Totally OT: How much will people pay?

[brass monkey]

Went into ASDA and marked down were - Strawberries, £2 to 35p. Lovely, sweet and tasty. £2 ? they can keep 'em. Runner beans, £1 to 10p. Terrific with carrots, bacon & mash. £1 ? possibly. Cherries, £2 to 30p. Very nice, been ages since I had one. £2 ? for 26? they can piss off. Obviously they were trying to shift them so I thought I'd help and purchase a few portions.

Presumably, folks actually pay these prices. Do they have too much money? Do they actually see the price? Are they on benefits? Do they give a shit? Just bung it on the card? I'm not short of a few quid but maybe that's cos I refuse to pay silly money for things. Am I alone, I wonder?

Youngs fish in parsley sauce, often £3, sometimes £4, no way Jose. Bachelors cup-a-soup, used to be 5 in a box, now 4 but still the same price. Email Bachelors - you've just increased the price by 25%, ahhh, it's up to the retailer to set the price. etc etc etc. Even a loaf of bread, £1.30 or 2 for £2. Bastards.

[jgh]

My local Netto became an Asda, and they don't do any marking down. My food bill has rocketed. Netto margarine: 36p. Asda margarine: 86p. Netto tuna 29p. Asda tuna 89p. Bus to nearest alternative: =A36.40. I am unsuccessfully trying to persuade myself that it is more cost-effective to get in the car and drive somewhere. But, I'd have to buy more than I can eat, and it would rot before I can eat it :(

JGH

[brass monkey]

My local Netto became an Asda, and they don't do any marking down. My food bill has rocketed. Netto margarine: 36p. Asda margarine: 86p. Netto tuna 29p. Asda tuna 89p. Bus to nearest alternative: £6.40. I am unsuccessfully trying to persuade myself that it is more cost-effective to get in the car and drive somewhere. But, I'd have to buy more than I can eat, and it would rot before I can eat it :(

JGH

-------------------------------- The Walmarts etc of this world couldn't care less about the "little man" or the "little old biddy". They're making money hand over fist. I'm convinced that your average shopper has no clue of prices. They want this, they bung it in the trolley, they want that, they bung it in the trolley. If they can't pay there's always Wonga at a zillion % interest. We look at prices of things and folks seem amazed that we give a shit as to the cost and that it gets put back on the shelf. Either they're bloody stupid or we are.

Foxs Crunch Creams, sometimes a quid, sometimes 50p, come on. We tell'em where to stick it (I actually say out loud) then someone else bungs half a dozen in their trolley.

[Nick Odell]

To be honest, if you have the car and it is on the road and all those fixed costs are gobbling up the cash in your bank account (or your overdraft) then it probably is more cost effective to make an investment in a few litres of fuel to get you to places like that. But it's probably not worth keeping the car if you never or hardly ever use it.

At the time I totalled my car I had a part-time job doing something for which a car was pretty well considered essential and as an emergency measure while the insurance was being sorted out, I started using the bus service instead. By the time the insurance company had offered me a derisory sum for my beloved write-off I'd got used to the bus anyway so I decided I'd keep using the bus on the understanding that I'd buy another car if I found later on that I couldn't do my job properly after all.

That was 11 years ago. You know I'd even factored into my calculation that it would be cheaper to use a taxi from time to time rather than revert back to owning a car. I think I've only had to fall back on a taxi about four times so far.

It's made easier because I live in West Yorkshire and all things considered the bus services are really pretty good. But if you live where I think you live then your bus services aren't all that bad. And £6.30 will buy you a day ticket so not only could you get a manageable amount of shopping from afar but also do half a dozen other errands at no extra cost.

Nick

[jgh]

Yes, but I'd never be able to carry what I bought - unless I spent the entire day going to and from home and shops with every carryable purchase. I almost crippled myself trying to get 50m of 2.5T+E home on the bus, with no other purchases.

Yes, the only thing I miss from my previous job is the bus pass that formed part of my salary ;) The car I use I share with the lady next door, and I tend to use it for trips to Whitby or bulk buying.

20 years ago I used to go to Morrison's about once a month and buy a humungous amount of food and get a taxi home. But, I that was when dried food like Frosties formed a large part of my diet, and I found I couldn't eat the fresh food fast enough to stop it rotting and going straight into the bin, even in the fridge. When Netto opened around about 1995 I got into the habit of popping down every couple of days to get whatever I needed.

Anyway, I've got a list of car-required shopping to do today - soil pipe parts from ToolStation, boxes of cinnamon for the lady next door, garden chairs, other bits 'n' pieces. I'll have a wander around Morrison's and try and work out what would be worth a shopping trip for.

JGH

[MM]

No, BM, you are not alone! I am exactly like you.I simply refuse to pay those ridiculous prices. This year my cherry tree, bought five years ago as a sapling for a few quid from Aldi, produced a bumper crop of really delicious, dark red fruits. So many I was giving some to the neighbours rather than let the birds eat them. I picked the first one on 6th July and the last few around the 28th of July. Even then the birds still ate their fill from the higher branches. Yes, after only five years the tree is now tall enough to get a ladder.

