While oil prices have plunged, food prices across Canada have spiked. It’s a combination challenging for thousands of Albertans who are struggling to keep up. During our three-part Grocery Grind series, Dallas Flexhaug examines how much more we’re paying at the supermarket, and how it’s impacting both consumers and retailers.
The combination of higher food costs and layoffs throughout the province has forced thousands of Albertans to change their spending habits.
Calgarian John Rennie lost his job in the oil industry two months ago. Now unemployed, Rennie has taken to clipping coupons to help feed his family.
“We stop at the coupon board and have a look,” Rennie said. “We look at the flyers.”
A study of over 65,000 consumers by BrandSpark in 2015 found 91 per cent of Canadians check print grocery store flyers every week or month, and 62 per cent of consumers check digital flyers regularly.
Rennie also switched grocery stores, all in the name of cutting back spending.
“We went to a local store mostly to collect bonus points and stuff like that, and rewards cards, and we just found that they were just too expensive so we drove a little further and ended up going to a bigger store and actually saving quite a bit more.”
“We generally get a no-name product unless we are really fixed on a name brand,” Rennie said. “Even our dogs, they recently changed their dog food too.”
Grocery Grind: How spiking food prices have impacted Albertans
Sylvain Charlebois with the University of Guelph’s Food Institute believes the economic downturn in Alberta is bringing with it more penny-pinching pressure than in 2008, when we experienced similar struggles.
Albertans aren’t just changing their shopping habits; some are also starting to learn new skills to help them through tough economic times.
Grocery Grind: Grocery stores lower produce prices amid oilpatch layoffs
Julia Weaver is the Coordinator at the University of Calgary Campus Community, and said she’s noticed an increase in students seeking affordable food options.
“I’ve definitely seen more students going to a community kitchen, bulk cooking, bulk buying and I’ve definitely never heard of that before these past few months and past year,” Weaver said. “Oil prices and unemployment, as well as high housing prices and high tuition… all these things and food prices kind of combine together.”
University of Calgary Food Studies instructor Lisa Stowe sees higher food costs as an opportunity to shop local.
“It’s a really great opportunity for people to learn about local food production and help out those farmers who, this is their living… and the fact that they had to price food items at a higher cost than supermarkets, now all of a sudden they are on a level playing field,” Stowe said.
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