Less desire for summer vacations with massive rise in inflation

While everyone has been dreaming about warmer weather and taking a summer vacation, it may not be in the cards for several families.

The rise of gas prices and weekly grocery bills are staggering for some who already are having to make difficult decisions to leave items on the shelf in order to just get by.

For some, it unfortunately slides a fun family vacation way down the ladder.

Darryl Duchak was out doing some shopping this past weekend and says there will be fewer trips to the lake this summer with gas prices being the way they are.

“It’s going to put a big effect on my summer driving, that’s for sure,” Duchak said.

“(It’ll be tough) going to the lake and everything because it is fairly expensive right now. (Gas) is $1.78 and I hear it’s not supposed to top off until two dollars and 15 cents so it’s going to put a damper on a lot of people. And the groceries are really really high right now.”

The lack of truck drivers making deliveries is part of the reason why groceries and other items have shot up in price, according to Duchak.

“You can’t find stuff on the shelves anymore,” he said. “(That) could have been due to the convoy (to protest vaccination mandates), but a lot of that stuff is just way too expensive.”

Anna Doerksen is also planning on taking things slower than usual ahead of this summer.

Doerksen says there’s been a big change when it comes to spending nowadays.

“We used to always go out to shop but now we look at home to see where the deals are,” Doerksen said while shopping with her husband.

“We are only two people so for us it isn’t that bad; we don’t have to drive. But for some of our kids, it’s not good.”

The rising prices are going to force the Doerksens to stay indoors a little more than they like.

“We’ll probably stick around home a little more,” Anna said. “We don’t travel far anyway but it’s definitely going to make a difference. We definitely notice the flowers (have) gone way up and those kinds of things. I’m sure there are some (people) that have really struggled.”

‘Shelflation’ now an issue

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor in food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University, says Canadians now have to be concerned about “shelflation” — a combination of shelf life and inflation.

“It’s defined as a supply chain not being efficient compromising the shelf life of products at retail,” Charlebois said on the Roy Green Show.

“If you’re a consumer walking in the grocery store, you buy avocados, bananas, apples or whatever. You come home and after a few days, you find out that your products are rotten or too ripened (and) you have to throw them away, which contributes to the cost of food for your household — which is inflation.”

Research has shown that 63 per cent of Canadians threw out food before its expiry date or because the food they bought wasn’t good to eat. Over the past six months, $550 million worth of food was thrown away in Canada.

“We often talk about food waste representing an extra cost to households,” Charlebois said. “Some of it is avoidable, (but) some of it is unavoidable.

“The issue of ‘shelflation’ is really kind of in between. When you go to the grocery store, you can actually protect yourselves from ‘shelflation’ by buying just enough for a few days, not too much. If you go to the grocery store more often, you’ll actually end up throwing away less.”