How to survive inflation (Marketplace)

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♪ [Travis] Counting up the cost of living. Peanut butter! Have you bought peanut butter lately? [Travis] Paying more but getting less? I'm very annoyed. I just might stop buying that. [Travis] And giving extra everywhere you go. Am I supposed to tip for a loaf of bread? [Travis] So, why isn't there more help? You think that there should be more transparency around how prices are set? The inflation survival guide, only on your Marketplace. [upbeat pop rock music] ♪ We're taking a walk through the world of rising prices... ♪ ...at a Cranberry Festival in Bala, ON. ♪ Terry. Okay. -So, you got hot sauce here. -I do. [Travis] Most of the vendors here are like Terry, of Terry's Hot Sauce: trying to make a living off a labour of love. Okay, so, in this cranberry concoction you got here-- -Yes. -what's gone up in price? Uh, the cranberries, the maple syrup, the peppers. Some of the spices that-- that I put in the-- the garlic, the-- the lemon, the onions, everything. Everything, everything has gone up in price, so it's forced me to increase my price. So, prices are hot. -Yeah. -And so is the sauce? -Yeah. -Oh, it's coming in now. [laughing] A few stalls over, Heather's handful of granola tells me a timely story. Well, all of our costs have gone up for cashews, almonds, oats, pumpkin seeds and, uh, maple syrup is our only sweetener. And that's gone up significantly also. [Travis] With inflation at a 40-year high, Martina isn't even breaking even anymore. So, the ginger snaps, tell me about them. Like, the bag, I sell for $6, but into-- to-- technically, they cost me $5 to make. So, that's not covering an awful lot. -[Travis] Yeah. -That doesn't cover my gas, which we all know is gone up through the roof. -I've grabbed these now. -Peanut butter. Have you bought peanut butter lately? [both laughing] Like, there isn't anything here that is, like, in any way, shape or form, still affordable. -So, basically anything I grab-- -Yeah. -- you can tell me how it's gone up in price. Wow. Yeah, I mean, peanut butter was like the staple of every family that just had minimum wage income. You can't afford that anymore. Peanut butter's now for the elite. -It's crazy. -It's crazy! -It's absolutely crazy. And it's scary if this keeps going up. ♪ Seems like everywhere you turn, inflation is taking a bite. ♪ Experts say we can blame the war in Ukraine, the shock of COVID. Shipping delays, labour shortages, and we've all been demanding more stuff than can be supplied. ♪ The Bank of Canada's attempt to slow down our spending is adding to the pain. Higher interest rates for mortgages, and lines of credit. [Armine] It is a perfect storm of factors. [Travis] Armine Yalnizyan is an economist and writer. She says, don't look now, the worst is yet to come. Okay, Travis, I have to say, I stay up at night. I literally do not sleep at night wondering how many people are going to go hungry this week? How many people are going to lose their housing this week? How many people are going to get sicker quicker and turn to a health system that is itself on life support when we could be doing so much. We are the 9th-largest economy -in the world. -[Travis] Yeah. We could be doing whatever we want, and we could be what-- whatever kind of a society we want. It drives me crazy we're not doing more for one another right now. ♪ [Travis] Nowhere is the cost of living being felt more than at the supermarket. ♪ Overall prices here are up more than 10%. And it's not just that prices are going up, products are shrinking down. It isn't always easy to notice so-called shrink-flation. So, we decide to test it out, with a game of "spot the difference." -I love Marketplace. -You love Marketplace. Well, we are glad that you love Marketplace. Come on down! You're the next contestant on "Spot the Difference." -You ready for this? -I am. [Travis] First up, Barilla spaghetti. The old and new packages look the same. It's what's inside that isn't. This has about 50-- sorry, 44 more grams in it. -410 grams vs 450. -You are quick, my friend. And what about the price? Well, price is probably the same, so I keep buying it, but you give me less for the same amount? Actually, this is more. -No! Oh! -Yes. -Up? -Up. -Wow. -Oh! What do you think about that? It's unfair, I think. [Travis] We asked Barilla why they decreased their product, then increased the price. They tell us it was because of rising costs while still trying to put four or five servings in one box. The next difference is a bit harder to spot. -Pumpkin pie filling. -Hmm. You ever use this stuff? E.D. Smith pie filling, with a whole new twist on shrink-inflation that we're calling aqua-flation. Okay, so look closer at the-- at the ingredients. This is the old one here. Look at the first couple of ingredients here. Pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil. Pumpkin, sugar, water-- Oh! Yeah, they changed oil to water. Pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil. Pumpkin, sugar, water! No vegetable oil! It's way farther down the list. Exactly. Vegetable oil has moved down from third position to 6th, which means there's less of it. Vegetable oil is going way up. It's gone