The Easter Bunny isn’t the only adventurer hopping alongside shopping carts this spring.
Inflation is also climbing aboard, nuzzling into the furthest reaches of credit card bills and overblown budgets.
“This was $400,” said shopper Tina Pentoni, motioning towards her half-full cart outside a northeast Calgary Walmart. “Easter and a few groceries,” she shrugged.
“I used to go to Co-Op and Safeway,” said Bonni Blasetti, another shopper. “Now it’s more like Superstore and Costco.”
Shopping around isn’t a luxury everyone’s time can afford, so Global News put four grocery stores in Calgary to the test on Thursday — for a basic spaghetti night.
We went to Superstore, Save-on-Foods, Safeway and Walmart.
Our shopping list: a bagged salad kit, 1 pound of ground beef, one white onion, four cloves of garlic, one green pepper, 1 bunch of fresh cilantro, 1 can tomato/pasta sauce, dried oregano, a package of spaghetti and a loaf of bread.
We chose the cheapest store-brand options, where possible, and tallied up the cost by the cart.
Safeway was the most expensive of the four shops, ringing in at $32.21 for our basket of basics.
Next was Save-on-Foods, where our total was $28.10. Walmart came in at $25.13.
Superstore, meanwhile, offered savings on items like meat and produce. Comparable items there totalled $24.00.
— With files from Karen Bartko, Global News
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