Sep 19, 2026
Rising grocery costs continue to outpace broader inflation in Canada, leaving consumers scrambling to adapt their budget habits.
Statistics Canada’s most recent report found prices for food bought in stores rose 3.1% in July compared with a year earlier, even as overall inflation sat at 3%, making it the 18th straight month that grocery prices climbed faster than the broader Consumer Price Index.
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The frustration lines up with what Canadians are expressing online. “Grocery prices are still outstripping general inflation. What are you cutting back on?” a recent post on Reddit’s Canadian personal finance forum asked, drawing replies about switching stores, cutting meat from the weekly list and one shopper who said he’d started doing the math on tomatoes and feta by the gram just to keep a homemade salad affordable.
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For many households, adjusting has become a deliberate habit: Comparing prices before every trip, switching to store brands and being pickier about what goes in the cart. A recent survey found 96% of respondents believed their grocery bills had increased over the past year, and 7 in 10 said they’d changed their shopping habits in response.
Canadians aren’t abandoning their regular grocery store, though — they’re spreading their spending across more of them.
Store-hopping, not store-switching
Among Canadians surveyed by Quebec-based rewards platform Milesopedia, 71.1% said they were comparing prices between retailers more often, 39.1% were buying more private-label products, 34% were using coupons or discount apps, and 24.4% had cut back on meat or fresh food. Yet only 9.6% said they’d switched their preferred retailer, suggesting households are keeping one main store while pulling specific purchases toward whichever retailer has the best price that week.
RedFlagDeals, the Canadian deal-hunting site, tracks the same shift under a blunter name: cross-shopping. Instead of one weekly trip to a single “home store,” shoppers are splitting their list across discount banners, dollar stores and ethnic supermarkets to grab loss-leader flyer items, then moving on rather than filling the cart with that store’s pricier products.
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Why fresh food is driving the squeeze
The categories pushing grocery inflation are concentrated at the edges of the store. Statistics Canada’s July data showed fresh fruit prices up 6.1% year over year, driven largely by berries and melons, while fresh vegetable prices rose 3.9%.
Those are also the categories hardest to substitute with a cheaper private-label version, which helps explain why nearly a quarter of shoppers say they’re cutting back on fresh food purchases altogether rather than simply switching brands.
Is your loyalty program actually saving you money?
Loyalty programs remain deeply embedded in Canadian grocery shopping: 85% of Milesopedia’s respondents said they used a rewards program every trip, and 93.9% said they knew how those programs work. But when asked whether points and perks were offsetting rising prices, only 7.1% said the impact was significant, while nearly half, 49.5%, said rewards offset very little or nothing at all.
Retailers have leaned harder on app-exclusive bonus point events through programs like PC Optimum, Scene+ and Triangle Rewards, dangling a few dollars back to pull cross-shoppers into their store. Points can be worth collecting, but they’re not a substitute for comparing prices directly.
Private label is picking up the slack
Speaking on shifting industry trends in an interview with Retail Insider, grocery veteran Michael Commisso, who has held senior roles at Loblaw, Sobeys, and Longo’s, put it simply: “Private label is huge.”
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Store brands have moved well past their reputation as a bare-bones substitute for national brands. Roughly twice as many Canadians buy store-brand products as five years ago, and about 40% of shoppers who tried private label say they don’t plan to go back, according to EY Canada. House brands such as President’s Choice, No Name, Selection and Compliments typically run 20% to 30% cheaper than name-brand equivalents.
How to make store-hopping actually pay off
For Canadians looking to stretch their dollars further, taking a deliberate approach at the checkout is essential.
Use a price-comparison app like Flipp to see which store has the deepest discount on weekly staples such as ground beef, coffee or cheese. Then look for a price-matching banner, such as FreshCo, No Frills or Giant Tiger, to claim a competitor’s flyer price without visiting every store. Finally, layer on personalized app coupons or points multipliers before you pay.
Treat loyalty points as a bonus, not a budgeting strategy. If you’re relying on rewards to offset rising prices, the survey data suggests you’re likely overestimating how much they help.
Grocery inflation may eventually cool the way headline CPI has, but for now, comparing prices, trying a store brand or skipping the impulse buy does more for a Canadian household’s bottom line than any single loyalty card. Cutting back doesn’t have to mean eating worse. For a lot of Canadians, it just means shopping smarter, one price comparison at a time.
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Amy Tokic is an SEO content editor for Money.ca. She holds a B.A. in Communications from the University of Windsor. Amy is an award-winning author and has been writing professionally for 15 years, publishing articles in the lifestyle and health sectors.