up, like, 30%! You are-- you know about this, yes? I've been watching it go, go, go! Yeah. So, it's something called aqua-flation. Okay, you just use water to fill. -Water to fill. -[sighs] So, I'm glad you said that, because I bought that stuff, and I tried to make a pumpkin cheesecake, and it didn't turn out the way I was expecting. -So, I had no idea. -What did it turn out like? -Watery? -Yeah. -It did. -It did, actually. -So, now you know. -Okay. -Okay. So-- -That's interesting. Yeah. Okay. That explains a lot, 'cause I've made that recipe a million times. That's wild. Did it ever cross your mind that there was more water in the pumpkin filling? No. I mean, I didn't look at the label, but I have nothing to compare it to 'cause I don't have -any of the old labels. -[Travis] So, how can you tell? We asked E.D. Smith why they don't let their customers know about the new formula. They tell us the change happened under previous ownership, but they'll look into it. They add they're focused on the highest quality possible. ♪ We take a look around and find that in Brazil, shoppers don't have to rely on guesswork to figure out if their products are shrinking. It's all right there on the package. Any company that changes the quantity of a product has to show the before, the after and the difference. This is some bread here that they've got, -some baguette. -Hmm. [Travis] Um, it's gone from 45 grams to 41 grams. -[woman] Hmm. -It shrunk by 8.89%. This label has to go on a product by law in Brazil -if a product shrinks. -Yeah. -What do you think about that? -I love that because I feel like as a consumer, we should be informed and maybe reach for cheaper products or products where you're getting more bang for your buck, and I can't do that if I'm not aware of the changes. Do you think you need to be more informed as a customer about these changes? Yes, and also I'm very annoyed. I just might stop buying that particular product. [Traivs] We get our graphics guy to mock up a Brazilian-style solution for the Barilla spaghetti. Okay. So, here, so hold on to that. -This is the new one. -All right. I want you to stick that on there. Do you think we should be doing that in Canada? Yes. This looks a lot better. -That looks a lot better. -Way better. I'd buy this over this 100 times over. [Travis] In Brazil, the message has to stay put for six months. Over the course of our test, it becomes clear just how many Canadians are struggling with the cost of food, and resenting record profits rung up by the big grocery chains, even as some of them freeze their prices. I-- I was skeptical about that from the very beginning. It's not on everything. It's on certain products. And it's only for a very limited time. -You don't buy it. -I don't buy it. [Travis] The Competition Bureau is now promising to investigate so-called greed-flation. Greed-flation. Is that happening? There's always greed-flation. [Travis] Economist Armine Yalnizyan says good luck trying to figure out how much greed-flation is driving prices. Unless somebody tells you how they're setting prices on each one of these goods, which are thousands in numbers -in grocery conglomerates-- -Yeah. -- you're never gonna be able to sort out where the role of greed-flation comes in, where the role of shrink-flation comes in, where the role of price discrimination comes in. [Travis] She thinks a better idea is to tax any corporation that has a windfall: a large unanticipated profit through no extra effort. Any company that had revenues of over a billion dollars, and made 20% more this year than they did in the average of the last four years, give us a little bit of it. We could use it. And that money could absolutely go back to helping people not have such a terrible choice between heating and... eating. -Yeah. -And between food and shelter. We could be doing this. [Travis] A windfall tax on oil and gas companies, for instance. Something Europe is doing right now. So, what's your message to the government? What's your message to the prime minister? Step up. You had our backs during the pandemic. Have our backs now, please. [Travis] We asked Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, for an interview, but she is unavailable. Meantime, tips for surviving inflation often go like this: Cut back on needless expenses, reduce your home energy bill, and shop for groceries differently. And on that last point, experts say use the unit price of a product to save money. For instance, this small bag of baby carrots is about $0.66 per 100 grams. This larger bag is about $0.55 per 100 grams. The same size of full-size carrots is about $0.38 per 100 grams, the best buy, by unit price. Stores spell it out on their shelf labels. From inflation tips to tip-flation. And I'm just taking something out. I don't feel like I have to tip. I just couldn't see a "no tip." [Travis] With money so tight these days, why are so many more companies asking us for it? Get more Marketplace. Sign up for our weekly newsletter at cbc.ca/marketplace. [Travis] This is your Marketplace. [upbeat pop music] [Travis] We are floating on a sea of "flations." Inflation, where prices rise. Greed-flation, they rise faster than costs. Shrink-flation, where products decrease. Even aqua-flation: