The Good old days before imports

[Gromit]

// Groceries today cost one-thirteenth of what they did 150 years ago, according to a study from The Grocer magazine.

The magazine applied an inflation measure to the 1862 prices of 33 items including eggs, hot chocolate, bread, grapes, a toothbrush and sherry.

The weekly basket of food, drink and household items priced at £93.95 now would have cost an 1862 shopper £1,254.17 in real terms. //

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16450526

[237SJ]

I`m not sure that comparison is a true reflection of consumers` choices 150 years ago. How many people bought hot chocolate, pineapples and melons? People tended to buy home grown seasonal products. Of course pineapples cost a fortune then. It took weeks to ship them (at great expense). Likewise butter (from New Zealand). Who needed NZ butter when you had a wealth of UK farmers producing it? That basket of food comparison is completely skewed IMO.

[boxtops]

It doesn't only apply to food though - this doesn't reflect inflation generally. My parents would be appalled that we are paying the equivalent of £1 10s 0d for a loaf of bread. My first pay packet in 1966 was £8 for the month.

[Coldicote]

'Real terms' is not the easiest of calculations to understand. The value of money has changed beyond recognition. Many years ago the weekly grocery shopping for three of us used to cost about £5 in old money. I find this latest exercise difficult to take seriously and what's the point of it anyway?

[spudqueen]

I think today that we have much more disposable income than we used to have. If I think back to even the 1970's people didn't own as many clothes as they do now, and buying something like a new kettle or new iron seemed much more of a major purchase than nowadays. So what I think this comparison shows is that in 1862 people had to spend a greater proportion of their wage on basic items than we do now.