By funding and stocking products from Brazilian meat giant JBS, firms have also supported land-grabbing, investigation claims
Continue reading...Category Archives: Supermarkets
Get smashing: avocado growers want consumers to buy more amid fruit glut
Fruit oversupply plus rising cost of fertiliser, fuel and freight means producers are going backwards, Avocados Australia boss says
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Avocado growers are pleading with customers to buy more of the fruit, as a glut in supply sends prices to a historic low.
Across the country, the oversupply of avocados has seen prices drop dramatically – with the fruit going for as little as $1 in some stores.
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Continue reading...Ocado aims to raise £575m from investors to fund tech arm expansion
Firm wants to ‘invest in innovation at faster pace’ and help clients as online grocery market grows
Ocado is aiming to raise £575m from investors to fund the expansion of its technology arm, which enables overseas retailers to sell groceries online. It has also agreed a new £300m credit facility with a syndicate of international banks.
Ocado said it wanted the cash to “invest in innovation at a faster pace” and help its clients, which include the US supermarket chain Kroger and the French grocer Casino, to accelerate the shift to online shopping.
Continue reading...Morrisons mistakenly lists £2.50 whisky
The retailer identified the pricing error on its website before any bottles were sold
Mark Twain reputedly said “Too much of anything is bad, but too much good whisky is barely enough”.
Online shoppers at the supermarket Morrisons came close to testing his theory when the retailer accidentally priced bottles of a Scotch whisky at just £2.50, a 93% discount from its usual price of £36.
Continue reading...UK food price rises could hit 15% over summer, report says
Ukraine war, China lockdowns and Brexit help push up inflation, with products that rely on wheat worst hit
Food price rises in the UK could hit 15% this summer – the highest level in more than 20 years – with inflation lasting into the middle of next year, according to a report.
Meat, cereals, dairy, fruit and vegetables are likely to be the worst affected as the war in Ukraine combines with production lockdowns in China and export bans on key food stuffs such as palm oil from Indonesia and wheat from India, the grocery trade body IGD warns.
Continue reading...More than a fifth of Britons struggling as grocery price inflation hits 13-year high
Nine in 10 people say they are worried about the rising price of their shop, Kantar survey finds
More than a fifth of households in Great Britain say they are struggling to make ends meet as the price of the weekly grocery shop rises 7%, the highest level of inflation in 13 years.
Nine in 10 people say they are worried about the rising price of groceries, according to the market research group Kantar, putting the issue in second place behind concerns about energy bills as the cost of living crisis hits families hard.
Continue reading...Tesco to pay out more to pig farmers as industry warns of ‘critical’ situation
Extra £6.6m in support takes total to £10m, after criticism supermarket was not paying ‘fair price’ for pork
Tesco is to hand pig farmers £6.6m in additional support, taking the total to £10m, after warnings that a slew of producers could go out of business.
The UK’s biggest supermarket said farmers would get £6.6m until August on top of £3.4m handed out since March under an “accelerated and enhanced payment plan”, after being criticised for not paying a “fair price” for its pork.
Continue reading...Rising feed prices mean chicken could soon cost as much as beef, says Co-op
Price of UK’s most popular meat is rising faster than any other protein, according to retailer’s boss
Chicken’s relative affordability has helped make it the country’s meat of choice but one of the UK’s biggest food retailers has warned it could soon be as pricey as beef as production costs soar.
Steve Murrells, chief executive of the Co-op, said that feed costs had become a huge challenge for the poultry industry. “Chicken could become as expensive as beef. Chicken, which was incredibly cheap and great value for money, is rising quicker than any other protein.”
Continue reading...Why are UK supermarkets rationing cooking oil?
Tesco, Morrisons and Waitrose have limited sales after concerns over shortages caused by Ukraine war
The latest supermarket data from Kantar shows shoppers have been stockpiling cooking oil due to concerns about the shortage of sunflower oil caused by the Russia-Ukraine war.
