Businesses asked to cut prices for consumers - what do you think to the new government campaign?

[japancool]

Because I read the article about the campaign rather than just the headline and like what is described.

Did you read it?

Yes, I read it. Not everyone is as superficial as you seem to think.

 

[UKSBD]

no, but they appear to be as twattish as i think

bye all

 

[Rekkovitch]

No chance I would give any thought to reducing my prices especially as I'm losing more and more due to sky high costs especially petrol. I'd rather close up the business than do that. If anything I am looking to increase my prices !!

 

[Mark T Jones]

I want to see more campaigns like this, but hopefully ones that aren't politicized, ones that aren't just shot down because of what a headline says and ones that aren't discarded just based on who we think is running the campaign.

Here are some campaigns I'd like to see

1. Remind people how to cook cheap, nutritious meals from raw ingredients. (Perhaps even growing/breeding those ingredients)

2. Basic home economics, budgeting, prioritising etc (in line with @The Byre's post, thus should also be email able to the Government)

3 dramatically reduce reliance on cars - or more specifically, own cars. This one would be very far reaching, ranging from cycling to a coherent public transport system

 

[SillyBill]

Is this is a joke? The same government sponsoring this initiative is the government that increases my employment taxes by +10% (13.8 to 15.2 is not a 1.5% increase), bangs up corporation tax by 30+% next year and will be engaged in another business rates raid from April 23 to boot? Why don't they cut their prices (taxes) to me first given they're the biggest drain on everyone's finances. Jog on. I consider it my duty these days to hand over the bare minimum that I legally have to. My staff and I don't work ourselves silly to see how hard work pissed up the wall by the government. Total disdain for their "management" of our economy, particularly since Covid where we saw a generation's future thrown on the bonfire. And as another poster alluded to, I wouldn't call this a Tory or Conservative government. Not seen a single policy worth of the description. Reason Labour are so gormless half the time is because the government has stolen all their policies. They can't even suggest tax rises anymore given even they know there is no more to extract.

 

[japancool]

1. Remind people how to cook cheap, nutritious meals from raw ingredients. (Perhaps even growing/breeding those ingredients)

For one, start educating people to buy misshapen, or less-than-perfectly shaped vegetables, and stop the supermarkets from discarding them. I don't know how much food is wasted by supermarkets throwing these out.

And making loose vegetables the same price as packed vegetables.

I watch some of these celebrity chef cooking videos and it makes me shudder how much stuff they cut off and discard in order to only get the tastiest bits.

2. Basic home economics, budgeting, prioritising etc (in line with @The Byre's post, thus should also be email able to the Government)

I dunno about you, but when I was at school, we had home ec classes that taught both cookery and what you mention above. Don't they do this any more?

 

[japancool]

I'll tell you what this campaign is.

It's government-funded advertising on behalf of a few big retailers, which will no doubt highlight more unhealthy "offers" and "deals" from the same few retailers we all know about.

Let's look at some of the "top offers" on items that Tesco have cut prices on today (found through Google): Nutella, Coke, Wotsits, Jack Daniels, Pizza Express American Pizza. Not a single fresh item.

Here, for reference, is Asda's full list of 100 price cuts that they announced to great fanfare:

Full list of Asda food items reduced in price to ease cost of living

Asda has promised to lower prices on more than 100 food items to help ease the cost of living crisis.

www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk

Now, in fairness, it DOES include things like mince, tomatoes, peppers, carrots, apples and pears. But it also includes ice cream, sausage rolls, pizzas, fish fingers, doughnuts and Cheerios. That's not encouraging healthy eating. And when that 100 items includes six different types of ice cream, don't believe the hype.

These companies will ALREADY be yelling about their "price cuts" from the rooftops. They don't need a taxpayer funded government ad campaign on their behalf. Tesco made a profit of £2.5 billion in 2021-22, up 35%.

What it WILL do is entice more people to shop at supermarkets at the expense of local shops, who are much less able to absorb rising costs and a loss of revenue from losing more customers to supermarkets.

They want people to cut back on car use to economise on fuel. Are we going to see train and bus operators reduce their fares? Are we by 'eck!

 

[BigDreamer]

Hopefully this goes through. I've been looking to buy a new Rolex watch for £20k, but there is no ways I can afford it with this Cost of Living crisis. If they were to slash their prices to around £19.5k, then I'd buy two!

