Show food and drink too dear
I feel that I need to make my observations known and to ask a couple of questions about the price of the food and drinks at the recent Shrewsbury Flower Show.
The price of the bottled water at the stands was, at all the food kiosks that I noticed, £1.50 for a small half litre bottle (the same price was true for the other bottled soft drinks - this is even higher than the petrol filling station prices).
To me, this constant inflated price throughout the showground shows that a large element of collusion has gone on to fix prices. I believe this to be an illegal practice, albeit on a smaller scale compared to the likes of other companies you hear about.
I know this is a small issue to us normal income folk but to a pensioner that has little income it would equate to a lot of cash for their required daily fluid intake, especially noting the warm weather.
In addition, I did notice one of the fish and chip vans had a piece of paper over their original "fish and chip" price - they inflated it from £4.50 to £6.
Perhaps they should have given a free bottle of water away with every meal?
So my questions are these; do the organisers agree that the high price of the food and drink is fair?
Do the organisers think that any collusion has taken place between the traders? (after all, it seems extraordinarily strange that, with all the competition that is there at the show, they should all come to chose £1.50 for the bottled soft drinks).
Also, what do the organisers plan to do about this for next year?
Darren Roberts, Stoke-on-Trent
