Category Archives: Supermarkets

UK retailers expect subdued build-up to Christmas amid icy weather and strikes

Posted on by

Footfall likely to increase less than in previous years as shoppers struggle with cost of living crisis, say analysts

The UK retail industry is braced for a muted end to the Christmas shopping period as poor weather and strikes weigh further on consumers whose spending is already under pressure from the increased cost of living.

Analysts at the data company Springboard said they expected the number of shoppers at retail destinations across the UK to rise by 4.5% in high streets, 5% in retail parks and 10% in shopping centres in December compared with November. However, those footfall increases would be smaller than previous years.

Continue reading...

‘Likely a nightshade’: Australians urged not to seek out spinach products for recreational high

Posted on by

Warning comes as more than 130 people who ate range of contaminated fresh food items suffer symptoms including hallucinations and delirium

Australians are being urged not to seek out contaminated baby spinach products for a recreational high after more than 130 people who ate a range of fresh food items suffered symptoms including hallucinations and delirium.

Authorities were on Sunday night testing the weed believed to be responsible for the widespread recall of products containing spinach thought to have come from a farm in Victoria.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Riviera Fresh – Riviera Farms Baby​ Spinach

Fresh Salad Co – Fresh and Fast Stir Fry

Woolworths – Chicken Cobb Salad and Chickpea Falafel Salad

​Coles – Spinach, Chef Blend Tender Leaf, Baby Leaf Blend, Kitchen Green Goddess Salad, Kitchen Chicken BLT Salad Bowl, Kitchen Roast Pumpkin, Fetta & Walnut Salad, Kitchen Smokey Mexican Salad, Kitchen Egg and Spinach Pots

Continue reading...

Recall extended over spinach contamination caused by leafy green ‘weed’ on Victorian farm

Posted on by

Authorities say recalled spinach which causes delirium and hallucinations has affected more than 120 people across Australia

A child admitted to hospital is among more than 120 people believed to have suffered symptoms after consuming spinach amid a widespread recall of fresh food items contaminated with a weed.

Authorities say the recalled spinach products, thought to be from a farm in Victoria, have caused delirium and hallucinations.

Riviera Fresh – Riviera Farms Baby​ Spinach

Fresh Salad Co – Fresh and Fast Stir Fry

Woolworths – Chicken Cobb Salad and Chickpea Falafel Salad

​Coles – Spinach, Chef Blend Tender Leaf, Baby Leaf Blend, Kitchen Green Goddess Salad, Kitchen Chicken BLT Salad Bowl, Kitchen Roast Pumpkin, Fetta & Walnut Salad, Kitchen Smokey Mexican Salad, Kitchen Egg and Spinach Pots

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Farmers should not expect help with rising food prices, says Thérèse Coffey

Posted on by

The environment secretary tells MPs it is ‘not the role of government to provide free food’ or to intervene in markets

The government has ruled out making any intervention in the market to help farmers or consumers with high food prices, the environment secretary, Thérèse Coffey, has said.

Food prices have soared in the past year, in part owing to higher input prices such as energy, fertiliser and animal feed. Last month, food price inflation hit a fresh high of 12.4%, with poorer households hit hardest.

Continue reading...

UK farmers making tiny profits as supermarkets boast record takings

Posted on by

Ministers urged to act as study shows average block of cheese or loaf of bread makes farmers less than a penny

UK farmers are receiving negligible profits for many items as food prices rise and supermarkets boast record takings.

An average block of cheese or loaf of bread produces less than a penny for farmers, and fruit producers do not fare much better, making just 3p from each kilo of apples.

Continue reading...

UK single parents skipping meals due to food price inflation, Which? finds

Posted on by

Consumer body says one in three lone parents forced to miss meals or visit food banks to make ends meet

Close to a third of single parents have resorted to skipping meals to make ends meet because of rising food costs, according to research revealing the household types worst hit by the cost of living crisis.

