Swede here - there is also 12% value added tax on all food purchases in Sweden, so equivalent to BC. Difference is that all prices are lists including the VAT in Sweden. So actually even cheaper in Sweden
The general VAT in sweden is 25% but on groceries its reduced to 12%. Always included in the price. I really dont understand why prices are listed without VAT in Canada and the USA.
@@TheJuzy In B2B I believe you separate it out , because you are expected to sell it on or use it it manufacturing, which means you can get the VAT you paid back, to prevent double taxation. In the end its always the final customer who pays the whole VAT ( thatswhy its not a sales tax but a Value added Tax)
With the system in Sweden were VAT is unspecified and included in the pricetag is basically forcing business to cover for the government so the extremely gullible 🇸🇪s don't realize how much they're charged in hidden taxes It would be better if the tax was added at checkout just as in US/ CA That would make it more obvious to people how much tax they're actually paying and how little they're getting for it.. Manny 🇸🇪s I talked to don't even know their paying VAT on everything and that around 75% of the price of gas is tax there..
About rice: in Sweden it’s common to buy rice in bulky 2-5kg packages, which cost a LOT LESS a kg than Uncle Ben’s which in Sweden is kind of a high end brand
I think Uncle Ben's is a high end brand in most European countries. As an Asian French, I buy my rice in 22 to 25 kg bags. Except for sushi rice or paëlla rice that just too hard to replace with SE Asia common rice. Too much work to get the right results. By the way new harvest rice is about 1.70 to 2€ per kilogram, from month to month. Very far from the Uncle Ben's and other brands prices.
and another thing thatis different between the Two unclebens Jazmin rice is swedish one is boil inbag is alot mor expensive then a regular one as the canadian rice bag is. sd 25% on the boil in bag price on the canadian one then iit is comparable :D
That part about coffee... as a born and raised swede, i can 100% confirm that we would burn this country to the ground in less then 48 hours if it was anymore expensive than it is now. We literally cant live without it.
24 hours at tops. we would last 12 hours with some support from Finnland shipping over emergency drop cases over the sea by helicopter. But when that runs out, its The Purge 24/7 for coffee.
Bread has gotten so expensive in the US (I live in Arkansas, one of the cheapest US states) that I bought a bread machine. I didn’t want to make homemade bread by hand. And it’s too hot to use my oven in spring/ summer/ early fall. It was $100. It paid for itself in about 2 months. And the bread tastes so much better than what I bought from the store.
I have a sourdough starter going . With it being in the 90s I don’t know how the baking will go .. but I know sourdough is healthier and I love to make bread
CEREAL TOO. 20 years ago when I was a kid a box of cereal was, I don't know, maybe $3? Now it's at least $6 for a regular sized box not even family size!!
Fellow Canadian from the Southern Interior of BC. We're boycotting most grocery stores and opting to grow our own amongst a few different family friends places. We are trying to source our meat and eggs as best as possible and support local farmers in the area with things we do not have access to. Growing our own herbs and freezing/canning/vacuum sealing what we can. Everyone I know is struggling with food right now and most have more than one source of income to afford bills and food. Although it's more time consuming, the quality of food is vastly different. I could go on about this for hours!
American here, Oregonian to be exact. I wanted to say the same thing. We grow our own fruits and veggies. We have duel purpose birds (eggs/meat). Our neighbors raise beef , dairy, and pork. We fish for salmon, tuna, catfish, trout, ect. We go claming and crabbing. All is saved for year round use. We only have .67 of an acre so every single square inch is used for food production. I understand that there are people who cannot do this on a large scale but every patio and window sill could be utilized to produce something. Grow lights can be used on a simple metal shelf in a corner somewhere. Rent a space in a community garden. You could even share that expense with family or friends. People need to do something rather than just complain.
a piece of advice for olive oil and saving money - as someone living in Istria Croatia my whole life, where the best olive oil from world comes from - please stop buying olive oil from markets/supermarkets. It is actually NOT olive oil, it is made from a mix of oils and most of them are made from already fallen olive (the kind you don’t want to put in your body, can be toxic!) - real olive oil is NOT affordable, it is expensive. There are many other options that are better and cheaper - go for cold pressed omega oils like linseed oil or cook with a little butter. Here in Europe a bunch of real olive oil makers are trying for years to change the regulative regarding labelling olive oils, but it’s really difficult because, like big Pharma, they also have a big lobby. Save your health and money, it’s not worth it.
