Is this the end of cheap food?

Outside a Co-op supermarket in Edinburgh on Friday, I met three sisters, all doing their shopping for this weekend. In their baskets were tins, mainly – Ambrosia creamed rice and minted peas. They were peering at stickers and examining labels with the look of hardened sceptics.

‘Terrible, just terrible,’ said Betty Pryde, at 82 the eldest of the three. ‘Look at the price of these eggs.’ They were free range, and cost


The sisters live apart but they often shop together, pooling their state pensions. Jean, 78, the youngest, said she doesn’t bother looking at the prices, she just gets what she needs. Her older sisters looked at her as if she had just said something naughty. ‘Oh no, you’ve got to watch the prices – bread, milk, everything, it’s all going up,’ said Nan, 79. And they all agreed their weekly shopping bill was up a good 10 per cent on last year, although the cost of gas and electricity was more of a worry to them.

‘It’s the price of oil, isn’t it? And the bad weather?’ said Nan, musing over the reason for the price rises. ‘The shops, they all like a profit well over the score,’ added Jean. ‘Aye, well, I must get on,’ said Betty. Clearly this was the wrong moment for a long chat. ‘I want a bit of fish for my supper, and I imagine that’s gone through the roof, too.’

When they had gone, the Co-op in Easter Road, Leith, was as empty as a church on Monday. But the discount grocery store Lidl, a block away in the Kirkgate shopping centre, was throbbing. Poundstretcher next door was packed, as was the discount frozen foods store, Farm Foods. And no wonder – food prices are rising faster than they have at any time since the mid-1970s. The middle class in Britain has barely noticed, but here in one of the poorer corners of Scotland, people are feeling the pain.

Observer