the volume I’m forced to purchase.

You can continue to make a problem out of anything if you try hard enough

Hasn't it always been the case that small convenience type supermarkets are more expensive and have less choice than big supermarkets?

Surely thers an Aldi or Lidl not too far away, they're bloody everywhere!!

If you don't have a car, there are quite good car clubs nowadays where you just walk up to a car on the street and rent it for an hour. or just ride a couple of miles to a big shop.

Living in a city centre,

We have a whole range of small shops which sell loose veg, as well as a dedicated green grocer within a 5 min walk.

Pretty sure our local Coop sells most veg loose as well so you could buy a single courgette.

There's also a greengrocer on the market most days in the center of town.

This OP's problem only exists if you only visit large supermarkets.

If you don’t have a car, there are quite good car clubs nowadays where you just walk up to a car on the street and rent it for an hour. or just ride a couple of miles to a big shop.

Or shop online!
If you're that keen on buying twin packs of loo roll then bike to another shop - no one is forcing you to buy anything.

Sorry but I'm not getting the argument. I buy [fresh] food in normal supermarket sized packs - when I come to cook a meal I look at what's in the fridge and tailor the meal around that not the other way round.
I'll always use up what needs eating rather than throw it away.

weekly shop yesterday, family of 4, incl 16 and 20yr old boys - they eat a lot ... Think it was a bit over £200 (I wasn't doing it but wife and i were talking about it later on). The item that jumped out at me was the pack of Lurpak, which lasts about a week, and was £7 🙁

On the plus side, we got a Ninja soup machine last month and it's in almost daily use - currently it's cooking away downstairs with some oldish cauliflower and bendy celery 🙂

I buy online for a big family and have the opposite problem, I ordered one kilo of sprouts for Christmas dinner. I must have pushed the wrong button as I received one sprout.

The item that jumped out at me was the pack of Lurpak, which lasts about a week, and was £7 🙁

I stopped buying Lurpak for exactly this reason. About the best compromise I've found between taste / quality so far is Clover. Lidl's knock-off (Danepak?) isn't half bad either.

bendy celery

Finally! A brexit benefit!!

I buy online for a big family and have the opposite problem, I ordered one kilo of sprouts for Christmas dinner. I must have pushed the wrong button as I received one sprout.

🙂

I stopped buying Lurpak for exactly this reason. About the best compromise I’ve found between taste / quality so far is Clover. Lidl’s knock-off (Danepak?) isn’t half bad either.

Lidl's spready butter (yellow pack with red writing IIRC) really is excellent.

I've been converted from real butter while the weather is cold.

For those saying veg boxes are expensive - well they aren't cheap but the stuff is normally super fresh and lasts literally weeks longer than supermarket produce. I've noticed 'fresh' supermarket fruit and veg goes off a lot quicker these days - I guess a symptom of a converluted supply chain made worse by Brexit and other more local logistic issues - plus supermarkets can just get away with it. We never used to throw fresh stuff away but now we do so something must have changed. However anything from Riverford just doesn't go off in the same way (plus it isn't in plastic either). I'd rather pay more for something that tastes nicer and lasts longer every time - but I appreciate that this option is not possible for some

weekly shop yesterday, family of 4, incl 16 and 20yr old boys – they eat a lot … Think it was a bit over £200 (I wasn’t doing it but wife and i were talking about it later on). The item that jumped out at me was the pack of Lurpak, which lasts about a week, and was £7 🙁

Family of 5, (with three teen daughters who train every weeknight) and I do the shopping and cooking. £100 - £120 per week for 3 shops per month, so less than £360 a month including a few bottles of wine. The 4th non-shopping week is to try and clear the cupboards and freezer a bit. We eat take-aways maybe 2 or 3 times a month. I don't buy brands (or very, very rarely) and because I used to work in the food industry tend to spot when prices are changing so the thought of spending £7 on Lurpak horrifies me. (I'd actually spotted that a few weeks ago not that I'd ever buy Lurpak.)

Supermarkets rely on shoppers blindly buying the same expensive brands every week regardless of pricing.

Lidl’s knock-off (Danepak?) isn’t half bad either.

Danepak is a fairly big brand in scandi countries, germany and the like. Not a knock off at all.

I’ve noticed ‘fresh’ supermarket fruit and veg goes off a lot quicker these days – I guess a symptom of a converluted supply chain made worse by Brexit and other more local logistic issues

I was talking to the guy who runs the farm shop by Delamere Station and he supplements his local stuff with imports but reckons a lot of produce he gets now goes from France to ROI, then N. Ireland, then Scotland which adds another 2-3 days.

Brexit is the gift that keeps giving.

Farmshop for the win, just buy exactly what u need, 5 mushrooms, 8 carrots etc. Cash goes straight to farmer too, no packaging, no waste.

