Inf lation… just another victim of hipster fashion
THE rise of the hipster has influenced everything from fashion to food and drink.
And now they’re changing the way inflation is calculated.
The UK’s official statisticians yesterday revealed that non-dairy milk – as popular with hipsters as beards, very skinny jeans and check shirts – has been added to the list of goods used to calculate price rises for the first time.
In fact, said the Office for National Statistics, many of the latest additions ‘seem as though they could be at home in a hipster household’.
Among them is gin, which makes a return to the inflation basket for the first time in 13 years.
This is thanks to the soaring sales and the rise of fashionable independent gin distilleries – akin to the booming ‘craft beer’ movement. Artisan versions of the British spirit have helped to push sales through the £1billion-a-year barrier. Also making a return after a 12-year absence are bicycle helmets – perfect for protecting hipsters on their fixed-wheel – or ‘fixie’ bikes.
The increase in the popularity of cycling follows the international success by British cyclists such as Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome.
The rise in sales of soya, almond and oat milk reflects the increasing popularity of vegan-influenced diets which has been driven by campaigns such as Veganuary, when more than 50,000 signed up to give up meat, fish, dairy, eggs and honey for January.
The ONS survey, Hipsters, Gin and the Basket of Goods, also marks the return of jigsaw puzzles – though hipsters probably don’t have much to do with this.
Children’s scooters have replaced child swings, but menthol cigarettes – which are being banned across the EU from 2020 – have dropped out of the basket.
Basic mobile phones have also fallen out because most of us now own smartphones.
The ONS said ‘members of the hipster sub-culture may arch an eyebrow in recognition at some of the additions’ to its basket of goods and services’. It added: ‘The once-parodied trappings of hipster sub-culture – from wellgroomed beards to a taste for the retro – appear to have become increasingly mainstream.
It added: ‘The once-parodied trappings of hipster sub-culture – from well-groomed beards to a taste for the retro – appear to have become increasingly mainstream in the last few years. The ONS reviews the shopping baskets used to calculate inflation every year, to reflect changing shopping habits. It collects information from retailers on spending trends and surveys about 5,000 households to determine the consumer prices index or CPI – which is the official measure of inflation – and the CPIH, which includes owner occupiers’ housing costs.
Rising fuel and food prices have raised the CPI to a two-year high of 1.8 per cent, close to the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target.