Hi, Everyone:

I'm newly arrived from accross the proverbial pond (NYC to be exact, the MOST EXPENSIVE city in N. Amer.) and am SHOCKED at food prices.

First, I started looking for Atkins-branded product right at the airport... suprisingly I found them relatively easily, but quickly reailzed that they cost me TWICE as much as what I was paying 7 hrs before. Well, this must be due to the airport location, aided by the the novelty factor, plus the fact that it is an "import", etc. Not to worry, I said to myself... BIG MISTAKE! I found them at Boost only slightly cheaper, still close to twice as expensive as I was buying them in NYC...

Oh, well, had to give up on Atkins branded stuff, I said to myself... Then I found some Carbolife and other LC brands at GNC, H&B, etc... Unfortunately, they were still grossly overpriced, at about twice the NYC level.... OK, let's forget shakes/bars, etc., and look for "real" food. Next thing to try: Burger King... well, a BK is a BK, is a BK, or is it? Try this: a US$7.00 dollar whopper (just the sandwich, not the "value meal")... and if you want an $US8.00 burger, no problem... order a double whopper with cheese & bacon (throw out the bun, of course), and you've got it, an EIGHT-FREAKING-US-DOLLARS fast-food burger.... UNREAL even by NYC standards... You may have to pay, if you try real hard, $4 for a fast-food burger in NYC... maybe, really maybe US$5.... but US$8 for a fast-food burger, I have never had the displeasure of seeing it in NYC. Well, at that point I said, it must be ALL US products/restaurants that are grossly overpriced...

Then I tried reasonably sounding local establishments (yates, etc)... and found out that anything I order, ANYTHING, was OVER £5 (which sounds cheap until you realize it means OVER US$10 for the cheapest item)...

OK, better go to a supermarket and start doing some cooking (at first I was staying in a hotel, so cooking was not an option)... So, found a Tesco (cheapest deal in town) and then realized that ALL FOOD ITEMS (local or othersise) cost somewhere between 150% to over 200% of what they cost in the MOST EXPENSIVE city in N. America...

yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Fine, I've heard about hormones, subsidies, and other things available/allowed in N.A. which may not be available/allowed in the UK... but I couldn't possibly imagine how that would raise food prices to 200% level... Anyhow, I mentioned this to some "continental" people I know, expecting them to tell me food prices in the continent were similar to UK's, and much higher than in N.A....but surprise, surprise.... they were also bitterly complaining about the UK food prices they had to pay while visiting/living in Britain... they also find them about TWICE as expensive as what they pay in the continent....

WHAT THE H*LL IS GOING ON???????????????

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS DISASTER? WHO IS TO BLAME?

WHY AREN'T PEOPLE MAD AS H*ELL ABOUT THIS?

WHY HAVEN'T POLITICIANS BEEN FORCED TO FIX THIS UNDER THREAT OF BEING KICKED OUT OF OFFICE???

ARE PEOPLE HAPPY ABOUT PAYING TWICE AS MUCH FOR FOOD????

Inquiring minds want to know!!!

__SP

HI SP,

Welcome to the UK! London is the second most expensive city in the world at the moment (second only to Tokyo). That probably has a knock on effect countrywide.

Basically, the profit margins in this country are higher and so are rents, running costs etc.

I am 'mad as hell' at prices here- I'm sure plenty of people are, shopping trips to New York are a big thing. After shopping in Sawgrass Mills in Florida I won't buy clothes in England unless I really have to.

Tesco supermarket is your best bet as you've found.

Basically, I don't buy the stuff. I cook everything. It's annoying sometimes but I just can't afford it. I go to France every few months on a cheap day trip and stock up on things like washing powder, olive oil, dishwasher tablets, wine, tobacco and always fill the car up!

If you think food is bad have a look at petrol prices!

Best wishes, Alison

I suppose because we are not comparing our prices to American prices. We've no reason to.

Bear in mind that the pound is currently at its highest point in several years against the dollar, which means that prices will seem even higher to someone used to working in dollars

That said, I can't see how you calculate a burger to be $8, at the most I would say a BK whopper is betwen £2.50 and £3 without the fries, which would be no more than say $5 max...