During the rest of the year, I can happily go without cherries. But it seems some people cannot. Ditto for all the other overpriced stuff that the supermarkets fly in from abroad at enormous cost to the environment, strawberries especially.

Yes, I agree with your supposition that the supermarkets are ripping off consumers big time, although the recession has brought a lot more footfall into the discounters. I can barely move now in an Aldi store. Even the fur coat and no knickers WAGs are shopping there.

MM

[MM]

I live 6 miles from any bus route. My car is essential, even if I only drive 5,000 miles a year (shopping trips, plus a few excursions down south). Otherwise I park the car in the local town, then use my bus pass.

MM

[Nightjar]

You are possibly alone in thinking those prices are unusual. To me, those prices look fairly typical for the same items from my local greengrocer, not that I buy strawberries.

Buy the fish and make the sauce.

Many retailers do their own brand cup soups that are, I am assured by someone who actually buys them, just as good at a fraction of the price.

Bread making wheat increased in price by 136% between 2005 and 2011 and droughts in the USA are likely to push up prices even more this year.

In terms of income spent on food in high income countries, the UK is not doing too badly - 8.5% in 2011, compared with 9.9% in Germany and 12.5% in France in 2011.

Colin Bignell

[Nightjar]

On 15/08/2012 01:42, Nick Odell wrote: ...

I get free bus travel, but I wouldn't consider using the bus if I had much to carry and my shopping yesterday half filled the back of my estate car.

Colin Bignell

[whisky-dave]

What about potatoes I've heard a large proportion of which are grown in an = egyiptain desert using a natural underground lake andn it's still cheaper t= o do that then grow them in the UK.

Ah found a link :-)

to say whther it's better to grow stuff here or abroad.

[Phil L]

I've been saying this for years and now I, like thousands of others, won't go to any of the major supermarkets for most things. I go to Asda for cider, because they have 2L of the stuff I like for £2, but that's all I buy from there - everything else is astronomical, even local corner shops beat them on 9 out ot 10 prices - loads of shops around here do a loaf and 2L of milk for £2. Asda's veg are ridiculously priced and more often than not, revolting, I now get all fruit and veg from a farm shop at a quarter of the price and more importantly, it's fresh from small farmers, not stored under carbon dioxide for 2 years like Asda's crap, and don't get me started on the meat - they charge £15 a kilo for something they've paid the farmer £2 a kilo......I saw a lump of beef there last week, about the size you'd need for a sunday dinner for four and it was £27!!! I can go my local pub and get a sunday dinner for about £6, and this includes the veg and gravy, Y-puds etc, the cooking, cleaning and all I have to do is sit on my arse

[Nick Odell]

I used to live in a place like that. The Fens. My car was absolutely essential. I think that's why it took me so long to realise that my car wasn't so essential any more after I moved to West Yorkshire.

Nick

[Huge]

Too long.

"I get free bus travel, but I wouldn't consider using the bus."

There. That's better.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I haven't used a bus or a train in the last three years.

I haven't used a bus in the last 15 I should say.

[Nightjar]

Driving to the town outskirts, parking for free in a local shopping area car park and getting the bus to the centre can save me £3.40 or £5.00 in town centre parking fees (depending which side of 2 hours my stay is), for maybe a five minute longer journey.

Colin Bignell

[tim.....]

On 15/08/2012 01:42, Nick Odell wrote: ...

I get free bus travel, but I wouldn't consider using the bus if I had much to carry and my shopping yesterday half filled the back of my estate car.

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But if buying that much getting an on-line supermarket to deliver it is an option.

I assume that the PP has a problem because (like me) he rarely gets to the minimum spend required for them to deliver unless he packs our his order with perishables, which he then has to eat ASAP.

tim

[sm_jamieson]

Round here food shopping thoughts: milk =A31 for 4 pints, iceland or lidl, same place for frozen sausages, and= tuna always =A33 for 4 tins. Some frozen fish OK from Iceland. Ham offcuts in Iceland can be very good if you choose carefully, I've have = some lovely off the bone stuff for $1.75 for 450g. cheap bread for toast: about 40p from Tesco (everywhere else including icel= and or lidl, branded bread 70p or more. Fruit and Veg from greengrocer better than supermarkets, but quality still = varies. Meat is always poor and expensive from supermarkets. I would like to know w= here I can find a farmers market locally to get reasonably priced meat - it= would be useful to some kind of online forum that could tell me this. Very rare to find tomatoes that taste of anything (I intend to grow some). Only way to get tasty strawberries is pick your own (the tasty varieties ar= e too perishable). Also worth going to big 4 supermarkets to look at the "cheap" shelf. Buy lo= ts of any nearly out of date stuff and freeze it. Simon.

[Dave Liquorice]

If they deliver to where he lives. Only Asda and Sainsburys (recent addition. not seen their van) do for here.

[whisky-dave]

Opporsite for me, I can;t remmeber the last time I took shopping home in a = car wasn't this milenium, it's always the bus for me, so I have to consider= the wieght and size I typical shop 2-3 evenenings a week.=20

[Nightjar]

Only if you are happy buying food from a supermarket rather than picking what you want from a greengrocer, baker or butcher and don't mind that they will probably be sending you the stuff that is closest to the sell-by date.

Colin Bignell