As per the post heading, inflation is alive and well, to the point it is getting out of hand.
Over the past few weeks a couple of examples are:
Coles/Woolworths home brand tissues have increased from $1.00 to $1.30
Heinz Bakes Beans 555gm cans have gone from $2.50 to $3.20
These are just a couple of examples I have noted, but to be sure there are a lot more.
With these sort of increases (a) the increases will feed into a higher inflation rate, in turn a higher CPI, in turn higher interest rates, in turn higher wages, etc etc
The end result is not going to be pretty!
Inflation Is Taking off
Ocker on 21/02/2022 - 19:31
Comments
I agree people not able to get a pay rise will suffer in the short term, but most welfare, for example, is linked to cpi or wages.
I don’t think price competition is as week as you say. If so, why was there few price rises before?
Nope, you think milk is gonna go down. Farmers will constantly be asking for more and more despite constant rain across the entire continent even Ayers Rock have a lake around it now. They claim it's drought. But no, added prices will never go down and compounded yearly CPI increases it's actually way more than you think. It's not flat rate inflation, rather exponential inflation. In 10 years a loaf of bread is $10 and a litre of milk be $5.
Not to be obtuse, but how do you think the $2 milk happened in the first place?
Honestly, I don't know about you, but I grew up having to buy the milk in the household, and even in the 90's the milk was about $2-$2.32 for a 2 litre bottle, and by the time I was in early high school it was about $3.30 for a 2 litre. The milk price is pretty much a loss leader as well as an item that super market pressures farmers on, that's how I assume it wasn't even gone up by double by now in today's terms. But to me I think coles and woolworths probably can't sustain keeping it as a loss leader much longer while other product categories increase and chew into their profits.
As an oldie who remembers 17% interest rates and associated inflation, the apparent push by new generations will learn this is a dog chasing it's tail. I need higher wages boss!, OK you will pay more tax to help government coffers, and guess what your boss is going to put his prices up!!. Inflation in a nutshell.
Username check out
Thanks for explaining how it works.
I can’t believe the lack of education in this thread. Inflation is bad. End of story.I think inflation is bad for investors who pay tax.
It isn’t clear to me how it is inherently bad for somebody getting a pay rise or a retired person getting higher rates on their bank savings.
I think there are plenty of swings and round abouts, but because it is bad for some already very wealthy people, the prevailing wisdom at all levels is “inflation bad”.
Wages are going up?
Everything has gone up 30% except for wages (houses, literally every asset class). How are wages driving inflation again?
And I’m really sorry about that one month in the 80s rates hit 17% on your 30k mortgage. Wages have increased 40x since the 80s in line with housing costs, right?
As an oldie, you must also remember 'made in Australia'.
The world has changed and opportunities are not the same as what you enjoyed. At least have the decency to be grateful for the life you had. It may not be your intentionbut these kind of tone deaf comments are very offensive for younger people trying to work out how they will ever afford their own home when 1 year of house price increases is more than their annual salary
Pretty much. lol I work in a high demanding industry and our wages have all increased around 15% or more as minimum. To be honest I would rather no 15% and no inflation. When inflation happens and good increase by 15% across the board like how it is right now (ok maybe the crazy increase is also attributed to COVID disruptions). The sad fact is a 15% pay rise doesn't even help because you don't get 15% net in your pocket, part of it gets chewed up in taxes, if you're on the highest bracket that's about 45%.
We have very low unemployment, high inflation and the official interest rate is 0.10%.
What should the interest rate be if there was actually high unemployment and no inflation?
Economics is like people trying to apply scientific reasoning to something that has so many variables as well as psychological inputs that no one really has a grasp on what's going on
Partly true. The real issue is economists and their ideological blinkers, operating in a partial equilibrium world.
With physics, 3 equations explain 99% of observed phenomena.
With economics, 99 equations explain 3% of observed phenomena.
Probably negative interest rates to stimulate the economy, as well as increased government spending (eg on infrastructure to create jobs, etc)
Anecdotal evidence that ‘inflation is taking off’ needs to taken together with a range of inflation measures.
The latter suggests to me (after some googling) that inflation is not taking off.