It's because the Italian Mafia controls 1/3 of the olive fields in Italy, they import other cheap oils to cut it with, then cut it prior to bottling and sell it at a lower rate. My understanding it that it isn't labeling regulations that are the problem, but the fact that the Mafia isn't following the law to begin with.
I always get things like Olive oil and pastas at an Italian grocery. Like the kind that all the Italians shop at. Always the best quality and much less than supermarket pricing.
I live in Australia and we are feeling it too. Basically 2 grocery stores making record profits while also complaining about increasing shoplifting while normal people are struggling to get by.
Aldi is so much cheaper for th3 basics. I spent $80 there the other week and came out with 2 bags. Went to woolies and came out with 1 bag for over $100.
Keltie thanks for making this. As a fellow Canadian, GIRL I'M BROKE. ATP I want to eat air. I learned how to garden and can my own produce 3 years ago and it was one of the most invaluable skills I've ever learned in my life. The money you save and the pleasure you get from it is unmatched. Grocery stores here are making record profits because we have no choice to eat.
Hey Jazzy_babbby I just did a reply about this, but just want to say to you that grocery stores, while making record profit, are only doing so because of record immigration that is being let into Canada. Proof of that is the major housing crisis we are experiencing now. Record profits as millions of more people are shopping for food. Grocery pricing increasing is not because of greed, but because of the Carbon Tax (expect it to go up again around July 1st as carbon tax goes up again btw). Carbon tax makes food more expensive because farmers have to spend more on the gas to power their machinery. Truckers have to spend more money to deliver the food as well as they have to pay for the gas also. All this creates more expensive food as the grocery stores THEMSELVES are paying more for the same food as well. I invite you to look into it on your own as well. I totally get why you think its just Grocery store greed as that is all the media and liberal/NDP government talk about, but that isn't really the full story.
I think VAT is different everywhere, here it is 7% for fruits and vegetables, everything else is 22%. I’m not sure the income of other places, but here I’ve been told it’s €1200 a month. So maybe that is why our prices are lower.
@@christinawentzel9624 Mh, in Germany there's a medium income of about 3500€ a month and when I watched the video, nearly every item was a good amount less expensive than even the swedish counterpart. For example whole wheat toast is 1,49€ (about 2,20 CAD) in Germany. Nevertheless it's just the medium imcome and a lot of people are struggeling with food shopping here in Germany, especially with the inflation due to the russian-ukraine-war, climate change etc. etc.
Not sure what it is here in Norway, but fruits and veggies are crazy expensive like all foods! 🙈 I spend average 700 USD on food here just for me a month. Like strawberryies now is over 8 USD for 0,5 kg 1 cucumber around 2 USD Paprika is around 10 USD per kg (sometimes 6-7$) Bread too, around 4,5 USD for a regular bread, I've seen bread for 7USD too recently.. Average salary here is around 3 500 USD after tax, but many have less than 2 500 USD The elderly get often around 1500 USD a month and can hardly live at all now 😔 Specially since rent and the % of loands have gone up a LOT (at less than 1% in 2021 to over 5% on house loans now, my bff have 6,5% on her house loan and she pays over 2/3 of her income on only the apartment each month and had to get an extra job).
I live in Czech republic and the sudden rise of price for eggs was caused by bird flu. They had to get rid of big flocks of animals. At some point chicken breasts were almost gone from stores.
@@Br1cht Birdflu and salmonella, if just a few birds are sick the whole stable of 30k or so birds will be put down. Both diseases are zoononosis and can infect people.
I moved from the US to Albania. I can buy an entire bag of produce (like, 3 bell peppers, 3 onions, a cucumber, head of cauliflower, bag of spring mix, a tomato for around $5.50.) Eggs are about $4.50 for 18. 1 kilo of chicken for around $3.50. I kilo of ground beef for about $10. A Monster energy drink is $1.50. North America is out of control. Yes, there are drawbacks to living here, but I can live on 1K USD/month. My rent is $275/month for a 2-bed/3- balcony with a partial view of the sea. You can go to the bakery and get a great big fresh loaf for about $1.50--or you can buy a ciabatta loaf (enough for about 2 sandwiches) for 25 cents. (PS: High speed internet is only $15/month.)
