Canadian Grocery Prices
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
194.34195
Summary
Grocery prices have gone up 30% since 2019, according to a report by TD Economics. Is there a reason why prices are so high? Is it because people are still willing to pay higher prices for food, or is it because there is so much competition in the grocery market that companies have little incentive to lower prices?
Transcript
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Now, if you're one of the many Canadians that buys groceries for either themselves
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or their families, you've probably noticed that the prices have gone out of control lately.
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Grocery prices are up 30% since 2019, according to a report by TD Economics.
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So no, it's not just you. This isn't just something in your head.
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This is a very real concern, and a lot of Canadians are complaining about this.
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Today, I'm going to explain why groceries are so darn expensive.
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Now, we've been told the reason groceries are so expensive is because of inflation.
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during the pandemic factories closed down and a lot of people were forced to stay home other
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factors like the war in ukraine also contributed to inflation by causing a reduction in the supply
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of energy products fertilizers and grains now inflation explains why prices went up in the
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first place but it doesn't explain why prices are still high there's actually another reason for
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that one of the reasons prices have remained so high is simply because people continue to pay them
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food is obviously not a luxury it's something people need to survive and people continue to
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buy food even though it's more expensive and you may not know this but there's not a lot of
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competition in the canadian grocery market five companies completely dominate the grocery market
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in canada loblaws metro sobeys walmart and costco dominate the grocery market in this country
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responsible for 75 of all food sales in canada so due to the lack of competition in the grocery
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market and the fact that people are still willing to pay the higher prices means that these companies
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have little incentive to lower their prices and reduce their profits. So until there's more
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competition in the grocery market where people simply decide to stop eating we're going to be