‘Basket’ exceeds $200 for the first time

Press, 19 September 1985, Page 17

‘Basket’ exceeds $200 for the first time

Fluctuating meat prices and several smaller price increases pushed the cost of the grocery “basket” over $2OO this month for the first time in the six years the “basket” has been listed. While the price of steak remained the same, lamb leg chops increased 83c per 750 g or $1.66 for the I.skg used in a month. In the other grocery lines, cheese had the biggest increase of 50c per Ikg block ($1 for the month), followed by sausages up 17c ($1.36), toothpaste up 10c (30c), biscuits up 5c (20c), canned peaches up 4c (8c), baked beans up 2c (8c), cornflakes up 3c (12c) and peas up 1c (4c). The only decrease was for detergent which came down 8c in price. The total increase for the month was $4.76.

Mr Mike Prendergast, the general manager of Countdown stores, said that in the last month there had been some price increases covering a wide range of products from some of the big companies. “Across the board in the last few months, increases have not slowed. This is probably still an overflow from the price freeze.” Many companies were still trying to regain the increased costs of raw materials, he said. The increase in the price of milk at the beginning of the month had not yet affected any grocery products but Mr Prendergast said he expected these to filter through into biscuit and confectionary lines in the next two or three months. Mr Prendergast said he did not think the wage

negotiations would affect the grocery area because “it will be one area where we will end up carrying the cost.” Most of the bigger chains would probably try to control cost as much as they could.

“We have to remain competitive so every effort will be made to keep prices down.” The southern area manager of Woolworths, Mr John Maze, said he hated to think what would happen at the end of the wage round if the figures spoken about flowed through into the industry. He did not know whether this would happen.

Prices had remained fairly static in the last month with the exception of Watties products which had increased between 5 and 6 per cent. Neither of the volatile products (tea, coffee) had increased in price, he said. The increase in milk was unlikely to affect chocolate prices until about Christmas because there had been a big increase of about 11 per cent only two months ago, said Mr Maze.