From Champagne’s popularity to the death of DVD rental – how a basket of goods can tell us about trends in Irish society

Rihanna filmed the music video for her number-one hit We Found Love in Northern Ireland, where the farmer who owned the land pulled up to set on a tractor and told the star to cover up.

In the world of inflation though, ­lemons and gluten-free foods were added to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket of goods and services.

For the last 75 years, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) has gathered, analysed and published information on Irish society and the economy. Part of that has included the CPI, which examines what is in our shopping baskets and, over the course of five years, measures inflation based on their prices.

“Generally, the prices are collected every month and then we look at the change in those prices. There are various categories… the categories are weighted as well, based on the level of importance,” Dr Le-Ann Burke, ­lecturer at UCC’s Cork University Business School, said.

That list of 600 products is rebased every year and the CSO is set to release an updated list today.

“It is supposed to change every five years and it’s based on the Household Budget Survey,” Dr Burke said.

“The things that are not very popular come out of the CPI and things that have gained in popularity go into the CPI.”

However, the latest basket was compiled in 2016 and the pandemic meant an update was delayed by two years.

“A lot happens in two years, a lot happens in five years. In the UK this basket of goods is replaced or reviewed every year,” Dr Burke said.

“It keeps them so up-to-date about what we call in economics, the tastes and preferences of consumers.”

Despite the primary use of the index as a measure of inflation month on month, it is also an indication of those very “tastes and preferences” that come in and out of fashion over the years.

Going back to 2011 again, while consumers increased their spending on lemons, the basket of goods and services for that year also shows the impact austerity and the recession had on consumer habits.

Fine-quality wines and Champagne were removed from the index that year, having only been added in 2001 and 2006 respectively.

A snapshot of Ireland’s boom and boost can be seen through the lens of what Ireland bought as a society.

Champagne was added to the list again in 2016, as was craft beer.

“Champagne came out and went back in again and people said, ‘The boom is back, the boom is back’. There we go, we were buying more Champagne,” Dr Burke said. “You’ll have things you’ll buy during a boom that you won’t buy during a recession.”

Because the index is only being updated now, the impact the pandemic had on our spending is unlikely to be included in the updated basket of goods and services.

“When I was looking at this last year, I was thinking if we were to do this now, we’d definitely see hand gel and masks. I don’t know if they are going to play any part now,” Dr Burke said.

Goods and services see fluctuations in popularity. In 1982, for example, the sponge sandwich was removed, while grapefruit was added.

When some goods were added to the list might surprise you. Again, in 1982, deodorant was added to the basket. Thankfully, it hasn’t been removed.

We became more musical in 1996, when guitars, violins, drums, flutes, pianos and keyboards were added. More outdated music systems such as hi-fi and records were taken off the list.

The development of new technology and the demand for those goods can also be tracked in the CPI basket of goods and services.

Cassettes, video players and Walkmans were all out in 2006, but MP3 players, surround-sound systems and digital cameras made the list.

The removal of DVD hire in 2011 came the same year the rental chain Xtra-­vision went into examinership. It was five years later before streaming services were added to the CPI.

Dr Burke said if Ireland was to update the CPI and the list of goods and services every year like the UK, the change in the products would not be as noticeable. However, because it only happens every five years, the changes can sometimes be significant.

“If we were like the UK, we’d probably take no notice of what comes in and goes out because they’re small things, but we will see a big jump in what’s coming in and what’s coming out. It’ll be quite telling,” she said.