Price increases

[davin]

Just had an email from a supplier (won't mention them as they are not the only one). I buy hardware and miscellaneous from them.
Due to the Brexit and price fluctuations, prices will increase by 8.5% on 1st December.
Profiteering or time to stock up on hinges and toblerone?

 

[finneyb]

The first of many I suspect. Sterling is down 15% against the dollar and also down against the Euro.
We will be paying for Brexit in the New Year.

Brian

 

[Inoffthered]

The answer is "It depends".

I struggle to think that the recent attempt jack up the price of Marmite was anything other than profiteering. The product is made in the UK from ingredients sourced in the UK so the fall in the exchange rate would have minimal impact on the production costs.

For someone importing items from Asia, then I can see that the fall in Sterling would lead to a price increase but, surprise surprise, when Sterling strengthens you never see the prices come down.



As for blaming it on Brexit, the reality is when you adopt a policy of quantitive easing (i.e. printing money) as we have done for the last 5 years or so it is only a question of time before it has an effect on exchange rates (and inflation). What has happened to Sterling would have happened anyway and Brexit is a convenient excuse.

 

[AJB Temple]

Whether it is profiteering (I doubt it) or not, people have no choice but to pay. We see some remarkably naive (or perhaps disingenuous) media articles bemoaning price rises when goods are made in the UK. This ignores the reality that businesses need to make an overall return and costs for anything imported have risen markedly. Retail prices will be affected more when VAT is added so that 8.5% becomes over 10%.

Further currency uncertainty will result in a buffer included in price rises. My guess is 2017 will be 20% more expensive than 2016 for much of the stuff we buy on this forum.

Pro Brexit commentators usually adopt the "it would have happened anyway" argument. This is convenient as no one can prove it either way, but rational thought suggests that Brexit has probably accelerated the pace of change to a weaker pound and much higher costs of imports and foreign travel. That said IMO the Euro is overvalued as well.

 

[MIGNAL]

Just had an email from a supplier (won't mention them as they are not the only one). I buy hardware and miscellaneous from them.
Due to the Brexit and price fluctuations, prices will increase by 8.5% on 1st December.
Profiteering or time to stock up on hinges and toblerone?

I'm in a very small position to know something about the effects. A few weeks ago I had to refund a customer from Europe £3,500, he had paid in full almost a year previously. I got hit and hit badly. Most of that hit was the difference in the value of the pound.
Since then I've had to import twice from Europe and there's no question about it, I'm paying significantly more than what I was paying earlier this year. It's simple maths. Unfortunately I'm on the edge of either struggling on or calling it a day and trying to find work in the employment market. I've been in this situation for the last 5 or 6 years so, I'm not blaming Brexit for that particular bit. However I simply cannot absorb those increasing costs, no way. I have to pass them on, there simply is no alternative. . . . except the dole. I maybe going there anyway, especially if consumer spending/confidence takes a knock.
But I'm not exactly a weather vane for the whole of industry. I'm just relating my particular circumstances and how it affects myself.

That aside I have heard it said by a retail specialist that many of the big stores are trying to hold off price increases until after the Christmas/New year period. It's their busiest time and when they make the real profits. I fully expect price increases to become much more noticeable to the person in the street towards the end of January. Of course some increases have already been introduced but I can only see it getting worse.

 

[bugbear]

The first of many I suspect. Sterling is down 15% against the dollar and also down against the Euro.
We will be paying for Brexit in the New Year.

Brian

The dollar should be falling any time soon....

BugBear

 

[AJB Temple]

Don't hold your breath for a dollar fall. The US market fundamentals do not suggest this and Trump if anything will have a positive effect on $ strength - that seems to be what the markets are pricing in.

It was always going to take six months for Brexit effects to kick in as currency hedges expire and retail sector turns stock over. We have voted for independence and voted (unknowingly in most cases) for a price increase of significant scale as well. For anyone doing cross border business (we also have a family business in Germany) the signals are quite clear. Weak pound will benefit exporters from the UK so people may need to adjust their business models.

