The Canadian government wanted grocers to keep it up to date on efforts to stabilize food prices. Sobeys and Metro refused
The Canadian government wanted grocers to keep it up to date on efforts to stabilize food prices. Sobeys and Metro refused
As U.S. president Donald Trump's tariffs take effect, experts warn grocery prices in Canada could once again spike
Food price increases driven by inflation were not isolated to Canada, but other countries handled this issue very differently.
Bester said the way the Mexican government handled major grocers in their country was more direct, and prevented prices on groceries from increasing as drastically as they did in Canada.
Last year, Mexico's government signed an agreement to control the price of a number of "basic" foods --- 24 items in the "bread basket" including pasteurised whole milk, basic cornflour, packaged bread, whole chicken, rice, vegetable oil, and canned sardines, set at a maximum price to 910 pesos (about $60CAN). Major retailers, including Walmart, agreed to the terms.
"The government really took more of a carrot and a stick approach to freezing the prices of a basket of goods, bringing grocers in and saying, basically, 'this is the way it's going to be,'" Bester said.
Macdonald noted that the UK also approached grocery price increases differently than Canada.
"They brought the big grocery stores together to offer sort of a set of basic products at lower prices for a kind of house brand," Macdonald said. "You've got the cheap bread for a certain set amount, the cheap eggs for a certain set amount, that sort of thing."
In 2023, Canada’s big grocery chains exceeded $6 billion in profits — an increase of eight per cent from the previous year, according to the Centre for Future Work. The data found food retailers are now making more than twice as much profit as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.
I'm in Southern Ontario. Where can I shop? We have a farmer's market and butchers, but there's stuff I need that they won't have. I was shopping at Metro, because Canadian, but like.. why does everyone have to be evil?
Honestly? Costco.
They pay and treat their employees well and, despite being a US company, they're pretty good about sourcing things from outside the US. They're also defying Trump's anti-DEI crusade.
Yes, they're still a multi-billion-dollar corporation, but they're the best of a bad lot by a wide margin.
Also per volume most of the stuff is cheaper than elsewhere.
If you can get a friend or neighbor to split with you, there are easy to share two/three pack items for a bunch of things. Lean ground beef is one good one.
They're capitalists.
You don't get to be the size of Metro without being a selfish, greedy, asshole. Aka, a capitalist.
I understand that, but at this point, consumption alone has made us all complicit.
And the garden gets bigger. Fuck them assholes.
If you have a Cooperative in your area, support them. At least the profits get shared back to the members.
Most of the coopratives in my area are financial. Meridian credit union plus some cooperative insurance places.
There's also planet bean which makes coffee. But that seems to be it.
We have a coop that does groceries, fuel and hardware/ag supply. It's been around as long as I can remember.
https://www.pembinawestco-op.crs/sites/pembinawest/tags?keyword=Services
that last bit really says it all:
The data found food retailers are now making more than twice as much profit as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic
This is why shoplifting doesn't exist. If the stores can pick your pockets, you can take from them too.
Fuck Sobey's with an artichoke.
They bought Thrifty Foods here on the west coast and the purchasing became less local, staffing policies got shittier, pricing got worse, and it generally just fell into boycott territory for me.
The locally based grocery chain that remains here is pretty good so we still have that, but choice vanished, thanks capitalism.
The Liberals play with fire ignoring CoL things like this when it comes to the future youth vote.
Before you start blasting the new liberal government, give them a chance. Carney has done more since he stepped in to the role of prime minister since March 14, than he should have been expected to do. But he’s doing it. He’s dealing with shit that’s not just national, but GLOBAL. Canadians are not alone in the issues of housing, healthcare, food prices, etc. As far as I’m concerned, the global issue is oligarchy. There’s a secondary issue with the rise of fascism/nazism (a lack of history education, perhaps?) I can guarantee Carney won’t be handing out doughnuts and coffee to racists and Nazis...
of COURSE you are from shit.just.shit
Road to hell is almost always paved with “good intentions”. Then some fuck comes around and twists/corrupts the whole idea.
Switches to farmer’s markets and small grocers harder
The government can just raise taxes instead of printing 40% additional money supply, to avoid these price spikes where we are then trying to attribute blame.
In the 70s they blamed unions for asking for higher wages when they debased the currency by moving to USD and then off the gold standard, its always externalized by the government to avoid blame. Here's a newspaper from the time of the union complaining about wage controls.
https://cupe.ca/sites/default/files/journal_winter_1976_p1.jpg
I also find it funny Tiff Macklem egging people on telling people to go and borrow, which is unheard of talk from a central bank, and then we miraculously had greedflation.
Its a bit before my time, rhanks for sharing! Seems like the old addage "a sucker is born every minute" is alive and flourishing. People are arguing Libs vs Cons when its basically a few levers they can pull while the unseen arm of capitalism moves along. all the politicians and their cronies seem to take the lions share whike we squabble... Media should be more accountable and tell us rubes when we're being bamboozled
