Prject Fear Is Alive And Kicking

[youngmafbog]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3801790/Supermarkets-set-shrink-packets-hide-price-rises-triggered-Brexit-plunge-pound-Bank-England-warns-shoppers.html

What nonsense, what excuse do they have for every time they have done this in the past I wonder?

[fiction-factory]

Has the pound not fallen then thereby pushing up the effective cost of imports?

[New Judge]

Yes it has and the chances are that it would have done anyway, though not necessarily co-incidentally with June 24th. The pound has been overvalued for some time and the reason for that has nothing to do with the EU or Brexit.

[fiction-factory]

Well we'll probably never know whether it was just a coincidence or some sort of sour grapes /' told you so' conspiracy that the pound fell significantly 9or corrected itself if you prefer) plummeted just at the moment when the result of the vote became clear. The falling pound has pros (helps our exporters) and cons (pushes up import costs) so whatever caused it we have to make the best of it

[dannyk13]

The value of the pound rises and falls day by day as it always has.

[youngmafbog]

My point was more to shrinking packets being attributed to Brexit when it has been a practice for many years along with the idea someone once had about making toothpaste hole slightly larger so more was used.

And of course the point the Bank of England is not impartial, at least not under that Canadian joker.

[vulcan42]

Brexit wasn't around over the years when Mars bars gradually diminished so it couldn't be blamed, they just changed the product and /or packaging and hoped nobody noticed. Now this country has the perfect excuse in Brexit and it will be blamed for everything from rising prices to next doors pregnant cat.

[ToraToraTora]

well the BOE gaffer more or less owned up to talking Balearics before the vote last week so I don't think I'll take much notice. Looks like another shipment of sour grapes is on the way!

[ToraToraTora]

Interestingly the Mars bar started at 58g and is now 51g but did get down to 48g in the interim.

[fiction-factory]

It's simple really.
For most of those who called strongly for Brexit, all the good news that comes along is clearly going to be due to Brexit and any bad / not so good news is either sour grapes or something that would have happened anyway.

For many of those who were strongly for Remain, Brexit will be brought up ad nauseam whenever bad news comes along whereas good news will be seen as being 'despite Brexit'.

Fortunately a lot of people fall between the two categories and just want to see us make the best of things and not keep harping back to what was said.

[Old_Geezer]

Sellers have played the trick for as long as I can recall. The media notices once every now and again, when they can't find any decent news, and prints an article.

Import prices go up and down with the exchange rate. Always has, always will. As pointed out a number of times it also makes exporting easier so what one loses on the roundabouts one gains on the swings. Intelligent businesses will source ingredients from the UK wherever possible, but I suspect exchange rates are a good excuse.

Let's hold our breath and watch them up the unit size for the same price when the exchange rate goes higher.

[jim360]

It's probably dangerous to take linear trends in exchange rates too seriously, but NJ is basically right -- although the Brexit decision certainly accelerated matters. It's also possible that the pound's falls in the build-up to the referendum were influenced somewhat by fears that the UK might vote to leave. At any rate, the last three months have seen the pound bouncing up and down roughly around the same range; but it's pretty misleading to post that the pound "rises and falls every day" as if a 15-cent drop in about three hours is somehow normal.

But anyway. In the "interBrexit" period it seems that the markets are unstable, but in both directions. Despite the fears I had earlier that the pound would continue to fall, it's only occasionally threatened to do so, and is now bouncing around between about $1.28 and $1.34. Since that does represent a ~15% drop on levels pre-referendum, it's not too surprising that prices based on imports will either increase, or the amount you get for your pound will decrease, but hopefully this will be as bad as it gets.

[EDDIE51]

On the package size front how many have noticed that many biscuits now come with a 'tray' in the package and the biscuits in the tray. It means less biscuits in the same size pack. I have seen some biscuits that come in a tray with individual spaces for each biscuit and as little as 8 biscuits in a pack size that once held 15 or more !