Fury over UK Christmas market price rises as visitors say 'they need a mortgage'
People heading for festive fun have blasted prices at Christmas markets claiming they "need a mortgage" to afford them.
Food and drink prices have risen with visitors to the Manchester Christmas market balking at sausages now costing £8 on Exchange Square and New Cathedral Street - an increase of a pound on last year. While hot pork rolls at Piccadilly Gardens have risen from £8 to £9 and even the popular Yorkshire pudding wraps have seen a 50p increase, Manchester Evening News reports.
Drinks like gluhwein (mulled wine) have gone up from £5 to £5.50, hot cider and boozy hot chocolate from £5.50 to £6, and some Christmas cocktails are now as much as £11. Stallholders have defended these price hikes, blaming the rising cost of produce, especially pork, and increased rent for market stalls in Manchester this year.
This follows similar price increases for sausage and gluhwein in 2022 but one silver lining is that pints of lager seem to have stayed steady at an average £6 a pint at most stalls. People have hit out at the costs with one person commenting: "Extortionate prices, need a mortgage to eat and drink there, not for me......." A person joked in reply: "I'll sort out the re-mortgage then."
Cllr Pat Karney pictured at Manchester Christmas market (Manchester Evening News)Another post read: "Hope we don't need a bank loan 4 our truffle chips." One person said: "Them pork barms go up every year, I remember them being £4."
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But some people have defended the traders, with a comment suggesting: "Maybe if the council reduced the price of the stalls the stallholders could pass that on to the customers? Stop ripping everyone off!" One person claimed that other markets were cheaper than Manchester: "I think the Xmas markets in Europe are much cheaper and so are Chester and Liverpool. Not sure why Mancland need to be over the top, just saying."
Gareth Kitching, owner of the Pig and Barrell hot pork roll stand, said it's been tough this year to balance their margins. He had initially planned to increase the price of pork rolls by just 50p, but due to rising costs, they have had to go up to £9. He blames not only the increasing cost of produce but also the escalating rent for his stall.
He said: "I don't want to put the prices up, no one does. But the prices have gone up for everything this year, the only exception is for butter. Just as an example, we used to pay £3.28 a kilo for the pork, it's now up to £4 a kilo - it's just shot up in price. I know what the margins have to be, and I know how much rent has gone up for the stall, and rents for Airbnbs for staff."
Manchester Council has said its own running costs have increased. Councillor Pat Karney, Manchester City Council's Christmas spokesperson, told the MEN: "Our Christmas Markets are a massive tourist attraction for the city and help bring millions of visitors into Manchester which translates into a much wider economic boost across the whole of the city's retail and leisure sector.
"Like any other business we regularly review the operating costs involved in delivering our Christmas Markets. Whilst we try very hard to keep these costs as low as possible, if running costs go up then we have to pass these increases on to make sure we can keep bringing Manchester's world-famous Christmas Markets to the city. Costs this year have therefore gone up - roughly in line with inflation - but as the whole world knows, the cost of just about everything at the moment is going up."
Cllr Karney pointed out that Manchester Council doesn't control the pricing on stalls. He said: "We don't set the prices on our market stalls and nor could we as we don't know the costs involved in producing the goods on sale."
He added: "Whilst we'll always check out any complaints that are brought to us, it's down to individual traders to set their own prices that reflect their overheads and the quality of what's on offer. Stallholders are however obviously subject to the same market forces as other retailers in that if what they're selling is too expensive, customers won't buy their products."
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story. You can report any errors to [email protected]
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