Food shopping £1,160 cheaper than it was 150 years ago

by Simon Ward on 09 January 2012  |  11 comments
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A survey by The Grocer magazine shows how far prices have fallen since Victorian times.

It cost a Victorian shopper the equivalent of £1,254.17 in today’s prices to buy a weekly basket of food, drink and household items, according to new research by The Grocer magazine.

That’s 13 times more than The Grocer calculates it costs us now to buy the 33 items it looked at for a lighthearted survey to mark the 150th anniversary of the magazine.

And while a Victorian shopper would have spent around a third of their weekly budget on food, The Grocer estimates it now accounts for an average of 7% of our weekly outgoings.

A ten-fold increase in wages is one major reason for this. The other is technological changes, which have made it easy and cheap to move food around the world.

This explains why in 1862 a pineapple would cost the equivalent of £149 in real terms today, but actually costs just £1.72. Similarly, a kilo of grapes is 7,419% cheaper and a melon 5,971%.

Obviously these three items would have never been seen by most people living in Britain in 1862, let alone eaten by them.

What is more interesting is how items such as tea were still such a luxury, costing the equivalent of 2,713% more than it would today. Similarly, butter cost 1,138% and bread 451%, although most people in 1862 made their own.

Here is the complete list of items The Grocer surveyed:

More: Feed your family for £55 a week | Save £2,012 in 2012