On their YouTube channel, British duo Archie and Josh often attempt bizarre challenges, such as running a marathon at Heathrow Airport or streaming a terrible pop song millions of times on Spotify. However, their latest video strikes a chord in the UK: the purchasing power crisis. This issue has not dominated the political agenda in any other Western country to this extent.
With more and more Belgians crossing the border with France this year to save money in their shopping cart, YouTube users took the test: Can we book a plane ticket to another country, buy all the products from the British index basket, and take them with us? Return flight and still cheaper? Drop off at a British store? To their great surprise, it turned out to work.
The duo booked a flight to “the cheapest place to go in Europe,” which is the Polish city of Poznan. Poland is also known for its low supermarket prices. Food and non-alcoholic beverage prices have been around 30 percent lower than the European average for many years, but only Romania fares slightly better within the EU. In 2019, the year before Brexit, the UK remained 6% below this European level.
At British chain Lidl, the only chain active in both countries, Archie and Josh paid £164.47 (€190) for the full basket of products the government uses to calculate the inflation rate. For the same full trolley in Poland, they paid just £96.75 (€112). Adding in the return flight, an overnight stay, local transport and 20kg of luggage on the return flight, the final bill was still £11.14 (€13) cheaper than the UK trolley.
to daily Mail Josh Peters told Josh that the video is “not advice for people to save money.” The duo mainly wants to address inflation and “the ridiculous situation we find ourselves in.” In March this year, food and non-alcoholic beverage inflation peaked at 19.2 percent, the highest rate in 45 years. In September, this figure was still 12.2%, and in Europe only Serbia and Hungary performed worse.
“Things are so expensive today that it’s actually cheaper to get on a plane, fly to another country and buy the same basket of goods,” said Peters, who was also surprised that meat, fish or dairy products can be found without much effort. In a (transparent) bag on the plane to the UK. This is no longer allowed since 2021.
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