You can bet all companies will report record profits and provide record dividends…..weird how that works hey
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/price-indexes-and-…
3.5% Dec 2020 to Dec 2021
1.3% last quarter of 2021I'm no expert since I get most of financial news from Alan Kohler ABC news and Planet Money podcast but my understanding is supply/demand determines CPI/inflation. People are spending more during lockdown and global supply delay is fueling inflation. Raising interest rate is one way to curb inflation. So would you like to spend $100 more on groceries each week or $100/week on your mortgage repayment? Anyone in finance/economic industries feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
Question people should be asking is why haven't our wages increased in line with inflation figures?
Petrol is like +$2 a liter now
It is?
Should be $4.00 per litre by 🎄. That would be real inflation.
Not in regional cities - you're getting shafted
Inflation, stagflation, shrinkflation. It's a veritable pandemic of flations!
One thingy 🔧 all of them.
Yes. But it's more palatable if you break it into bits. :)
you left out el
Helga wraps, used to be 8 in a packet, now 7 in a packet for the same price. 12.5% effective inflation.
3L Woolworths milk now $3.90, up from $3.59. 8.6% inflation.
Pepsi Max 1.25L. Full price $2.50, up from $2.35. Also often used to be on 1/2 price specials, now only seen on 20% specials in the last month or so. Effective inflation 6% to 53%.
1kg Coles/Woolies white plain flour. $1.25, up from $1. 25% inflation.
Danone Ultimate Yoghurt. Used to be 850g tub, now 700g for same price. Another regularly discounted item, also has not been on special since the start of 2022. Effective inflation 20% to 45%.
Chobani 1L Low Fat Yoghurt. Full price $7, up from $6.5. 7% inflation.
Chobani 170g pots. Full price $2.25, up from $1.8. Also, half price specials or 10 for $10 now few and far between or non-existent. Minimum 25% inflation.Nice record keeping!
I'm dreading when Jordans cereal increases. Normal price $7 for 500g box, but has been available half price special for ages (years?!?)
Wish my local Woolies still stocked the Maple Pecan flavour though. Miss that
Coles 3 star mince used to be $3 a packet.
Just wait til fuel is $3 a litre.
Inflation Is Taking off
I remember going there in my late teens.
Glad to hear that it is still around…
Stupid comment. Get over yourself.
Glad others are noticing this as beginning to think it was just me. My typical weekly shop is 20%-30% more than it was 5 months ago
Other things I have noticed are the weekly specials in the supermarket are far more limited than previous.
Coles seems to be doing more 40% off specials than the usual 50% on items and both are jacking up some of their prices by huge amounts - presumably so they can promote more on higher weekly specials in the future.Heinz is a brand that I have noticed which has really put their prices up.
Beans as mentioned above $2.50 to $3.20 (28%) and salad cream up from $2.90 to $3.50 (20%) to name just 2.
Yorkshire tea (my favourite brew) up 10% in woolies from $5 to $5.50 in the past week.And then there are domestic energy prices, insurances, fuel and mortgage rates…etc.
I just wish my wages would keep up…. (or just go up - which would be a start)
Have you made any comments on this website that isn't about crypto, or reasons to buy crypto? If no, why are you on this website if all you want to do is be a rep for crypto and not participate in what this website is actually about?
Does Rona count?
yeah it seemed like the price rises went up around covid lockdowns happening eg.when people started panic buying. Colesworth have apparently been working on an overall sub 5% margins, so guess they want a bigger cut and are facing higher costs now as well.
Don't shoot the 🐦. I did give people a fair warning.
I was agreeing with your point. But yeah, if you are right about one thing, could possibly be right about the second part…
Cool story
It’s been here for 6 months at least. Wages have already skyrocketed in a bunch of industries and businesses are being forced to raise prices as a result. People are idiots if they think inflation is good. The rich can weather it but everyone else suffers. Your wage rise today will be worthless tomorrow as you find yourself paying 20% more on all goods and services.
It's ok. People got a +3.0% pay raise.
Write to your mp and tell them you're voting for someone who will try to get inflation to zero.
That’s a really good point actually.
I do write to my local MP often but wish more people did!
Streets Blue Ribbon 2L, up from $4.90 forever to now be $5.95 in Coles. 21% wow.
its not going to feed into higher wages
So greedy farmers are feeding this inflation ?
It's 🇺🇦 fault according to the news.
The U.S. economy has been hit with increased gas prices, inflation, and supply-chain issues due to the Ukraine crisis. https://t.co/d9dwXWpcvf
Relax everyone. There won't be inflation in salary.
