Supermarket Price Increases [Groceries]

Unfortunate i think its when people stop paying ludicrous price for non essentials. Nescafe gold blend is non essential, theres cheaper alternatives, although the price of coffee in Ireland is ludicrously expensive. When people stop will Nescafe say "hold on a second, why are we not selling any stock in Ireland"?? I dont know at this stage, but retailers are really taking advantage at this stage.

Litre of own brand milk upto €1.25. This may have been mentioned further up so apologies. I wouldn't have noticed but for it was the only item I bought in Dunnes today.

Seems like you missed the "if only" part of my post, as did the other poster.

Folks let’s start with milk.
Can anyone tell me how much own brand skimmed milk 1L and 3L whole milk is in any of the below:

Aldi, Lidl, Dunnes, SuperValu, Tesco.

Then let’s do own brand white sliced pan bread.

So what do you suggest we do to find out where is the cheapest place to shop in the ROI?

I disagree. Remove 80% of your fruit/veg coat for the year and it is not small change. Yes, it requires some work (grow, preserve, etc).

global increases in several commodities are feeding into prices

Cocoa beans near an all time high and has been for almost a year (5 year average 2018-2023 $2,000 a ton, average 2024- present $8500 a ton)

Coffee beans at an all time high - over double on 12 months ago. (5 year average 2018- 2023 $1.75 per lb, average late 2024- now $4+

Milk 24% higher than 12 months ago

Butter down from its highs, but still 28% higher.

These items have risen worldwide. Ireland is one of the cheapest for fresh milk even with the recent increase. If you like decent coffee beans, I'd be stocking up.

On the other hand, Sugar, Rice, wheat & Soy beans are lower as is Coal.

https://tradingeconomics.com/commodities

I find Tesco can be as cheap as Aldi/Lidl, sometimes cheaper, but the quality of products at that price point is higher in Aldi/Lidl. If your really want your branded product Tesco has a better selection of those and oftentimes has offers

I had nine raised beds for growing vegetables. A lot of hard work. Preparing beds, planting seeds, watering, staking tomatoes, peas etc. Harvesting. I kept a lot of my own seeds from year to year. It was fun but it was just as cheap to buy a pack of frozen peas or similar from the supermarket. Throw pack in trolley, place in freezer, eat as needed.

When the summer was not great, a lot of tomatoes didn't ripen. Yet I could buy what I needed in my local supermarket. When the summer was great, I had a glut of tomatoes. Much to many.

I reduced this to six beds and just grew tomatoes, salad leaves, French Beans, Mange Tout.

I also got rid of my gooseberry and blackcurrant bushes. I had to stake these every year and place netting over them to keep the birds away. Harvest was poor every year.

Last year we got rid of all our raised beds and planted Lavender in them instead.

We still keep two raised beds….one for rhubarb and one for a variety of herbs. We eat the rhubarb but don't really eat the herbs…..they are however nice to pick and smell.

Now we let the supermarkets be our vegetable garden. Buy as needed, bigger selection…..nil work.

Looking forward to sitting in the garden for 2025, pottering around and maintaining our flower borders and grass.

We can visit gardens of interest on holidays, day trips etc.

Buy where you're happy with

I find the milk in Aldi has an awful after taste so it's Supervalu own brand for me

The Aldi own brand white sliced bread just doesn't seem to go off, so I don't buy it anymore, I prefer Brennans but the Brennans in my local Aldi always feels like it's 2 days old, not fresh in, so it's Supervalu for that too.

However, the four pack of actual mars and snickers are only 2.39 and they're 3.50 in Supervalu and Dunnes and 3.70 in Tesco.

So I suppose that's a long winded way of saying I think you definitely need to shop around and bulk buy at the cheaper price if your budget allows it.

I've only copped in the last year that the special deals on branded teabags and some other goods are on rotation with the different supermarkets. So it's just a case of finding out which supermarket has the "special" price.

And just to add I really feel shoppers are being gouged by the supermarkets. On a weekly basis. I buy most of my dry goods in Aldi and every week the prices creep up, then bang they're on a special reduced price.

I really wish there was special inspector or dept that keeps an eye on supermarket pricing.

I really wish there was special inspector or dept that keeps an eye on supermarket pricing.

This falls in the remit of the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), you can submit any complaints to them and they can investigate them.

From the CCPC website:

When running price promotions or ‘special offers’, it’s against the law for shops to give a false or misleading previous price.

When selling goods at a sale price, businesses must display the ‘prior price’. This should be the lowest price the goods were on sale for in the 30 days prior to the sale. For example, if a laptop is advertised as ‘was €700, now €500’, then it must not have been available for less than €700 in the 30 days before the sale started.

There's nothing preventing Aldi upping their prices, keeping that price for 30 days and then putting it on special offer. That's legal.