This is the reason why the price of everything, from pints to coffee, is hitting £ 5
When coffee The shops in Italy have tried to start loading more than € 1 for an espresso a few years ago He practically triggered a revolution. “We cannot afford the coffee to become a luxury in Italy,” Paola Fiocchi Van Den Brande tweeted in response to a 2022 ratio that suggests that the price of the espresso could go up to € 1.50. “It’s not a luxury, it’s a right. It should be free.” It was not the only opponent; “We are receiving numerous complaints that denounce the increase Prices of coffee, “said Furio Truzzi, head of the group of rights of Italian consumers assets at the time.
Consumers have continued to have little truck with attempted price increases in the following years, inflation is damned, despite the fact that the basic cost of the coffee itself plus other materials has increased. “If you go up to € 1.80 or € 2, you would not immediately have customers, unless you are in a railway station or in a busy tourist area,” said Marco Cappellari, who manages Specialist Coffee Bar Melaleuca in Florence, The telegraph In November last year. “Your activity would die a very fast death. People dictate what the price will be.”
Here in the UK, we can only dream of a £ 2 coffee – or, in fact, one £ 2 Nothing at this stage. THE life cost The crisis saw the incremental and inexorable ascent ascent on the whole line, at the point where every single article will end up costing a minimum of a fiver.
First of all, the humble pint. In April, the average The price of a beer should overturn over £ 5 For the first time in the history of the United Kingdom. The search for Frontier Economics commissioned by the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) provided that the average pint would reach £ 5.01, an increase of 21p. And of course, this is only the average: anyone who has ever attended a pub in central London will probably be well acquired with the pint of £ 7.50.
Then there are the products of the supermarket that have insidiously inserted on and up. The pizzas of the oven, previously a relatively cheap mid -week surprise, were started and gave a luxurious restyling with a minimum price of £ 5 to combine. In a recent survey, The Independent He fought to find a fairly cheap iteration to make you change from a fiver.
There are many other examples that also prepare our corridors – I have recently been absolutely paved by the proliferation of toothpastes on sale at my local Sainsbury which costs inexplicably £ 5 and beyond.
And finally, of course, there is that above coffee. The United Kingdom is already up there in terms of the average price that you expect you to pay per cup – £ 3.38 for a normal cappuccino, second Data from NumbeoThe largest database of the world of the world of the world. But the cappuccino from £ 5 is just around the corner, he warns the experts. “If we thought that a couple of years ago we would have laughed,” said Nicola Lockwood, owner of Bells Tea Shop in Lincoln BBC. “They are in a lot of groups (online) with owners of cafés and the chat is that £ 5 for a cup of coffee will be the norm. In some places, it is already hitting it. “
When taking into account extras such as syrups, non-dairy milk and extra expressed shots, the Fiver-Capaffe is truly a material possibility for some consumers, confirms the Allegra Coffee Portal market research company. “I remember 20 years ago, we were worried that the turning point was £ 2,” says the founder and CEO Jeffrey Young. “Here we are talking about the cup of coffee from £ 5. Realistically, for the average consumer, his To two or three years, but for many it is reality now. “
This is not that of greed by your local independent cafeteria; A The plethora of factors is pushing the sky prices at the top. The coffee on the markets of international raw materials has marked its highest prices in December 2024, while the cost of Arabic beans has increased by over 80 % of last year due to the increase in labor and energy costs, as well as crops that reduce bad weather in Brazil and Vietnam.
But the UK’s government policy is also massively increasing general expenses. The costs of the staff are increasing substantially during the night: from April 1st, the The minimum national wage is climbing from £ 6.40, £ 8.60 or £ 11.44 per hour (for those under the age of 18, 18-20 or 21 and beyond) to £ 7.55, £ 10 or £ 12.21. This increase is coupled AA significant increase in national insurance contributions (NICS). Employers currently pay 13.8 percent on any gain that an employee earns for a threshold of £ 9,100 per year. From April 6, however, the rate jumps to 15 %, while the threshold in which the employers begin to pay NICS descends to £ 5,000 per year.
The final nail in the coffin of convenience is Labor’s decision decrease the discount on business rates Hospitality companies enjoy: they are going down from 75 to 40 % in the new tax year.
We don’t even want to load £ 4 for a coffee, let alone £ 5, but the margins have reduced so much
Ollie, owner of my favorite local coffee in Folkestone, paints a gloomy picture of the challenges faced by the owners of small businesses. “The price of everything is increasing – coverage of responsibility, electricity, coffee – and there seems to be no possibility of slowing down,” he says. “It’s a bit terrifying. You ask yourself, where does it stop?” The modification of the costs of the staff is destined to highly affect its profit margins, already notoriously subtle in the hospitality sector. Ollie pays to employees the royal salary – a united kingdom salary based on the cost of living that is not legally requested but in which companies can voluntarily oppose – which is currently set at £ 13.85. “When adding the salary of the holidays, the sick salary and everything else, you are paying from £ 17 to £ 18 per hour,” he says.
Loan rates are also high; When the coffee tried to get a loan to buy a new coffee grinder of £ 2,000, they found that it was simply not feasible. “We don’t even want to load £ 4 for a coffee, let alone £ 5”, adds Ollie. “But the margins have reduced so much that if something happens …”
Pub I am in such a position thanks to the imminent spiral of personnel costs and the increases in corporate rates. The largest companies could be able to absorb the increase, but in most cases your place will have no choice but to pass it to the customer and charge more for drinks. The alternative seems to close the shop; In 2024, More than 400 pubs in England and Wales have been permanently closedBy reducing the total number of pubs for the first time to less than 39,000, according to an analysis of the government data by Altus Group.
The estimates of the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) have put the additional NICs paid by pubs from April to £ 71 million, while the increase in corporate rates will cost £ 215 million for the tax year 2025-26, says Altus Group.
Apart from the pints, you may also have noticed the price of a glass of wine or a G&T rocket – this is partly the result of the New alcoholic service systemIntroduced from 1 February 2025, which establishes that taxes on wine and spirits are calculated according to alcoholic resistance. Have a 14.5 percent bottle of ABV (alcohol per volume) red wine and a bottle of gin rose respectively 54p and 32p.
When it comes to supermarket products, prices also continued to rise quickly: the figures released in January revealed the cost of purchasing food genres 3.3 per cent has been skipped on an annual basis. Many graffette have become more expensive, with rigid tips for articles including instant coffee (21 %), butter (18 percent) and olive oil (17 %). Food inflation, currently 2.5 percent, has been a significant factor in recent years, with the modeling of the British commercial consortium which provides that food prices will continue to 4.2 percent increase on average In the second half of this year. The costs, already affected by geopolitics, the problems of harvesting due to climate change and pressure of the supply chain, are further hammered by the increase in energy bills and by the greater labor costs – with the latter set to further increase from April in line with the policies of the government coming.
The United Kingdom is not the only country to be influenced by growing prices, of course. But, at least in some nations, consumers are taking the situation in hand. In March, thousands of people throughout Sweden organized a boycott of a week’s supermarkets in response to the largest increase in food prices in two years, reports The guardian. Follows boycott of similar costs in Bulgaria, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia in recent months.
Perhaps the British must start doing the same and vote with our wallets. Or starts the way for the inevitable and horrible tea perspective of £ 5 …
