Trump

[Tom Joad]

To answer some of the posts above, I concede that Harris is a bit better than Trump, not that that is really saying much imo. I am not enthralled with everything she wants to do either and still say how many politicians there are over here we could have done better with our candidates that's all. I have a feeling Trump will win, but if Harris does, cool.

As to how I am a Baggies fan? Pretty simple: Started following the Prem back in 2011 and just keyed in on WBA due to the kits, their underdog mentality(To me at least) etc; and Odemwingie quickly became my favorite player.

Not a bad choice and  underdog mentality should probably be our motto!

[Protheroe]

Bollox.

Well no, actually. Tesco's net profit margin this year is a wafer thin 1.74%, last year it was even thinner at 1.13%.

[Berthe of a Nation]

Bollox.

Well no, actually. Tesco's net profit margin this year is a wafer thin 1.74%, last year it was even thinner at 1.13%.

Again bollox.

You keep on drinking the cool aid.

I'll look at the balance sheet and see the jump from £832m to £2.3bn.

Poor Tesco, how will they survive by sacking employees and having more self service tills where the customer does the work normally donr by workers.

Please someone, pass me another tissue as they only made an extra £1.5bn more last year.

I know from personal experience what has been going on from the time Russia invaded Ukraine as I know businesses that were paying 2.5p per unit to Eon Next for gas then they tried to charge 50p per unit then came down to 20p. If you think that kind of cuntish bastardness is ok and good for the country and long term growth of the economy good for you.

I'll call it for what I see and no cunt holds them to account and you have little cry for the wafer thin Tesco margins.

[Brentbaggie]

I stated that we have some of the cheapest food in Europe. Higher quality food occupies more of Europe’s shopping baskets than here. Another fact. We also have the highest obesity rate. No amount of “cunting” changes this.

People spend a lower percentage of their income on food in the UK than anywhere else. Either it is because it is cheap or they value food less. Depends on the consumer I guess.

I’m not a food produce expert but unless we as a nation have much lower willpower I suspect cost must be one of the reasons we’re all so cunting fat.

[Protheroe]

The Competition & Markets Authority found that food prices were NOT driven by weak competition, nor that the full effects of food price inflation had been passed onto customers. Supermarkets margins are so thin it leaves very little margin for error or supernormal profits.

You may not like it, but they’re amongst the most efficient and productive businesses we have. Were it not so prices would be much higher as they are in many parts of mainland Europe.

[rsbaggy2]

No wish to upset anyone, but if you see Harris as only marginally better than CunTrump then you have seriously flawed judgement.
The state of the American populace given that the orange baboon is well in the running to win is a sad indictment of how dumbass that nation is.

---

Tesco's EPS over last 5 years. How does this fit into the discussion?

2020 to 2024

Diluted earnings/(losses) per share – continuing operations 7.54p​ 5.58p 19.64p 8.81p 24.53p

[SW4Baggie]

At least Harris has plans to try and stop the con of supermarkets and other businesses using inflation as an excuse for ripping off customers.

Here no one gives a fuck as the likes of Tesco make billions in profit with prices going through the roof.

A fucking windfall tax on these opportunistic cunts and energy companies would be better than wacking pensioners.

Supermarket margins are really tight in the UK. Prior to Covid food had never been cheaper in real terms. You can't blame businesses for maintaining margins when faced with the first inflationary event in a generation. There's plenty of price gouging going on in supplier markets at the moment - but not in food,

Sadly this is true. A nasty fact we don’t want to deal with as a nation is we have some of the cheapest food in Europe, are producing nowhere near as much as we consume and successive governments have been largely reluctant to deal with the problem. We take cheap food for granted but the poor end up eating largely processed poor quality food as a consequence. How we deal with this dilemma in the future will be a - as they say - nice problem.

This is absolutely true - I’ve worked in the food industry for many years across Europe and the pressure put on producers by UK retailers and consumers is massive, far greater than anywhere else in Europe. We have the most diversified market - we have 9 large retailers with significant share on top of the independents, and with the UK generally having high quality standards from a  regulatory perspective but not the most discerning quality demands from consumers the only lever these retailers can pull for a competitive edge is price, and as such our food was artificially low for many, many years. This has had a huge knock on effect to the industry including huge reliance on overseas cheap labour, often with plenty of organised crime / forced labour issues, and the rise in ultra processed food consumption (we consume far more UPFs than any other European country, due to the need to keep costs low, extend shelf life, and maintain competitiveness - unfortunately this leads to the issues we have with obesity, malnutrition and high cancer / heart disease rates. 

As has been said, we also outsource so much of our food production that we are light years away from having the food security we need, should there be any serious event impacting our food supply - as we mildly saw when Brexit first initiated - our shelves would run dry very, very quickly. It’s yet another of the massive issues facing current and future governments and should be far higher on the agenda than it currently is. With all the talk of the state of the NHS, fixing what we put into our bodies would be a massive step forward,  but it will cost the average Brit far more in food bills. 

On a personal level, this race to the bottom has also made the food industry a really tough place to work. Layoffs are frequent, and the workload just falls on everyone else. The constant pressures to maintain margins means infrastructure is rarely invested in compounding the issue. This whole sector is a ticking time bomb IMO.

[Protheroe]

C-bomb incoming

[man in the corner shop]

Thanks for the insight SW4.
The difference in supermarket prices between UK and EU supermarket prices is quite startling.
I'm guessing food prices in UK will need a reset as we can't carry on like this for ever.

[Baggiejacko]

Good old Brexit