Three in 10 single parent households surveyed said they had missed meals as a consequence of runaway food prices. That compared with one in seven parents in couples and an overall figure of 14% in the poll by the consumer group Which?

Continue reading...

Festive rush for Aldi’s Kevin the Carrot as 70,000 queue online for ad toys

Posted on by

Merchandise linked to supermarket’s latest Christmas campaign sells out online hours after going on sale

More than 70,000 shoppers have queued online and hundreds lined up outside UK stores to get their hands on Aldi’s toys and merchandise based around its Kevin the Carrot adverts.

By 10am, several versions of the soft toys had already sold out online amid high demand for merchandise linked to the hero of the discount grocery store’s festive campaign.

Continue reading...

Aldi’s 29p mince pie a close second to Waitrose’s winner in blind taste test

Posted on by

Waitrose’s No 1 Brown Butter pies wowed with their ‘buttery aroma’, while Aldi’s, at half the price, scored just one point less

Tucking into a mince pie is usually the first sign Christmas is on the way and with budgets under pressure this year getting your fix doesn’t have to break the bank, with a 29p pie from Aldi coming a close second to Waitrose’s brown butter pastry in a taste test.

The upmarket supermarket’s No 1 Brown Butter Mince Pies came top in a “rigorous” blind taste test conducted by Which?. They wowed the panel of baking experts with their “buttery aroma” and “citrussy aftertaste” to achieve the top score of 74%, earning the consumer group’s coveted “best buy” badge of approval.

Continue reading...

M&S faces ‘gathering storm’ as joint venture with Ocado makes loss

Posted on by

Marks & Spencer profits fall by almost 24%, although clothing, food and international sales rise

Marks & Spencer has said it faces a “gathering storm”, with next year likely to be more challenging than this after reporting a near 24% fall in profits.

The clothing, food and homewares retailer said sales rose 8.8% to £5.6bn in the six months to 1 October but underlying pre-tax profits sank 23.7% to £205.5m as its Ocado online grocery joint venture fell into the red and it pulled out of Russia.

Continue reading...

UK food prices soar by fastest rate on record as cost of living crisis bites

Posted on by

Rise of 11.6% in October from 10.6% a month earlier comes as milk, teabags and sugar become more expensive

Food prices in the UK soared by 11.6% in October – the fastest rate on record – as staples such as teabags, milk and sugar became more expensive along with fresh food, data shows.

Annual food inflation rose from 10.6% in September, the latest monthly report from the British Retail Consortium and the data firm Nielsen showed.

Continue reading...

Ocado shares soar as it signs deal with South Korean retailer

Posted on by

Online grocer to build robotic warehouses for Lotte Shopping in boost after slowing sales

The online grocer Ocado has struck a deal to build robotic warehouses for a South Korean retailer, sending its share price rocketing.

Under the deal with Lotte Shopping, Ocado will also provide technology for online grocery orders from Lotte’s stores. Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed.

Continue reading...

Thousands of salaried Tesco workers forced to take real-terms pay cut

Posted on by

A 3% pay rise for team managers amid 10% inflation comes after a string of wage rises for hourly staff

Thousands of Tesco staff have been forced to take a large real-terms pay cut as the supermarket puts a squeeze on store managers while offering bigger wage rises for lower-paid workers.

In the latest pay battle amid the cost of living crisis, the retailer’s team managers, who earn about £30,000 a year, say they have received as little as a 3% pay rise. The official rate of inflation is close to 10%, and expected to hit 11% this month.

Continue reading...

Tesco warns of cost inflation as it raises pay for third time in 13 months

Posted on by

Supermarket aims to make £500m of savings but will freeze prices on more than 1,000 products until 2023

Tesco has warned annual profits will be at the lower end of its hopes as it faces significant cost inflation, revealing it has raised pay for a third time in 13 months.

