[cdrini]

I'm in Canada, but anecdotally, in 2019 I wouldn't buy tomatoes if they were over 0.99/lb . Meanwhile today, I bought some at 2.49/lb, and only see them below 1.99/lb maybe once every 4 mo.

Similarly cucumbers I'd buy at 0.99; now I get them at 1.99 . Those are the ones I personally remember best.

[VancouverMan]

It goes well beyond fresh produce.

Over that time period in Canada, I've also seen a 2 to 3 times increase in the unit price of many other basic grocery items, including dried pasta, rice, bread, canned goods, bags of frozen vegetables (peas, corn), meat, and so on.

The government-reported inflation numbers are well below what I've experienced and what many people in Canada I've talked to have told me they're experiencing.

[goosejuice]

Assuming you're in a Vancouver, is this true for all the retailers in your area?

In my experience prices are wildly different between grocers for some items.

I shop at whole foods quite a bit for staples. I have grocery receipts from 2019 on the Amazon app so it lets me easily see the difference. Organic canned beans delivered for $.99, now $1.3. Lentils, pasta, etc look about the same. This correlates with the CPI and grocery price numbers I've seen.

2-3x sounds like you are getting robbed. I don't know if it's a locality issue which I mentioned above.. but yeah I haven't seen anything like that in Chicagoland.

[cdrini]

Since whole foods and organic food has kind of always been a bit more expensive, I wonder if maybe that didn't see the same rise. My prices are coming from fresh food/store brands from Wal Mart, No Frills, Food Basics mainly.

Actually I wonder if that might account for the discrepancy a lot of people feel between perceived rise and the rise shown in the data. What if the cheapest things have seen a disproportionately large increase, I wonder? That would be hidden when the data averages everything together. But only certain parts of the population, likely those who would feel the impact the most, would notice the increase discrepancy from the reported numbers.

[goosejuice]

I don't only shop at whole foods. For example I buy all my produce, usually non-organic except greens as they tend to look better, at a local chain. I unfortunately don't have digital receipts for that though looking up print coupon ads from 2019 to now they are about the same prices (these are sales). Bone in pork shoulder $1.50/lb vs $2/lb. Avocados 2/$1 vs 5/$3. 24pk soda $7 vs $10.

Whole foods gets a bad rap for price, but their 365 brand is pretty solid price for non organic goods. E.g. canned beans are $0.10 higher than the store brand of the 'cheap store'. Even things like chips are a good buy at WF. Amazon just has that supply chain advantage I guess.

You definitely have to be mindful where, and how, you shop if you care about price and quality. It's why I mentioned in one of my other comments that basically food deserts are where I'd expect to see these issues. This would align well with the rural vote. A lot of people don't have a choice, where as I have over a dozen.

So yeah I have no doubts the degree varies across certain regions, but that's kind of always expected. In rural areas you'll have higher purchasing power for land but typically less wages and higher price of goods, with lower taxes on those goods.