The true cost of food anyone?

My local market has a tray of strawberries for £1.

My local supermarket, Sainsbury's, has the same size tray for 'Half price'. Not £2.99 but £1.49.

For my maths, that makes Sainsbury's 50% more expensive not 50% less.

Any cynic will tell you that the recent hike in food prices is not reflected in the official inflation figures but the reality is not helped by the marketing departments at supermarkets whose job is to pull the wool over their customers' eyes even more.

I think we need to prepare for a lot more of these kinds of ruses over the coming months.

Here's some reasons why...

City focus - rising cost of food

Food prices rise fastest in 14 years

What is the real level of inflation

See what our readers think about the inflation figures

Tips for cutting your food bill

How I caught Tesco on a 2for1 sham

Tesco accused of sham 'half-price' veg

And from December 2006
Inflation 'four times' official rate

Richard Browning

Comments

[Jessica]

They do it because they can get away with it. Many people only go to their one local grocery store, so they will buy the strawberries there without knowing that it will cost a lot less if they go to a store further down the street.

If someone is willing to go to multiple stores to grocery shop, then they'll be able to see how different the prices can be on different items, and how much they'll save.