@@paulashealthyliving It aint bad. USA gets a major red carpet. Canada still has only 3 months, but I can help you with an immigration lawyer in Vlora.
How is Albania with healtcare, schools aso, who is paying for that, state of you? And how hig are your salaries, cost for rent/housing and transportations?
Just a point of clarification from a fellow Canadian regarding PST - the provincial sales tax is not charged on food, you will only find that it is assessed on the non-food items on your grocery bill (ie. dish soap, toilet paper, etc). Same thing with the GST, it is not assessed on food, only the non food items. That isn't to say our grocery prices aren't high! But it also depends on what you're buying. I don't find that my grocery bill has increased that much, but i don't buy anything prepared/processed, i don't buy cereals or pop/energy drinks, i generally tend to buy fresh ingredients you have to make meals out of. That automatically is going to keep your grocery bill lower.
But PST/GST is charged on junk food and anything ready to eat from the deli/restaurant section. It's a weird distinction but for whatever reason there's no tax on things like ritz crackers or pudding cups but there is on potato chips or chocolate bars or if you get a pre-made sandwich from the to-go case. Go figure 🤔
Salted peanuts are taxed whereas unsalted peanuts are not. Snack vs grocery food item. Pastries of six or more sold in bakery department are not taxed. Less than six are taxed. Toilet paper is taxed but now menstrual items are not. Luxury goods vs essential 🤣
Sales tax is differentiated in Sweden now, but it used to be 20 % flat. Having one flat rate is better, as it avoids the extra bureaucracy with deciding what is food and what is not, and other administrative costs. And actually, it doesn't matter for consumers. The change was motivated by claiming that this is good for low income families, but it is actually hogwash. People have to buy both food and other things, and the percentage put on food is the same independent of income level. Basically, well-off people buy more expensive food, but use the same cut of their income on food. In the end, all would pay the same amount of VAT with differentiated levels as with a flat rate.
I added the same items up in my state in the U.S. (Maine) Berries: $4.67 An Apple:$1.29 Cucumber: $0.83 Olive oil: $8.99 Bread loaf: $3.79 Rice: $4.99 Coffee: $8.59 Chicken breast: $11.98 Head of lettuce: $1.99 1 Qt (946ML) 1% milk: $0.99 Can of white monster: $2.39 1 egg: $0.18 (a dozen: $2.19) Peanut butter $2.99 Oats: $3.99 Carrots: $1.29 Pasta: $1.89 Yogurt: 3.69 Butter: $4.29 Frozen fruit: $8.79 Total cost (USD before tax- $79.62) Each state has its own tax. Maine is 5.5%. After tax: $83.99USD $83.99 is about $114 CAD So if I take out the frozen fruit, and pasta which she didn’t get in Canada. Then it puts me at $72.47 USD / 98.94CAD
I worked it out for the UK, trying to get the same sizes and quality. apple: £0.42 cucumber: £0.89 olive oil 500ml: £5.75 bread: £1.60 rice: £2.80 coffee: £5.99 chicken breast: £4 lettuce: £0.79 1 litre milk: £1.20 can of monster: £1.70 12 medium eggs: £2.60 peanut butter: £1.80 oats: £1.25 carrots: £0.82 pasta: £0.69 yoghurt: £1.10 butter: £1.69 frozen fruit: £4.50 tax, if that food has tax on it, is included in the price total: £39.59 (US $50.72, CAD $69.17) A lot of these can be bought for cheaper, though - I just tried to match the quality from the video. Doing the budget version, I came up with: £24.74 (US $31.70, CAD $43.23)
Wow! So in Maine it's almost same as in Norway a few years ago, and the UK prices was the same as in Norway 15 years ago 😱 I love going to the UK, the food is so cheap 😍 Some examples here: Cucumbers: 1,8 $ Bread: 4,5$ (depends ofc, but average cost) Milk (1L): 1,6 $ Monster (0,5L): 2,6 to 3,6 $ (in foodstores) 1 Egg: 4 $ Carrots: ~ 2,3 for 0,5 kg Not sure about all of the costs so can't tell all the prices, but in general everything is suddenly so expensive here! I use over 500 $ a month for just me, and thats when I'm super strict! When I use mor normal, and maybe 2 restaurants a month I pay 700 to 1000 $ for 1 month in food 😱
@@hege4318 I studied in Norway and had a much lower bill. My tricks were adapting to local cuisine (so less bell peppers and more root vegetables 😉) and buying frozen veg instead of fresh. No sugary drinks unless for parties. Having yoghurt and oats with fruit for breakfast, salmon or chicken with veg for lunch and bread with cream cheese/ cheese for dinner worked well for me to save money 😊 Eating out is obviously super expensive, so we’d have dinner parties and cook together.
