007

Yeah, I don't buy Woolies organics. It seems the same as the ordinary stuff.

Try out the markets in your area, early on Sat or Sun morning. This produce has only been picked the day before.

BadgeIsBack

lol. To be honest, I really don't take these programmes seriously. It's part of the tabloid media - just a TV version of the Sun - worse in fact. I try to take the underlying message and forget the heartache - or toothache.

BadgeIsBack

Just a thought.

About this inflation of prices on the basket of goods.

People talk about how much cheaper things were 4 or 5 years ago.

Well - of course they were - 5 years was half a decade ago.

I think back to what I was paying in 1983 for a Mars Bar - literally tens of pence.
By 1990 it was significantly more - a lot more.

I look back on formative events in 2000, and 1997/8 thinking they were just around the corner - they weren't - they were almost, and actually, a decade ago, respectively.

It may well indeed be the case that sudden increases have ocurred, this may be a catch up in the longer trend and may actually reflect equilibrium. eg. I've heard some people say the high house prices we have now might be the correction for the slump in the 90s, and that incomes have yet to catch up.

Time waits for no man!

cresta57

Here in Australia you don't have to wait a decade to see a significant price fluctuations you don't even have to wait 5 yrs.
All you do is buy fuel on a Monday then buy on a Wednesday then buy again on a Friday.
For a really special increase buy fuel just before a public holiday then the week after.
We have the major retailers i.e Coles & Woollies saying price increases pre public holiday are not profiteering. The prices in NZ don't fluctuate and the prices in Europe didn't fluctuate yet here they can AND DO go up 15-20 cents a litre just before a public holiday.
How is it that if the price of crude goes up a couple of cents a barrel immediately the price of fuel soars! Yet if it falls, like it did just before Easter, prices don't drop they still rise?
These retailers are the same retailers we buy are groceries from, the same retailers that are offering double discount [8 cents per litre] if you spend X$ in the store. The same retailers forcing all the smaller servos out of business as they can't compete.
It's a whitewash to say we the consumer should be pleased to buy cheaper fuel from the supermarkets, when the smaller servo's have all gone the prices will soar and the short term loses made up in moments.
Here in QLD fuel is govt. subsidised, there used to be a pronounced difference between the price of fuel here and the price of fuel over the border in NSW, it was usually around the 8 cents a litre mark, last trip south of the border fuel was the same price.

Buzzy--Bee

Yes they do.

In an identical way to that you have just described in Oz.

Anywhere where competition is stifled and cartels permitted will suffer from this.



Buzzy

BadgeIsBack

Indeed, but I was referring to price rises over time, all things being equal. Years(!) You can't look at receipts from 2000 and expect to see no difference.

rabsody

just a shame the wages haven't gone up in line with the cost of living.

Wendy

Just out of curiousity, how does the average joes wage rise compare in comparison to the grocery price rise?

Obviously I don't expect many people have had a 10% pay rise in the past year (although it's a nice thought!)

BadgeIsBack

I got 6pc plus bonus. But I am thinking that this was above inflation, and I'd also expect times when things outpace inflation. I guess ultimately then this would cause wage demands. Repeat ad infinitum.

Wendy

I'm wondering mainly because for the last three years of my OH's employment in the UK he didn't get any raise at all! I do think that the company was just crap though

He started the job he's in now in Novemeber and got a 4% raise in January, hopefully that will be the norm with this company!

COL alway's goes up, it never comes down. Fact of life I'm afraid

BadgeIsBack

I've never not had a payrise anywhere - even if it was only inflation.

Wendy

Apparantly they couldn't afford a payrise because 'business was bad'. They didn't even pay the bonus that the staff worked all year for this time (my brother still works there)

Funny how the MD bought a villa in spain (10 bedroom, with golf course) and all the salesmen got a new BMW though!

jad n rich

5/6 years ago, or half a decade as badger puts it you could offer $185,000 on a $200,000 house and land package and buy it, same property now $480,000+.

Petrol, I think it was around 70c a L. I know 2 years ago it was $79 c a litre, I still have a receipt, nerd

Food we had 3 kids at home then about $150 a week and that was no shopping around, in and out the supermarket as you were used to in UK. Now with only 2 kids, of course the've grown a bit but now easily $250 a week sometimes $280and that is price checking and fannying around shopping here there and bloody everywhere to get the best price. Like seriously with 4 people who the hell could pay $36 a kilo for chops or salmon portions, $15 a kilo for some veges, who do they sell that stuff too?. There you wanted a moan

Rates first bills were around the $1200 a year, now $1900/$2200 and rising soon.

Prices of most things have pretty much doubled in 5 years, wages I would say they have gone down not up, 5 years ago, most jobs were with penalty rates, now for many people thats all negotiated out thanks to the IR reforms.

Australia had a justified reputation as a cheap place to live, I'd say most poms would have arrived and found the prices jaw dropping know we did, loved it pity it didnt last.

Amazulu

Vote for Rudd and his socialist and union mates in October. They are going to scrap IR so you should be happy.

jad n rich

Rudd would not get my vote, most people who plan to vote for him are doing so with absolutely no knowledge about him or his policies, just voting because hes 'new' Like latham/beasley before him he will just say anything to get a vote. Slimy character at best.

I dont like Howards work reform policies, but they havent really affected us, like 40% of aussies we already worked contract and casual, never had the benefts many have now lost.