„Ein Mittagessen für 52 Pfund können wir nicht rechtfertigen“: Familien mit mittlerem Einkommen schränken den Spaß ein, da die Preise steigen
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg3g11z6d8o
Von OGSyedIsEverywhere
„Ein Mittagessen für 52 Pfund können wir nicht rechtfertigen“: Familien mit mittlerem Einkommen schränken den Spaß ein, da die Preise steigen
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg3g11z6d8o
Von OGSyedIsEverywhere
19 Kommentare
Eating out is expensive. But have they never heard of a packed lunch?
It’s not just the price, it’s the service and the quality.
I think many are happy to pay the going rate for food, but when it’s often a worse quality than what you can get from a premium supermarket and served to you like you’re an inconvenience, it doesn’t leave you wanting to rush out.
Honestly it feels like everything in the UK is designed to rinse you at this point – whether it’s grabbing a simple lunch, taking the kids out for a day or even just something spontaneous (grabbing a coffee on the way to the station for instance – a Venti Ube Vanilla Latte at Starbucks is £6.35!!!!!!), the prices are ridiculous for what you actually get.
You end up second-guessing every decision because nothing feels like decent value anymore, and what used to be normal, affordable treats now feel like borderline luxury purchases. It’s not even about being reckless with money, it’s that the baseline cost of *existing* and doing ordinary things has crept up so much that you’re constantly weighing up whether it’s worth it and more often than not, it just isn’t – rip off Britian continues!
Here’s an example that affects me. Soft play, great fun (for them) and a solid way to tire your kids out. It costs me £13 just for 2 kids. You can only stay an hour and on Saturdays they shut at 2pm! On a Saturday?! Anyway. Rant over.
Article about the first family to go to Pizza Express without a voucher since 2001.
We’re in a doom loop – you can’t afford to go out for a treat, weekly shops are too expensive, ALL bills are up…
People have to cut back…companies close due to lack of spending by consumers, jobs lost, rinse and repeat.
This is catastrophic and those in charge refuse to take accountability.
Plenty of places that do deals on days out or even just make your own day out. Pack some food from Lidl etc, there’s parks, discounted unfamiliar theme parks, little cafes still about that do way cheaper food, Sunday movies for 5 quid at cinemas. Stop giving to the big places and start giving to the little ones. Everything doesn’t have to cost a bomb.
I’m sorry but if you’re buying lunch at Costa, you can’t complain about the prices. Go to an actual food establishment, rather than a coffee shop that happens to own a bread warming oven.
Pizza express for four is £174?! Parents really are screwed.
You pay your money you make your choice. Some like eating out, some have a lot of takeaways, some save everything but have 4 holidays a year. Some pay £500 a month for a car but are frugal elsewhere.
She can’t justify a lunch but how much is that jumper she’s wearing? And that’s fine it’s completely up to her.
Chains like Costa in prime locations are always going to be pricey. It’s like getting lunch at a motorway services.
For my family growing up, eating out was always a treat instead of an every weekend type of thing and that was just out of principle.
I genuinely blame this on energy. Domestic energy prices go up, people have no choice but to pay it, so they cut back on going out, hospitality industry suffers. At the same time, businesses energy bills go up so they have to increase prices. Private energy suppresses growth AND drives inflation, screwing us from both ends. It will not get better until the entire thing, extraction, generation and transmission, is nationalised and run as a utility. Doesn’t have to run at a loss even, just cut out the profit margin and pass the savings from renewable generation on to the consumer. You deliver a huge drop in bills that makes people feel immediately better off, growth leaps as businesses become viable again, Labour goes up 20 points in the polls.
The doom loop is inevitable. Wait until next week when minimum wage rises yet again, prices shoot up and wage compression ramps up.
There’s no stopping it now. Small businesses will continue to fall to the hand of the mega corps.
I remember pizza express being pretty swish in the 90s. Dark, moody and the margarita was banging.
A hot chocolate at the park is enough when you want to avoid the rinsing these days. Play areas are free, choco is affordable and a packed lunch is cheaper
I don’t understand how businesses can’t seem to see where this is going… Prices going up, quality going down, less people buying luxuries day by day. Surely it’s not sustainable for any industry
An interesting point in the article is when it says Costa still made an overall loss last year on the books. Yes I know it’s likely that there may be a bit of creative accounting going on to avoid paying corp tax but anecdotally I was in my local Costa the other week and got chatting to the manager mentioning that they seem to be in every day when I walk past.
He said there’s only him and one other on full time contracts and he’s had to massively slash shifts for all of his other staff as there’s no footfall to justify it any more.
I suppose it’s chicken and egg if high pieces keep customers away or if less customers mean having to try and gouge the ones that do come in to keep the lights on, but it was at least moderately interesting that the article seems to support the view that these high prices aren’t just going into massive profits
The UK is just resetting itself back to where it should be based on productivity.
Ask your parents how much a costa or starbucks was when they were kids…. or their mobile phone contracts… or internet, or netflix / disney+ – hang-on… none of those things even existed.
I’ve been saying for a long time that the first step to sustainability is that everyone is going to have to take a hit on standard of living…
The article also says that they spent 175 quid at pizza express for 4 people (with two young kids). If you’re spending that much for chain pizza then you have your priorities wrong