Hi SP

Welcome to the UK and I hope that you enjoy your time here, even if you don't like the prices.

You will find that for some things prices vary across the UK and food is certainly more expensive in central London than many other areas of the UK.

I've not been to the US yet, booked holiday for October 2005, so can't compare prices, but you learn to live with what you have.

Atkins and similar products have to be imported from the US, so that will certainly put the price up and as they are still new to the UK, within the last 6 months or so, they are testing the market at the moment.

Canadian freinds tell me the same when they comer here.

We're off to Canada and US in a few weeks time. For us Brits, it's like everything is on a half price sale when we get there.

All I'd say is avoid the branded LC stuff and eat proer food while you're here - the mark up isn't as bad as the Atkins artificial stuff.

Enjoy your stay.

Tony

Welcome to the UK fellow American. I know prices seem a bit of a shock to you right now. It is not just LC products as you well know from BK, but just about everything. I did the same thing you did when I first arrived. I would convert £ to $ all the time to determine value. I quickly realised to forget that. I now live in the UK and that is how it is. (Not that I particularly like it.) One thing to remember is, for the most part, people are paid more here, no extra cost for insurance and when you go back to the states at the moment, exchange rate is WONDERFUL! I feel VERY rich when I get back to the states for a visit.

Yes, LC products are more. But they have been coming down fairly steadily. I also consider most of those things treats. Not something I depend upon day by day. I am getting pretty good at my own recipes.

If you want a fellow American to comiserate with, let me know!

Hi, All:
Thanks to all of you who have replied...

1st) LCdolphin, I am not certain I am a full-blooded American in all senses of the word, but definitely 100% American for our purposes... I haven't yet found a board for UK residents from N.Am., which could be handy in our adaptation process... even for simple things like discussing a good place to find adaptor plugs/transformers for American appliances, or finding dietary substitutes for food we were used to, etc. etc. It is obvious we have been "spoiled" by all the LC choices we had back across the proverbial pond (apparently quite cheap, although they may not have seemed so back there)

2) Silvia, LittleAnne: the weakness of the US dollar vs the pound should make US products CHEAPER (in £)... for example, a few years ago a UK importer needed, say £1000 to pay an invoice for $1400, now the same importer can get roughly the same US goods for about £700. Thus, the competition should, theoretically, force importers/distributors/retailers to "pass on" the savings (in £) to the UK consumers.

3) LittleAnne, Alison: Thanks for your welcome and well wishes... Things are going quite well for me, overall. Certainly food is a sensitive issue, since one has to deal with it every single day, but I hope and expect it won't ruin my experience. Many additional challenges result from our WOE, especially for those of us "spolied" by all the choices we had in the US (although my continental friends think the UK is LC heaven when it comes to Europe... we can even get Splenda!! in tablets!!! (the tablet thing is the one clear advantage we enjoy for being across the Atlantic))

4) Alison and everyone else:
In todays "global" economy it is virtually impossible for an easily transportable good (beef, cheese, etc) to cost in a given place a lot more (close to twice as much) than it costs anywhere else (especially a neighboring, similar country) UNLESS the gov is heavily involved into it. If a private citizen can ride the EuroStar to Paris and "stock up" in food at "half price", so could Tesco or similar establisjements!! Except they would be dealing with wholesalers, and transporting their purchases in volume, which is much cheaper; that is, they would get an even better deal. And if they don't do it, private capitalists (always on the look for profit opportunities) would recognize that buying at half price elsewhere and to sell with a reasonable markup at home could be extremely profitable!!
Why isn't it happening???
More than likely b/c of huge barriers that must have been built by gov. agencies by way of "transaction costs", so-called "red-tape", exhorbitant import taxes, or outright prohibitions... probably one of those politically engineered schemes in which a gov "protects" one tenths of one percet of the population at the expense of the remaining 99.9%.

