For 12 months, Quebecers have been eating less and worse. For better or worse, their food budget is becoming more and more modest as prices skyrocket.
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“People have become pure nomads; they are no longer loyal to a cent,” summarizes Sylvain Charlebois from Dalhousie University.
No brand or store is bucking the trend, observes the researcher. Quebecers are now looking for the best deals, even if that means buying groceries at the $1 store when necessary.
“The market has become extremely economical, we are going backwards to the grocery store,” explains the expert, who describes the decline in grocery purchases as “extraordinary.”
One piece of data illustrates the phenomenon: In February 2022, the average Canadian spent $255 per month at the grocery store. A year later and despite a 10.6% price increase, the price was still around $255.
The same applies to Quebec, where around 150,000 more people live today than in 2022, but where food retail sales are stagnating.
“The value of what we buy has not changed. “That means we eat less,” the researcher cannot help but say.
Grocery inflation in Quebec in 2023
- 11.4% in January
- 10.2% in February
- 10.6% in March
- 9.6% in April
- 9.2% in May
- 10.1% in June
- 10.1% in July
- 8.1% in August
- 6% in September
- 5.3% in October
- 4.3% in November
Source: Statistics Canada
More and more expensive
In 2023, coffee price increases were again strong. The year started with a bang in Quebec, with an 11.4% increase in grocery sales in January.
We had to wait until November for food inflation to fall below 5%. It then reached 4.3%.
“That’s a lot to take in at the same time,” notes Sylvain Charlebois, pointing to the Bank of Canada’s ten consecutive rate hikes in 2023.
As Quebecers spend more money on housing, “they pick up the rest for food and come what may.”
People try to buy what they can, that's all. “This is pretty much what happened in Quebec in 2023,” says the researcher.
Grocery shopping in 2023: Five things that have changed
The yellow-green sign
There has never been more talk about the food sold at Dollarama than in 2023: Even politicians are getting involved!
Last summer, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois accused Prime Minister François Legault of being out of touch with reality because he “doesn't often see people doing their grocery shopping at Dollarama.”
One thing is certain: everyone is running after their money and wants to buy cookies, cereal or cans from the retailer with the yellow-green brand, whose sales have increased by 20%.
The blue and white sign
A trend that began in 2022 continued this year: the conversion of grocery stores into discount stores. Only in Quebec,
Loblaw has converted 36 Provigo stores into Maxi stores in the last 24 months. The giant plans to convert 20 more in 2024 and build an additional five new Maxi.
This is part of the desire to “better respond to the changing needs of customers,” it says. At Metro, only one branch became a Super C in 2023, in addition to the construction of four new branches of the discount brand.
CEOs in Parliament
Ottawa has not remained idle in the face of rising food prices in 2023, although Sylvain Charlebois calls these efforts a futile attempt.
Justin Trudeau took the matter out of the hands of his Agriculture Minister and entrusted it to Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne. The heads of Metro, Loblaw, Sobeys, Walmart and Costco were quickly called to Ottawa.
After the meeting, Trudeau's soldier stated that prices would go down in the leaflet, which was inaccurate. We all laughed a lot and are still wondering what the minister is planning to say such nonsense.
People are eating less well
Eating well – and eating enough – now costs Quebecers $9.68 a day.
The increase is 25% in two years, calculates the Montreal Diet Dispensary, now called Alima.
The organization measures reality through a basket of 68 foods selected based on their nutritional value, affordability and Quebecers' consumption habits.
In two years, the price of baby cereals has increased by 66%, that of vegetables by 23% and that of cereal products by 45%.
The biggest increases in 2023
In 2023, shopping is more of an opportunity to throw a tantrum than ever before. Who isn't offended by the £8.99 pound of butter?
Not even food has risen the most this year: the price of pasta, for example, rose by 14% between November 2022 and November 2023, and that of oil by 13.6%.
Meat isn't neglected either: 9.9% for beef and 7% for chicken. We could fill an entire issue of the Journal with statements from Quebecers shocked by grocery store prices.
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