How an iPad become more essential than a stepladder: Gadgets and takeaways used to decide inflation rate


For decades, no home has been complete without them.

But if you go into a garage or kitchen these days, you may struggle to find a stepladder or casserole dish.

In a sign of the changing times, the Office for National Statistics has decided to remove the items from the giant ‘basket of goods’ which it uses to work out Britain’s official inflation rate.

A preference for ready meals over slow cooking means that, for the first time since the 1950s, a ‘glass ovenware casserole dish’ no longer features on the list.

And the stepladder – a more recent addition to the ‘basket’ in 2002 – has disappeared along with DIY skills among the average male.

In their place come items such as iPads, teenage fiction books and ‘bundled’ packages for phone, internet and TV.

Endangered species: DIY skills among the average are becoming a rarity

Endangered species: DIY skills among the average male are becoming less common

The new basket of 700 goods and services – supposed to be representative of what most Britons spend their money on – provides a fascinating glimpse into how family life has changed in recent years.

In place of casserole dishes, a takeaway meal of chicken and chips has been added to the basket, joining the many other fast food options such as a kebab, a pizza and a burger.

The stepladder may have gone, but the lawnmower is still commonplace enough to make the list, along with a spade and screwdriver.

However, another staple since the 1950s – the cost of developing photographs – has fallen victim to ‘the increasing popularity of digital cameras’, according to the ONS.

As more and more people store all their photographs on their computer, many never develop a single image.

Tablet computers such as iPads are an unsurprising innovation of the digital age to join the list this year.

Teenage fiction, such as the Twilight series of books about young vampires, is another new entrant.

The ONS used to include only children’s and adult’s books, but said that significant spending on teenage fiction merits an inclusion in its own right.

Amazon, the online retailer, said Twilight author Stephenie Meyer is their third bestselling writer ever. And the four Twilight books appear in the top 20 bestselling Amazon list of all time.

She is beaten only by Harry Potter author J K Rowling and Julia Donaldson, who wrote The Gruffalo and many other popular books for children.

High street bookseller Waterstones said the new cult fiction for teenagers is Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, a trilogy about a dystopian future.

Twilight
Pineapple

Changing times: New items in the Office for National Statistics basket of goods include teenage fiction like Stephanie Meyer's Twilight and the pineapple

In a sign of our more exotic taste in fruit, the pineapple has joined the ONS’s basket for the first time.

It joins more traditional fresh fruits such as apples, pears, plums, peaches, bananas, grapes and strawberries.

A bag of traditional boiled sweets has been replaced by a bag of ‘foam sweets’, which includes confectionery such as Haribos and a Flump, a twisted, coloured marshmallow stick.

The ONS said foam sweets are taking an increasing share of the market.

The organisation reviews its basket of goods once a year to make sure it is monitoring the prices which actually affect our day-to-day lives, rather than checking the cost of items which few people buy any more.

Overall, it checks the price of around 700 goods and services in 150 areas of the country every month.