Consumers are struggling with high inflation and unaffordable food prices. A trip to the supermarket dreads many. It's hard to remember a time when food items were reasonably priced. Recently, a man in the UK unearthed a Tesco receipt from 1994 in a library book. Taking to Reddit, u/lukestrim shared an image of the receipt making people yearn for the good old times.
Here's how the prices have changed
The receipt came from Tesco, a popular supermarket chain in the UK, in Coventry from July 23, 1994. Posting on the r/CasualUK forum the user wrote, "Before my time and not much to go off but 30 years old and still looking fresh".
In the clearly readable receipt, it could be seen that the shopper got minced beef for just £0.55 ($0.69). Today, the same item goes for anywhere between £2.19 (~$2.89) to £5.25 (~$6.93), depending on the quantity and brand, as per the official website, which is nearly a 10x jump.
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The receipt also had beef burgers, which cost the shopper about £1.39 ($1.75). The same goes for anywhere between £6.00 (~$7.92) to £2.75 (~$3.63) now. The next item was cooking oil, which cost £0.65, 30 years ago but today costs anywhere between $2.75 (~$3.63) to £9.00 (~$11.88) depending on the brand.
The only items that seemed to be cheaper today were bananas, which saw a drop in price from £0.18 (~$0.24) to £0.16 (~0.21). However, the price changes as per brand and it is unknown what the old shopper got.
The prices naturally shocked the readers. "55p for minced beef!!" wrote one user u/thatluckyfox. "There's a decimal point between the 5s now," added another user u/StumbleDog.
Meanwhile, some users argued that the prices hadn't gone up that much because the value and purchase power of the currency had changed as well. "Interesting! £29.39 in 1994 is about £60 in today's money. I currently have 35 items in my Tesco basket and the total is £48.54," explained one user u/tiny-brit.
Grocery prices and inflation today
While the cost of living crisis has troubled British citizens for quite a while, things aren't any better in the US. As economists argued that inflation was cooling off, US consumer prices rebounded in July, as per data from the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, inflation cooling down and prices leveling off is not the same as prices coming down. US consumers are still bearing the brunt of the record-high increases that happened in the past couple of years.
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As per an NPR report, the prices of some individual grocery items have come down. Items like fruit and vegetable prices have dropped as compared to last year along with the prices of milk and cheese.
However, the report also predicts that the prices are unlikely to fall further, at least not substantially. The report also points out that the rate of wage increase has also caught up with price increases providing some relief to consumers.