 

[MOIC]

Here are some campaigns I'd like to see

1. Remind people how to cook cheap, nutritious meals from raw ingredients. (Perhaps even growing/breeding those ingredients)

2. Basic home economics, budgeting, prioritising etc (in line with @The Byre's post, thus should also be email able to the Government)

3 dramatically reduce reliance on cars - or more specifically, own cars. This one would be very far reaching, ranging from cycling to a coherent public transport system

4. Cancel Netflix & Sky subscriptions, as well as other TV costs including the BBC Licence.

 

[Newchodge]

Haha duck houses, from memory

Your memory is right, about £1500 for a duck house. Now overshadowed by Johnson's quest for someone to pay £150,000 for a tree house at Chequers.

 

[Newchodge]

What don't people like about this?

"The campaign would be about recognising the efforts of businesses who are trying to help consumers with the rising cost of living, and "amplifying and channelling them" as well as encouraging other businesses to do the same."

I don't like the fact that it is meaningless waffle.

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Ha Ha Ha
Does Boris really think that the members of this forum are going to forfeit their lifestyles to boost the economy for no return what so ever ?

If they did that Jaguar , Mercedes, BMW and the bloke that makes the electric Mondeo would lose out

Leave the markets to control themselves
Deregulate ! Today

 

[Deleted member 335660]

If they want to cut prices then cut VAT rate.

 

[Rekkovitch]

Is this is a joke? The same government sponsoring this initiative is the government that increases my employment taxes by +10% (13.8 to 15.2 is not a 1.5% increase), bangs up corporation tax by 30+% next year and will be engaged in another business rates raid from April 23 to boot? Why don't they cut their prices (taxes) to me first given they're the biggest drain on everyone's finances. Jog on. I consider it my duty these days to hand over the bare minimum that I legally have to. My staff and I don't work ourselves silly to see how hard work pissed up the wall by the government. Total disdain for their "management" of our economy, particularly since Covid where we saw a generation's future thrown on the bonfire. And as another poster alluded to, I wouldn't call this a Tory or Conservative government. Not seen a single policy worth of the description. Reason Labour are so gormless half the time is because the government has stolen all their policies. They can't even suggest tax rises anymore given even they know there is no more to extract.

I agree with all of this

 

[The Byre]

Johnson's ten great promises -

• Promised - 6,000 more NHS doctors. Delivered - 97.
• Promised - 40 new hospitals. Delivered - 3.
• Promised - 20,000 more police. Delivered - 13,500.
• Promised - 300,000 new homes. Delivered - 200,000.
• Promised - no checks on goods to Northern Ireland. Delivered - checks.
• Promised - no rise in taxes or NI. Delivered - rises in both.
• Promised - fix social care. Delivered - a 150% rise in people waiting for social care.
• Promised - keep the triple lock on pensions. Delivered - triple lock suspended.
• Promised - International aid to remain at 0.7% of GNI. Delivered - fallen to 0.5%.
• Promised - defense spending to be increased. Delivered - spending now cut in real terms.

We are watching ineptitude and waste on a grand scale, the like of which we have not seen since the Attlee administration. The budget has now had the doors blown off the truck every time. Clegg lied about education. Blair lied about Iraq. Thatcher lied about bringing harmony. Johnson lies about once a minute.

I am reminded of the words of an English judge in the 17th Century who said of witnesses "There are liars, damned liars and specialists."

I would like that today to be "Liars, damned liars and Johnson."

 

[japancool]

We are watching ineptitude and waste on a grand scale, the like of which we have not seen since the Attlee administration. The budget has now had the doors blown off the truck every time. Clegg lied about education. Blair lied about Iraq. Thatcher lied about bringing harmony. Johnson lies about once a minute.

I am reminded of the words of an English judge in the 17th Century who said of witnesses "There are liars, damned liars and specialists."

I would like that today to be "Liars, damned liars and Johnson."

Now, in fairness to them, when they made those promises, there was no coronavirus and no war in Ukraine. I don't think expecting them to keep all the promises in light of those is realistic.

But the way they have dealt with both covid and the cost of living crisis has been... less than impressive.

 

[Mark T Jones]

For one, start educating people to buy misshapen, or less-than-perfectly shaped vegetables, and stop the supermarkets from discarding them. I don't know how much food is wasted by supermarkets throwing these out.

And making loose vegetables the same price as packed vegetables.

I watch some of these celebrity chef cooking videos and it makes me shudder how much stuff they cut off and discard in order to only get the tastiest bits.



I dunno about you, but when I was at school, we had home ec classes that taught both cookery and what you mention above. Don't they do this any more?

We did do home economics - in fact the boys had to do cookery and needlework and girls had to do woodwork and metalwork.

Turns out I'm pretty good at cooking. Sewing, less so.

The celeb chef thing is changing quickly; part of learning to be a professional chef is cost & waste management. Ken Hom said the other week 'If you want to improve a restaurant's profits, start by looking in the bin' - so the message is out there.

 

[The Byre]

Now, in fairness to them, when they made those promises, there was no coronavirus and no war in Ukraine. I don't think expecting them to keep all the promises in light of those is realistic.

