price inflation of beers and crisps

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
According to the book Get Carter (originally Jack's Return Home) which was published about 1970, a pint of beer cost one shilling and ten pence, which I reckon is about 9 new pence. A weekend's rent in a cheap guest house cost 50 shillings, which is £2.50 in new money. I reckon inflation has gone up 40x, maybe more. In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which first came out as a radio broadcast in 1978, Ford Prefect could buy ten pints of beer and six packets of crisps for less than a fiver. So what's that, 40p for a pint of beer and 15p for a packet of crisps? So inflation went up 4x between 1970 and 1978. That would mean inflation has increased about 10x since 1978 and I am a bit surprised about that. The 70s was the decade of high inflation, but it has not been as high since then. I reckon inflation has at least doubled since I started work about 1989. A pint of beer reached £2 in the early 90s. So did inflation increase another 5x between 1978 and say, 1992?
 

Cerdic

Senior Member
Hmmm...your data may not be all that accurate. When I started drinking about 1980 a pint of beer was about 70p.
 
OP
OP
Yellow Fang

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
Hmmm...your data may not be all that accurate. When I started drinking about 1980 a pint of beer was about 70p.

Maybe it was six pints of beer and ten packets of crisps Ford Prefect bought for under a fiver. I am sure it was the other way around.

Also in Long Eaton in 1973, a bus ride into town from where we lived cost my mother 6 and two 3's for herself, me and my brother. So what would that cost now? A Milky Way cost 3p and I think a Mars Bar cost double. A Marathon cost the same as a Mars Bar; not sure about Curly Wurlys or Milky Bars.
 

Joey Shabadoo

My pronouns are "He", "Him" and "buggerlugs"
1616537544032.png


https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator

Have fun
 

lane

Veteran
These are the prices of some items from 1975:

1975 priceInflation adjusted
Gallon of petrol73p£4.43
Bottle of whisky (Haig) (Key Markets)£3.39£20.50
Bottle of sherry (Harvey's Bristol Cream) (Fine Fare)£1.69£10.25
Watneys Party 4 (Peter Dominic)85p£5.15
Watneys Party 7 (Peter Dominic)£1.35£8.20
Pint of beer28p£1.70
20 cigarettes42p£2.50
Pint of milk7p42p
Large loaf of bread15p91p
22" Ultra colour TV (Currys)£259.00£1600.00
20" Ferguson black & white TV (Currys)£74.95£460.00
Daily Mirror newspaper5p30p
Average house price£11,000.00£67,000.00
½lb Lurpack butter (Safeway)14p85p
Nescafé 4oz coffee (Tesco)35p£2.12
Can of coke (Tesco)7½p45p
Ford Cortina car£1765.00£10,700.00
Indesit fridge-freezer (Currys)£109.95£670.00
Hotpoint Supermatic twin tub washing machine (Currys)£122.95£750.00
Hoover Automatic Deluxe washing machine (Currys)£145.95£900.00
Golden Wonder crisps8p50p
One dozen large white eggs38p£2.30
1lb Stork soft margarine (Key Markets)20p£1.20
Jacobs Cream Crackers (Sainsbury's)13p80p
Average weekly wages
  • Full-time manual worker - male (aged 21 and over) £60.00
 

lane

Veteran
Ford Cortina looks good value at £10,700 adjusted to current prices. I really liked the look of the MK3.
 

Jenkins

Legendary Member
Location
Felixstowe
Maybe it was six pints of beer and ten packets of crisps Ford Prefect bought for under a fiver. I am sure it was the other way around.

Also in Long Eaton in 1973, a bus ride into town from where we lived cost my mother 6 and two 3's for herself, me and my brother. So what would that cost now? A Milky Way cost 3p and I think a Mars Bar cost double. A Marathon cost the same as a Mars Bar; not sure about Curly Wurlys or Milky Bars.
Your calculations will need to be redone. It was six pints of bitter, but no price was given - Ford just handed over a fiver & said keep the change.
And it wasn't crisps, but four packets of peanuts for 28 pence - 7 pence each.
 

Archie_tect

De Skieven Architek... aka Penfold + Horace
Location
Northumberland
In 1977/8 a pint of McEwan's bitter was 23p and a pint of 'Heavy' was 27p in Dundee University's Student's Union bar. A gallon of 4* petrol hit 99p.
 

Brains

Legendary Member
Location
Greenwich
Using the BofE calculator, it means that inflation adjusted my first job paid me £2.93p per hour in todays money.
Which is about one third of the minimum wage today.

I think the statement that the average wage for an adult in 1975 was £60 per week sounds very high to me, I think it was more like half that amount, but it was a time of massive inflation.
 
Good morning,

Probably not to too surprising is the trend line from around1989-1993 which was when the breweries were forced to sell off many of their pubs and we saw the creation of the PubCos.

This saw a market where pubs tied to breweries could operate at lower profit levels as they were part of the distribution chain of the breweries end. Once the brewery had to make a profit on the beer and the pubcos on the pub there was inevitably a price hike.


580203


Bye

Ian
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
Yellow Fang

Yellow Fang

Legendary Member
Location
Reading
Good morning,

Probably not to too surprising is the trend line from around1989-1993 which was when the breweries were forced to sell off many of their pubs and we saw the creation of the PubCos.

This saw a market where pubs tied to breweries could operate at lower profit levels as they were part of the distribution chain of the breweries end. Once the brewery had to make a profit on the beer and the pubcos on the pub there was inevitably a price hike.


View attachment 580203

Bye

Ian
Hi Ian Smith, which CSE did you pass?
 
Top Bottom