Shop Watcher: Price rises recorded over 12 months = £0.95

“In this continuing year of austerity, shopping carefully has become essential – particularly for those families on a tight budget. Our Shop Watcher exercise followed the prices of four staple food items in the Big Co-op on Hull Road.”

FOOD PRICES have being watched as part of our Shop Watcher exercise – we have now come to the end of our 12 months.

So what have we learned? The prices we have followed have certainly gone up this year, but considering the austerity we are all facing, perhaps the price rises of these staple items have not gone up as much as expected?

The price of a 1-pint carton of milk has remained the same all year, whilst carrots have experienced a puzzling mix of price and pack size changes. Bread has experienced one price rise of 0.06p all year. Butter has gone up by £0.89 although the manufacturers told us that £2.50 was a typical price!

Should we concentrate on offers and discounts next year??

Next year we may conduct this exercise slightly differently and concentrate on offers and discounts available at the Co-op and other local shops around Hedon – but this would rely on readers being willing to share their knowledge about what they see and discover whilst shopping wisely. Interested in this idea? Let us know if you would find this useful.

Perhaps in December 2014 our headline figure could be the amount we have saved local shoppers on their annual shopping bill!?

Prices in December 2013:

The butter price was the same as last month, although there was an offer this week to buy two for £2.

* Carrot Prices in 2013:

• Jan – 50p – 500g (This was a 50% offer price so we listed £1 as our bench mark in January – which in hindsight was a mistake!)
• Feb – £1 – 500g
• Mar – 50p – 500g
• Apr – 85p – 750g (free 50% extra offer)
• May – 90p – 600g
• June – 88p – 600g
• July – 75p – 500g
• August – 75p – 500g
• Sept – £1 – 1kg
• Oct – 75p – 1kg
• Nov – 75p – 750g (free 50% extra offer), and £1.10 – 1kg
• Dec – £1 – 1kg