I’ve just returned from the grocery store. Loblaws, to be specific. One of Canada’s big chain grocery stores.
I wanted to buy a red cabbage. A normal, humble, regular ole’ red cabbage. I was charged nearly $10 for it!
I put it back. $10 for a red cabbage is utterly gross. Totally unacceptable and outrageous.
I don’t normally – or ever, really – take to the internet to rage. There’s enough vitriol out there. But this is exceptional. Exceptionally sad.
I’m someone who is fortunate enough to be able to generally buy the groceries I want, when I want them. It’s not lobster and caviar every night, but I eat well. Always. Not everyone does. And there are others who continue to put good food on the table, but at the sacrifice of other necessities, it’s a shell game of survival. Looking at the headlines, and around my own neighbourhood, I don’t think that’s hyperbole.
I just can’t believe some Big Tycoon in some Corner Office feels this kind of pricing is ok. Justified. It’s a cabbage.
Ontario, according to canadianfoodfocus.org, along with Quebec, grow more than half of Canada’s considerable cabbage crop. The hefty price tag of $10 for a head-sized cabbage is actually sickening. You don’t have to look very hard to see the line ups at food banks and the scary amount of scarcity that’s rippling through the population – not just “those” people, all of us. Just as a rising tide lifts all boats, the first domino to fall always brings down the rest.
But I like cabbage. It’s delicious, nutritious, and a little goes a long way – one head can satisfyingly feed a family (with a few other items on the menu, of course.) So, I walked across the street to the discount grocery store, Fresh Co where the same, regular ole’ red cabbage was $2.99. That included taxes (taxes aren’t charged in Ontario for basic necessities.)
My $10 isn’t going to make or break the Big Tycoon in the Corner Office. Big Tycoon won’t even notice. But I’m literally putting my money where my mouth is. And as the saying goes: pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered.