7th March VB Pints are dropping from $10.30 to $7.00
LPG dropped from 96.3 to 89.9 this week.
I bought an ice cream cone and now its all gone.
There is no CO2 shortage. There may be an aluminium can shortage though. Supply chain issues are also making some wines more difficult to source.
LPG increased 79.9 to 99.9 in most NSW
Seen a lot of "doom" videos + one where they argue it is actually deflation that is occurring. This was a few months ago. Lot's of industries have shut down or slowed due to covid and most countries are at peak or high unemployment. The inflation + high prices is argued to be a symptom of the money printing of late.
huh? but phillip lowe and josh frydenburg told me everything is great and jobs jobs jobs. Would they really lie to the people like that?
Yea lots of jobs with subpar pay. Working 40+ hours on a mere 60k salary doesn't cut it!
Depends on the job buddy.
Plenty of jobs out there too that are six figs and only require 35 hour weeks.
Please list these.
@Zondor: There’s a lot. I reckon try looking up for a payroll job. I mean. Not much progression yes but I think it’s relatively simple and pays relatively well. Not sure what’s the requirement for a role in that area.
@Zondor: A number of blue collar jobs on base $60-80k wage can make over 6 figures with a bit of O/T. It just seems unlikely as they’re traditionally viewed as low-skilled, low-paying jobs.
I’m a shift forklift driver in a factory in South-east Melbourne working a rostered 36 hour week. My base wage is just under 6 figures, and some weeks I’ve done O/T as well. My reportable income YTD is ~$130k. Take home is about $80-85k. I’ve been in the job 9 months. The qualification for this job was a forklift ticket.
I don’t do paperwork, don’t have a computer login or email, no phone calls, no KPIs, and work 3 days (36 hours) per week. I have a 10 min safety toolbox meeting with the Supervisor once a week.
And I’ll probably get negged for flexing but my intent is simply providing an example.
List 1
@pogichinoy: No degree but you need alot of industry experince, I am one now but it took me 8 years of work.
@r3volt: I'm a property lawyer & former settlement & leasing clerk.
Charge a base hourly mate's-rate of $150, upwards of $250 for anything involving effort. Set my own hours & pick my own clients. Interstate travel occasionally involved, but it's at no cost to me and I take those jobs when I want to visit interstate family. I work three days a week on average and I'm my own boss. I clear 6 figures after tax each year without issue.
That's chump change though compared to many of the clients I have. Especially Tradie's who run their own small business or contract in numbers. Plumbers and a few trades in particular seem to have amazing earning capacity these days. Call out fee's of over $150 just to drive a few km's to a job, then charging starting rates of $250 an hour for labor, billing for parts at a mark-up of 2.5x cost price, then doing this for job's lasting day's at a time - with multiple parts contracted out for a fraction of the labor cost being charged.
People need to really learn the basics of business if they think a six figure job at 35hr's a week or less is some sort of unrealistic goal.
Just get a better job Josh said.
Wouldn't logic suggest that we need people in the low paying jobs too? Some of the things that our politicians say don't have much logic to them. I guess it is hard to make logical statements when there isn't a logical solution.
@Mr Haj: This isn't anything new but young adults entering the workforce, or new migrants generally take the low paying jobs, or individuals who prefer low paying jobs.
Logically, not everyone can better themselves in their job/career based on their intellect or physical ability.
This is a planned hit on our wallets
Not sure if the last bit of your "in turn.. in turn.. in turn" will happen
Probuild going under with material costs going up that wasnt accounted for in the initial tender is a unusual result of inflation.
Probuild's parent company has been supporting it with one cash injection after another for years. From before the covid pandemic pushed building material and labour costs up. They may have been the last nail in the coffin, but it was that the company was losing money year after year after year that resulted in it getting to the point where the losses had accumulated to the point where it was decided to pull the plug.
Grindleys is apparently coming too.
Probuild's ZA owner backed out of further support like two days ago.
IMO labour costs havent gone up a lot compared to materials… like raw steel is now 30% more?
And in this case labour is mobile… any subbie can move to the next job given the state of the economy, ie. construction labor is saught after.
I think the fundamentals of Probuild was wonky in the last few years… an alleged $300 mil. company as valued by the Chinese with $1.6 bn revenue but $4 mil profit???
For once it’s perhaps a shame this one didn’t get sold to foreigners!
