This article appears in Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2008.
The ever-rising cost of food
I am a single person. I pretty much go to the Mega-grocery store on Joe Howe Drive every day. Things I have noted recently- cost of canned/stewed tomatoes up to $1.19 from .089 cents/canned generic soup first up 0.69 from 0.59 and it has gone up YET agai
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the $3.29 bread isn’t selling well at regular price. I put through A LOT of it through with 50% off tags because people won’t buy it at that price.I’ve definitely noticed A LOT of price increases in food over the past few months, which is really sad.
What I don’t understand is that when gas prices were soaring, prices of necessities went up like every couple weeks because of fuel costs and now we are paying like 75 cents a liter, yet prices are still going up. I think its stupid really, I know the US economy is screwed but when everything was going good prices still went up a lot.
I remember the days when I had to call a taxi if I had $100.00 worth of groceries, now suddenly I can carry it home with barely any effort.
Blame the U.S. recession. Basic food items are becoming more scarce and the price of those commodities is soaring. Sadly the food shortages in the world will continue to drive the prices up.
There’s also certain products remaining at the same price, and coming in smaller packages. Green Giant frozen vegetables are one, they’ve gone down by about a quarter in size.
I blame Sobey’s and superstore. After being in Vancouver where every major street has at least two small independent grocers, I never had to go to a one of these appalling megastores. I love Halifax, but somewhere along the line Sobey’s and Superstore gained control and never let go. And here is a lesson why free trade is bad: Corporations try to add value to certain “cheap” produce by shipping them, packaging and repackaging them, and genetically altering them so they can withstand the process. By doing so they can take a potato which actually costs 1cent and turn it into 25 cents. Nova Scotia is full of wonderful cheap food, but why can’t I find any of it except in some roadside stand outside of Wolfville??Pete’s Frootique is great, but they always have been too expensive, and hard to get to. Plus I have worked with them in the past, and they are notorious for leaving local farmers in the lurch after they have refused delivery of produce for silly reasons.