@@bellathemusicaddict you were good. But when did you study here? Because prices have gone up extremely last two years. In 2017 I paid 2000 nok a month for food, not the same diet is at least 7000 nok. Like the pesto I used was 7 nok 2 years ago, now it's over 20, kiwi was 4 nok 2 years ago and last I checked it was 13 nok for 1 kiwi 🙈
My husband and I are spending $150 to $175 a week in Nashville, TN...same problem with monopolies in the US. The only way we get groceries as low as we do is shopping at Trader Joe's (smaller privately owned grocer w generic items) and Costco to buy in bulk. Would be MUCH more expensive if we bought name brand or shopped at Walmart/Target/Kroger
@@HomeWorkouts_LS so I guess Trader Joe's is owned by the German Aldi (Aldi sud) while the American Aldi is a separate company (Aldi nord). That is a really confusing bit of lore
My boyfriend had a power outage the other day and said there was barely any food at home and he wasn't sure how long the power was going to be out, so he had to scrape together the only cash he could find in the house to go grab some essentials. It didn't hit me at first, and then the öre dropped. The only Swedish krona I've ever seen was in your video. When Swedes have a power cut, life screeches to a halt. Bet you wondered where this story was going. My ADHD brain went, Sweden, groceries, price comparison, Keltie was the first person to show me Swedish cash! You help curb the homesickness when I'm missing my boyfriend and Sweden. Tack!😊 love the video. How's the Swedish coming along, btw? Mine is primitive.
the power seldom goes out in Sweden. Here where I live in Canada it goes out almost once a week. It's like a 3rd world country at times here in Canada. I am a Swedish-Canadian.
I live in Washington state and the Canada haul feels very similar to our groceries here. It's absolutely insane. I hold my breath every time I check out of the grocery store and then just silently cry on my way home.
@@erinnorrisSales tax in Richland, WA, is 8.7%, but on my last grocery receipt the tax was only 42¢ on $46.07. that's less than 1% tax. A lot of foods must be exempt. Plus, we don't have an income tax.
Just to save you on the math of adding tax every time- you could take you budget & divide it by 1+.12 (tax) to get the pre-tax budget. Example: 100/1.12=89.28.
I can save even more time, on the receipt (see 7:02) it is clear that the only item any tax was charged was for the energy drink. That tax totaled $0.43. So the bread wasn't $4.47, it was $3.99 as stated on the receipt, etc. Math for no reason.
In Sweden if the price say 100 SEK then you pay... *ghasp* 100 SEK. I have no clue why countries like the US and Canada does not include the tax in the price... seems completely stupid to someone like me who is used to pay what the price say.
Hey. Swedish person here. 👋Something to consider here is also that the salaries in Canada are much higher than in Sweden. I’m not saying that anything is justified because of that, but it’s something to take into account.
Samma som jag tänkte på angående lönerna. Tror deras drivmedel är billigare med men jag vet inte hur det är med huspriser och hyror. Vi har ju också skatt på vår mat men den är redan inräknad i priset så inga "överaskningar" i kassan.
Cost of living in Canada is really expensive right now. Salaries have absolutely not kept up with inflation of goods and services. Our country has one of the highest debt to GDP ratios.
@@victoriaalover Cost of living has definitely risen in Sweden too.. 😞 however, when you take out of a loan of the bank to buy a home, the bank doesn’t really expect you to pay the whole loan back because the amount is so big. I’ve heard from friends in the US that the bank definitely expect you to pay the full loan back, so their monthly payment are HUGE. Does it work like this in Canada as well?