Here we look at what’s behind the shortages, what the situation means for consumers and how long it might last.
Continue reading...Shelf shock: soaring supermarket prices shoppers find hard to swallow
From dog food to coffee, readers are reporting some basic goods’ prices are rising by far more than inflation
Inflation is rampant, and supermarket prices are no exception. Shoppers are returning to stores to find old favourites have leapt in price from one week to the next. The cost of consumer goods is spiralling at such a rate that retail analysts have coined a new term, shelf shock.
Nestlé, the owner of KitKat, Häagen-Dazs and Felix cat food, became the latest consumer goods group to warn of more pain to come on Thursday, saying it had raised prices by 5.2% in the first three months of this year and that rising production costs would force another increase soon.
Continue reading...Co-op to ditch use-by dates on its yoghurt to cut waste
UK consumers urged to use their judgment rather than chuck away products that are safe to eat
The Co-op is removing use-by dates from its own-brand yoghurt in an attempt to address the problem of millions of pots that are still safe to eat being wasted each year.
Instead, starting next month, the Co-op’s own yoghurts will carry a best-before date, with shoppers encouraged to “use their judgment” to gauge if they are edible. About 42,000 tonnes of yoghurt – £100m worth – is thrown away in British homes each year because it is out of date, according to the food waste charity Wrap. Half are dumped in unopened packs.
Continue reading...Union rejects pay rise of £1,500 for BT staff and plans strike ballot
CWU bosses say increase is relative cut in salary but BT says it is its biggest award in two decades
BT has given 58,000 workers a £1,500 pay rise that it says is its biggest award in two decades, despite its largest union rejecting the deal and saying it intends to ballot members over strike action.
Last week BT had a £1,200 pay rise offer rejected by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees, with union bosses describing it as “insulting” and a “relative pay cut” as soaring inflation fuels a cost of living crisis.
Continue reading...Why the ancient art of gleaning is making a comeback across England
Volunteers are picking leftover produce on farms to reduce waste and help food banks
“It’s like a vegetable treasure hunt,” says Jenni Duncan, 54, ankle deep in mud, looking at the rows of cauliflower plants stretching out in front of her as the Cornish drizzle gets heavier by the minute.
This field near Hayle in west Cornwall has already been harvested, but not all the produce met supermarket standards and so some was left unpicked. This is where Duncan and her team of volunteers come in, working down the rows, peeling back the leaves of plants that have been left behind, hoping to find small but perfectly formed cauliflowers still tucked deep inside.
Continue reading...‘They just worked’: reports of CDs’ demise inspires wave of support
Format might not have romance of vinyl but its versatility and reliability will never be topped, say supporters
After languishing in his car boot for several years, Jordan Bassett’s CD collection – mostly dating back to his teenage years – will soon be on proud display in his newly converted home office space.
Bassett, a commissioning editor at the NME, has no means of playing the CDs and, in any case, his musical tastes have moved on. But the 100-150 thin, shiny 5in discs have sentimental value – and, who knows, one day they may be part of a revival similar to vinyl among music aficionados.
Continue reading...Workers paid less than minimum wage to pick berries destined for UK supermarkets
Exclusive: Workers in Portugal picking berries ending up on the shelves of Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and Tesco allege exploitative conditions
- Photographs by Francesco Brembati for the Guardian
Farm workers in Portugal appear to have been working illegally long hours picking berries destined for Marks & Spencer, Tesco and Waitrose for less than the minimum wage, according to a Guardian investigation.
Speaking anonymously, for fear of retribution from their employers, workers claimed the hours listed on their payslips were often fewer than the hours they had actually worked.
Continue reading...There’s a new till-free Amazon Fresh shop near me – so I popped in for spring rolls and simmering despair
Capitalism’s great trick is to make us long for the useless and unnecessary. Under the bright lights, I felt that itch starting up
All I can say is that I should have known better. No, my decision to visit the branch of Amazon Fresh that has just opened near where I live was not at all a good match for the sweeping month-long programme of mindfulness and joy-sparking I tentatively set in motion for myself on 1 January. But there I was all the same, curiosity having got the better of me. And yes, the result was predictably awful. As any wellness guru worth the name could doubtless have told me, this way lay simmering despair and an almost overwhelming desire to buy a packet of Jacob’s Mini Cheddars.
