Cost of Living crisis sees West Midlanders switch to discount shopping

Prices are rising at their fastest level for forty years with food costs in particular seeing sharp increases. It’s a situation that’s left many here in the West Midlands struggling to cope - with the situation only exacerbated with rises across most goods and services. So just how are people coping?

Shanice says: “Yeah, the food shopping, we’ve had to change shops. Like, it’s not that we are high maintenance anyway because we come from a medium-okay working-class kind of situation. But if I was to shop in, say, Waitrose, now I’m shopping in Tesco, I’m shopping in Heron, just so I can get food for my kids, I know that she ain’t gonna be starving and make sure that I could afford it.”

UK inflation, which is the rate in which prices rise, edged up to 9.1% in the 12 months to May. It’s left many struggling to buy sufficient nutritious food. It’s a situation affecting six million adults and 1.6 million children according to a recent report from the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee with many here in the West Midlands struggling.

Many have changed the way they shop with a move to discounters, and a recent price comparison test has found they are the cheapest. When checking a basket of goods - consumer organisations found Aldi and Lidl to be the cheapest places to shop in the last twelve months. But even savvy shopping may not be enough - with local food banks seeing a massive increase in demand.

Deborah Middleton, Trustee at Food Hope says: “There is absolutely people struggling with food poverty in our community for all sorts of reasons. You could be a single parent, you could have lost your job. You could be suffering with mental health issues, physical disabilities, you could be a carer, you could be on minimum wage. We see a cross section of people come through our doors - lovely people - that are just struggling and and just by having that food, taking that food away, helps them survive.”

A staggering One in six people in the Uk used a food bank in the last year and with prices only expected to rise further many more could soon be relying on the generosity of others to put food on their plates.

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