Price check in the Canadian grocery aisles

By now, Canadians have become acutely aware of higher grocery bills over the past several months. Price changes in our current high-inflation environment are reported regularly in the news, often referencing Canada’s official measure of inflation: the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

The CPI captures the pure price change between periods, ensuring quality and quantity of goods and services are the same over time (“apples to apples”). Changing prices often reflect factors such as supply chain issues, transportation costs, as well as seasonal and other considerations that affect prices to a different extent in each region of the country.

Complementing the CPI are the monthly average retail prices for selected products, which give us the actual dollar amounts for over 100 regularly purchased products using data from point-of-sale systems (barcode scanners) shared by retailers.

These are averages computed with thousands of transactions. Variations in average prices between periods and between regions may reflect differences in a product’s brand, detailed quality characteristics, and even the changing composition of sales within a product category (think of more Granny Smith apples being purchased one month, versus more Honeycrisp apples in another month). The CPI, on the other hand, measures price change while maintaining the product’s brand and detailed quality characteristics the same from one month to another.

So, grab your cart, and let’s do a cross-Canada price check on various products from December 2022!

Meat, eggs and dairy

Looking to grill some burgers? The price of ground beef was $10.92 per kilogram nationwide; there wasn’t much difference among the provinces, and the lowest price was in Ontario ($10.15).

Vegetarian or vegan? Meatless burgers were $6.23 nationally for 226 grams, and the best deal was in Prince Edward Island ($6.01).

If you want the cheapest eggs, you’re best to scramble over to Quebec ($3.36 a dozen), a shell of the national average of $4.36. And if you want the whole chicken, Quebec had the pecking order by far—at $5.33 per kilogram, it more than bucked the national average ($6.58).

You need bacon with your eggs, so head next door to Newfoundland and Labrador for the cheapest 500-gram package. At $7.13, it was less than the national average of $7.50. That same province had the cheapest 890-millilitre jar of mayonnaise ($5.54), while Quebec sliced out the least expensive 500-gram block of cheese ($6.11). Club sandwiches, anyone?

For milk, you’ll want to hoof it to Manitoba for the cheapest one-litre carton ($1.96) and four-litre bag ($5.39). National averages were $2.91 and $6.30, respectively. Prince Edward Island had the least expensive two-litre carton ($4.21), beating the $4.94 national average.

For dairy-free options, Ontario had the best deals on 1.89-litre cartons of soy milk ($3.79) and nut milk ($3.91) compared with national averages of $4.20 and $4.11.

Fruits, vegetables, cans and grains

It may surprise you that Nova Scotians paid the least for a 4.54-kilogram bag of potatoes ($3.63), beating out potato-powerhouse Prince Edward Island ($3.92) and the national average of $4.37. Albertans paid $6.99 for a bag.

Quebecers paid the least for a cucumber ($1.48), while British Columbians paid a dollar more. A head of broccoli was cheapest in Quebec ($2.88) and priciest in Saskatchewan ($4.54).

Quebec also had the best price on celery, at $3.47 per unit—the national average was $3.64, and no other province was within stalking distance. The best deals for 1.36 kilograms of carrots ($2.93), 454 grams of strawberries ($4.85) and an avocado ($1.51) were also in Quebec.

There’s been a lot of sticker shock for romaine lettuce. It was cheapest in Prince Edward Island, at $4.43 a head and just short of the national average of $4.53. Also expensive was a kilogram of tomatoes, at $6.99 nationally and cheapest in Alberta ($6.74).

But Manitoba ($3.41) had the cheapest 500 grams of dry or fresh pasta to go with that fresh sauce you might also be using those tomatoes for. One litre of olive oil was cheapest in Ontario ($9.19) to sauté onions, which were cheapest in Quebec at $4.42 a kilogram.

There wasn’t much variation among provinces from the national averages for a kilogram of apples ($5.87) and bananas ($1.71), with the best deals in Ontario.

Need a quick meal from the freezer? Saskatchewan ($3.09) had the least expensive 750-gram package of frozen mixed vegetables, thawing the national average of $3.41.

You’ll reel in the best bargain on a 170-gram can of tuna in Saskatchewan ($1.67), while a 284-millilitre can of soup was cheapest in Quebec ($1.53).

For breakfast, a 675-gram loaf of white bread was cheapest in Ontario ($3.11), below the national average of $3.70. A one-kilogram jar of peanut butter was cheapest in Quebec ($5.24), and 400 grams of cereal was cheapest next door in Manitoba ($3.98). Grab your cup of joe in Saskatchewan, where 340 grams of ground or roasted coffee was cheapest at $5.92.

And the littlest Canadians consume the biggest-ticket pantry item we track: 900 grams of infant formula was $34.99 nationally, with relatively small differences between provinces.

Okay—price checks are now complete. Now, if only we could zigzag through the provinces for the best deals at the same speed we do in the aisles!