I still have no idea how Amazon got the go-ahead to set up a branch of the grocery wing of its rampaging empire in the grade-II listed building it now inhabits: an old tram depot that when I first came to this part of London was the home of lots of little antique shops (RIP). There was, I seem to remember, a bit of a kerfuffle over its alcohol licence, but in the end it got the green light, in spite of the fact that there are already three large supermarkets mere metres away. Now it stands there rather mournfully, its lurid sign seemingly aiming to attract either those who simply cannot be bothered to cross the road, or those who prefer to keep on their headphones as they shop. (Amazon Fresh’s USP is that it has no tills, so customers need not speak to a single soul.) This, I have read, is one of 10 branches in the capital so far; by 2025, the company hopes to have 260 across the UK.
Continue reading...Do smart supermarkets herald the end of shopping as we know it?
A new breed of supermarkets means the days of queues, checkouts and shoplifting are numbered. But what else will we lose when no-transaction shopping becomes the norm?
Welcome to the supermarkets of the future. They may look and feel like the supermarkets we are all used to – and stock the same bread, butter and bananas – but these shops are now fitted out with more than £1m of the latest technology that their bosses promise will put an end to our biggest frustration (queueing) and our most persistent crime (shoplifting).
Jill French, a legal secretary in her 30s, wearing a sharp navy suit and matching beret, has just left a Tesco Express on London’s Holborn Viaduct empty-handed. It’s coming up to 6.30pm on a Thursday and, like dozens of others, French has popped in for a few essentials on her way home. “I just went in to grab pasta, milk and some broccoli,” she says. “But there was such a queue I got frustrated and walked out.”
Continue reading...That’s a wrap: French plastic packaging ban for fruit and veg begins
Law bans sale of carrots, bananas and other items in plastic as environment groups urge other countries to follow
A law banning plastic packaging for large numbers of fruits and vegetables comes into force in France on New Year’s Day, to end what the government has called the “aberration” of overwrapped carrots, apples and bananas, as environmental campaigners and exasperated shoppers urge other countries to do the same.
Emmanuel Macron has called the ban on plastic packaging of fresh produce “a real revolution” and said France was taking the lead globally with its law to gradually phase out all single-use plastics by 2040.
Continue reading...Festive shrinkflation: tricks chocolate makers use to make us pay more
At this time of year, manufacturers have a few new tactics to get us to buy less for more money
Getting value for money might not be your prime goal when buying Christmas presents but if you are planning to snap up chocolates or sweets for the ones you love, it pays to check what you are going to get for your cash. That fancy box or tub may come at a cost (financial and environmental) – and, contrary to appearances, it might mean fewer treats for the recipient, not more.
We’ve all heard about “shrinkflation”, where companies sneak through price rises by shrinking pack sizes, but when it comes to festive confectionery, it’s important to be wise to the other packaging tricks that manufacturers and retailers maybe hope we won’t notice.
Continue reading...Bee aware: do you know what is in that cheap jar of honey?
British beekeepers call for stricter labelling on supermarket blends to identify the countries of origin
British beekeepers are calling for a requirement on supermarkets and other retailers to label cheap honey imports from China and other nations with the country of origin after claims that part of the global supply is bulked out with sugar syrup.
The UK is the world’s biggest importer of Chinese honey, which can be one sixth of the price of the honey produced by bees in Britain. Supermarket own-label honey from China can be bought for as little as 69p a jar. Supermarkets say every jar of honey is “100% pure” and can be traced back to the beekeeper, but there is no requirement to identify the countries of origin of honey blended from more than one country. The European Union is now considering new rules to improve consumer information for honey and ensure the country of origin is clearly identified on the jar.
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