There’s no escaping soaring food prices for UK shoppers

Bloomberg

UK shoppers seeking to avoid higher bills at the checkout are running out of options after prices on more than half of supermarket items rise in the past year.
Some 22,000 products offered by Britain’s four biggest grocers became costlier since last June, data from retail research firm Assosia shows. That includes a 35% surge in Heinz Tomato Ketchup and a 9% increase in Actimel yogurt drinks.
With UK inflation forecast to hit double digits later this year and wages lagging behind, the prospects for consumers look increasingly bleak. In another grim milestone this week, data from the Office for National
Statistics showed that UK household incomes are on their longest downward trend since records began in 1955.
Based on its latest data, Kantar estimates that the average annual UK grocery bill is on course to rise by £380 ($458).
The fastest inflation in 40 years is pressuring retailers as well as consumers. Britain’s biggest supermarket chains, Tesco Plc and J Sainsbury Plc, are struggling to absorb higher costs and have warned that profits are getting squeezed. Morrisons, the UK’s No. 4 grocer, reported a 6.4% decline in quarterly sales.
Friction over rising prices led to an unusual public spat this week between one of the world’s biggest food-makers and the UK’s largest retailer. Kraft Heinz Co. said it temporarily stopped supplying Tesco with most of its products, including ketchup and baked beans. The grocer, in turn, said that it won’t pass on “unjustifiable price
increases” to its customers.
Kraft Heinz said it’s working with Tesco to try and resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
Last month, Tesco’s chief executive officer, Ken Murphy, said that consumers were “terrified” of the cost-of-living crisis, and Chairman John Allan previously warned that Britain was edging towards “real food poverty for the first time in a generation.”
Every major UK supermarket had a drop in sales over the 12 weeks to June 12, aside from discounters Aldi and Lidl,
according to Kantar data.
Moody’s cited weak trading and questions over Asda’s ability to turn around its performance during the cost-of-living crisis.