The rising cost of living

[bickster]

4 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Bastards should be getting fined for this

It would be incredibly hard to prove price fixing across almost the entire sector, I also doubt it's true.

What seems to be happening is the supermarkets have made a decision not to sell petrol on the cheap any more, the chain forecourts are then setting their prices higher than the supermarkets (because that is how they always worked) and the further away from the supermarket the higher the price. The supermarkets in turn are basing their price on what the local forecourts are charging. So the old Tory adage of the market sorts out the price is utter nonsense and the prices stay where they are whilst the cost per litre to ourchase keeps going down. It'll only change when someone breaks the pattern and heavily discounts to gain an advantage. What the country need right now is a 1000 of those Go garages I spotted the other day, sadly there is only one

[Genie]

45 minutes ago, bickster said:

It would be incredibly hard to prove price fixing across almost the entire sector, I also doubt it's true.

What seems to be happening is the supermarkets have made a decision not to sell petrol on the cheap any more, the chain forecourts are then setting their prices higher than the supermarkets (because that is how they always worked) and the further away from the supermarket the higher the price. The supermarkets in turn are basing their price on what the local forecourts are charging. So the old Tory adage of the market sorts out the price is utter nonsense and the prices stay where they are whilst the cost per litre to ourchase keeps going down. It'll only change when someone breaks the pattern and heavily discounts to gain an advantage. What the country need right now is a 1000 of those Go garages I spotted the other day, sadly there is only one

I think the retailers should be asked to justify the huge gulf in retail price between diesel and petrol when the wholesale price is the same. 

For may years it was 2p, now it’s 17-20p for no reason at all (other than profiteering).

The government won’t be so keen to get involved given a chunk of that 17p goes straight to their coffers.

[foreveryoung]

33 minutes ago, Genie said:

I think the retailers should be asked to justify the huge gulf in retail price between diesel and petrol when the wholesale price is the same. 

For may years it was 2p, now it’s 17-20p for no reason at all (other than profiteering).

The government won’t be so keen to get involved given a chunk of that 17p goes straight to their coffers.

That's a rip off on its own. Diesel is much cheaper to refine than petrol. Prices increased when they realised there are now more diesel cars on the road. Diesel used to be far cheaper than petrol before this.

Edited March 29, 2023 by foreveryoung

[sidcow]

10 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

That's a rip off on its own. Diesel is much cheaper to refine than petrol. Prices increased when they realised there are now more diesel cars on the road. Diesel used to be far cheaper than petrol before this.

I think diesel increased when they realised it killed far more people didn't it? 

[chrisp65]

10 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I think diesel increased when they realised it killed far more people didn't it? 

I think it’s swung back and fore a few times in the debate on whether petrol or diesel will kill you quicker.

If you take a diesel car on a long unhurried uninterrupted trip, it should be better than an equivalent petrol engine. But stopping and starting around town, it likely kills slightly more kids.

But I don’t think there’s much in it. The bigger factor is probably not whether its petrol or diesel, more whether its relatively new, well serviced, and not driven by an arsehole.

[Genie]

The US just confirmed lower than expected inflation for March, 5.0%. Prediction was 5.1-5.2% from 6% in February.

I bet the UK about 9% and still going up.

[sidcow]

25 minutes ago, Genie said:

The US just confirmed lower than expected inflation for March, 5.0%. Prediction was 5.1-5.2% from 6% in February.

I bet the UK about 9% and still going up.

Yarp. 

[Demitri_C]

Cost of milk seems to have gone down now - lets hope the start of better days

[markavfc40]

Just announced that inflation still at 10.1%, now the highest in Western Europe. Food inflation is at over 19%.  

[El Zen]

And ritualistically hiking up interest rates seems to help very little. Strange, that. 

[Genie]

26 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

Just announced that inflation still at 10.1%, now the highest in Western Europe. Food inflation is at over 19%.  

Oh my **** god, that’s absolutely catastrophic. The USA is down to 5% now.

Our leaders are completely clueless. 

[Genie]

20 minutes ago, El Zen said:

And ritualistically hiking up interest rates seems to help very little. Strange, that. 

Yep, when inflation is driven by things you cannot not buy like food, heat, electricity and petrol interest rate rises just push more people into poverty.

[StefanAVFC]

125 zloty for a steak in a restaurant these days, I remember the day Poland was cheap

[HeyAnty]

On 29/03/2023 at 12:44, bickster said:

That Go Petrol station I was talking about seems to be the only one I can find on this side of the Irish Sea, they are a Northern Ireland chain. The fuel is cheaper than COstco

Massive in NIreland.  Crowd who own them are big into Oil and coal importing.  Suspect alot more of these Go stations will start poping up around the Uk.  They are usually few pence cheaper than other stations around the north

[sidcow]

I can see how removing the minimum wage kid manning the till from the equation could slash the price of fuel

[chrisp65]

This is not a spike.

A 10% wage demand just to stand still is now perfectly reasonable.

The government strategy was to just hope it goes away. It hasn’t.

[sidcow]

6 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

This is not a spike.

A 10% wage demand just to stand still is now perfectly reasonable.

The government strategy was to just hope it goes away. It hasn’t.

I mean maybe, MAYBE people wouldn't be so desperate for huge wage rises if their frigging mortgages weren't going through the roof as well.

It's almost as if they send out one message and their actions force another.

Edited April 19, 2023 by sidcow

[Genie]

1 hour ago, StefanAVFC said:

125 zloty for a steak in a restaurant these days, I remember the day Poland was cheap

A dad at my sons football team is Polish and he said there isn’t an awful lot of difference in cost of living between UK and Poland in many areas.

[Genie]

We got ~10% payrise last year as it was pre-agreed the year before and the business made lots of unhappy noises about how much it would cost etc.

Inflation still above 10%, they can’t just increase the entire workforce salaries by another 10%. Plus all the other stuff like bonuses and pensions.

The UK is in a death spiral. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Genie

[StefanAVFC]

9 minutes ago, Genie said:

A dad at my sons football team is Polish and he said there isn’t an awful lot of difference in cost of living between UK and Poland in many areas.

It really depends.

In the big cities it's crazy. Housing is generally still a lot cheaper, but eating out, shopping etc now is mad. Inflation not helping.

Me and my wife together earn comparable money to the UK so we're fairly protected but we're lucky. No idea how those in less fortunate positions are managing.