B.C. woman details sky-high prices of groceries

As grocery prices continue to eat into people’s budgets across B.C. and beyond, one woman south of the Fraser is breaking down her bill to feed her family of five.

Sasha Raine Risi says she went to the Independent Grocer in Langley recently and spent $150 for one meal.

In a video shared on social media, she shows off ingredients she bought to make dinner. The items included broccolini, mushrooms, onions, two bulbs of garlic, one stalk of celery, one bunch of carrots, herbs, two cartons of beef broth, and some meat.

“And I also bought the No Name brand of some things, so don’t come at me, saying I bought the name branded stuff,” she says in the video.

The woman says she also bought some strawberries, coffee creamer, and muffin mix.

“This was $150, people. Right here, $150. I went to the [Independent Grocer] because I thought it would be cheaper than going somewhere else, but clearly, it doesn’t matter where you shop anymore.”

Risi admits she will have leftovers but feels $150 is too much for dinner.

Some people online say she could scrap the meat to bring her bill down, while one user quipped, “It’s your fault for buying dinner. In B.C. we don’t have dinners.”

The video comes shortly after a report from the Centre for Future Work found Canadian grocers are expected to make more than $6 billion in profits in 2023 — a new record and an increase of eight per cent from last year.

The new data also found food retailers are now earning more than twice as much profit as they did before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The organization says the data suggests retailers took advantage of the pandemic and its aftermath to increase their profits.

Earlier this month, the Canada’s 2024 Food Price Report predicted an increase of 2.5 to 4.5 per cent in overall food costs coming next year, with prices going up across the board.

In October, federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne met with the bosses of the five biggest grocers in the country: Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro, Costco, and Walmart, but a timeline of when grocery prices may come down has not been revealed.