key ingredients get replaced with water. And now we're on our way to meet a woman who's fed up with tip-flation. ♪ Kate O'Hara lives on an old age pension in Kitsilano, BC. [Kate] People are too nice. They'll just pay the damn tip and-- and go home and say, "Oh, I really hate that, tipping." [Travis] She says she can't keep up with endless demands these days for tips everywhere she goes. It's like extortion, because if you want to hit "no tip," you feel kind of mean. -[Travis] Yeah. -Because they want the tip, you know they want the tip. They need money, I know that. But I can't afford to pay 20% of everything I buy, like in a bakery when there's a tip jar right there in front of your face. I think, am I supposed to tip for a loaf of bread? [Travis] You know what Kate's talking about. That pandemic push to give a little extra to anyone who serves you has only picked up steam. With so many now using those touchscreen terminals, we're being asked to tip at some pretty unlikely places. I'm sorry to say this, but tipping culture has gotten out of control. [Travis] This woman posted on social media after hitting the drive-through at a fast food restaurant. I get up to the pay window and she's like, "How much you want to tip?" And I'm just like, "What?" And she's like, "Yeah, did you want to leave a tip?" And she's, like, pointing to them. And I was like, "Oh, no, not today." And then I just felt really uncomfortable. But, like, home girl, what am I going to tip you for? I'm in the [bleep] drive-through. Oh, my God. [Travis] It's even happening with online purchases. For Kate O'Hara, the tip of the tipping iceberg was at her local burger joint, where there was no option to say no. If I'm in a, like, fast food place and I'm just taking something out, I don't feel like I have to tip. And I-- I just couldn't see a "no tip." [Travis] We invite Kate to show us what she means at this Fatburger in Vancouver. What should we get, eh? What are you thinking? We place an order for some onion rings and fries and a couple of small Cokes. What do you got there? -Ten-- -[Kate] So, ten, 15, 20, other. [Travis] She's right, there's no obvious way to opt out of tipping. So, you gonna hit the-- I think you have to hit four, don't you? That's-- -Tip options. -[Kate] See, tip options. [Travis] So, it still gives you a tip option. We figure out the workaround is to leave a dollar amount worth nothing. -There we go. -[machine beeps] So, there-- That was a lot of steps to go through, wasn't it? [Kate] Yeah, and I had to fake it. [Travis] If the guilt gets to you, they offer two big tip jars as well. [Kate] Oh, this is for bills. [Travis] It's for bills. That's for-- [Kate] And this is for change. [Travis] Ah. So, the-- are you gonna put some bills in there? [Travis] We head outside for some fast food and a quick debrief. -We didn't have to tip. -Didn't have to tip. Except, I had to basically be subversive to get beyond it. [Travis] When you put in the zeros, like, did that feel awkward? Yeah, I want to-- I want to explain to them, you know, I almost want to say, "Well, I know you want a tip, but I can't afford it," or something. [Travis] We ask Fatburger why they don't have a "no tip" option. They say they offer the same payment process as others, and tipping has always been optional. [upbeat music] From too much tipping to none at all. We're at a smokehouse in Toronto's West End that's gone tip-free. Signs on the tables proudly inform customers of the fact. Instead of tips, employees get a so-called living wage, along with benefits and paid time off. -Hey, Adam. -Hey, Dave, what's up? We good for tonight? [Travis] Co-owner Dave Neinstein believes tips should not be a key factor in compensation. Tell me why this is so important to you. Well, flatly I think that tipping is wrong on two levels. One, it's psychological abuse. It-- it puts the power for someone's livelihood into the hands of a stranger or customer. And on the other hand, tipping is-- is a grey economy and the-- the elephant in the room is cash. And so, a lot of people like having cash because they can decide whether or not to submit it, uh, on their tax returns at the end of the year. And that encourages a form of tax evasion and that-- everyone loses out when that happens. This creates an even playing field. [Travis] Dave's had to raise prices by 30%, but he says both his customers and workers are on side. We invite Simon Peck along to give his two cents. I think, um, we're at a tipping point, so to speak, -uh, if we go-- -We're at a tipping point. I like that. [laughs] Simon is a business professor at the University of Victoria who has studied tipping trends. One route we could take is because-- because the dynamics of tipping and how tipping is spreading, -[Travis] Right. -Uh, it's definitely likely that if nothing is done about it, uh, tipping can-- can just continue to spread into more and more contexts, more and more industries and affect more and more workers. But on the flip side, I think there is the opportunity to have a serious policy discussion about tipping and potentially consider if other forms of compensation are better for Canadians. There's a 30%, 25%, 20% option here. There's also a "no tip" option. -[Peck] Hmm. -[Travis] Peck