At least Richard Turpin wore a maskI am not allowed to write his abreviated name

Well Aunty wee (lol) I know exactly what you mean here! Yes we would expect some prices to go up after the awful events down south but I am so certain that many manufacturers and retailers will jump on the bandwagon on order to make a quick buck - it is sickening - we already pay over the odds for many things! I am with you - I will be shopping very carefully - or at least the other half will! xxx

Well Wee, I guess it's just another excuse to rip off the consumer. I remember when recently some rotten weather hit an area where bananas are grown. Overnight, bananas went from $3 a kg to $13 or more a kg with the message that the weather had ruined banana crops. But it only ruined crops in that area....not the whole of the mid to upper east coast which is where the bananas grow....it was only one tiny section. Someone, made a killing financially from that bit of exploitation and I'll bet you a case of bananas it wasn't the growers.

The same thing happened in the states Kansas where i live after the big tornado wiped out greensburg, there was a massive amount of price gouging going on. Gas prices sky rocketed here and so did beef prices. It is Horrid how they get away with the things they do. Even wal-mart was guilty of it , I was shocked.

Well, I think that it is just an excuse in some ways in then legit in others. When it comes to the gas...it was shown that the companies made record profits last year. Was the hike in gas needed? How about the electricity? Same thing. I find it disgusting that they would take such horrible advantage of the general public and force us to live with out ac.

Yes it's all very annoying weehun! They've been talking about water rates going up because of flood damage too. They want to put up the rates to pay for the damage caused by the weather but I bet they won't be putting the rates down again. The water companies make huge profits and every summer for years they've told us there's a hosepipe ban on but when we have tons of rain now they want to put the prices up yet again to pay for flood damage. Now I feel for the people who've been affected by flood damage, but I've not been affected by it. I pay a ridiculous amount of council tax and water rates already for living in a nice part of London which is fairly safe from crime and floods but I and everyone else who is paying silly taxes will be hit as well as everyone else if they put up prices. It makes me laugh that they're always trying to justify why prices go up but they don't ever seem to decrease these prices! Grrr I've had my rant now :)

It depends on where the crop came from I think. Alot of places/farms were under a huge amount of water and some of it not the nicest. I surely wouldn't want food like that. I know that prices will go up as things like potatoes that we usually get from the UK will now have to be shipped from elsewhere. xxx