Theres a chap selling short dated foodstuffs near me,cheap as chips. Saves it going to waste.

Dried stuff like oats, coffee beans,crisps, maltesers,all have sell by dates on. It all gets scoffed on arrival anyway.

Supermarkets are v good at what they do.

Farmshop for the win, just buy exactly what u need, 5 mushrooms, 8 carrots etc. Cash goes straight to farmer too, no packaging, no waste✓

There's a zero-waste shop near mine - take your own tupperware/bags etc, fill with what you need. Paid by weight, it's just a self-serve system where you weigh the empty box, put in required amount of "stuff" then weigh it again and tell the system what you have. (It does get checked, the final step is taking it to a manual checkout).

They even sell spices by the teaspoon so you don't end up with jars and jars of ancient spices lying around.

iirc irradiating fresh food extends the transport/shelf life of food, but when it does go off it go's much quicker. So non irradiated fruit and veg when it starts to pass its best you still have days where it is perfectly acceptable, you can adapt your meals and use it. Whereas irradiated food can just become unusable in a very short period of time.

However anything from Riverford just doesn’t go off in the same way (plus it isn’t in plastic either). I’d rather pay more for something that tastes nicer and lasts longer every time – but I appreciate that this option is not possible for some

We used to use Riverford so I've just looked at their current boxes. £22.70 for a large box and there aren't enough potatoes, mushrooms or peppers for us, although we are 5, not the suggested 3-4. But there are far too many onions. Who needs 1.6kg of onions? (Onion surprise every night girls! 😀 ).

We had some nice stuff from them - wet garlic, purple sprouting broccoli - but far too much stuff like cos lettuce which just bulks out the box and gets thrown. Luckily, we have a very good market less than a mile away which does good veg.

iirc irradiating fresh food extends the transport/shelf life of food, but when it does go off it go’s much quicker.

Irradiated food must be labelled, by law. It's not very widespread, afaik.

@idlejon  I agree on the onions! especially as one of mine absolutely hates them (likes all other veg luckily).  I also agree that sometimes the boxes are a bit meh so we generally check before hand whats likely to be in them and we don't have them every week - the app is pretty simple to chop and change stuff.

Farmshops are great but normall only open at certain times, not always where you are likely to be and you can't get all you need there - fine for when you have the time to 'luxury' shop so to speak but not when you are in a rush on the way home from work. Plus where we are in east sussex, some of the farm shops basically take the piss and price for townies down from London!

Plus where we are in east sussex, some of the farm shops basically take the piss and price for townies down from London!

We don't have that problem in Swansea! 😀

Danepak is a fairly big brand in scandi countries, germany and the like. Not a knock off at all.

Apologies. It's Danpak, not Danepak.

https://www.lancs.live/whats-on/shopping/compared-lurpak-cheaper-aldi-lidl-23188657

Heh. Lidl has Danish-sounding Danpak, Aldi has Norwegian-sounding Nordpak. I wonder what we'd get with faux-Swedish butter, Flatpak?

Freezer is full I'm afraid, currently a pan of home made vegetable soup is sitting on the hob waiting to be put in the freezer but there's no room.

I was a sous chef for about four years after college so know how to cook, storing the bluddy stuff is the problem. (and electricity costs money don't you know).

And to the point; 'supermarkets have always been like that'... they haven't. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options. Which obviously leads to greater food waste (and packaging containing food that will only be thrown is an extra waste as well don't forget).

Farm shops are great, organic butchers are great too but they aren't cheap, and this thread is more related to cost of living and how corporations could be mis-serving both the public and the environment.

And to the point; ‘supermarkets have always been like that’… they haven’t. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options. Which obviously leads to greater food waste (and packaging containing food that will only be thrown is an extra waste as well don’t forget).

Nobody is forcing you to use those shops. There must be alternatives - you're in the second biggest city in the country, I think?

My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options.

That must be local to you, can't say I've noticed it. Eg we still buy cheese in a small block, from Sainsbury, which I get through over a couple of weeks on my own.

One thing I have noticed, well my kids noticed before I did, is that increasingly our local supermarket prices are different at the till than they are as displayed in the shop. Pricing hikes so quick and often that the staff cant keep up with making the changes or sneaky tactics by the shop themselves? I don't know but as much as I want to I cant bring myself to bring it up for every item that it happens with when there's a queue waiting.

I agree partially with the OP, it's not always a PITA, but sometimes it is.

I like carrots, the OH doesn't, so in an average week I need perhaps 4?

Now, I could go into the town and buy 4 carrots from the greengrocers, or 10 miles to the "farm shop" which is just a posh greengrocers, hardly any of it is local.

Co-Op (x2), Lidl, Aldi are the three supermarkets within ~3 miles cycling distance only sell carrots by the bag. It only cost's ~80p for a bag, but I end up binning at least half of them!