would like businesses to eliminate suggested tipping ranges like this and to see laws that allow customers to opt in instead of having to opt out of tipping. So, here's the big question. What is your advice for folks to negotiate this new world of tipping that we're in right now? We should remember that it's completely optional for us to tip whatever we think is appropriate. And if we don't have the funds to provide a 20% tip, then that's okay. Um, but I also think consumers, uh, should-- should speak up more about this and say that you'd feel more comfortable if-- if-- if you just knew that the workers who are serving them are paid a decent, sustainable living wage. [Travis] Back in Vancouver, Kate O'Hara is speaking up. The amount of money that I have is not infinite and I have to be more careful how I spend it and what I spend it on. [Travis] And is doing her best to make sure all those "flations" don't flatten her. -I think we deserve some fries. -Heck yeah. -Let's go. -Let's go. [Travis] Up next, we head into the Marketplace Kitchen to cook up some questions for Ontario's premier. How much more do you think it costs to make this cheesecake than in 2020 when you made it? Do you have a story you think Marketplace should investigate next? Tell us all about it on e-mail, Twitter and Facebook. [Travis] This is your Marketplace. [funky music] [Travis] Some think it was Marie Antoinette who said, "Let them eat cake," but it was Ontario Premier Doug Ford who gave the recipe back in 2020... Hi, everyone. Today we're going to make the famous premier's cheesecake. [Travis] ...for this cherry cheesecake I'm attempting, all to make a point about inflation in a talk we're about to have with the premier. Everyone is concerned about the same thing, and that's how expensive life is getting for them. [Travis] Ford is announcing an extension of the tax break he's been giving Ontario drivers. But we're here to ask about other steps he could be taking. -Welcome to Marketplace. -Yeah, good to see you. Thank you so much for doing this. I've got a little test for you to start off. Okay? I did some grocery shopping. [Travis] It doesn't take long for the premier to recognize the ingredients. -What do you think I'm making? -You're making a cheesecake. -[Travis laughing] -Premier's cheesecake. I'm making the premier's cheesecake. Costs for everything involved have gone up, including gas to get the ingredients. In Europe, they're taxing excess profits. Now, what about the oil and gas companies? What about taxing them? I don't believe in taxing companies. It just takes money out of their pockets and-- and when you don't tax them, it makes the-- the climate and the environment here, uh, very good for companies to invest. You know, I bought all these groceries at one of the big chains and grocery chains are making record profits right now. But it's hard to prove why. Do you think that there should be more transparency around how prices are set? Well, I think the-- the best transparency is competition. Uh, if you go to ABC grocery store, and they're little more expensive, go to DEF grocery store, and that's what drives, uh, the prices down. [Travis] His free market philosophy seems to run counter to his out-for-the-little-guy brand. The cashier who checked me out, they're not making a lot of money. Do you think that there should be a living wage set for-- for cashiers? Well, we increased, uh, the minimum wage. We gave a tax break to 1.1 million, uh, low income workers. But again, that's what democracy's all about. If you don't like where you're working, go somewhere else and-- and work. It's-- you know, some provinces have cut checks, inflation checks. Why isn't Ontario taking that approach? If a province wants to do that, that's fine. Uh, we're reducing the burden off the backs of people in a different fashion. [Travis] As food banks in his province report more users than ever, the premier offers a bullish prediction. We're gonna see inflation slowly climb down, uh, back in April, May-ish, somewhere around there, and hopefully we get back to, uh, regular inflation numbers. [Travis] We unveil our cheesecake and ask the premier for a price check. How much more do you think it costs to make this cheesecake than in 2020 when you made it? 2020? Probably close to 25%. [Travis] He's not far off. It's about 15 bucks or 27% more. The cherry on top of a perfect inflationary storm. [Rosa] We're hitting the road, testing helmets. It could be a matter of life and death. [Rosa] Is that safety certification legit? I'm not quite sure I would necessarily buy a helmet with grammatical mistakes right on the front. [Rosa] Or are you being taken for a ride? This could mean the difference of walking away or not. [Rosa] You can't afford to miss your Marketplace. ♪

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Channel: CBC News

Views: 509,925

Rating: undefined out of 5

Keywords: inflation, Canada, Marketplace, tipflation, tips, shrinkflation, food, grocery store, groceries, CBC, CBC News, Toronto, farmers market, market, budget, expenses, economy, consumer price index, Doug Ford

Id: FUc_IQYgi-4

Channel Id: undefined

Length: 22min 4sec (1324 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 19 2022