I don't have any specialised knowledge of supermarket pricing, beyond being a consumer on a fixed, low income.Still thinking about supermarket pricesif there is a diagnosed gifted Frau who knows about this Iād love to know more. Is it inevitable that price increases will affect those on lowest incomes the most? Because anyone who is currently making more expensive retail choices has the option to trade down to basics and cut things out, but those who have already done that have no choice left but to bear price increases. If thatās the case what is the VBI meant to do? What policy could change that situation?
I suppose what the Tik Tocker has shown with her Asda analysis is that, despite all the big supermarkets publicly stating that they were protecting and, in some cases, expanding their value ranges during the cost of living crisis, these prices have risen too, along with everything else. So they haven't beaten inflation.
A properly trained person would be able to assess whether value ranges rose in price faster or slower than other inflationary increases. And, whether people on low incomes were then proportionately more or less able to manage the increasing costs of living.
That was the supposed premise of the VBI, which, in itself, wasn't a terrible idea. It's just that Jack has no clue as to how to run such a massive research project and has no ability to create a team or work in partnership or learn anything about household economics. Collecting people's shopping receipts and visiting regional branches of supermarkets in some sort of poverty shopping tour was never going to cut it and the ONS likely agreed when they had that one, informal, not-minuted meeting with Jack and never worked with her.
Your point about trading down to cheaper offerings is relevant. For the most part, people struggling to buy the same basket of value items will now be leaving stuff out in order to balance the household budget or will be turning to food banks or charities to help make up the difference. So, the churches and charities are picking up the slack in this crisis.
Since these charities are mostly funded by individual supporter donations, these become a form of voluntary tax on the civic minded who donate out of concern about poverty. It's not a useful way to redistribute wealth in a society.
And govt gets to keep pushing its small state, austerity policies because they know the charity sector will try to provide a safety net -- except that safety net is piecemeal and threadbare and is now stretching beyond even what the charities can do.
