okay….I buy food in cans….DON’T JUDGE ME….my question is how can a large supermarket chain justify increasing the price of a can of potatoes from 0.99 to 1.39 in a year…..and EVERYTHING else ios going up….yet according to BNN inflation is non-existent in this country….why are we be lied to? mislead? last year oil was @ $147.00 barrel because oil was something that everyone “needed” and then the recession hit….and there went the demand for oil….every effingbody on the planet needs food….so the corporate d*ckheads go aha…..while all the time rubbing their greedy, greasy little hands together….how do you spell relief- A*N*A*R*C*H*Y
—anarchic bread
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.
Canned potatoes??? Good lord, they should triple the price…
Problem: Expensive cans of potatoes.
Solution: Buy a ten pound bag of fresh potatoes. They are usually cheap (I’ve seen them for as low as $2 a bag) and last for quite a while. Potatoes are very hardy and versatile. I love em!
We live in NS and you’re buying tinned spuds?
It could be that they are imported (that’s another problem) so you are paying for increased transportation costs.
Check the label. I would be curious to know where they are from.
But on another note, surely your veggies don’t TASTE very good if they are all from cans . . . that’s my take on it . . .
$2 for a ten pound bag of potatoes? Where? How long ago? I was in the country 3 weeks ago hoping to buy up reasonable priced potatoes for the winter, and the people selling out of their little gardens were charging $5 for 10lbs.. I was disgusted. I came back to the city and bought 50 lb bags at the wholesalers in Halifax.
The OP’s bitch is not about canned potatoes…it is about the price gouging that is occurring at grocery stores. It is getting to the point where even the basics are no longer affordable for a lot of people. I’m all for making a decent profit but price gouging needs to stop!
Even buying the loose bulk potatoes in the produce section would be cheaper than $1.39 for a few mushy mini spuds in a can of brine. Think of all the sodium you’re consuming and the nutrients you aren’t when you choose canned veggies over fresh.
I didn’t think anybody really bought canned potatoes….hummh…..go figure why ya’d do that with PEI next door……however……regarding the low cost of living increase verses the high cost of food increase:
The posted COL is a blend of several major items….and it is a bit low right now…….but the food component is getting much higher proportionate to everything else. Some things in the COL formula are getting less expensive and they are off-setting the higher cost of food.
agreed with oceanlady…the OP’s bitch is not about potatoes so much as the greed of corporations and their need to ever increase profits in an effort to please shareholders and meet the expected revenue and profit projections of the stock market analysts. all this comes at the expense of who? the consumer, that is continually nickled and dimed to death by corporate greed.
I didn’t know they sold canned potatoes. No need to peel? I’M SO THERE!
Anarchic bread: You think that a tin of potatoes jumped from 99cents to 1.39 is
a prime example of increasing prices, get a grip, 3 years ago the big chain grocery stoes put their prices up twice a year, now it is almost every month since, try feeding a pet and yourself….the cost of living has gone up at least 33% in the past year and half……..I guess you don’t get out much or are
stupid ……
how do you spell relief? I*N*D*E*P*E*N*D*E*N*C*E
Buy Canadian. At the very least the product doesn’t have as far to go so costs less to produce. If everybody did this your imported canned potatoes would drop significantly in price but then you’d buy them and that wouldn’t support our Canadian economy, would it?
The thought of canned potatoes makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit.
I didn’t even know there was such thing as canned potatoes. I actually haven’t seen that many increases at the grocery store… i mean some things increase, but I usually shop for sale items specifically, and then add on the necessities. A certain store has BOGO a lot, and they even had potatoes (not canned, 5lb bags) BOGO a few weeks ago. If you have space to store food, it works out to buy it when it’s on sale.
However, I noticed a HUGE difference when I moved to Nova Scotia from New Brunswick. Milk is way more expensive here, as well as produce. Not so sure about the meat because I don’t eat it and therefore don’t buy it.
