Wolverhampton shop's stark rise in potato prices captured in images from over six years

Economists, politicians and trade union leaders might argue about whether the CPI or the RPI is the best measure of rising prices, but this familiar sign outside a shop along one of the region’s busiest roads lays bare the real cost to thousands of families in and around the Black Country.

For years this board outside the Spar shop in Birmingham New Road, in the Lanesfield area of Wolverhampton, has chronicled the rising cost of living by tracking the price of potatoes.

And courtesy of Google Maps, we can reveal that the price of a 55lb (25kg) sack of spuds has risen by 133 per cent over the past six years.

Past photographs of the sign show that as recently as August 2020, a sack of potatoes cost a very reasonable £4.50.

In August 2022, six months into the Ukraine war, the price was £5.80, an increase of almost 29 per cent over two years.

By March 2023 the price had hit £7 - a 21 per cent increase in just seven months.

The bad news did not end there, and by September last year the price had reached £10.50 - that’s an increase of 50 per cent in two and a half years.

The good news is that the price has remained steady since then, and a large sack of potatoes is still £10.50.

Gail Southall, who runs the shop and Post Office with her husband Paul and daughter Lucy, said the rising costs faced by farmers was a big influence on rising prices.

“We do what we can to keep the price down, we do drive quite a hard bargain and we sometimes buy in bulk as we can get them cheaper then, but we only have limited space to sell them,” she said.

Mrs Southall said rising prices had hit sales, but that was the same with many items.

“We do sell quite a few, but not as many as we used to, I think people are cutting back, it’s the same with alcohol and luxuries.

“Most of our customers are members of the public, although we do supply one or two fish-and-chip restaurants,” she said.