Sudbury grocery shoppers face sticker shock as inflation reaches 18-year high
CBC
Shoppers in Sudbury, Ont., have been hit with sticker shock in the grocery store aisles in recent months due to rising prices.
Canada's inflation rate rose to 4.4 per cent in September, an 18-year high, and food prices played a big role in that.
Across the board, food prices are up 3.9 per cent in the last year and the cost of meat has been especially high, rising 9.5 per cent compared to last year, which is the biggest increase since 2015.
"Cheese, milk, bacon, bread. Everything went for a hike," said Jeff Benvenuti while out shopping for groceries. "You look at the price at the pump, you look at the price at the grocery store, everything's following itself, going up going up."
Monique Leriche said she is visiting more stores to hunt for sales, but that has its own drawbacks because it means spending more on gas.
Higher food prices have also meant she might have to find new recipes with less expensive ingredients.
"It's going to mean some hard budgeting, and I don't know, it may mean a whole new set of recipes," she said. "Unfortunately stuff that's not as healthy for you is less expensive, and so who knows where that's going to go."
Nelson McDowell said he and his wife are both retired and on a fixed income. He said it's not too difficult to cut back on meat, but other items pose a greater challenge.
"What's concerning is the essential products like eggs and milk and bread that you know you have to have," he said. "And it seems straight across the board everything is increasing to a certain degree. So I'm sure that you know there's a lot of people that are having to do a balancing act now."
Some economists have said high inflation could stick around for some time.
TD Bank economist Sri Thanabalasingam told the CBC high inflation could last until the second half of 2022, but added the long-term outlook remains uncertain.