Here is some evidence to support the position that corporate lust for profit is at least partly to blame for soaring food prices:
1. George Weston Ltd (parent company of Loblaw, which is the parent of Atlantic SuperStore, and maker of bread products) 2008 annual financial report is at
http://www.weston.ca/en/gwl_ar08e/fin_high…
where a growing return on assets is indicated (8.1% vs 5.7% the previous year)
2. Loblaw’s first quarter profits in 2009 were up 73%
http://www.financialpost.com/story.html?id…
Enjoy your lunch!
I’m not picking on Kay here, because I do agree with part of what she’s saying:
“Buy Canadian. At the very least the product doesn’t have as far to go so costs less to produce.”
In theory, this is true. In actual point of fact practice, it is not. I buy local and/or Canadian whenever possible, but this has had to be put on hold of late due to a job loss and lack of eligbility for EI.
I can tell you that over the last 2 months I have done much of my grocery shopping at Wal Mart and the Dollar store to buy your basic staples. Neither of these places stocks Canadian – made products as a less-expensive option.
When American-made juice costs 87 cents at WalMart and the Candian counterpart is $1.39, you bet your arse I’m paying the lower price – Canadian or not.
And as for produce … the grocery stores near my house (there are 2) can’t even stock LOCAL produce, let alone Canadian… when one of them recently had a produce sale, not one gram of fruit on sale was Canadian grown. Oh, and good luck finding MARITIME produce at the local fruit stands – most of them don’t even sell potatoes from closer than Ontario.
Local Farmer’s Markets are not an option on a fixed budget either. I can’t afford to pay $5 for a pound of carrots from the Organic Collective of Local Farmers – even though I would prefer to.
I am not an expert (nor do I play one on TV), but it seems to me that if the shipping costs are so low for Canadian produce, we might actually be able to FIND it in our stores…
Oh yeah – and I am reminded of a restaurant in Toronto which advertised Maine lobster on their menus. I inquired as to why Maine lobster when they could get Atlantic lobster, and they told me that although the quality wasn’t as good, they could get the Maine lobster for about half the price of the Atlantic, and the tourists wouldn’t know the difference.
Businesses are in business to make profits. Apparently buying locally or in-country isn’t profitable? So how do we fix that, folks? ’cause if we all try to buy only local and Canadian groceries, we’ll soon starve (unless minimum wage goes up to about $15)…
I remember when a certain fast food chain with a girl in the logo offered a “value meal” at $0.99/$1.39 an item. The year began with 20. Now the same “value menu” proudly advertises $1.89 and up as value.
As it is, lack of competition here has caused our grocery stores to get a case of the greeds the past couple of years.
Why Canadians are not eating healthy (with some price differences province to province):
http://www.heartandstroke.com/site/apps/nl…
Gidget, I think a contributing factor to the relative high cost of local food is volume. The cheap stuff is mass produced and shipped in bulk, which keeps costs down. Local farms are likely smaller and they don’t sell enough volume at the farmers market on saturday to keep costs low. Now, if the local grocers were to buy from local sources, the farmers would have a guaranteed buyer for a large volume of crop and could sell it for a lower unit price. One of the reasons that grocery stores don’t buy bulk from local farmers is that the consumer demands a constant and reliable supply of a given product. So, the grocery store buys strawberries from california because they have a longer growing season and can guarantee a larger volume of product over a longer period of time. If people stopped demanding out-of-season produce, the grocery stores might be more inclined to buy more local produce and sell it at reduced prices.
Also, if you are worried about corporate greed ripping you off…just hop on the gravy train and start investing in canned potatoes.
Canned potatoes? Is there such a thing for the cheapest veggie ever? I bought 15lb of potatoes for $3.99 at Sobeys just 3 weeks ago.
It depends on the recipe and the amount cooked. For inductrail purposes (soups and the like), canned potatoes can be a huge time saver.
Yes expatriot… but where did those potatoes come from? Probably the USA…
Wow gotta stop posting when tired. inductrail should be industrial. Sorry folks.