UK food prices

Post by **Sakhonnick** » January 3, 2014, 5:31 pm

Well when i went through terminal 5 in Heathrow all the security were immigrants and they just love to get you bag open and all over the place

It is more expencive here for mostly everythng apart from the food and quality control, i did have to buy my wife a watermelon from Tesco that was £3 160baht same size in Sakon 40baht
only went to one bar so far and thats the golf club£2.80 Pint

Post by **jackspratt** » January 3, 2014, 7:15 pm

GARYZX6R wrote:
jackspratt wrote:Does anyone else "get" the irony when farangs living in Thailand comment (complain?) about the immigrants in their home country?
You hav'nt got a clue have you .

It would seem that one of us hasn't (or is that haven't).

Post by **Bonanza** » January 4, 2014, 3:05 pm

jackspratt wrote:It would seem that one of us hasn't (or is that haven't).

"one of us" is singular, therefore 'hasn't' is correct.

On the main topic, I get the irony, however, I think the difference is in the numbers, financial levels and concentrations. Here in Thailand a majority of falangs are financially secure, and there are not really many of us. In my area of UK there are thousands of eastern Europeans who have arrived over the past five years. Their dominance is such that my neighbour's grand children ( she collects them from primary school each day) speak better Polish than English. The 'boom' that drew these immigrants is over, but their UK unemployment benefits and other benefits mean that even without any work they are 4-6 times better off than in their own countries, so they remain.

At the same time, our local council has had to raise its taxes, close libraries, health centers, fitness centers, stop 'meals on wheels' etc etc in order to pay for the immigrants housing benefits and other 'rights'. So, I think that it is not really appropriate to compare this with Thailand.

Post by **BobHelm** » January 4, 2014, 3:21 pm

^^ The figures just do not back up these claims of 100s of 1,00ths EU members flooding into the UK to claim benefits..
For some actual facts & figures here is a sensible approach to numbers rather than the usual rabble rousing associated with the Right Wing English Media.
http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/ECintheUK/mor ... -benefits/

The reality would actually appear to be as many UK spongers are claiming in Spain as the number of EU'ers claiming in the UK.. Or as close to make no difference..
http://fullfact.org/factchecks/whos_cla ... here-29244

It is all well & good lunatics like UKIP & BMP wanting out of Europe - makes a great rallying call. The simple fact is that if the UK comes out of the EU it will be as good as finished.
If anyone thinks that is incorrect then just look up where all British exports go & think what would happen once the UK was out of that club...

urban legend · Post by **urban legend** » January 5, 2014, 6:19 pm

The cost of food in "most" country's is relevant with the wages salaries and general cost of living ,yes inflation and the economy can vary the standard in what we can live but it's all relative ..... Being UK based now I have witnessed wages have stayed the same for the past 10 years and inflation has pushed up food prices ,but that's been down largely to the economy however growth has been slow but encouraging so let the good times roll... $\:D/$

Post by **pompui** » January 6, 2014, 7:33 am

Whenever I go back to London and order a somtum it costs the equivalent of 300 baht

Bloomin export cost factor when you want decent food

Not sure what a cod and chips would cost now in uk

cheaper than here

as would cost here about 350 baht or 7 quid

Post by **Sakhonnick** » January 6, 2014, 11:00 am

I guess I should of based this on supermarket food deals

Last night we had a Chinese carry out, rice, curry, shredded chicken, prawn crackers, chow Maine

26 quid

Post by **parrot** » January 30, 2014, 3:28 pm

When we go back to Texas for vacations, it's not the American food that challenges the wallet.....rather the visits to the oriental stores.
Today, my wife bought a few things at the Nongwahsaw market.....12 kilos of sticky rice 320baht, 2 kilos (that's TWO!) kilos of green scallions 30baht, a head of cabbage 14baht, green peppers 25baht, and a large handful of mint 20baht.
Two years ago while in Texas, our daughter invited several friends over for yam neua (ยำเนื้อ). We went together to buy ingredients......the mint and scallions (she likes a lot) cost nearly as much as the beef. But ยำเนื้อ without mint and scallions is like somptom without fermented fish.....so buy it we did.

Post by **Shado** » January 30, 2014, 3:56 pm

My wife came back from the market two days ago with all sorts of vegetables and lots of them. I asked her why she purchased 2 or 3 times as much as she typically does. Her answer was "pak mai phaeng". 'Tis the season. A very good time of the year to stock up on vegetables. =D>

Post by **marjamlew** » January 30, 2014, 5:08 pm

Recently in the beautiful resort township of Apollo Bay in Victoria Australia the Mrs wanted to eat at the local Thai. Laap duck on the menu was $32 about 900b. We had pizza. We can make laap and sticky rice at home for 2 for less than 100b because of our large and magnificent Vietnamese community in west Melbourne.

Post by **rick** » January 30, 2014, 8:39 pm

As said, Uk food will be more expensive in Thailand, and Thai food more expensive in UK. At the start, Howard claimed that chicken was cheaper at Tesco's in UK - a claim hard to believe. Just checked, and frozen chicken fillets are btween £5-10 a kilo depending on brand (and that included a half price offer). I have never had to pay more than £2 (100 baht) a kilo here...