Cheese on the other hand, what is this concept of waste cheese? At worst your cheddar slowly matures into "surprise cheese" as it gets inoculated with other bacteria so begins to taste a bit brie-y, stilton-y, gouda-y.

At worst your cheddar slowly matures into “surprise cheese” as it gets inoculated with other bacteria so begins to taste a bit brie-y, stilton-y, gouda-y.

No it doesn't. It grows mould on the outside surface, which when cut off exposes a perfectly edible cheese with an almost identical taste to the original cheddar. Mild cheddar doesn't start to taste any different in the few weeks it's likely to be kept until it becomes an entire lump of mould. (Can you guess what I used to do in another work-life? I did quite a lot of work on shelf-lives and packaging of cheese. 😀 )

It only cost’s ~80p for a bag, but I end up binning at least half of them!

Ummm.... Then eat more carrots!
Seriously.

And to the point; ‘supermarkets have always been like that’… they haven’t. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options.

That might be in response to demand, generally the margin is better on smaller portions but the decision on what to stock is based on what people actually pick up and take to the till - supermarkets don't care what you buy, just that you buy.

I know you;re talking about city / town centres being populated by smaller households rather than families and thats true  in terms of who's resident but a city's population is bigger in the day than it is at night. Plenty of people commute into city centres to work and shop there (at least for convenience if not for their weekly shop) and have families to go home to. It maybe those people are in greater number as a customer base than local residents and as a result larger portions are what sells. Smaller supermarkets have less shelf space so are less able to offer a variety of sizes of the same product.

But - it might also be worth just chatting to the shop staff - supermarket managers usually have some say in what they stock - not a lot but a bit - and you can just ask them to stock something / a range of things if you think its what you and your neighbours would buy.

Veg boxes? Meh, frozen veggies FTW!

My freezer is full of chopped and prepared vegetables, even diced onions and chopped garlic. No faffing around making a mess with the beastly veg, just pour it in the pan and crack on. Perfect for the busy single chap/chapess who likes to eat but despises physical labour and washing up.

And to the point; ‘supermarkets have always been like that’… they haven’t. My point was that various items that I could get as singles or in smaller cartons from mini supermarkets are now only available in larger options.

There has definitely been a change. I love a 5 minute walk from a small Tesco. 2 or 3 years ago Tesco decided to consolidate all their Tesco Metro and Tesco Express shops. I forget which way round it is, but anyway ours was turned into the other type and stopped stocking about 30% of the lines that it did. The staff didn't seem too impressed either!

It's about 200 yards from an Aldi. The Aldi is always absolutely rammed. The Tesco, not so much...

Having been single, a couple and now a family

Was that by mitosis? Did you just keep dividing in two?

I guess I'm lucky to have a good greengrocers nearby.

As for Lurpak at £7, how big is that? 250g at Waitrose (not the cheapest I imagine) is £2.65 for 250g. Waitrose own is £2.20. All diary produce has shot up in price over the past year.

Perfect for the busy single chap/chapess who likes to eat but despises physical labour and washing up.

A chopping board and knife?

2 or 3 years ago Tesco decided to consolidate all their Tesco Metro and Tesco Express shops

Interesting move - the reason they had all their 'extra' metro' 'express' and so one was as a way of getting round the Competition Commission which had legislated to prevent one grocery supplier dominating the choice in and given area. The idea being that a company shouldn't be able to run all of, the vast majority off the supermarkets in the town. But Tesco managed to argue successfully  that an extra and a metro and an 'express;  are all different kinds of shops.

Thats how you end up with towns like Bicester with a population of 29,000 and five Tescos - all of which Tescos claim are different kinds of shops serving a different kind of need.... but all selling the same stuff.

As for Lurpak at £7, how big is that? 250g at Waitrose is £2.65 for 250g

£7 for a 1kg pack at Costco, although they had it reduced to £5.60 or something a couple of weeks ago.

They're increased many items well above inflation.

Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%

All diary produce has shot up in price over the past year.

You can't compare diary pricing year on year. They always drop the price once the year has begun.

They’re increased many items well above inflation.

Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%

Inflation is the average price increase on a basket of goods. Some products will increase more than average, others by less than average, that's how averages work. If everything increased by exactly the same amount, we wouldn't need an average, we would only need to find the price increase of a single product and all the others would have the same percentage increase. So, having some products increase by more than inflation will just mean that others increase by less. If you have a mixture of imported goods that are difficult to substitute locally plus locally produced goods, plus a huge event like Brexit on top of pandemic supply chain issues, you would expect some big differences in inflation between different goods. In a competitive market, inflation isn't driven by cartels artificially jacking up prices, it's driven by supply not meeting demand. If you want cheaper goods, you need economic policies that will increase the supply of goods.

