It’s been a mainstay for grocery shoppers in the Greater Moncton area for over 60 years. Rinzler’s, the city’s oldest independent grocery store, is a place where people know they can get a good deal even though they still have to cope with the high cost of food. “The prices are pretty high,” said shopper Chantale Richard. On Tuesday, Statistics Canada reported the cost of groceries continued to rise despite the annual pace of inflation dropping in April. Inflation was down 1.7 per cent in April compared to the same time last year. Part of the reason is the new federal government getting rid of the consumer carbon tax. But food prices from stores have jumped almost four per cent from April of last year. It marked the third straight month that grocery cost increases have outpaced the overall inflation rate. Dwayne Melanson has noticed everything is more expensive. “Even though the price of fuel has gone down it hasn’t affected the price of food. I thought it would have and it didn’t,” said Melanson. He’s trying to buy as many Canadian products as possible when he goes to the store. “Whether it’s produce or meat for obvious reasons,” said Melanson. “It makes it that much more difficult, but what can we do about it?” Statistics Canada reports the items contributing most to the rise in costs are fresh vegetables (3.7 per cent), beef (16.2 per cent) and coffee and tea (13.4 per cent). “Coffee is very expensive, meats are expensive,” said shopper Dianne Richard. “Everything went up, and it didn’t just go up by a few pennies or something, it went up by a lot.” James Rinzler, the co-owner of Rinzler’s, said they’re coping with food prices one week at a time. “We have dedicated people that do purchasing. We do comparative shopping every week. We compare previous weeks on costing and in some cases when things do jump a lot we tend not to pass on that large margin at first. We tend to keep our margins low to kind of act as a cushion for some people,” said Rinzler. Rinzler admitted the price of meat has been steadily climbing for some time and said many shoppers are transitioning to BBQ season which would explain the jump in the cost of beef. He hears his customers in the aisles talking about prices. “When we sold turkeys for Easter I overheard people saying, ‘I’m just not going to pay that much for a fresh turkey,’ and I understand it. When you’re talking $75 or $80 for a 15 lb turkey, it’s a lot of money,” said Rinzler. There are deals around for shrewd shoppers though. “So if you recognize a good deal in meats in whoever is doing it, you can stock up on some of these things. If you’re a smart shopper, you can do better if you try hard,” said Rinzler. Sue Francoeur said she manages the best she can by being creative and thrifty. “I look for deals basically,” said Francoeur. “I don’t shop at the big stores like Sobeys or Loblaws. I come to these little boutique shops because they tend to keep the prices lower.” With files from the Canadian Press For more New Brunswick news, visit our dedicated provincial page.
