Sainsbury’s and Unilever deny claims of profiteering in cost of living crisis

Supermarket chain and consumer goods company insist they are protecting shoppers from inflation surge

Sainsbury’s and the Marmite maker Unilever have both insisted they are protecting shoppers from inflation, amid accusations that some companies are profiteering from the cost of living crisis.

“We are not profiteering in any form,” the chief executive of Unilever, Alan Jope, said as the consumer goods company insisted it was only passing on three-quarters of its increased costs to customers.

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Best&Less accused of putting profit before Bangladesh workers by failing to sign safety accord

Company says its own code of conduct goes further than the global accord prompted by the Rana Plaza disaster 10 years ago

Major clothing retailer Best&Less has been accused of putting company profit ahead of the safety of Bangladeshi garment workers by declining to sign a key international accord on worker safety and labour rights.

The Rana Plaza disaster, 10 years ago on Monday, prompted outrage at the abysmal safety standards in the Bangladesh factories supplying major clothing brands and retailers, leading to the establishment of a cross-border agreement known as the international accord.

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End of an era as London’s famed Sylvanian Families shop shuts

Magnet for thousands of collectors of furry toys will close doors next week

Nineteen-year-old Molly Bell arrived in London early last week from Brisbane. By Wednesday, she had found her way to a tiny toy emporium in a nondescript street in north London to fulfil a dream. She needed to move fast as the Sylvanian Families shop, selling the eponymous toy animals and their habitats, closes on 22 April after more than 30 years.

Since 1992, the charming Highbury shop has been a magnet for thousands of collectors of the anthropomorphic animals – a magical grotto reminiscent of a bygone idyll.

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Shoppers in Great Britain switch to frozen food amid cost of living crisis

Such products doing ‘notably better’ than fresh items, data from Kantar reported by BBC shows

British shoppers are switching from fresh to frozen food as they try to keep down spending amid the cost of living crisis, retail data suggests.

The soaring cost of the weekly shop has been a significant factor in the squeeze on UK households, with food price inflation running at 18.2% amid high energy prices and shortages of salad vegetable because of bad weather in Europe.

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Sainsbury’s shoppers criticise ‘vile’ mince vac-packs aimed at reducing plastic

New pouches for beef are said to be ‘too compressed’ and ‘like I’ve bought someone’s kidney’

Sainsbury’s has said it is determined to make more “bold moves” to cut plastic and defended itself against criticism of new packaging for mince which shoppers have criticised as “very medical”, “too compressed” and “vile”.

The supermarket said last month it was the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its beef mince, part of the retailer’s efforts to halve its use of plastic packaging on its own-label products by 2025.

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Abusive working conditions endemic in Spain’s strawberry farms, report claims

UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacks

Abusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.

During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva.

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Strawberries instead of bin liners: poll reveals strange supermarket delivery substitutions

Shoppers reported replacement items in 47% of UK deliveries, including 62% from Asda, in Which? survey

Dog chews instead of chicken breasts? Strawberries in place of bin liners? These are just some of the strangest supermarket substitutions, according to a poll.

Almost half of supermarket deliveries (47%) included a substitute item over the past 12 months, the survey for the consumer group Which? found.

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Jacqueline Gold’s proudly smutty Ann Summers changed the UK high street

Lingerie and sex toy chain’s boss tapped into the female market by embracing Britain’s peculiar erotic humour

When Jacqueline Gold arrived to shake up Ann Summers, the company had already been in the family for a decade, bought by her father, David, and uncle Ralph Gold. They had made the initial leap from sex shop to what they styled as a “lingerie boutique”; it would be more accurate to say they took it from a shop women never went into to a shop women did go into, while still selling the same sex toys and lucky knickers.

The impact of Jacqueline Gold, who has died aged 62, went far beyond the shops themselves or even the operation. The irony is that British culture in the 80s was hardly a stranger to images of women in their underwear, but these images were pretty well always used to sell random things to men. The notion of erotic imagery and shop frontage aimed at women was quite novel, and freighted with innuendo – this is one sense in which I can just about allow that Britain is exceptional, the peculiar humour it derives from sex: that Carry-On, seaside postcard, slightly mirthless and dutiful performance, where anyone revealing a sexual identity is considered to make themselves ridiculous, becoming the butt of some inexpressible joke. It was not cost-free, therefore, for women to go browsing in Ann Summers, and Gold attacked this from two directions.

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Greggs to open 150 new stores despite rising staff and energy costs

Britain’s biggest bakery chain says it expects cost inflation of between 9% and 10% this year

Greggs has said higher wage and energy bills are weighing on its profits but it plans to push ahead with opening 150 new stores this year as well as trialling a 24-hour drive-through outlet.

Britain’s biggest bakery chain, known for its sausage rolls and steak bakes, said costs had risen by 9% last year and would continue to be a challenge in the year ahead.

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UK shoppers slash spending as price rises and energy bills bite

February figures from BRC highlight impact of cost of living crisis on British economy before budget

UK consumers sharply cut back their spending in February as soaring living costs damaged household finances, retailers have warned, despite strong sales of jewellery and fragrances for Valentine’s Day.