 

Oh, I got my block quote codes mixed up in the previous post. Should look like this:

They’re increased many items well above inflation.

Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%

Inflation is the average price increase on a basket of goods. Some products will increase more than average, others by less than average, that’s how averages work. If everything increased by exactly the same amount, we wouldn’t need an average, we would only need to find the price increase of a single product and all the others would have the same percentage increase. So, having some products increase by more than inflation will just mean that others increase by less. If you have a mixture of imported goods that are difficult to substitute locally plus locally produced goods, plus a huge event like Brexit on top of pandemic supply chain issues, you would expect some big differences in inflation between different goods. In a competitive market, inflation isn’t driven by cartels artificially jacking up prices, it’s driven by supply not meeting demand. If you want cheaper goods, you need economic policies that will increase the supply of goods.

Inflation is the average price increase on a basket of goods.

Technically that's CPI. Inflation is a measurement of change that can be applied to individual items, services, etc.

As a very small shop owner we only sell large blocks of cathedral city cheddar as it's the best value for money for the retailer and customer. If I sold smaller packs the majority of my customers would complain as they would be getting less for more money (not enough shelf space for range).

As for fruit and veg, it sells with an ok margin but takes up large amounts of shelf and, even worse, fridge space. Our fruit and veg range doesn't pay for the running cost of fridge we keep it in any more! We do however make sure no fruit an veg is prepackaged so you can have as much or little as you want.

Just make sure you don't buy stuff that goes off quickly (i.e. bagged salads) and you will be fine. Cheese lasts for ages, most fruit and veg lasts for ages in fridge and some out of fridge (squashes, sweet potatoes etc,).

Bit of a non issue with 10 seconds of thought into what you are buying.

They’re increased many items well above inflation.

Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%

You also have to remember supermarkets work on increasing smaller profit margins, Tesco is around 2%, but their running costs have risen far above inflation. It's a very fine line of trying to provide the best value for money in competition with the others, and not making on mistake that could lead to the complete collapse of the buisness. Before Tesco in the  UK we didn't have this 'every thing in the supermarket must be as cheap as possible' mentality - Tesco was the original Aldi/Lidil in the 1960’s.

The electricity cost (the biggest per month bill I have, other than wages) in my shop for example has doubled for the next three years and I'm on a comparatively 'good deal' - I've heard from some retailers where their utilities bills have quadrupled. Costings of around an extra 5k a month have been banded about - those costs have to be passed to the customer, if they can't you'll fold.

Items that sell well have always had high margins for supermarkets, milk, bread, eggs - especially if they can control the price that they buy in at (remember the supermarket egg shortage earlier this year?). The supermarkets are trying to manage running costs with staples as that's where they actually make their money - high turnover short shelf stay items.

They’re increased many items well above inflation.

Rise of 10% and the price of an individual item rises in some cases 30%

You'll know for the work your do yourself that price increases aren't spread evenly between commmodities just from buying wood. Just over a year ago the inflation rate was under 5% but the price of chipboard I was buying quadrupled over a few months. And that was before the Ukraine invasion and the great vanishing of all the birch ply.

Yesterday I bought 'Meadow Churn' British butter from Iceland @ £1.80 per pack, bargain.

If people are bulk buying fruit and veg, cheese or anything else, can you share it please with neighbours?
We live in a cul du sac and share a lot of food (only with the neighbours we like :o) )

I cannot abide food waste and would rather eat a piece of moldy cheese or a slightly bendy leek, by cutting out the 'bad bit' or give the food away, rather than 'bin it'.

As for wood, it's so expensive now and some of the suppliers have been cashing in on the supply and demand chains.

Yesterday I bought ‘Meadow Churn’ British butter from Iceland @ £1.80 per pack, bargain.

Another part of the food industry that I worked in! 😀

Most butter is the same, blended from big blocks and wrapped in different packaging. You get different salt content butter, and speciality butters, but pretty much every butter blended in the UK for mass consumption is exactly the same. You literally are just paying for slightly nicer packaging if you buy a more expensive butter.

As for Lurpak at £7, how big is that? 250g at Waitrose (not the cheapest I imagine) is £2.65 for 250g.

It was spread, not butter. (Although people use the terms interchangeably.) It's currently £4 for 500g of Lurpak spread at Waitrose. https://www.waitrose.com/ecom/shop/search?&searchTerm=lurpak%20spreadable

You literally are just paying for slightly nicer packaging if you buy a more expensive butter.

Does that include organic stuff?

You literally are just paying for slightly nicer packaging if you buy a more expensive butter.

Does that include organic stuff?

I don't know, sorry. That's a sector that expanded significantly after I moved on, but I'd guess that it doesn't because of the requirements for proving organic status.