But the way they have dealt with both covid and the cost of living crisis has been... less than impressive.

Yes - except that the cost of living crisis is CAUSED by this government. And I can PROVE it!

The BoE has been printing money and the government has been borrowing by issuing bonds to cover massive public spending deficits. Switzerland has been doing neither of these things.

Inflation in the UK is 11%.
Inflation in Switzerland is 2.4%.

 

[japancool]

Yes - except that the cost of living crisis is CAUSED by this government. And I can PROVE it!

The BoE has been printing money and the government has been borrowing by issuing bonds to cover massive public spending deficits. Switzerland has been doing neither of these things.

Inflation in the UK is 11%.
Inflation in Switzerland is 2.4%.

The spike in the cost of oil, gas and fertiliser that is driving the cost of living crisis was directly caused by the war in Ukraine, not anything the UK government did.

Switzerland only gets 50% of its power from hydrocarbons. The UK gets 75%.

 

[Fagin2021]

We could save billions upon billions in defence spending and have better equipped armed services if we closed down the MoD, purchased end-of-production American weapons systems and asked the Israelis to procure them for us.

 

[MBE2017]

Your memory is right, about £1500 for a duck house. Now overshadowed by Johnson's quest for someone to pay £150,000 for a tree house at Chequers.

I see this as an attempt by Boris to get his first no money down serviced apartment, he should make £500/1000 a night depending on its size. Good business, and another property available to rent in the UK.

 

[BustersDogs]

hmmm considering the cost of fuel is now £2 a litre I need to put my prices UP. I've resisted so far but I've got to do it soon.

 

[The Byre]

The spike in the cost of oil, gas and fertiliser that is driving the cost of living crisis was directly caused by the war in Ukraine, not anything the UK government did.

Switzerland only gets 50% of its power from hydrocarbons. The UK gets 75%.

Absolutely nothing to do with it! The ECB has been printing extra Euros since 2018 and the more irresponsible governments have been feeding all those currency units into their economies in a desperate attempt to cover for the fiscal imprudence. As a direct result, the Swiss Franc went from 83 cents in April 2018 to parity in April this year. In that time, the ECB balance sheet went from €4.5tn to €6.5tn.

The Swiss get their food and other supplies from the same places the rest of Europe and the UK get theirs. But they have maintained monetary discipline, whereas the BoE and the ECB have not.
MV=PY - remember! Print more M and P has to go up, as V and Y are both set by the market.

 

[japancool]

Absolutely nothing to do with it!

Oh, so the war driving energy prices higher has nothing to do with inflation. OK.

 

[The Byre]

Oh, so the war driving energy prices higher has nothing to do with inflation. OK.

Exactly! Oil prices were going through the roof BEFORE Russia invaded Ukraine. We had runaway inflation BEFORE Russia invaded Ukraine. Economists like Prof. Steve Hanke were predicting 11% inflation BEFORE Russia invaded Ukraine.

 

[Rotor]

According to the BBC, UK businesses will be asked to cut prices for consumers in a new government campaign starting next month.

Given that inflation is now the number one concern for both consumers and business owners, we want to know: what do small businesses think of the proposal?

How has your business been affected by the cost of living crisis and what steps have you taken to minimise the impact? For example, have you increased prices as a result of inflation?

I've actually put prices up as distributors have put there prices up, it's not my job to subsidise customers lifestyle.

 

[Rotor]

Here are some campaigns I'd like to see

1. Remind people how to cook cheap, nutritious meals from raw ingredients. (Perhaps even growing/breeding those ingredients)

2. Basic home economics, budgeting, prioritising etc (in line with @The Byre's post, thus should also be email able to the Government)

3 dramatically reduce reliance on cars - or more specifically, own cars. This one would be very far reaching, ranging from cycling to a coherent public transport system

Exactly, too many people are too lazy to get off their fat backsides and help themselves, too idle to cook fresh food which is cheaper than ready meals and then they use food banks, and don't forget the whingers have £40.00 phone contracts for each house hold member and subscribe to every TV channel available. Nope I will not be dropping prices to finance them

 

[gpietersz]

What is happening in Sri Lanka today could happen here

Not even remotely comparable. Sri Lanka has lots of foreign currency debt, the UK has none.

Sri Lanka has seen a collapse of democracy, with government hiring convicts (especially released from prison) to beat up protestors. If you think the met are hard on protestors, this is nothing.

Lack of scrutiny allowed the government to get away with idiotic stop gap solutions - running low on FX, so lets ban fertilizer imports so a few months down the line agricultural output collapses..

