By Frances Howe
Within half an hour of the Australian Bureau of Statistics releasing its new Consumer Price Index report on Wednesday, Anastasia Scoggin is waiting to enter a food co-op in Marrickville.
The 23-year-old, who works at Apple, Mecca and as a nanny, stopped going to Woolworths eight months ago because it was too expensive. Instead, she walks an extra 20 minutes to fill her two-litre backpack with a week’s worth of groceries from the Addi Road Food Pantry, a volunteer-run store with cheap and free supermarket goods. A full week’s worth of food costs her $37.50.
Anastasia Scoggin unpacks her groceries in her share house in Marrickville.Credit: Kate Geraghty
The CPI report released on Wednesday morning showed inflation has dropped to its lowest since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and is now at 2.8 per cent.
The report for the September quarter showed clothing, transport and health costs had all fallen, but some food prices had risen.
When asked whether she’d noticed any easing of living costs, Scoggin said: “Absolutely not.”
She’s not alone. Like many her age, Scoggin saves money by buying clothes from op shops, and she infrequently eats at restaurants. Instead, she saves for gigs or social beers with friends. Even the bag she filled with groceries was second-hand: “I found it on the street.”
Over $11 schooners, Scoggin says her friends regularly talk about living costs.
Anastasia Scoggin inside the Addi Road Food Pantry, where her weekly shop cost her $37.50.Credit: Kate Geraghty
“We’ve all got clothes with holes in them. We’re all very conscious of the fact that rent is increasing, and we’re all moving to suburbs that are further from the city or staying in houses with black mould in them.”
Inside the Addi Road Food Pantry on Wednesday, Scoggin runs into the store’s CEO, Rosanna Barbero, who is passionate about making initiatives like this one obsolete.
“Why do we have to have this? We want to celebrate the closure of having to feed people. I want to see equality so people can choose whatever supermarket they go to,” Barbero tells Scoggin.
When Scoggin says she’s grateful that the food pantry exists, Barbero interjects.
“You shouldn’t have to be grateful,” she tells her.
On the other side of the suburb is the vast Marrickville Metro shopping centre, where 26-year-old Hamish Howes has left Woolworths without any impression that things are supposed to have got better. He spent $61.70 for just a few days’ worth of groceries.
“I was going to get some Arnott’s biscuits, but they’re $4 now. I didn’t get them, but they used to be a fun treat for me,” he said.
Despite not seeing a change in prices, Howes, who works in film and TV production, said the news was positive if it meant prices wouldn’t keep rising.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he said. “That it’s [inflation] going down is kind of hopeful, but it’s also about time. We’ve been complaining and aware of it for a long time.”
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