Nova Scotians search for bargains as food prices creep higher

Sherry Litz finds herself making more trips to the grocery store these days.

“I actually just shop almost every day now instead of once a week or once every two weeks,” she says.

She does it for the deal. Litz says it saves her money.

“I’m noticing what everybody else is noticing, that it’s a lot more expensive to shop now than it was a year ago,” Litz says. “I look for bargains, and I buy whatever I can buy that’s been reduced for a special.”

A wise move according to food expert Sylvain Charlebois as grocery costs have steadily increased since start of the pandemic in 2020.

“The actual number is 21 per cent over the last four years, all food categories combined,” says the director of Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Lab.

Based on a number of factors, including an increase in the overall cost of living, consumers have the impression the food prices have jumped by a lot more.

“We actually did survey Canadians recently asking Canadians how much do they think food prices have gone up over the last four years and the actual number we got was 78 per cent. So 78 per cent to 21 per cent, that’s a huge gap. Reality is 21 per cent, people are feeling is 78 per cent,” says Charlebois.

Perception, however, could move closer to reality.

“Get ready for a very expensive summer ahead,” warns Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.

With seasonal increases coming at the pumps, combined with the implementation of the carbon tax on April 1, it’s going to cost more to get goods to market.

“That could bring us back to very uncomfortable prices we saw back in 2022. I don’t think we’ll get that high, but here for Atlanta Canada I think it’s fair to say that increased between now and the beginning of summer about $0.25 a litre is certainly in the cards,” McTeague says.

That’s a cost that could get passed on to the consumer. Charlebois says he expects consumers to continue to be frugal and look for deals when buying groceries as the cost of living continues to climb. 

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