🎉🎈 PAK’nSAVE is turning 40! 🎈🎉
To celebrate, we’re throwing it back to 1985 with today’s DAILY DEAL! 🛒💥
👀 Keep an eye on our page for CHEAP AS 40th Birthday deals across the store! 🎂🛍️
📅 1985 Daily Deal valid 23rd July 2025 ONLY
⚠️ Strictly while stocks last – don’t miss out! ⏳🔥
Im not sure if im excited or disappointed for this tomorrow in the NI 😂
Im not sure if im excited or disappointed for this tomorrow in the NI 😂
I have no difficulty knowing which way it makes me feel :-)
I'm not dashing out to PNS today. If I happened to be popping in for something else, I might pick up a bag or two, but not worth making a special trip.
I hear it is something much 'cooler' tomorrow.
Vanilla ice cream for $2.99?
Interesting how much potatoes have come down in price over forty years.
I usually get our potatoes from PNS (or wherever) when they are around $10 / 10kg (so $1 / kg). This deal is $1.71 per 3kg (so $0.57 per kg). Obviously some people might pay more, but I tend to think that potatoes are potatoes, and stock up at the lower price.
Assuming that PNS have the 1985 price correct (I have no intention of trying to check that!), the nominal price has gone up about 75% in forty years, or compounding at an average of about 1.4% pa (if my maths are correct!)
According to the RBNZ inflation calculator, something that cost $0.57 in Q3 of 1985 would, on average, cost about $1.95 today (General CPI) or $1.98 (Food).
So, potatoes now cost nearly half what they did back then in real terms.
How on Earth could people afford to live in those days???
Now do butter
Now do butter
Peter (below at the time of posting) says it was:
$1.05 for a 500g block of butter.
Adjusting for inflation, use the same calculator as above, that would now be around $3.50.
Stating the blindingly obvious, but one significant difference between potatoes and butter is that dairy (mostly milk solids I guess) is an international market, whereas potatoes not so much, so the rise of demand for dairy in, say, China, has pushed up the price of dairy globally. Good for dairy farmers (directly and indirectly as the owners of Fonterra), but not so good for consumers in NZ.
If NZ wants to capture more of that spend, and / or reduce the price, then we need to have more cows, but imagine the outcry if you wanted to put cows in a field that was growing potatoes previously!
That reasoning has always been kind of odd as most countries sell local for cheap, not based on world prices. Does iran sell their diesel locally for what they can sell it to us for? Nope, its a few cents a litre
That reasoning has always been kind of odd as most countries sell local for cheap, not based on world prices.
Does iran sell their diesel locally for what they can sell it to us for? Nope, its a few cents a litre
I think you might be misunderstanding how it works.
I believe you will find that the Iranian government (and others too) subsidise the price of petrol to keep the price low.
NZ could do that too with butter (say), but it is not cost free - someone has to pay for it (or lose something), either through higher taxes, or lower spending elsewhere. You could also borrow, but borrowing is just a tax rise or spending cut in the future, so back to those two.
You could also legislate to force farmers to sell butter to you, in NZ, for say, $4.00 per 500g and neither levy a formal tax, nor pay a formal subsidy, but that is no different to taxing the farmer, and paying a subsidy so that you can buy it for $4.00.
None of those is inherently 'wrong', but don't fall into the trap of thinking that there is a 'free lunch' in there somewhere - you should always be honest and upfront if you are asking someone else to pay for something you benefit from.
@Alan6984: Ok well maybe a better example, one that isnt subsidised. A food that is cheap in country of production but expensive here, when going by butter rules should either be expensive there or cheap here.
How about mangoes? From Mexico or brazil. 10x more expensive here easy.
Also how does Costco sell it cheaper in nz? No Costco near me sadly
@quote: Costco sells the butter at a loss in order to attract more people to go shopping there, which requires you to buy a membership.
The amount of free advertising they got with those Stuff articles etc. it would be totally worth it for them.
@quote: Yep, that's exactly their reason for making butter the loss leader, they have had so many free advertising from the MSM, social media, word of mouth, etc, even Nicola Willis used that to score political points. Actually the same "loss" leader strategy adopted by many retailers, just that they hit the jackpot this time with butter.
Ok well maybe a better example, one that isnt subsidised. A food that is cheap in country of production but expensive here, when going by butter rules should either be expensive there or cheap here.
How about mangoes? From Mexico or brazil. 10x more expensive here easy.
Again, I think you fail to understand some basic economics.
For the same product and all other thing being equal (quality, size, or whatever factors might matter) you would expect the farm-gate price of mangoes from Mexico or Brazil to be the same, whether they are being sold locally, or sold for export to NZ.
However, the price of a mango in NZ would be expected to be higher than in the country of production due to handling and transport costs, which are substantially lower when sold domestically. Another significant factor for mangoes will be spoilage, which is likely a problem for any fresh fruit, but not so much for milk powder (I am guessing that milk powder could be kept 'good' for quite some time).
Consider the alternative: If the farmer can get more (at their gate) for selling their mangoes to NZ than locally, they will sell to an exporter and vice versa. That will continue until the farmer is indifferent, and the price (at the farm gate) of both local and export sales is essentially the same.
@Alan6984: Stop being so condescending you are coming across as an autistic (profanity). We are talking about butter. Butter gets sold in usa for x, so you say nz needs to pay the same x. So your argument about spoilage and cost for transportation is moot as butter needs transportation and butter spoils.
Stop being so condescending you are coming across as an autistic (profanity).
No need to swear, no matter how frustrating you find this stuff.
If you take, literally, ten minutes to think it through, you will see how you're so far off reality - none of it is complicated.
We are talking about butter. Butter gets sold in usa for x, so you say nz needs to pay the same x.
What I actually said, and I get that you are struggling with the difference, is that the farm-gate price for milk in NZ would be about the same whether the milk will become butter in NZ, or butter in the USA (or indeed any other dairy product to be consumed anywhere else). At the same time, a retailer in the US will compare the price they can get domestic butter to the price they can get NZ butter, and all other things being equal (quality, customer preferences etc) will pay whichever is lower.
So your argument about spoilage and cost for transportation is moot as butter needs transportation and butter spoils.
Yep - butter requires transportation and can spoil too. I never said it didn't - perhaps try to read more carefully. That doesn't mean that those costs are not relevant at all - they are very relevant to what you pay here, or a consumer pays in the US, exactly as I said above, using your suggested example of mangoes.
Agree, there are certainly things which the price has come down over the years. Technological advancement, scaling and process improvements to increase efficiencies. I saw someone post the other day of a Foodtown (Countdown/Woolworth) a lot of prices were cheap but relative to the minimum wage back then at $8 it was quite expensive.
What has definitely made everything more expensive is housing which has reduced disposable income. People could have had 1 breadwinner in the family but nowadays you'd struggling in a household with 1 income source.
What has definitely made everything more expensive is housing which has reduced disposable income. People could have had 1 breadwinner in the family but nowadays you'd struggling in a household with 1 income source.
Maybe the rise of two-income households is a significant factor that has caused the rise of housing costs.
Limited supply, higher demand (dollar-wise), leads to increased price?
They better do butter tomorrow!
Gemini AI Overview
In 1985, a 500g block of butter likely cost around $1.05, based on a price of $1.05 per 500g in February 1984, according to Stats NZ Store House. This price is also consistent with the general trend of butter prices remaining relatively stable in the years leading up to 1989.
North Island - Tip Top ice cream vanilla Tub 2L $2.49
South Island - White button mushrooms loose $4.95/kg
South Island - Bell Original Black Tea Bags 100pk $2.49