A podcast aired this week by the Irish Times entitled “Supermarkets ripping off Irish Shoppers?” had their consumer affairs correspondent Conor Pope speaking with Sorcha Pollack. It was, on the whole, quite fair in setting out many of the true reasons why prices are increasing and pointed the finger further up the supply chain (as well as natural disasters and external conflicts).
We are reminded that, in its most simple exposition, we can look at the cover price that the Irish Times have printed on their masthead over the past 5 years. We remind you that these printed prices include the price that did not change downwards after Irish taxpayers gave the publishers a windfall when 9% VAT was reclassified as a 0% VAT product. The €3.70 price remained as the price.
€3.30 Dec 2019 – Dec 2020
€3.50 Jan 2021 – Dec 2021
€3.70 Dec 2021 – Feb 2023
€3.90 Mar 2023 – Dec 2023
€4.00 Dec 2023 – Nov 2024
€4.20 Nov 2024
90c increase since Dec 2019.
This 90cent increase represents a 27.3% increase and may, undoubtedly be justified by way of cost increases to the Irish Times – the impartial aspect is that at no time does the retailer put up the price until the wholesale price was increased.