The UK’s biggest retailer said it was aiming to make £500m of savings this year to offset its higher costs, including more automated tills, but was uncertain how shoppers would behave in the run-up to Christmas.

Continue reading...

Pound falls as weak retail sales raise fears UK economy is in recession

Posted on by

On Black Wednesday anniversary, sterling hits 37-year low against dollar and 17-month low against euro

Fears that the British economy is already in recession after a slump in retail sales last month triggered heavy selling of the pound on international money markets taking it to a 37-year low against the dollar.

With average UK wages continuing to fall behind rising prices and the Bank of England expected to push up interest rates next week, sterling fell by more than 1% against the US currency to $1.135, its lowest since 1985.

Continue reading...

UK retailers blocking moves to end the killing of day-old male chicks

Posted on by

While France and Germany have introduced bans, Britain continues to slaughter 29 million unwanted chicks every year

UK retailers are blocking moves to end the killing of millions of day-old male chicks each year, farmers and breeding companies have said.

The industrial-scale culling of unwanted chicks is common practice around the world, with 330 million males slaughtered by crushing or gassing each year in Europe, according to campaigners, 29 million of those in the UK.

Continue reading...

Woman sues Aldi after she was injured in ‘special buys’ rush for discount TVs

Posted on by

Court documents allege supermarket in Victoria did not have crowd control and encouraged a ‘sense of urgency’ among customers

A woman is taking legal action against Aldi after she was injured at a Victorian store last year amid a “special buys” frenzy involving discounted TVs.

The 73-year-old, who wishes to remain anonymous, is seeking compensation after she was allegedly struck by another customer’s trolley and knocked to the ground during the heavily promoted sale at the Corio store in August 2021.

Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning

Continue reading...

Revealed: Indonesian workers on UK farm ‘at risk of debt bondage’

Posted on by

As farms look further afield for labour, investigation finds Kent pickers saying they struggle to pay fees charged by unlicensed brokers

Indonesian labourers picking berries on a farm that supplies Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, Sainsbury’s and Tesco say they have been saddled with debts of up to £5,000 by unlicensed foreign brokers to work in Britain for a single season.

Pickers at the farm in Kent were initially given zero-hours contracts, and at least one was paid less than £300 a week after the cost of using a caravan was deducted, according to payslips and other documents seen as part of a Guardian investigation.

Continue reading...

‘My family need my support to eat’: how Indonesians came to work on a Kent farm

Posted on by

Drawn to the prospect of a job abroad, people such as Banyu signed up to a language course. From there, their debts to brokers grew

Sitting in a caravan in the hot Kent countryside, Banyu’s face is etched with worry. It is July and he is less than a month into a job picking fruit at Clock House farm near Maidstone, which supplies strawberries, raspberries and other soft fruit to leading supermarket chains.

He says he arrived from Indonesia this summer £5,000 in debt to an unlicensed broker in Bali, handing over the deeds to his family home as surety. He only has a six-month visa for the picking season and is scared that the work is not as lucrative as he hoped.

Continue reading...

Hens will be fed insects to lay carbon-neutral eggs for Morrisons

Posted on by

Chickens’ diet cuts emissions linked to soya feed, while retailer’s food waste will fuel ‘bug farms’

Morrisons will offer consumers the first “carbon-neutral” eggs to be produced by feeding hens insects raised on food waste from the company’s supermarkets.

Chickens laying the eggs will have a soya-free diet including insects fed on food scraps from the retailer’s bakery, fruit and vegetable sites.

Continue reading...

Aldi gives second pay rise in year amid high demand for UK workers

Posted on by

Supermarket chain’s move comes as employers face fierce competition for staff after Covid and Brexit

Aldi has raised pay for shop workers for the second time in a year in the latest sign of the intense competition for workers in the UK.

From September, the grocery discounter is to put up hourly pay by 40p to a minimum of £10.50 outside the M25 and to £11.95 in London, an increase of at least 3.5%.

Continue reading...