 

[Freddyjersey2016]

The Canadian dollar exchange rate has dropped markedly since early 2016 - I guess Lie-Nielsen and Veritas kit is getting even more expensive soon

 

[finneyb]

The first of many I suspect. Sterling is down 15% against the dollar and also down against the Euro.
We will be paying for Brexit in the New Year.

Brian

The dollar should be falling any time soon....

BugBear

It would help my finances if it did, but I can't see it happening. As basically the World's Reserve Currency it has greater stability than it should.

Brian

 

[finneyb]

As for blaming it on Brexit, the reality is when you adopt a policy of quantitive easing (i.e. printing money) as we have done for the last 5 years or so it is only a question of time before it has an effect on exchange rates (and inflation). What has happened to Sterling would have happened anyway and Brexit is a convenient excuse.

There was a remarkable correlation between the Brexit vote timing and the precipitous drop in sterling.

Brian

 

[themackay]

I have read some articles regarding the dollar as a reserve currency as China and Russia and some others are bypassing dollar transactions also possibly changes at the IMF which are detrimental to the dollar,remains to be seen if they are true

 

[finneyb]

Read an article some time ago on Ron Paul's website http://www.ronpaul.com/ - the dollar being a reserve currency is very helpful to the US economy - they will react very badly if Russia/China try to change the status quo - would be a good one to see Trump get his teeth into.

Brian

 

[skipdiver]

The last lot of birch ply i bought had gone up quite a bit and i've been told it will go up again when their stock runs out and they get some new stock in the new year.

 

[selectortone]

I had been saving up for several months for an Axminster AT1628VS lathe to replace my old record Power CL-1, so you can imagine what I said (good job only the cat was listening...) when they put the price up from £1699.00 to £1939.50 a month ago. That's a circa 13.5% price hike with no notice.

Purely by luck, the next day I was browsing ebay where Axminster sell a lot of their stuff "Buy-It-Now" and saw that they had not yet put the price of the lathe up there. I bought one, half expecting them to email me saying the price was wrong, but they honoured the order and I'm now the proud owner of an AT1628VS complete with leg stands at the old price. They put the ebay price up the next day. I expect someone in the marketing dept got a flea in their ear for letting that slip! :mrgreen:

The lathe is awesome by the way, like going from a Sopwith Camel to a P-51 Mustang... but I knew it would be - I learned my turning on one at my tutor's workshop.

 

[Steve Maskery]

It's happening all over the place.
I was doing my general shopping today. Flash Spray Cleaner. Just a quid, good price, I thought. But I looked at the bottle and something wasn't quite right, so I put it back.
When I got home I looked at my bottle under the sink. 500ml. The one in the store today was 450ml. That is an 11% price increase.

I'm just glad that I only like, and am not addicted to, Toblerone.

 

[skipdiver]

It's not just Toblerone though is it? All choccy bars have shrunk since they sold out to the Yanks.

 

[YorkshireMartin]

It's not just Toblerone though is it? All choccy bars have shrunk since they sold out to the Yanks.

I bought a snickers the other day. 50p. It's about the size of 1.5 funsize bars from the early 90's. Back when it was a marathon, they were twice the weight I think?

The toblerone decision was utterly stupid to my mind. The design of the bar was it's USP, their entire brand. Toblerone is somewhat of a premium bar and always has been. I think they will reverse that decision in short order. Either that or rename it T_B_E_O_E

 

[RossJarvis]

I'm certain when I was a kid that Marathons were the size of an average coffin, in fact it was fairly common to be buried in Marathon wrappers round our way. Wagon wheels were actually six foot across then too, still tasted like s***e though!!

 

[YorkshireMartin]

lol, but i really think they were twice the weight.

 

[RossJarvis]

lol, but i really think they were twice the weight.

Being a bit of a dinosaur I still ask for Marathons and get odd looks from the child behind the counter.

Yes they were bigger, but they seem to go through cycles, they start off as the size of a Marathon, gradually shrink (occasionally change their name) till they're about the size of a Milky Way, or is it a Fruit Salad, then suddenly zap back up to Marathon size and then it all starts again.

Every now and again they have "biggest ever Marathon/Snickers/Panut Bar" written on them and are actually due to some form of manufacturers average, on average one microgram heavier than the previous iteration of largest ever filled chocolate bar,