Cost of living - Advice to shop around is simplistic

As A result of inflation the cost of the typical weekly trolley at a supermarket has increased by 9.5%, which comes to an extra €400 for year.

But even worse, the cost of essential staples such as bread, milk, butter, cheese and tea have increased by as much as 30%. This puts an enormous strain on people who were already struggling to make ends meet.

Of course, it is possible for people to get bargains in such items by shopping around. That is the glib advice that people frequently give to the poor.

In many instances chain stores, such as Lidl and Aldi, may undercut the other more established chains in the price of certain commodities. Telling some people to shop in those stores may be akin to suggesting that they shop abroad.

Such advice can be cruelly insensitive to poorer people who usually do not have the private transport that would allow them to shop at other than local stores. It is reminiscent of the legend of Marie Antoinette’s infamous suggestion, “let them eat cake” when told that the people had no bread in the early days of the French Revolution.

She never said it, but that is beside the point. Telling poorer people to shop around makes about as much sense, if they do not have the means of getting around.

With the cost of transport going up, whatever savings people might make by shopping elsewhere would probably be eaten up in transportation costs. The price of petrol has gone up by 13% in the past year and diesel by 32%. Those rises are being passed on by public transportation.

Hard-pressed families are also going to be hit by the savage increase in electricity prices, which are going up by 17.5% next month. Gas prices are going up, too, with the result that the average gas and electricity bill will each exceed €1,000 for the year.

Other families have been hit by increasing mortgage payments. The interest rates have been going up steadily, and many of those people will be further burdened with the likely increase in health insurance payments.

St Vincent de Paul had already noted “a substantial increase” in requests for help from low-income families to meet electricity bills. There is growing evidence of an increasing number of families getting into financial trouble.

Frequently the hardest hit are elderly people on fixed incomes. They may be too proud to seek help. In many cases society should be thoroughly ashamed because these are the people who helped to bring the economy through dark days.

Age Action has warned that older consumers face a crisis in the coming winter of making the choice between fuel and food. In reality that is not a choice because they need both. Without the fuel they are at an increased risk of contracting a serious illness such as pneumonia. Let us not reach the stage where our elderly pay with their lives.