I thought I was going to cry when I first stepped into a Canadian supermarket after coming back from France.
We were only away for seven weeks, so it’s not like I forgot about the inflation and supply chain issues. As far as I knew, it had only gotten worse. The latest official shortage is children’s medications, by the way, you can’t find any Advil or Tylenol anywhere.
Still. I walked into Walmart and for a minute, I thought I had missed the memo on doomsday. It was just a regular Tueday afternoon, but the shelves were empty—bread, pasta, noodles, yogurt, frozen veggies and other staples were missing. The store was gross too, with ice buildups in most fridges.
I know Walmart is a bit of a running joke in North America and I hate this evil global megacorp as much as everyone else but honestly, when the store opened in our neighbourhood over ten years ago, it was a perfectly acceptable supermarket option. Not fancy, for sure, but fully stocked with fresh produce. It was much cheaper than the Loblaws across the road as well, and as far as I know, it’s not like the price difference goes to employees, so fuck paying 25% more just because Loblaws looks nicer.
These days, shelves are constantly empty in cheaper grocery stores like Walmart, FreshCo, and Food Basics. Loblaws or Metro are better stocked but I noticed perishables are often past the best-by date because guess what, dairy, meat, and other “luxuries” are so expensive that nobody is buying.
Prices went up in France but not as much. The only noticeable shortage is mustard… blame Canada, the main mustard seeds supplier. I’m not saying that the economy is doing great but groceries are still very affordable from a Canadian perspective, and “cheap” food is good too.
So this year, I didn’t bring back souvenirs or fancy products. I stuffed my backpack (and Mark’s) with items that are cheaper (or a better overall value) in France than in Canada.
Food, for a start. I brought back my favourite cookies, spices, sea salt, coffee, instant soup and packs of instant dessert mix. I stopped buying yogurt in Canada because dairy is too expensive. To give you an example, I was quite happy with Carrefour plain yogurt, €0.99 ($1.30) for 100gx4. Good luck finding a similar product for less than $3.50 in Canada. So I’m making my own flan—the French version is a light chocolate- coffee- or vanilla-flavoured custard cream. I still have to buy produce and bread in Canada but we mostly live off rice, veggies and eggs.
I bought over-the-counter medication, plus tons of vitamin C, which works well for me. I should have bought children’s medication as well for Mark, but I didn’t know about the shortage…
Notebooks and pens are a small (cheap) treat, and so is this Desigual pair of shorts I got on sale. I also bought t-shirts and pants for Mark.
Finally, I bought bottles of shampoo and conditioner (nothing fancy, but again, cheaper than in Canada), face cream, eye cream (it gets very dry when it’s cold here!), facial cleansers, soap bars, masks and cotton (because I couldn’t find any cotton in Canada last spring!).
Yesss, thank you! I was waiting for this blog post. Now I can try to get some of these things online. Germany doesn’t have such lovely products, or maybe I haven’t found them yet.
The supermarkets here are quite depressing as well.
Sent you an email 😉
Why are supermarkets depressing? Same issues as in Canada?
Wow, I’ve never seen empty shelves like this here in Switzerland, except maybe early 2020 when everyone was panic buying toilet paper 😉 Prices went up here too, and most goods are more expensive here than in France anyway (plus right now, Euro is very low compared to Swiss francs). I was in France for a bit more than a week in July and I bought tons of books for the kids, they’re about 30-40% cheaper.
Everybody says that the cost of living in Switzerland is very high, so I can only imagine! But good chocolate and no empty shelves 😆
Wow! I haven’t seen shelves that empty since 2020. Didn’t know it is still that bad in Canada. Wouldn’t it be worse when winter sets in? Food in grocery is definitely cheaper in Scotland, fresher too (went there in summer). Now I get very upset cutting into avocados in Texas – always get black spots inside no matter how careful I picked them. All because I bought 2 avocados in Scotland and they were so perfect inside 🙂 I stop eating my favorite gold kiwi because it used to be $6-$7 at Costco for a pack of 7-9. Now it is $9.69 a pack!
Friends in Montreal report shelves are full (but everything is very expensive). I’ve heard of other people in other cities complaining about empty shelves and I definitely don’t make it up for my side of Ottawa, but I’m not sure how it is in other places. Problem is, it’s annoying (and expensive) to drive around to find what you need. X supermarket has bread but is out of dairy, Y supermarket has fresh produce but is out of bread, etc.
Lots of these we find in Montreal… but there are lots of Frenchies here. Not sure about the flan though, I have to check it out. And boy thoses shelves! I’ve never seen them so empty around here… it’s crazy! hey, Welcome back!!
My French friends say they can find French products more easily in Montreal as well, especially food. Same here, I can find cookies and chocolate (French brands) but it’s triple the price. The flan is goooood! I made one yesterday.