I pay more for cheese, baked beans, jam, biscuits..... cannot think of anything else except what i buy once in a blue moon. Potatoes, bread, tomato puree and stock cubes probably also a bit more in Thailand. Chicken, Pork, fish half the price or free; most vegetables the same or cheaper, fruit cheaper except MAYBE apples (bananas i get for about 15-20 baht a kilo, so probably cheaper); Meat, fish, vegetables and fruit account for 75% of my diet and definitely save on all those categories.

Post by **nel123** » January 30, 2014, 11:59 pm

I would have to agree with you Rick..

Post by **welshwizard** » January 31, 2014, 6:50 am

jackspratt wrote:Does anyone else "get" the irony when farangs living in Thailand comment (complain?) about the immigrants in their home country?

Does anyone get the irony when farangs living in Thailand comment (complain?) about farangs living in Thailand commenting (complaining?) about immigrants in their own country. Why go off topic just to slag people off?!
What i do not understand is that local food should always be cheaper but even food imported to other countries in uk is sometimes cheaper in uk than Thailand.
Tomatoes tin uk 15 baht Thailand 75 baht but i am sure they grow tomatoes in Thailand ? Baked beans . no idea where they come from but 10 baht uk 50-70 baht Thailand. There is a massive difference between these prices and there are a lot more the same as these .
I t seems strange why all the farangs living in thailand cannot see why it is cheaper to live here .It is not the food or goods you buy which are more expensive by a long way but the lack of facilites you do not have to pay for.
No council tax, no clean water , not many have house phone ,no ambulance service, no sewerage , no proper fire brigade , no good roads , little street lighting,poor schools, no household insurance, poor police force (low wages ), not good army (low wages poorly equipped ) , no health and safety, no trading standards, all these things and more are excellent in uk but have to be paid for with taxes and 20% vat.
Dont tell me to go home if i dont like it . I like living here but i am not blind to the obvious.
Nearly every person working in uk pays income tax while in thailand nearly everyone does not . I assume that is why thai goods are so expensive it is high taxed for the government to raise money.
Also most farangs living here probably had a house in uk with mortgage finished same as me so i have to pay rent in Thailand but not in uk so going on about high rents is not relevant.
Trubrit , why do you say diesel is 150 baht a litre in uk ? It is in fact 70 baht a litre in uk (dec 2013) and a higher quality diesel than the stuff thailand imports from russia (if they still do )
ww
ww

Post by **nel123** » January 31, 2014, 7:50 am

Agree WW that the UK has some great things, but boy oh boy don't we have to pay through the nose for it! Everyone's different, everyone's circumstances are different, everyone's way of life is different.

Post by **papafarang** » January 31, 2014, 10:16 am

i found it rather expencive over there,had a slow cooker so a made a beef stew.
2x 400g packs of beef 600 baht
1 pack celery 70 baht
4 onions 50 baht
1 turnip 25 baht
1 kg baby spuds 110 baht
2 x500g carrots 80 baht
stock 20 baht
fuel as i had to drive 250 baht plus 175 baht just to park
soon adds up. the pub near the house selling 125 ml glass of wine 325 baht.

over there the thing is how much you have to spend if you go out, here you can go out and get a nice meal and a few beers for 1000 baht. over there i orderd a curry rice ,naan bread ect, 2000 baht just for a takeaway with no beer.
we have it good here for sure and a visit back to blighty reminds me how good it is here

Post by **Sakhonnick** » January 31, 2014, 10:45 am

I guess when i started this thread i never took all accounts into it, i agree with Dean above as he is in the food trade and knows these things all that took my eye was the deals they have in Asda/Tesco etc for buy 2, 1 free stuff and other items like crisps and soup etc, but if we compare same items, meat, veg then Thailand is far cheaper
but the display and quality was very good in the UK everything seemed clean and fresh

we cant have it all so ill stay in Thailand!!!

Post by **papafarang** » January 31, 2014, 11:09 am

a brilliant web site is mysupermarket.com. tells you where all the best buys are with all the offers, buy one get one free ect, after you tag the items you want you can print a list out and unfortunatly to get all the good deals you will end up driving around all the big name supermarkets to get them all. one thing that was so cheap was cheese, i got 500g of stilton for 150 baht and 500g wiltshire cheddar for 125 baht. bargains

Post by **Sakhonnick** » January 31, 2014, 1:56 pm

yes i took some good cheese back also, scottish cheddar and leicester red

along with square salt and vinigar crisps and dry roasted KP nuts

Post by **nel123** » January 31, 2014, 3:19 pm

Many of these buy one get one free offers are manipulative to say the least! After you work out the cost, sometimes it's cheaper to buy as a single item from another supermarket etc.

Post by **rick** » January 31, 2014, 11:05 pm

Also need to remember some items do change a lot in price over time. I think WW hasn't been back to the UK for a while - try buying tinned tomatoes and baked beans at 10-15 baht a tin - it will be a very small tin or from the basics range - named brands (which is what you are comparing to in Thailand) are between 25-50 baht a tin,same as for beans in Thailand, and who buys tinned tomatoes in Thailand? Expensive because no-one buys them.

One thing where prices are starting to equalise is chocolate - several chocolate bars in Supermarkets in Thailand are now similar or only 50% more in Thailand - used to be twice the price 5 years ago.

The one problem is although you can get nearly any TYPE of UK food here, the range of brands/sizes is so much smaller; but with smaller volumes selling that is inevitable, as is the fact that prices are not so competitive.