Can anybody tell me why the hell a 4-litre jug of milk is over $7 frigging dollars?! Milk is an essential food item, dammit! They don’t tax it, but they charge over $7 for it! And what pisses me off even more is that I can get it at least $1 cheaper by buying it from the gas station! Why the heck does Ultramar charge less for milk than frigging Sobeys?
—Milking this bitch
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2009.
Times be tough for dairy farmers
Milk isn’t an essential food, dude.
I don’t eat dairy and i know A LOT of people who don’t and we manage to stay alive just fine. You don’t NEED to drink milk.
But I suppose that’s like telling a fat guy the bag of cheetos in his fat hands isn’t an essential food. (yes, I went there and yes I know not all fat people eat shitty food. I’m sending shout outs the ones who do.) People get these ideas in their heads that they need this or that, when really, they’re not going to die if they don’t have it. If it’s too expensive for you, find an alternative.
yeah, the cows are demanding at least 30 percent nowadays. we all gotta pay the bills.
I have noticed before that Sobeys will charge more for stuff at the more transit-accessible stores, is it because people who shop there are less likely to have a vehicle to go to the further store and get the better price?
Whether you want to believe it or not Pretty Kitty, Milk is good for you. A lot of people consider it an essential food and they’d rather not buy Kool-aid instead. With milk being much cheaper in other parts of the country (and even different prices in different parts of the province), I’d say this is a legitimate bitch.
Calcium. It’s kind of a big deal.
Nope BSB, I live in a area where there is a Sobey’s and a Superstore within walking/transit distance. No difference in prices. I find the prices are different in places like convenience stores because it’s a draw item, and they get you by picking up that one random item that you really don’t need (like a bag of chips for 4 bucks, anywhere else would charge you 2.50) then they’ve made up their profit. Simple economics. Milk is not necessary for human growth after the age of 5. The body doesn’t accept milk protein as readily, and isn’t as easily broken down. Sometimes it becomes more intense, and becomes lactose intolerance. Beyond that, for your 7 bucks, save it and buy a bottle of Calcium supplements or a good multivitamin. Better for ya, and an overall less expensive option.
Milk at Sobeys on Windsor Street and West End Mall is $ 6.29 and at Superstore on Young Street sell it for $ 6.29. Clayton Park, Bayers Lake, Quinpool Centre, and the South End locations sell it for over $ 7.00.
The Clayton Park Sobey’s has 4L on sale regularly for less than 6. I’ve seen it go as low as 5.49.
Milk is so gross. Although for the most part I agree with PK, most people do give milk to their kids, even if they don’t drink it themselves…. and it can be very expensive.
Milk is not essential to me, nobody in our house drinks COWs milk. (It’s for cows silly!) It’s only even ok for some people.
However, even I have to admit that it has kept many people alive over the years and is truly necessary for some. Prices should be kept lower on good stuff like that.
Maybe it’s a loss leader, to try and get you to fill your tank while you’re out getting your milk…
dgaf, there are multiple sources of calcium asides from milk. Spinach is full of it(even with the oxalic acid), beans, almonds, cabbage, beets. Milk is great, it’s nutritious, lots of calories and good bio-available contents. Being able to drink it past weaning age is a mutation(one I’ve happily got, love me some dairy), it’s not very good for you if you’re in agony after eating it.
I don’t agree with supplements and vitamins overall, it’s better to get them out of food(ex. green tea pills do crap compared to actually drinking green tea). A lot of people don’t eat very well though.
dgaf: some of us can’t tolerate dairy and eat other forms of calcium and vitamin rich foods that don’t include kool aid. And some of us are healthy individuals. Some of us probably eat better than the average, without including dairy into our diets.
Perhaps you should get your head out of your arse before you make assumptions.
I never said milk wasn’t good for you, but it’s not a essential for living or being healthy. It actually makes some of us UN healthy. Imagine that.
Kids don’t NEED dairy either to be healthy and live. There are multiple other sources of calcium, protein and other nutrients in dairy one can incorporate into their diets. If milk is too expensive, perhaps finding an alternative could be an option?
They sell milk at shoppers for 5.49 all the time. Durrr.
Milk is good and tasty.
I think a part of this argument, implied but unstated in the first two sentences, is that 4L of pop (or any of the pseudo “juice” products such as SunnyD) can be purchased for significantly less than the cost of milk. Over and over again we are witness to healthier options (excluding the lactose-intolerance issue, etc) priced far more expensive than the crap that is lending to a sick populace, riddled with cancer, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, etc.
SwampDonkey – For the most part, the foods we eat don’t actually have the nutrients they once had in them anymore. This is because the soils they were grown in have been depleted, and the water is no longer as fresh and full of monerals and the air is contaminated. You actually have to get vitamins from supplements these days if you want to get the full value.
Thats said, it is true that things like milk and eggs and bread, thing once thought to be staples are very expensive compared to junk food and pop and such. While none of those things are essential to everyone, they are important, and a good way to get healthy food into your body without a lot of effort. My sister was in Cyprus a few years ago, and Beer was cheaper than Milk there. We should be encouraging people to eat healthy by making good food choices less expensive than bad choices.
