24 Replies to “Its Probably Nothing”

  1. The difference in prices via grocery stores verses the dollar store is rather staggering, here are some examples: Oatmeal, instant is 3-50 at the dollar store and 5-99 to 6-99 at Sobeys. Bread is half the price for the same product at Sobeys. Canned tuna and chicken, half the price of the top grocery stores. Potato chips and junk food a fraction of the cost. Ziplock bags at the Dollar store 2-50-at Sobeys up to seven dollars. Garbage bags under three dollars at the Dstore, and big grocery stores are charging ten dollars for ten bags. Parchment paper, three dollars at the dollar store-seven dollars at the grocery stores. It’s gob smacking the mark up at the big two in NS via Sobeys and Stupidstore.

    1. Yeah Rose, I had an occasion to visit the local dollar store for an item unavailable anywhere else, about a year back, and noticed the Ziplocks and Betty Crocker thicker aluminum, foil prices were about half the cost. I now visit on a regular basis. I do have some concerns about buying food there, but there is a bunch of items far cheaper that are available. Check out the plastic containers and cooking utensils as well. I didn’t check out the plastic garbage bags yet, but I will be even more observant now.

      1. Yep, I make sure nothing I buy is from China, not risking eating tuna from China. The chips and bread are from local companies, oatmeal is from Quaker. You can’t be to careful.

        1. …not risking eating tuna from China.

          What, Rose? You don’t like dolphin?

          2. Three years ago I started seeing Mexican tuna in stores. Tuna mixed with textured vegetable protein and a ton of oil. Half the price of real stuff.

            According to the nice Hispanic clerk I talked to, it ‘makes the butt hurt.’

      2. Quick notes on Dollarama here in the Vancouver area … stores like Safeway and Save On Foods no longer stock items like burner guards and Comet cleanser. They leave that to the dollar stores. The food in Dollarama is non-perishable stuff that I rarely eat — in fact a lot of it is outright junk — but it is cheap and, surprisingly to me, produced mostly in the USA or Canada. Some of the best deals IMO are on paper plates/disposable cutlery and on glassware, a lot of which is solid stuff made in Turkey by German companies.

        That noted, I’m grateful I can still afford fresh food.

    2. Sobeys is a premium branded grocery store, though. No Frills or Food Basics would be a better comparison. Granted in some areas Sobey, Longos or Fortinos are the only options.

      1. You are quite right. My GF is brand conscious and wants to shop at Loblaw. I am price conscious, and want to shop at No Frills. It was only after I bought the same ten items at each, and showed her the bill from No Frills was about 40% less than the bill from Loblaw that she relented. e.g. Ziggy’s prepared salad was $2.49 for a small container at Loblaw; exact same container was $1.29 at NF. (This was a few years ago, I’m sure the price is higher for both now.)

        I still do almost all the shopping, but I do it at No Frills now.

  2. But, but, but, Tiff says everyone is making so much money and the economy is overheating………………

  3. The real fun has yet to start.

    30 years plus of pump priming will revert to the mean.

    Incineration will be a well used adjective.

    War, what is it good for?

    Ass covering.

  4. As someone with a 12th Grade education (from the 80s before it truly rotted), we had to pass an economics course. I wrote this three years ago, with very few edits required. Why does someone with a single high-school course 40 years ago still know about the M1 money supply and what happens when it increases:

    https://tradingeconomics.com/canada/money-supply-m1

    1) there is no threat of inflation due to the government borrowing then “spending” a trillion dollars
    2) there is no inflation, like we said
    3) there is some inflation, but not everywhere, and its not bad, so point 1 stands, please ignore point 2
    4) there is some inflation in some minor areas such as fuel, housing and food, but its manageable
    5) its only for a short time, just like two weeks to flatten the COVID curve, remember then?
    6) inflation is actually good, Colbert says so, and who would know better than a celebrity millionaire?
    7) the government has a plan for inflation if it ever really becomes a for real problem for real people
    8) you’ll love wage and price controls…
    9) its corporate greed that somehow didn’t exist two years ago, just started overnight
    10) no, increasing taxes isn’t inflationary either
    11) did we mention the inflation that isn’t happening, but would be great, is Putin’s fault?
    12) overturning Roe will damage the economy
    13) CTRL/H inflation/stagflation
    14) CTRL/H stagflation/recession
    15) CTRL/H recession/New Great Depression

    1. Kenji, buddy, no truer words have been spoken.
      I really like Costco beef, probably the best consistent cuts around. Inch and a half thick sirloin is the best BBQ AAA I’ve come across. That said, it’s now $13 a pound in Canaderp. And Costco has also employed the discount strategy per package on more expensive cuts. Even so, $16 a pound for Prime steak, I ain’t biting, though the sheeple blindly throw them in the cart anyways…..
      I load up on decent cuts when they are ruly discounted at certain retailers, then vac pack them to freeze. Still great 12 months later.
      Disappointed in Costco, but the inflation disease is everywhere

      1. the biggest problem I have with the Costco beef is it’s pretty much all “mechanically tenderized” which has caused issues in the quality in the past.

      2. Dan, I like those costco sirloins too, but did you know they are mechanically injected with a tenderizer? Just shopped at costco the other day, those sirloins have gone up to over $29 per kilo. Prime rib was about $76 per kilo.

        The barbecue is going to be cold this summer.

        1. It’s pork ribs … pork ribs … pork ribs … at $2.99/lb … all summer. That can’t be good for me 🙁

  6. I think retailers generally sell at ‘cost +’, passing along any price increases to the consumer. Not sure that I’d blame the retailers for the high prices, though I do understand budgeting and consequent ‘shopping around’.

    1. I live in the SF Bay Area … and compared to all my travels … even within the State of CA … Bay Area food retailers are gouging the shit out of all us “Silicon Valley” high earners. They are charging “what the market will bear” … price gouging … pure and simple. I go to my daughters Ralphs in Dana Pt. and their costs are at least 20% below my local Safeway here … and meat is even lower. I walked into her Ralphs a couple days before Christmas and asked if they had a nice 5-rib Prime Rib … the meat manager comes out of the back with a beautiful roast … he said “Merry Christmas” and slapped a $62.00 price tag on it. Wow! I can’t buy a tiny two-rib small end cut off Prime Rib at COSTCO for $62.00. We’re getting freaking gouged! Everyone’s making up for all the money they supposedly lost during COVID … despite being designated an … “essential service”

  8. One of the reasons that the Dollar stores can undercut the big grocery chains is in the fact that the Dollar stores have no massive refridgerated aisles of frozen food displays. That fact seems to be missed on the majority of shoppers/consumers. The carbon tax was innitiated as a never-ending gouge by governments on the working class. The energy used to keep food and produce cool and/or frozen from farm to fork is taxed by the government under the “carbon is bad policy”. The result is that the consumer, you Joe Q. Taxpayer, pay the final bill and you have been so brain-washed into the program that you will keep voting for these liars, cheats, and thieves until the cows come home. Companies with large power bills will pass on costs to consumers and that is an economic fact of life. As much as the governments try to dictate a net zero policy by taxing carbon all the solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources advocated by them will not provide the lifestyle we are accustom to. Here is a cold dose of reality now taking place in Holland and Ireland, the cows are not coming home in the near future either in dairy produce or in meat so you either learn to live with that or be prepared to oust all the charlatans, poltroons, and poofters that have cheated and lied to you in the next election.

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