But the bottom line is that polititians only permit those things when a sustantial percentage of the population doesn't care... you can say what you will of polititians, but generally they do like power, and when a bunch of people are mad about something they "get the message" and realize that their political survivability is at stake, and decide to "do something" about the problem. Unfortunately, it seems that many locals either are unaware of how much more they are paying for certain things, or have come to accept the situation, and decided that paying for certain food items (and other things) a lot more than what others pay (across the chunnel or across the Atlantic) "comes with the territory"... with an attitude like that, things may never change, I am very much affraid.

Everything's cheaper up north!

http://talk.uk-yankee.com should do it.



Theoretically. However, it doesn't work that way in practice. UK merchants keep the prices the same, and pocket the difference in exchange rates. Pure capitalism at work. Price gouging is rampant here, and people complain about it amongst themselves, but there's no big popular movement about it. People mostly shrug their shoulders and go on about their lives. Doing the £ to $ conversion will drive you crazy. I quit after a few months (been here over 2 years now).



The ferry to Calais is what people normally use.


Mainly because of the size and power of the large supermarket chains. Any small capitalist who wanted to try this for one commodity (let's say, laundry detergent) would soon be crushed out of existence as Tesco and the others easily undercut their price, taking a loss if necessary in order to destroy the competition. Wal-Mart does this all the time in the US. And although Tesco et al. could eat everybody's lunch by cutting prices across the board, why should they when people are willing to pay the higher price? A general boycott or a government order could force prices down, but I don't think UK residents are going to be boycotting their food stores any time soon, and such a gov't order would be (rightly) seen as unacceptable interference in the free market.


The two areas where this happens to a large extent are in petrol prices and booze prices. The amount of tax on these items is horrendous, and they're planning to add more. Hence the popularity of the "booze cruise" to Calais.


People do care, but the general feeling is "what can ya do." It's similar to the feeling many US residents have about the gas prices over there lately. Everybody complains about it, but most people find it either unacceptably inconvenient or simply unworkable to create a situation where they actually buy less gas. So people shrug and keep driving. Same thing happens here with regard to food and other prices.

If you think the UK is expensive for food you shouldn't travel accross the water to Ireland. It's unbelievable. When I visit a Tesco in Wales and compare prices to Tesco here it's amazing. We always take little trips to the Uk for cloths.

Forget Tesco's, find Lidl's. It is a German chain where everything is cheaper. Markets are also usually cheaper than supermarkets for meat and veg.

I've just got back from Dublin. If you don't like British prices don't go there. Food is 17% higher than the UK!!!

I have found since being on my atkins way of eating my food bills have doubled if not tripled. This really gets to me too as one upon a time I stayed in the US and could not believe the difference in food prices - it is certainly a rip off in the counrty - and i truly believe that because no one likes to make a fuss it just stays the same or gets worse!

Thanks for posting - I was begining to think I was the only one who felt england was a rip off for food prices!

Oh and why don't you have a journal for others to post in??!! Get one immediately LOL!!
Take care
Emma xxx

There is a very handy site for Americans and I know there are some Canadians on it. It is www.americanexpats.co.uk It is great for adjusting to the UK.

I would like to add my welcome to the UK, Sucraphobe! I lived in the US for a few years and yes, things are more expensive here for food etc but we need to take into account such things as hormones being added to meat and GM foods simply not being an option here, the market would not stand it. This really ramps up costs. Have you noticed that sodas here have a sell by date? I guess that means they don't have the preservatives allowed in the US which again puts up costs.

Import duties from outside the EU are also pretty steep (just ask anyone caught by Customs bringing in over their allowance from the US!!) which has a big impact on prices. The EU common agricutural policy - ridiculous IMO - subsidises farmers at the expense of consumers and also adds to prices.

Some things though seem cheaper to me here - car insurance and air travel are two that spring to mind, and not everything in France is cheaper either. Tuna and razors for example are a lot more expensive.

Are you a Costco member? If so I would recommend a trip to their Watford or Reading warehouses. Quite a few US goods there, including beef jerky and big tubs of mixed nuts plus very reasonable prices for excellent quality meats.

I hope you enjoy your stay in the UK - welcome once again.