Edit: Perhaps this is primarily aimed at the supermarket giants

Assuming this is done in a sane way, it will be aimed at those who can afford to cut margins for PR, including a message that they are price competitive.

Remind people how to cook cheap, nutritious meals from raw ingredients. (Perhaps even growing/breeding those ingredients)

To an extent, but some people cannot afford decent ingredients. Junk food with lots of sugar and cheap fats is a cheap way of filling up.

Cancel Netflix & Sky subscriptions, as well as other TV costs including the BBC Licence

The government has no control over the first two, and the public little (apart from not having a TV like me) over the last.

Inflation in Switzerland is 2.4%.

Switzerland has notoriously high prices anyway, and the government took measures to combat that:

Switzerland: The land that inflation left behind

While the rest of Europe grapples with surging prices, in Switzerland inflation is so tame that some key costs are actually falling.

www.reuters.com

and the inflation index has very different weightings.

Council tax to my mind is a very logical tax - far from perfect but pretty transparent in both calculation and application

Logical? Yes. Fair? A matter of opinion but I am opposed to any regressive tax.

I do think VAT should be cut. Ideally, got rid off, but that is not going to happen any time soon.

 

[MOIC]

I would nominate @gpietersz to be the next Tory leader!

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

I would nominate @gpietersz to be the next Tory leader!

He won't take a job on one tenth of the money he is on now ?

 

[Bob Morgan]

What Government?

 

[The Byre]

I would nominate @gpietersz to be the next Tory leader!

So would I, but only because he has an even poorer grasp of the facts than Johnson!

Switzerland has notoriously high prices anyway, and the government took measures to combat that:

Switzerland has not been printing money and borrowing vast sums by issuing government bonds.

Not even remotely comparable. Sri Lanka has lots of foreign currency debt, the UK has none.

The ONS recently announced that the UK government spends £70bn p.a. on interest payments alone.

And all this silly talk of cutting taxes - how? What else do you cut to make up the shortfall? Pensions? Welfare payments? Government payroll? Unemployment benefits? The NHS? Exactly where are you going to make these magic cuts?

Oh no! Of course - issue more bonds! The magic answer - more borrow and spend! Easy!

Except that fixed interest bonds are unwelcome in the market - so it's those nasty bonds linked to RPI at over 12% p.a. That's how those massive interest payments doubled in a few months - and they'll have to double again to cover all that 'free money'.

Madness.

Only Pinocchio believed in The Magic Money Tree and he was imprisoned for stupidity!

 

[japancool]

What else do you cut to make up the shortfall?

Government payroll

 

[The Byre]

The mouth waters at the prospect - but there would be wholesale strikes if they did!

Mind you - one would be tempted to say "So what? They're not doing anything constructive anyway, so let them!"

Unfortunately, some of them are, so we could have all kinds of problems!

Sir Humphrey on the picket line! Now there's a thought!

 

[Mark T Jones]

To an extent, but some people cannot afford decent ingredients. Junk food with lots of sugar and cheap fats is a cheap way of filling up.

I'll completely disagree here. Junk food is a lazy way of filling up, not a cheap one

Lee Anderson said it's possible to eat well for 30p a meal - he was technically correct, but it would be limited and boring.

For £1 a meal you can eat healthy, tasty nutritious and varied meals what it requires is

I little imagination
Planning
Effort
And dropping the belief the decent meals have to include lumps of meat

I've done lots of hands on research here - I'm what in trendy circles us know as a flexitarian, which in real terms means about half of my meals are plant based. When I eat meat, I buy the very best from an independent butcher - irrespective of cost. And still our food bill is just over half what it was before I made the change.

 

[fisicx]

Stopped buying ready meals years ago. Cooking everything fresh works out a lot cheaper especially if you grow your own veg. Any everyone can grow something even if the don’t have outside space.

For treat and snacks you can make a cake or biscuits for very little.

And you will feel fuller and more healthy as a result.

 

[gpietersz]

I little imagination
Planning
Effort
And dropping the belief the decent meals have to include lumps of meat

Effort is a problem, if you have been working and have had a a long day and a long commute. I imagine its worse if your job is manual labour.

As for meat, cooking healthy and tasty vegan food is a lot more effort than doing the same with meat..

 

[gpietersz]

I would nominate @gpietersz to be the next Tory leader!

Given they have had three Asians in a row as Chancellor and the last one apparently went to the same school as I did, I feel its my turn ?

 

[fisicx]

Why is effort a problem? It takes minutes to prepare and put some veg and potatoes on the hob to cook.

 

[gpietersz]

Why is effort a problem? It takes minutes to prepare and put some veg and potatoes on the hob to cook.

Not if its going to be nutritious and tasty. Yes, you can survive on food that is cheap and easy but I do not think its going to be palatable and healthy.