The price of Guinness has gone up again – to £2.05 for a 500ml bottle in my regular supermarket.
I almost didn’t spot it because they have played the trick – purely coincidentally of course – of putting it on special offer, two for £3, so I did not notice the change in the price of a single bottle until I got to the till.
Cigarettes have gone up too of course. The Budget price rise has coincided with the implementation of the law which forbids the open display of cigarettes in larger stores, which have all sprouted sliding doors to the cabinets, with prominent notices to make it clear that they can be opened for business.
The problem of how to display the prices has been solved by putting a printed price list on the counter – it extends over two A4 pages even with print so small that it is impossible to read without bending down real close.
And they also translate that now into the price per cigarette.
My impression is that there has been a huge leap in the number of people who are buying roll-your-own tobacco. I expect that even this will not completely satisfy the demand at a price people are willing to pay, so the proportion of tobacco tax which goes uncollected will rise above its current level of 13%.
But at least the price of coffee has come down.
