How is your food store treating you in these high price times?

[EvilTofu]

I love that you are so positive. There are too much fearmongering on the news regarding food prices.

The grocery industry only makes about 1-3% profit, a little more for conglomerates like the PC groups that have horizontal and vertical integration. Overall, a tough industry made tougher by the pandemic and supply chain issues. I have always seen them as essential workers. The rude customers, customer aggression, people just messing up the stuff in stores... and then they waste the food when they get home. I don't even know why anyone would work in this industry.

I salute you, if you work in any part of the food industry.

Yeah, I agree with you. I get that they have to raise prices, but bargains are still available if you are willing to do some research.

CPI is just a reference. People don't buy the same things every week. When beef is expensive, we eat chicken.

Regarding the coupon problems. The responsibility of cashing coupons fall on the cashiers. They have to stay behind to count the money and coupons when they cash out for the day. I totally get it when they don't want to accept weird coupons. Some stores dock their pay if the coupons are fake.

Besides, food with coupons are usually highly processed foods. They are not healthy for you.

[Ciel21]

Thanks for the insights on coupons and cashiers @EvilTofu . That explains why grocery stores shut down so many tills in the last hour, presumably to have basic two tills open plus self-checkout to give other cashiers time to cashout/count during stores' open hours.

I was shocked when I was in Walmart last time (after 7am) and only one cash lane was open. I thought it was bad that maybe two tills are open after 6pm on a weeknight.

[cath007]

I am 100% agree with grocery shopping in more economics stores like maxi and wal mart even Super C versus IGA and Metro
In QC,they made a study prooving that shopping on regular basis in more economical grocery stores will save you money .They went to all those stores each week for 1 year buying 56 basic products and the results are shocking ...you can save 2000$ per year just to avoid more fancy grocery stores for the same products.I knew that before but still shocking mind opener.And no need for loyalty programs card

[HermanH]

Has anyone notice grocery stores substituting cheaper solutions?

I have found a Korean store, H-Mart, seemingly bringing in cheaper types of fish that I have not previously seen much. For example, they are bringing in a few types of rockfish for $2/lb, as well as whiting/pollock and sole. While I am not a fan of the different varieties of rockfish, I do appreciate the effort (if intentional) to provide more economical fish options. I do not find the pollock and sole as flavourful as salmon, but my mother (the primary beneficiary) just says, "fish is fish".