Britons’ cost-of-living crisis habits have stuck, says Tesco boss
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britons-cost-of-living-crisis-habits-have-stuck-says-tesco-boss-2025-10-02/
Posted by do_or_pie
Britons’ cost-of-living crisis habits have stuck, says Tesco boss
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/britons-cost-of-living-crisis-habits-have-stuck-says-tesco-boss-2025-10-02/
Posted by do_or_pie
32 Comments
Why would they not have, when the cost of living crisis never got addressed?
It could be because we’re not out of the cost of living crisis…
> Murphy said a recent trend was an uptick in people buying fresh food to cook more from scratch.
Knowing the state of the nations’ health, you would hope this would be rising and taking over ready meals, but sadly not from these trends
Not sure I agree with the premise that the cost of living crisis ever actually ended. Nothing came back down in price, they just stopped going up as fast.
Tesco’s are making huge profits by increasing prices and cutting the margins to their supplies.
They (and the other supermarkets) are the problem.
The cost of living crisis didn’t start in 2022. It started in 2008 with austerity measures follow the government’s bail out of the banks.
Don’t forget, kids, the fact that your salary is worth 20% less today than it did in 2008 is the fault of fat cat bankers. Not immigrants.
Tesco revenue is increasing by roughly 5% year on year with around 8% per year rise in profits. The CEO doubled his pay in 2024 from £4.7m to £10m. So despite people continuing to be frugal, the company is doing better than you would expect, maybe they are part of the issue?
*Tesco, whose share of Britain’s grocery market has grown to 28.4% – up 0.8 percentage points on the year – was seeing a continuing strengthening of the “dining in” trend, with consumers opting for premium supermarket products over a trip to a restaurant, partly to save cash. This is bad news for Britain’s beleaguered hospitality sector.*
I’d wager that most of these people are opting for this over takeaways which now basically cost the same, and in some cases more than eating out if not at a fine dining establishment.
>”When we had the first cost of living crisis three years ago there was quite an adjustment in shopping habits at that stage and those habits have stuck,”
Had? As in past tense? Rich guy delusion yet again.
Everything is still bloody expensive and wages are still crap, there is currently a cost of living crisis, that has been going on since the end of the pandemic lockdowns at minimum.
Almost like people with less money, spend less! -suprise pikachu-
Tesco boss, you own a massive company, **be the change you want to see** by paying sharing your bonus amongst your staff, in the form of a raise.
The price of the humble cucumber has doubled where I live in the Midlands. Seems like the “cost of living crisis” is still in its early stages?
The crisis has only gotten worse? Our habits will get much worse I promisee you that.
I drink a lot of coffee. Many cups a day. Going back just 5 years I could easily get the 3 ingredients for under £5 (200g coffee would be £4 but usually I could find one on offer for £3. 4 pints milk would be £1.10 and a 1kg bag of sugar was 65-75p)
In 2025? Jar of coffee is going for £8+ and is never on offer these days. You want that jar of coffee delivered? I’ve seen some stores charge over £12 (not inclusing delivery fees etc., that’s just the starting price), but let’s stick with £8 for my point. Bag of sugar costs £1-£1.10 and the milk as of two days ago is now going for £2.
So something that cost less than a fiver 5 years ago now costs upwards of £11 and can cost £15-16 as part of a delivery order. I’m in my mid 40’s and I can’t recall any 5 year period where average grocery prices would more than double.
Now, obviously there are a lot of factors here, Covid, Ukraine war and the ongoing cost of Brexit. Yet the boss of Tesco is surprised that we are actively trying to save money? We don’t have a choice, these superstores are constantly jacking up prices so, of course, we have to find ways to shop more frugally.
Of course they stuck prices are still extortionate and only getting worse.
Yeah, until it’s not a crisis, why would they change?
No idea why that might be.
After all, we didn’t really get pre crisis prices back…
What planet is he from? The cost of living crisis is still going on! It’s probably been getting worse actually. Moron
The prices only went higher but salaries still haven’t, so that’s why.
“Tesco shocked that habits of UK populace when times were shit sticking when things are getting worse”.
Is it a ‘habit’ if I just physically can’t afford to do shit anymore?
Bag for bag has the cost of groceries gone down this year or is this just a consumer adaptation to the standard trend of the rising prices of goods and services?
Prices haven’t come down so of course habits have stuck. What a plonker.
Really dislike the Tesco ethos , far worthier places to shop .
Plus the quality of many things are substandard .
I’m trying to encourage my elderly mother to bin Tesco in favour of the Lidl that is not only in the same town but closer to her house. She was surprised at how cheap a shop was there when she was examining the receipt, so maybe I’ll get there eventually. Tesco does seem to rely on a lot of brand loyalty mixed with ignorance of how much more expensive they are.
I must have missed the bit where Tesco has dropped the habit of increasing the price of my groceries every week.
Translation: Britons continued to pay more for food because they had no choice and have had to cut back elsewhere to make it up.
The crisis is now the norm, which is exactly what these CEO meffs want us all to think, but it’s not going away, it’s only getting worse everyday.
I genuinely wonder what people here think it costs to provide the prices the supermarket do. If you go to your nearest farmer yourself you’d pay more and that’s without packaging, supply chain, and staff wages.
If your wages haven’t kept up with your costs, the problem is your employer. Wages are a joke here for some roles.
Of course they have you moron! It’s just gotten worse
For a company that uses Just in time delivery this is very late and tone deaf
Has anything around the cost living crisis that we’ve been in for what feels like 4 years been actually done
It feels like it keeps getting moved to do something else
That’s because prices keep going up. Maybe this confuses the millionaires with unlimited cashflow.
It’s not ended, the prices people getting charged is crazy high!