A CONCERN: Torstein Dingstad Raunholm (23) and Sunniva Dingstad Raunholm (21) must balance the student budget carefully in order to handle increased food prices. Healthy ingredients are one of the things they have to pay attention to. Photo: Eirik Wichstad / VG
Some of the foods Norwegians buy most often in shops have increased by between 50 and 100 per cent in one year, according to VG’s extensive price check. – Have seen a consistent rise in prices, says the economics professor.
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VG’s food exchange shows that the price of certain goods has risen drastically. The low-price chains have become far more expensive in one year. In VG’s food exchange, 73 out of 77 prices at the discount chains are completely identical. Kiwi explains the price increase on individual products as a result of promotions. view more
– Whether we have noticed it? Oh yes. Especially at dinner.
Increased food prices have not gone unnoticed by Torstein Dingstad Raunholm (23).
On Friday afternoon, he is shopping with his wife Sunniva Dingstad Raunholm (21). They are both students with part-time jobs – and happily married.
– Now there are two of us, so it helps a bit that we share the expenses, adds Sunniva.
– But a normal pasta dinner, which should actually be a reasonable everyday dish, quickly becomes very expensive. The meat dough alone costs almost NOK 70, she says.
– What does the rise in food prices mean to you?
– We eat less vegetables. The diet becomes more unhealthy. It is cheaper to resort to First Price ultra-processed food rather than fruit and vegetables, replies Sunniva.
CHEAP: The couple landed on frozen pizza this evening. Photo: Eirik Wichstad / VG
This week VG has checked the prices of 77 popular groceries at Rema 1000, Kiwi, Meny, Coop Mega, Extra and the home delivery service Oda.
64 of the items in the shopping basket are the same as when VG did a similar check in September 2022. A comparison shows that the discount chains Rema 1000, Kiwi, Extra and Oda. has become between 13 and 14 per cent more expensive in one year.
Some products stand out markedly with a steep price increase.
TRIPLE PRICE JUMBO: Two of these are twice as expensive as last year. Photo: Hanne Hattrem / VG
Weekend meals more expensive
If you are going to buy tomatoes in bulk or frozen pizza of the Peppe’s Pizza Triple Meat type, you have to spend more than twice as much now than at the same time last year.
At the same time, the price of a kilo of Norvegia yellow cheese has increased by more than 60 per cent. Now it costs NOK 129!
TO THE HEAVEN: The price of this packed lunch favorite has skyrocketed. Photo: Hanne Hattrem / VG
If you want to treat yourself to something for the weekend treat, you’ll have to shell out nearly NOK 40 for a Freia milk chocolate. That is NOK 15 more than last year – a price increase of 60 per cent.
The mentioned products cost exactly the same in the four low-price chains Kiwi, Rema 1000, Extra and Oda.
Here you can see which items have increased and decreased the most in price since September last year.
The tables use the prices at Kiwi, which was the cheapest in VG’s last food exchange.
NHH: Professor of social economics Øystein Foros follows the food industry closely. Photo: Helge Skodvin
– Follow each other closely
– For these individual products, it is reasonable to assume that the price increase has been significantly more than we can think they have received in increased purchase prices.
This is what Professor Øystein Foros at the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH) tells VG.
He adds that the price trend among the low-price chains has been different this year.
– In the run-up to Easter, the discount chains burned money by holding back. It probably came as a consequence of an increased focus on price among consumers. Since Easter, we have seen a consistent rise in prices.
In VG’s food exchange, 73 out of 77 prices at the discount chains are completely identical. If you include Oda, 57 prices are the same.
– It is primarily an expression that the low-price chains follow each other very closely. It hurts them more than the supermarkets to get attention for not having low enough prices, says Foros.
ANSWERS: Director of Communications at Kiwi, Kristine Aakvaag Arvin. Photo: Kiwi / KIWI
Disputes increased margins
Kiwi explains the high price increase on the items mentioned above by the fact that they were sold at a promotional price at the same time last year.
– In August this year, the same products are not on sale, but we have many other products on sale, says communications director Kristine Aakvaag Arvin.
She disputes that the chain has increased its margins.
– On the contrary. In the last six months, we have received strong increases from the suppliers. The price increases we have received over the past six months are higher than the price increases you experience in stores.
Aakvaag Arvin gives the NHH professor the right explanation for the similar prices.
– Kiwi works every day to be the cheapest. In addition to pushing the prices ourselves, we also follow our low-cost competitors. If we find a similar item, with the same weight or size, at a lower price, we lower the price as quickly as possible.
You can see VG’s entire food exchange here:
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Published: 02.09.23 at 16:29
Updated: 02.09.23 at 17:20
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2023-09-02 14:29:46
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