[visualphoenix]

I agree with your assessment of walking out of a grocery store with two bags costing ~$200. I went to Canada to see the eclipse and was absolutely shocked how cheap it was to go to the grocery store. Not only was the currency conversion in my favor, the prices were reasonable and aligned to what I remember from pre-pandemic times. $200 Canadian had a completely full cart. Americans are absolutely being price-gouged.

[Aurornis]

> $200 Canadian had a completely full cart. Americans are absolutely being price-gouged.

This is baffling for two reasons:

1. Canada currently has massive inflation problems. Housing prices are out of control. Groceries are expensive. Maybe you went to a small town somewhere and shopped as cheaply as possible, but your experience isn’t common.

1. I go to Costco in the US every week and fill the massive cart (bigger than your grocery store cart) for around $200. If you can’t fill a normal grocery store cart for $200 then you’re either in an extremely HCOL area or you’re shopping for expensive things.

[randomdata]

> Canada currently has massive inflation problems.

When you break down CPI, the inflation is almost entirely on the back of rising mortgage interest costs. Canada has been within the inflation target for at least a year now if you exclude mortgage interest.

That said, even including mortgage interest, the current rate is 2.9%. That's not exactly a massive problem. That's pretty close to what the BoC is looking for

> Housing prices are out of control.

Price of rent, maybe. For buyers, the housing market crashed in 2022. Affording a home for the Average Joe hasn't gotten any easier due to higher interest rates (see the part about CPI), of course, but that's not the price of housing.

> Maybe you went to a small town somewhere

Groceries in small town Canada tend to be more expensive.

[voisin]

> When you break down CPI, the inflation is almost entirely on the back of rising mortgage interest costs.

This is only true recently as the interest rate hikes took a while to filter down to actual mortgages and then make it into the CPI numbers. Prior to that, groceries were a huge component of inflation.

[randomdata]

> This is only true recently

Recently, as in within the last year, as I said.

> Prior to that, groceries were a huge component of inflation.

Years ago, sure. That whole war in Ukraine thing, coupled with the EU shutting down fertilizer plants in 2021, along with some devastating weather in the US breadbasket and an ounce of COVID-19 sent the food industry into a complete tizzy, indeed. As a Canadian farmer, the price I was being paid for food had doubled by 2022 as compared to 2019. But it was short-lived. Things are pretty much back to normal now and have been for a while. The farm gate price has returned to 2019 levels (in nominal dollars). There isn't any remaining pressure on groceries. "Currently" is what was specified in the original comment.

[djkivi]

Yes, if you have American dollars everything in Canada is cheap. Not so if you are a Canadian.

[voisin]

> I went to Canada to see the eclipse and was absolutely shocked how cheap it was to go to the grocery store. Not only was the currency conversion in my favor, the prices were reasonable and aligned to what I remember from pre-pandemic times. $200 Canadian had a completely full cart.

Wait, what? As a Canadian I can assure you this is not the case. It is so much different than what you are saying that our generally passive population has undertaken a month long boycott of our largest grocer to protest the outrageous pricing. When I see American prices on social media, I am shocked at how much cheaper prices are, even with currency conversion.

I’d love to know what you thought was cheaper.