SHOPPERS face paying up to 60 per cent more for groceries as the cost-of-living crisis bites, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
In the past year, prices for everyday groceries including fish, fruit, pasta and bread have leapt so dramatically that FIGHTS are breaking out in the aisles as shoppers scramble for discounted foods.
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Pensioners are being shoved aside, shoppers are grabbing “yellow-label” products before they reach the discount shelves and customers are snatching items from others’ people’s shopping trolleys.
Some desperate families cannot even afford to cook their food because of soaring energy bills.
Our analysis makes for alarming reading.
Sun on Sunday Squeeze Team consumer expert Martyn James said: “It’s jaw-dropping that the cost of vital goods has risen so much in just a year — and at the worst possible time for struggling households.
“While some supermarkets are saying they will try to freeze prices, for many people the affordability of some goods has already gone far beyond what they can feasibly afford.
“Unless we want queues outside food banks, the Government will need to come up with some radical solutions — and soon.”
Our investigation comes after research group Kantar revealed this month that the cost of a supermarket shop has shot up by 5.9 per cent since last April, or £271 more a year for the average family.
The squeeze has resulted in supermarket sales falling by 5.9 per cent over the 12 weeks leading up to April 17 as shoppers explore other options to save cash.
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But our figures suggest the real impact on household budgets could be much higher.
We compared the price of the same items from mum of two Samantha Yule’s shop at Asda a year ago with today’s prices.
There were huge price differences, with a litre of Vimto fruit squash seeing the biggest hike — from £1 to £1.60.
And 227g of strawberries now cost £1.49 compared with £1 last year — a rise of 49 per cent.
Fresh salmon will set you back nearly a third more, with a 240g packet costing £3.45 today, up from £2.65.
The cost of onions has leapt by 58 per cent, with a pack of three now costing 79p compared with 50p previously.
Grapes have gone up in price by almost a quarter, from 99p to £1.20.
The price of pasta has leapt almost by half, with a 500g packet of Napolina conchiglie that cost just 75p before, being sold this week for £1.10 — a rise of 35p.
Potatoes cost more than 50 per cent extra, with a pack of 1kg baby potatoes going for 90p compared with 59p last year.
Samantha, from Leeds, West Yorks, said: “I knew that the price of a shop had gone up but when you look back at what I bought last year and what it costs now it is terrifying.”
Waitress Caroline Hoy, 40, from Royston, Herts, also a mum of two, has become so focused on getting discounts she offers tips online on how to find cut-price food.
She said: “Prices have gone up so much I can only eat healthily by shopping carefully and looking for yellow labels. You can get up to 90 per cent off.
“But grabbing these bargains can be tough, people are desperate. I’ve seen people fighting, pushing and shoving.
“At my Tesco, they used to have security guards at reductions time, and staff would tell you to only pick two items to stop a fight. You had to be quick. I can only eat healthily thanks to yellow labels.”
Caroline’s claims are backed by scores of disturbing videos posted online, including one showing Tesco customers snatching reduced products from staff trolleys before they had even reached the shelves, and a fight breaking out at a cut-price food aisle at Asda in Wolverhampton, where a woman hit another shopper on the head with a packet of raw chicken.
The victim retaliated by slapping her assailant with a pizza.
The desperate scenes are repeated in almost a dozen videos filmed at supermarkets in Bristol, Slough, Chester, Leeds, Northampton and other locations.
Office worker Rosa Borg, 51, from Palmers Green, North London, says her rising bills are worrying.
She said: “I’m spending about £160 a week on food at the moment and that must be £40 or £50 more than a year ago.
Commenting on the price comparisons on these pages, a spokesman for Asda said: “A number of the products featured were on offer at the time the first shop was conducted.
“However we recognise that pressures facing suppliers across the globe are contributing to rising food prices. We are doing all we can to keep grocery bills in check.”
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