PAS: I’m aware of those issues(which does not globally affect all produce everywhere, btw, fertilizer? Not every farmer uses nothing but synthetically produced nitrogen), but there’s no way you HAVE to have supplements/vitamins to get the full requirements you need. Even vegans can get away without having to down a crapload of pills if they have a well thought out and varied diet.
Three, you are totally correct. Why should I go out and buy fresh vegetables (or even frozen for that matter) and meat, and everything required for a meal when I could buy a Swanson dinner for 2 bucks on sale, it doesn’t spoil as long as it’s in the freezer, so on and so forth. Being healthy is something that is marketed to now, so stuff like fresh vegetables and fruit carry a higher price, dairy products like yogurt (which is usually one of the few products suitable for people with Lactose Intolerance, depending on the severity) is extremely expensive in comparison to what you get. It’s about 6.50 for 8 100 ml cups of regular/fruit yogurt on average. That’s not taking into account that they have us believing that pro-biotic is the best thing since sliced bread (oh, whole wheat bread carries usually a 2 dollar premium over white bread) which carries a further premium. It’s a two-fold issue; the grocery stores hold an oligopoly (for those who don’t remember their high school economics, that’s the situation the gas companies have over us) and there is no competition because both are too afraid that they’ll lose money, so prices stay high. Lastly, we the consumer, need to tell the government that this is unacceptable. They’re having a big enough issue with keeping the province’s health care in check right now, just wait until all of the people that have been eating processed and unhealthy foods all their lives choke the system with cardiovascular diseases. Milk really is the least of our worries.
Fertilizer isn’t even what it used to be. Even if you’re getting it straight from the horses ass (or other animal) you have to think about what they’re eating. The same nutrient stripped plants that we are, if they’re lucky enough to get that. There have been too many incidents of overfarming, perticide spraying, and pollution ruining pretty much everything that goes into our food. Although I agree it doesn’t happen everywhere, but most places in North America at least.
A $2. Swanson meal has about 50cents worth of food and packaging, you don’t even get what you pay for in that situation. Dead, over processed, irradiated and frozen food might fill the gut for a minute, but it doesn’t keep people well. Food like that should simply be outlawed.
I totally agree, that’s the thing. What happens when you’re at that point where you’re penny pinching to the point where 1 dollar makes or breaks your budget, that’s what you end up doing (choosing processed over real food). The provincial government chose to intervene in the uncompetitive petrol market, why not the this case? Oh wait… the Sobey’s family made significant political contributions, and most of the MLAs from that area are stockholders (despite being a conflict of interest).
Milk is expensive in this province not because of Sobeys but because the govt has a Dairy Commission which is essentially a “marketing board” or in translation, the milk equivalent of OPEC, a price-fixing cartel. They exist to give dairy farmers protection from competition and prevent entry into the industry. Why do you not see cheaper Ontario or US milk here? Because they protect this market from it. They not only set a minimum price for milk but also require such farmers to operate according to a quota on production to keep supplies down, and the dairy farmers are all doing very well as a result, thankyouverymuch. A milk quota is worth hundreds of thousands of dollars if one becomes available for sale. Cry not for the dairy farmer; cry instead for those who chose to enter a sector that is not supply-managed.
Then if that’s the case, why aren’t the feds involved like in the case of Sask wheat board?
Three: I completely agree with you on the point that the fact that pop and crap like that is cheaper than something like milk. That is pretty sad. I just got a bit offended when a poster above implied that people who don’t drink milk for whatever reason are inferior diet wise because they’re obviously all choosing kool aid and shit like that. My diet makes most people tired just listening to me describe what I can and can’t/do and don’t eat. And it doesn’t include dairy and I’m healthy as a fucking horse!
Also: there’s more to milk intolerance than lactose intolerance. I have an allergy to casein and I can’t even eat some soy products because they’re loaded with it (try finding a soy cheese without it), but I STILL manage to get my recommended daily intake of calcium and all the other stuff in dairy milk, which is why I pointed out that milk is not an essential food.
kitty…
I don’t think that saying applies to you….
if you were a horse, they would have shot you long ago.
(re: ankle problems)
while milk isn’t essential for survival, it’s a staple it a lot of people’s diets. Those that don’t like it, don’t like it a lot but it is a travesty that it’s so bloody expensive and we have no real choice save to pay it.
I certainly know I’m not going without my milk.
Dude – The reason why the world has decided that milk does a body good is because the dairy companies pay for those ads. They make it seem as if it’s the only way to have any calcium in your diet. Sure, milk DOES have lots of calcium but LOTS of foods do. http://www.myfit.ca/foods_highest_calcium.…
Ever wonder why humans are the ONLY creatures that drink another creatures milk? It’s gross when you think about it.
Try almond milk (the unsweetened kind). It’s cheaper than milk and tastes good. It has no lactose, no cholesterol and fewer calories than cow’s milk.
I like the idea of eating an almond better than sucking on a cow’s tit.