@WhyAmICommenting: yeah I would have LOVED to see China spend good money after bad but to them $300 mil. isnt even chump change… its what they left underneath the couch…
nappies went from $10 to $11.50 freaking 15% rise!
Perfect timing for us - the 3yo is now trained. Bad luck for you :(
Inflation isn't driving higher prices, higher prices is driving inflation. Otherwise how can companies record record profits if they just HAD to increase prices because of inflation?
Tldr, I hadn't been to my local woolies for over a month, went the other day & normally each aisle has quite a few discount/reduced tags. I noticed that their was hardly any which led to me buying hardly anything
Woolworths and Coles knows everyone buys tissue box from them for convenience. That why they raised the price. This shouldn't effect ozbargain user since you should already be ordered your tissue box from Officeworks Hygiene Plus Facial Tissues 24 Pack x 224 Sheets $21.58.
Or you could use your daily newspaper which is about a soft on your nose, and save a truckload!
What is a newspaper?
$2 a day for paper that is as course as sandpaper?
ozbargained.
Serious question, are those office-works tissues any good?
Compared against the Woolworths and Coles home brand there slightly worst but acceptable.
The Officeworks tissue box are smaller than the Woolworths/Coles Brand.
Also the Officeworks are made in China.
My recommendation would just to buy one box in store and see if its acceptable. One box is only 0.98.
Tip the Officeworks online ordering system is terrible for click and collect. They will order the stock in on your behalf but cancel your order after a few days. If this happens immediately reorder and your click and collect should be ready same day or next day. This has happened to me twice were the stock arrives at the store but they cancel the order once it arrives. Alternative go in store and ask them to order for you.
Thanks for the tip I'll give it a try. Legitimately going to switch to these if they're passable with the family.
Have to do whatever I can to try and offset the high inflation rate.
What ply are the office works ones?
Plain mince pie is now $5 outrageous
$5 for guts, bone, water and mystery stuffing is outrageous.
They do not even consider house prices in CPI otherwise it will be literally through he roof.
I've noticed anything Golden Circle has gone through the roof.
This is why you buy as many houses as the banks allow you to borrow
Nothing new. With the fractional reserve banking system and the incessant printing of money, the whole financial system is naturally designed for inflation.
It's a hidden tax designed for the wealthy to steal from the poorAs are government handouts which trickle upwards
It's only getting worse. I am involved in wholesale import. Energy crisis in Europe is affecting every country, now Russia being dicks is going to make things worse.
Shipping is still close to $5000 USD / 20ft out of most Asian countries, not including the Australian ports increase their fees dramatically.
Delays in all aspects of the supply chain is starting to stay, meaning cost from suppliers are now starting to increase rapidly. I am talking 30%-60% cost rises since July 2021.
We have gone from annual price increases, to now monthly, just to keep up.
We thought 2020 to 2021 was bad, but its looking like 2022 is next level.
There is this great push to go green, and use paper and aluminum in my industry. The government fails to understand that the raw materials for these items are at recorded highs, and also supply is at record lows.
Luxury products purchases are increasing too. Wealth inequality will continue to increase over the course of this inflation period. Developed countries are heading towards the wealth inequality of African nations. What a time to live in.
The price of cooking oil is MENTAL, even on half price 4l is now around $16 for a good one. Even at Costco yesterday what was $9 at Costco a few months ago$15 (5L) Only a few months ago it was $9 for the same thing. Thank you Leftism, now i have to fry my chips in water.
Can you please explain how "Leftism" influences anything when the govt has been a right wing one for quite a few years?
I see this a lot online, in the UK also where the conservatives have been on govt for a decade. How are left wing parties to blame for anything when not in power? In fact even the sold called left are not really left wing any more.
The RBA is on record - they will no longer increase interest rates in response to predicted inflation. They will now wait until inflation is reported by the ATO (up to 6 months later).
As you mentioned, temporary inflation was expected due to covid disruption, which led to this decision, however I personally doubt all prices will return anywhere where there is a concentration of market power.
Many goods are now made by only a handful of companies, and there will be little incentive for them to cut prices when their own costs are going up.
Food and housing is getting more expensive, but luxury goods like big screen TVs are cheap. To someone who is earning the median wage or above (say $80k p.a. +), there is likely little impact, but for 50% of our population, inflation isn't just an academic issue, they are hurting, and their pain will eventually lead to consequences and action.