TLDR; climate change, Russia, supply chain not recovered, labor shortages; more price increases expected :/
This is such a dumb headline.
The rate of price increases slowing doesn’t mean that prices go down. It means that prices increase more slowly.
ETA: we aren’t experiencing deflation. And we probably don’t want to.
doesn’t mean that prices go down
But, to be fair, they are going down. The price I can get as the farmer is 30-50% of what it was last year.
You’re still paying more at the grocery store because what you are eating now, I sold you last year (maybe even the year before). Turns out people don’t like surprises when it comes to food, and want to ensure that we grow enough to feed them, so they generally buy it years in advance.
Your price might go down, but that’s because you have the least amount of leverage. Same applies to customers, and to any smaller entity in the supply chain.
I’d also note the LCL, Empire and Metro didn’t hesitate to push on supplier increases, but also didn’t hesitate to raise resale at the same time. Most of them are seeing increased margins and they’re all seeing higher profit, which, if we had a fair tax structure, wouldn’t happen.
I work in distribution. Other than select contract negotiations at very high volumes, I can’t think of the last time I saw a price decrease go through, though I will say our fuel surcharge at least isn’t going up. So the rate of increase is slowing, but resale prices, by and large, are not going down. At best, this is the “new normal”
I can’t think of the last time I saw a price decrease go through
Somewhere in the mid-2010s, I’d imagine. Prices have been relatively stable or increasing since, save recently. It’s still a little early for the rest of the chain to start to feel it, but it will come. It always does.
In fact, with respect to the economy at large, only once in history has a period of high inflation not been quickly followed by deflation – and that period was unique in that, unlike the usual supply shocks, the driving force – a sudden, sharp rise in the number of consumers (i.e. the boomers coming onto the scene) – never really went away.
It all takes time, though. Nothing happens in a day.
All of those reasons are BS if grocery stores are still posting record profits.
Edit: grammar
Because retailers took advantage of inflation to push profits even higher, especially one specific retailer who has a vertical monopoly in the grocery sector, of which they’ve been caught and convicted of using to fix the prices of bread in the past.
They’re still high because food is a staple, a necessity. Competition can’t spin up in several months. And competition certainly can’t compete with this existing farm to grocer system.
These prices are never coming down. They’d keep going higher if people weren’t so angry they were stealing instead.
The best protest is to not shop there.
I know. Sounds stupid.
Farmers stands. Farm to table markets. Farmer’s markets.
Call farms and see if you can place orders. They need larger orders? Start ordering with friends, neighbours, family.
This stuff is grown in our backyard, and we are paying for some guy to buy it to sell to some other guy for a huge mark up so we can pay even more for no reason.
https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/business/2023/4/5/1_6344721.amp.html
Tale as old as time. Prices go up. CEO pay goes up. Wages go down. It’s a real head scratcher.
How do I not shop there when I only have 2 options. Do I just stop eating ?
Well, you kind of accept that you don’t have options for anything when living in the extreme north of Canada.
The remaining ~99% of Canadians live amongst farmers, though. We’ve built our largest cities on literally the best farmland in the country to ensure that the food is right there. They have thousands of options.
It’s the market that controls the prices. Many shops won’t rise prices because they would lose customers, if many others don’t.
But after an agreed price rise, it’s a different situation. It takes more time to sell cheaper, because the shops want to pretend that stuff is expensive just a bit longer.
Just have some patience and try to avoid the expensive stuff, as much as you can for some time. The biggest risk for shops is that someone finds alternatives and actually never again buys the previous product. They’ll panic and prices will fall drastically.
My car stopped accelerating. Why am I still going so fast?
so why are grocery prices still so expensive?
Capitalism.
“Inflation” is just the polite way of saying “if billionaires find out you’ve still got money, they’ll fuck you out of that too”.
It’s apparently why we can’t just raise wages or give useful amounts of welfare to the people who need it. We have to sneak the money to people, lest the billionaires find out.
