Matthew Steeples shares his “yellow stickered” spending splurge just as it is revealed the average British family spent an extra £50 on groceries in January 2021
This morning, just as the Guardian shared news that the “average British family spent [an] extra £50 on groceries in January “[underpinning a] £1 billion surge in supermarket spending,” I found myself with a £95 bill for a quick shop at a small Waitrose store in Brompton Road, London.
Despite living alone during this latest lockdown, I – like the rest of the population it plainly seems – find myself making “spontaneous Waitrose trips” now due to being unable to go to restaurants. I saunter in intending to buy just a pint of milk and a bottle of wine perhaps, but end up leaving with goodness knows what.
The perils or, to my plainly muddled mind, delights of finding yellow stickered items is part of the ‘problem.’ Discovering a bargain brings joy to my somewhat dull days and aside from buying the odd chocolate bar for the poor homeless residents of ‘Tent City Knightsbridge,’ I truly cannot justify such sporadic spending on things I truly don’t actually need.
Unsurprisingly, the Guardian also reported that the majority of the increase in supermarket spending in January came from booze. They reported that whilst hideous no-alcohol beer rose “by 12% in the month” but that “alcohol sales surged by an even stronger 29%, or £234m, as the closure of pubs and clubs led to increased drinking at home.” Cheers to that!
Follow Matthew Steeples on Twitter at @M_Steeples.
Another excellent piece Matthew. My two best ever yellow sticker prices came in recent weeks, and both from Morrisons in Wokingham. Firstly a beautiful topside of beef weighing in at approx 1.3Kg, usual price was circa £16.00, yellow ticket price £3.00. THREE POUNDS! Then last week came a wonderfully fresh chicken priced originally around £6.00. So fresh she layed a dozen eggs after waddling home with me. And the price? Drum roll please… 31p. THIRTY ONE PENCE. Seriously.
It is prawn and crab at the top. Reduced to 10 p. I hope that is not due to the difficulties our fishermen encounter sending their products to the EU. Since it seems they let them rot maybe they can pay us to take them off their hands. You lot can have your oysters, but I do like crab.
It’s in my DNA I can’t walk past ANYTHING with a yellow ticket. I’ve had some most excellent bargains over the yrs.
I do draw the line at fighting over a 12p batch baked loaf tho, I’ve seen people proper bust up in M&S I feel sorry for the poor buggers doing the ticketing, they should get danger money.