Grocery inflation: where will it all end?

The most recent survey of food prices by the CSO found food inflation at 13% – well ahead of the general rate of 7.8%.

Rates for some items have gone up much more. A two-litre carton of whole milk is up 53c or 30.6%, sugar is up 31c or 26%, butter (1lb) is up 73c, which equates to 22.9% and six large eggs are up 38c or 22.3%.

Other staple foods, such as an 800g of white sliced pan was up 27c, cheddar cheese per kilo is up €1.45 and a 1.6kg chicken is up 94c.

“I just went through my receipts and I was actually shocked at how much some of the prices are going up,” says Ciara Murphy Donohoe in Rochfortbridge.

“Initially you don’t realise, you think it’s only a cent here and cent there, but when you sit down and look through the receipts, some products have increased by 10, 20 and even 30 cent. It’s constantly going up and it’s quite scary.

“I have receipts going back as far as June last year,” says Ciara, who was able to compare her family shop for four people to six months ago.

“I remember going in to do my shop after Christmas and a member of staff said they couldn’t believe how the prices had gone up in a week.

“My weekly shop has easily gone up over €50. I used to get a shop in for €100, that would have been a big shop, and now I’m looking at spending €100 in one supermarket, and €70 to €80 in another,” says Ciara, who spreads her shopping between two leading supermarkets.

“I have two kids and they can be particular on some of the things that they’ll eat. So I would go to both supermarkets, but you’re looking at €170 to €200 for a weekly shop now, and that’s for two adults and two kids.

“The main things that I’ve noticed that have gone up are bread, chicken fillets, chops, butter, soup, squash, toilet roll, biscuits, and even cat food. I’ve have three rescue cats and the price of cat food, I know it sounds ridiculous, but it has skyrocketed.

“I used to get a big bag of Whiskas cat food for €7.99, now it’s up to €12.99. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that.

“Even little packets of cat treats have gone from 89c six months ago to €1.19, so they’ve taken a good hike. Chicken fillets for €500g have gone from €4.99 to €5.99, pork steak has gone up about a euro as well.

“And you notice that with some of the things, it’s either going up in price or you’re paying the same price for less, so it’s grocery inflation.

“One of my teenagers likes a particular pizza eats, but they’ve gone up from €1 to €1.25, so that’s 25pc increase, which doesn’t sound much but when you’re doing a full weekly shop it all adds up fairly quickly,” said Ciara.

“When you have it on a piece of paper in front of you, when you have it in black and white, you have the proof and you actually realise just how much groceries have increased.

“I met another lady in one of the shops and she was saying that the quality on a lot of the products is not the same, so while you’re paying more for your groceries, the quality is not what it was.

“There was a time that you could shop around, and again it may sound small and petty but with the cost of your petrol or diesel now, that adds up too. So you’re left wondering if I’m going to save a euro or two on the shopping but then spend it on the cost of fuel to go to different supermarkets.

“I’m just wondering when it’s going to stop because at the moment prices just keep going up and up, and people are at their limit.

“We’re a family of four, with one wage coming in, we’ve two teenagers, one hoping to go to college, and between the cost of heating a house, lighting a house, my husband works in Dublin and he’s commuting up and down every day which costs a fortune, and then trying to do a shop – so that level of stress on a family is horrendous, it really is,” Ciara said.

“I’m watching everything I buy, questioning should I get it here or will I wait, or do we really need it this week, or is it a necessary trip for me to use the diesel in the car. So you’re trying to justify everything you do and everything you buy, so it’s hard on people and I understand there’s a lot of frustration out there but it would be nice to have some plan as to how long this is going to go on for, because I think people are kind of reaching cracking point at this stage.

“I’ve had so many conversations with people lately who are genuinely worried. A friend of mine has a timer on her shower because she doesn’t want to use the electric shower too much, my own tumble dryer is ornamental at this stage, we don’t use it because the price of electricity is crazy.

“But it’s important to highlight food as well because that’s kind of nearly going under the radar but it’s hurting people.

“What’s scary for me is that I rarely go for branded items, I usually only buy the supermarket’s own brands, so I don’t know where I have room to make any savings, if that makes sense? It’s not that I’m buying the Kellogg’s this, and Nescafe that, it’s the supermarket own brands so I don’t have another level that I can drop down to reduce the cost of the shopping.

“Everyone’s hurting, we’re all in the same boat and something needs to be done about it.”