germ trolley

Less than a year post-EU referendum and, shock horror, the price of our shopping basket has gone up. A few pence tacked on to the price of Tesco flour, Asda orange juice and Morrisons ice cream have nudged up grocery bills by 5%-plus, claimed Harry Wallop, in Dispatches: Brexit and your Shrinking Shop (Channel 4, 20 February, 8pm).

Not only that, but pesky manufacturers are stealing a few chocolates from each tin, whipping out a sausage or two per pack and quietly adjusting pints of beer to 500ml bottles in a bid to con us out of even realising we’re paying that bit extra in the supermarket.

Unless you’re “the savviest of shoppers” like Sasha, who attaches a GoPro to her trolley each week, apparently to catch Mr Kipling in the act of doing her out of a piece of Angel cake. “I understand they might have to make packs smaller but why should I pay the same?” moaned ‘too much time on her hands Sasha’.

Well Sasha, because you opted for Brexit. At least more than 50% of your fellow countrymen did. It isn’t like we weren’t warned that sterling would take a pounding if we did, or that Melton Mowbray pies might find themselves undefended from copycats, or that new tariffs could send the cost of some food imports soaring.

And so here it is, all that ‘expert’ drivel bemoaned by Brexiteers has come to pass. Expecting suppliers and supermarkets operating under deceptively thin margins to absorb the full cost of our decision is neither helpful nor realistic. ‘Shrinkflation’ is going nowhere.

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