{"id":301161,"date":"2025-12-05T22:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/301161\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T22:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T22:29:10","slug":"shoppers-say-rising-grocery-prices-now-feel-like-a-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/301161\/","title":{"rendered":"Shoppers say rising grocery prices now feel like a crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grocery prices are already stretching family budgets, but shoppers say news of another increase expected next year feels like a breaking point<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A national food report projects grocery bills<\/a> could rise by about six per cent in 2026, adding nearly $1,000 a year to the cost of feeding a family of four. For Executive Director Denis Simard with the Al Ritchie community association<\/a>, the impact is already visible.<\/p>\n

Read more: <\/p>\n

\u201cFamilies were already having to make choices between utilities and food,\u201d Simard said. \u201d These changes might literally be the difference between people being able to feed themselves or not.\u201d<\/p>\n

Simard said his organization had gone from helping about 50 families a month before the pandemic to roughly 3,000 families a month today. He said the surge is \u201cunsustainable\u201d and said many households no longer have room to cut back.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to a point where you can only cut back so much,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the end, it comes down to the inability to feed your family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Healthy choices become harder to afford<\/p>\n

At a Regina grocery store, shopper Jordan Bedell said the projected increase did not surprise her, but it\u2019s still frustrating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt already went up last year and the year before,\u201d she said. \u201cSo it increasing does not surprise me. It is more so just like\u2026 great, thanks.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said staple foods had nearly doubled in price over the past few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cCheese went from seven dollars a brick to about fourteen,\u201d Bedell said. \u201cIf anything else doubled like that, people would lose it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her household of five prioritizes healthy eating, but she said it has become increasingly complex. Bedell now buys meat from local butchers, which can be cheaper, but requires multiple stops.<\/p>\n

Even she says the gap between healthy and unhealthy food has widened.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you even want to eat healthy, you cannot afford it,\u201d she said. \u201cMy healthy (grocery) cart was almost double.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked whether the country had reached a crisis point, Bedell did not hesitate.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne hundred per cent,\u201d she said, \u201cMost people cannot afford their basics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seniors relying on family to get by<\/p>\n

For senior Beverly Blampied, the rising cost of food has become overwhelming.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they put stuff on sale for certain prices, I don\u2019t know why they cannot keep them down,\u201d she said. \u201d When they put them up, they really put them up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blampied lives with her daughter, which she said is the only reason she can manage.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I were on my own, I could not afford it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She has really cut back on many items.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo more steak, it\u2019s chicken when it is on sale,\u201d she said, \u201cEven that goes up.\u201d<\/p>\n

If prices continue rising, she said she may be forced to seek support.<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose we would have to go to the food bank,\u201d she said. \u201cI do not know what else you do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blampied also said Canada had reached a crisis point.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have,\u201d she said. \u201cCompanies are trying to make too much money.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Something has to give\u2019<\/p>\n

Simard said rising prices will push even more people toward community services that are already stretched thin.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wish it did not come down to the nonprofit sector to find the solution,\u201d he said. \u201cI wish there were an economic one. A government one. Something has to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many shoppers in Saskatchewan, that tipping point may have already arrived.<\/p>\n

\u2013with files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grocery prices are already stretching family budgets, but shoppers say news of another increase expected next year feels…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-301161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}