Q&A | Are grocery prices starting to drop in Halifax Regional Municipality?

There are signs that the price of some groceries in Halifax Regional Municipality may actually be going down, according to the popular social media account Halifax ReTales.

Arthur Gaudreau, who runs the account, has been tracking food prices at Sobeys, Walmart, Superstore and No Frills since 2013. He buys the same 30 items each time to compare prices as closely as possible.

This month, he found the items were cheapest at Walmart at $128.60, while the cost was highest at Sobeys at $178.81, largely because of the price of its fresh produce.

The items cost slightly less at three of the stores — Superstore, No Frills and Walmart — than they did in December, the last time Gaudreau did his shopping test.

In an interview that aired Tuesday on CBC Radio’s Information Morning Nova Scotia, Gaudreau spoke with guest host Preston Mulligan about his ongoing experiment.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

You started this list back in 2013. What was going on in those days that inspired you to create your own unofficial consumer price index?

Purely curiosity. I had started to notice that there might have been some differences. I found myself thinking I should get that there because it’s way cheaper.

What items are on your list?

It’s a variety of items. I have prepared frozen, junk food, fresh food, bananas, tomatoes, chicken, milk, canned beans, zoodles, baked beans. I even put a can of Pringles on there. It may not be someone’s perfect basket, but it’s pulling from kind of all the departments.

Where are you seeing some of the most dramatic price changes or maybe not dramatic, but just changes in price?

I’m finding that there is a bit of evening out on the price testing out there. So things like mayonnaise and peanut butter were up higher and going much higher in price. But now they’ve kind of settled down a bit back to where they were about two years ago, so we’re not seeing them going back down to like 2019 or 2020 prices.

Tell us more about the stores you’ve selected, why you selected those stores and the disparity in prices among those four?

Walmart, Sobeys, No Frills and Superstore. I chose the ones closest to the centre of Dartmouth. What I’ve noticed is there was slightly over a $50 difference between the Walmart basket and the Sobeys basket for the same exact thing. And that works out to almost $1.67 an item. So, the more vitamins you’re buying, in theory, the more it’s gonna be.

Now, to be fair to Sobeys, everyone else had chicken breasts on sale and they did not.

How much do you learn about the pricing and the shopping trends just by reading through the comments when you post your results?

A lot of people are sharing their observations as well. And there’s people who say what about Costco? What about Giant Tiger? Costco, for example, it’s hard to compare because their sizing is different. Giant Tiger, they only tend to carry one of something, where you go to Superstore and there’s five types of beans. There’s only one type of bean at Giant Tiger, so it’s hard to compare that as well without tailoring it to them. But then they talk about places like Gateway. Gateway has some deals, but it’s on the dry goods. It’s whatever available. They buy overstocks and things like that.

So where is the cheapest food?

Cheapest food right now is Walmart [$128.60 for 30 items]. And it’s by about $10 over No Frills on a basket [$138.12 for the same items]. But again, it gets into what you’re comfortable with, where you want to go. In Dartmouth, for example, the Walmart is in the business park. It’s not exactly easy to get to if you don’t have a car, whereas the two No Frills are on major bus routes.

Is the gap in prices widening between the discount stores and, say, Sobeys and Superstore?

No, I don’t think they are. That’s the thing. Like it’s kind of like the same percentage as the more full-service grocery stores might be moving up a little more, but not significantly. There’s always been a bit of a gap.

Why do you think it’s dipping?

I think they’re testing the market. They’ve gone out and tested some products to see what the market will bear, and they’re just evening out the prices more. And one of the things I have noticed, though, is that if an item is regularly priced $2.50, it may not have gone up in price, but it goes on sale for less than it did before.

Some of these stores seem to be doing a better job than others when it comes to welcoming local produce. Who does it best?

The weird thing is Walmart will let things come direct to their door where the other ones have to go through a distribution centre. So even though some of the Walmart produce isn’t great, you’re more likely to find your Vermeulen and den Haans right there during season. Like chances are their tomatoes and cucumbers are Nova Scotian.

Based on your 13 years of research, what do you recommend we all do to keep our grocery bills down?

Ideally you shop around by the sales, but again you know, you want something, you want something. I know myself I do a combination of dry goods sometimes at Walmart, sometimes at No Frills mostly, but then there’s a couple of things I’ll go to Superstore or Sobeys for, so it’s hard to say. I love grocery stores. I like shopping every day.

MORE TOP STORIES

Adblock test (Why?)