Highlighting the impact of the cost of living crisis on the economy before Jeremy Hunt’s budget next week, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said sky-high energy bills and the rising cost of a weekly shop were forcing shoppers to cut back.

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Thai factory used by Tesco faces criminal charges over treatment of workers

Exclusive: VKG, where workers made jeans for Tesco’s Thai branch between 2017 and 2020, faces charges including fraud

Thai police have brought criminal charges against a clothing factory that was used by Tesco to make F&F clothes, over its treatment of workers.

The Guardian revealed in December that Burmese workers who produced F&F jeans for Tesco in Thailand reported being made to work 99-hour weeks for illegally low pay in terrible conditions.

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Moonpig to stop selling cards with pugs over animal welfare concerns

Firm responds to calls from vets who say pictures fuel demand for flat-faced breeds, which often have serious health complaints

Moonpig is to stop selling cards featuring pictures of pugs and French bulldogs after criticism from vets and campaigners who fear the images fuel demand for the breeds, which often have serious health complaints.

Last year, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) wrote to the Greeting Card Association and card retailers, including Moonpig, Paperchase and WH Smith, urging them to stop using pugs and other flat-faced dogs on cards.

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Apples and pears could be next UK food shortage, farmers warn

Growers say they do not get paid enough by supermarkets, as supply of leeks also comes under threat

Apples and pears could be the next food shortage in the UK, after it emerged that British growers are planting just a third of the number of trees needed to maintain orchards, saying their returns from selling to supermarkets are unsustainable.

Ali Capper, head of the British Apples & Pears trade association which represents about 80% of the industry in the UK, said 1m new trees would have to be planted each year to maintain the UK’s 5,500 hectares (13,590 acres) of production.

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UK is short of salad crops and citrus fruits after cold spell in Med

Supermarkets say they are working with farmers to ensure wide range of produce is available

Supermarkets are facing shortages of salad crops, including tomatoes, peppers, lettuce and cucumbers, as well as broccoli and citrus fruits amid cold weather in producing countries such as Spain and Morocco.

Shoppers complained on social media about low stocks, particularly of peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers, as importers said supplies had been affected by a mixture of unseasonable weather and storms in the Mediterranean combined with a reduction in the amount of crops planted in heated glass houses in the Netherlands as energy bills have soared.

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Loss of nearly 15,000 UK retail jobs a ‘brutal start to 2023’, report says

Majority of job losses are at large retailers such as Tesco and Asda, according to Centre for Retail Research

Nearly 15,000 British retail jobs have already been cut since January in a “brutal start to the year” for the high street.

A total of 14,874 retail job losses have been announced by companies so far, according to analysis from the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).

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Primark enjoys bumper festive UK sales thanks to heels and baggy suits

Owner ABF says its grocery brands such as Twinings and Kingsmill also increased trading

Strong sales of heels, baggy suits and knitwear propelled Primark’s sales ahead of expectations over Christmas as shoppers returned to city centres and consumer spending was more resilient than anticipated.

Sales at the cut-price fashion chain’s established stores rose by 11% in the four months to 17 January, compared with the same period a year before, as the owner, Associated British Foods (ABF), said it had sold more items of clothing while prices had also risen by about 8%.

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Retail sales in Great Britain fall as shoppers rein in festive spending

Surprise December drop a result of cost of living crisis forcing people to cut budgets in run-up to Christmas

Retail sales in Great Britain unexpectedly fell by 1% last month as the cost of living crisis forced households to cut back on spending in the run-up to Christmas.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the surprise decline in sales volumes – economists had forecast a rise of 0.5% – was down to factors including rampant increases in food prices and a decline in online purchases as consumers worried about a wave of postal strikes affecting Christmas deliveries.

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Aldi increases pay for UK warehouse workers for third time in a year

Supermarket’s rise to £13.18 on 1 February puts hourly minimum rate 20% ahead of January 2022

Aldi is increasing pay for UK warehouse workers for the third time in a year – with the hourly minimum rate now 20% ahead of last January.

The German-owned discounter, which is the UK’s fourth-largest supermarket chain, said pay would rise to £13.18 on 1 February, up 4% on the current minimum of £12.66, which was introduced in September.

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Marks & Spencer to open 20 large shops, creating 3,400 jobs

Retail chain to invest £480m in rejuvenating its presence on the high street

Marks & Spencer is to open 20 large stores and create 3,400 jobs as part of a £500m plan to rejuvenate its presence on the high street after bumper Christmas trading.

The retail chain – which in October said it would close 67 of its “lower productivity” sites that sold clothes and homewares, about a quarter of its estate of bigger stores – said it planned to open the 20 new “bigger, better” stores in locations across the UK in the next financial year.

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Lidl, Zara’s owner, H&M and Next ‘paid Bangladesh suppliers less than production cost’

Survey of 1,000 factories for campaign group claims many cut rates in pandemic and have not increased them since

Lidl, Zara’s owner Inditex, H&M and Next have been accused of paying garment suppliers in Bangladesh during the pandemic less than the cost of production, leaving factories struggling to pay the country’s legal minimum wage.

In a survey of 1,000 factories in the country producing clothes for UK retailers, 19% of Lidl’s suppliers made the claim, as did 11% of Inditex’s, 9% of H&M’s and 8% of Next’s.

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