Times gone buy... How our tastes have evolved
New list by CSO shows what is hot ...and not
WHEN it comes to calculating the inflation rate, it is clearly important to compare the prices of things people actually buy.
So the Central Statistics Office is today set to announce an updated typical basket of the goods that it will use to measure price changes.
The new list is top secret until this morning but yesterday it published a breakdown of how the list has changed over the years.
In 1975, cassettes were added to the list but by 2006 they and Walkmans had dropped off as MP3 players were added. However these were then dumped off the list just five years later in 2011.
The rise of mobile phones also spelled the end for the price of calls from phone boxes.
Vinyl gave way to CDs in 1996, while that year also saw milk delivery prices, pints of milk and the once hi-tech Hi-Fi go too. CD players themselves had joined the calculations in 1989.
The latest additions when the list was last updated in 2016 included avocados, sweet potatoes, e-readers and e-cigarettes.
But in that year sherry was poured down the sink as Champagne was added.
A general category of ‘wine’ went too but was replaced with three separate categories of red, white and rosé as our drinking tastes became more refined.
Anthropologist Dr Jamie Saris, who lectures on habits and social trends at Maynooth University, described the historical changes as ‘fascinating’. ‘You could build a course on social change around the list, and what goes on and what goes off,’ he said.
The addition of streaming services and e-cigarettes but the removal of DVD players 2011, just a decade after they were included, were some the biggest recent changes, he said.
‘You do see a diversification of alcohol, not just wine but multiple wines. There is likely less cooking at home, like cooking apples for example removed in 2011.
‘And round steak, which is a classic mid-week cut of meat, in 2011 and video players being removed in 2001, you can absolutely track the way society has changed and moved in the things that we buy.’
There has been a ‘massive diversification’ in the things we buy, Dr Saris added.
‘When you dig down into it, cooking fats and deep-fat fryers drop off and people are cooking fundamentally differently. You’re also see the effect of globalisation and the success of the European Union in a market where Ireland goes from a backwater with a couple of million consumers in the 1970s and still one of the poorest areas of western Europe to within 50 years being one of the richest areas.’
A spokesman for the CSO said: ‘Consumer spending habits change regularly, and the basket of goods and services needs to reflect those changes. The types of items added to or removed from the national basket of goods and services over the years, which helps the CSO better measure inflation based on the items being purchased, provides a unique snapshot of our changing shopping habits through the decades.’