Canadian Salaries are about the same as Sweden actually if not lower (lately). Cost of living also is approx. 50-60% of people's salary to pay for rent each month here and taxes taken off of the salaries are also very high at the end of the day. Also to consider Swedish salary gets you more vacation per year (meaning higher hourly rate for work done)
Stupid that the prices in the U.S. and Canada don't include tax already. In Europe many countries have no or zero tax on basic foodstuffs. No real reason why shops can't show both prices, i.e. with/without tax.
For the chicken, there's a price per kg on the package - therefore you can accurately compare vs a "debate that how you want" response. Just because the breasts are small doesn't mean you still can't compare the cost accurately.
Bread is 75p for 800g milk for 2pints is 90p butter is £1.50 eggs £1.55 for 6 and 6 bananas 76p for some avg prices in the uk. Avg food shop for single person is £20-£50 a week depending on area they are in and what shops they got close to them
In my opinion, it would have been good if you touched on the average income in both country’s (without that information we don’t really know if canada even is more expensive for the ppl living there).. but still a very good video, thanks
So it´s a bit complicated as the economid divides in Sweden has increased exponentially with rouhly now 18 years of right - wing budgets to the point that both Bill Gates and the UN ( neither exactly known for being even social liberal) has issued warnings that the economic divides in Sweden pose a risk to society so medium or median income won´t tell you much as the divides are too great .To eat decently ( whether you can afford it or not ) you would need roughly 300 canadian a month per person many live on roughly 180 with the health problems that causes.
@@gaelle4328 The divides is mostly due to a few people making ALOT more money, rather than poor people getting further away from the middle class, and massive immigration causing a bigger share of poor people.
I'm near Boston in the US, widowed, raising 5 kids, including teenage boys with huge appetites and just grocery shopped for the week yesterday. I spent a whopping $737. Our groceries, except for premade food and non-food items, have no tax. I have been spending minimum $600 a week this year.
As someone who lives in the states, in Missouri, these prices are SHOCKING. I only spend about $250/month in groceries, but that’s also shopping at Aldi and planning all my meals out.
Beg to differ. There is still Carbon tax on that food at many levels. Food delivered to stores is all carbon taxed for the fuel/energy to get it there. Then there are the hidden taxes…….
@@FaultyStreams the hidden costs are not just the transport. The heat for barns, the fertilizer, etc. it’s costing farmers a lot more more. And it’s many truck drives before the stuff even gets to the grocers. It all adds up, bit by bit.
As a Canadian currently living in the US I can't believe the prices I see when I go home to Canada. Inflation is very bad in the US but so much worse in Canada.
It's so wild! I live in Seattle but visited Stockholm in 2022. The whole time things felt quite affordable (so many cardamom buns), but when we had lunch at Grona Lund it was next level - we both got a full entree sized portion of a gyro plate type thing with meat, salad, and fries, paid extra for garlic sauce and each got drinks. The TOTAL was $21. At an amusement park. For two people. You can't find an entree in Seattle for less than $12, then add 10.25% sales tax, and a 20% tip so it's $16 right there, and then you're going to pay another $2 for an extra sauce and $4 for a drink (plus tax and tip). Couldn't believe how affordable Sweden felt.
For me as a swedisg person thats expensive, I hate going places like that mostly becouse the price is so high. I go anyway ofcourse but im always upset about the food prices.
As someone who LOVES to cook, experiment with recipes, and prefers whole foods, the insane grocery prizes are gut wrenching. I live in the states (Illinois to be exact) and I can't get a week's worth of groceries for less than $150. FOR TWO PEOPLE. I instead shop a little throughout the week, picking up necessary produce when I need it. Also, good luck finding bread and other items without added sugar in it. And when you DO find them, they cost twice as much. We can't win.
If you like whole foods then buy in bulk. $150 will get you nearly a years worth of rice and chickpeas. Or nearly 150 kg of bread flour, which will make 300 loaves.
as a Canadian I felt that with my soul. About a cellphone bill - I recently switched to Fizz (they just came to BC), they are much cheaper than every other company! (not a sponsored comment lol)
From what I've experienced, my country (the UK) is way cheaper than the US for groceries, if you buy own brand stuff. I checked my local store and an apple, raspberries, cucumber, lettuce & 500g carrots costs the equivalent of $7.62 CAD (compared to $16.03). The nicest loaf is £1.30, basic is £0.75. 1l of EVOO is £8.40, which is crazy expensive compared to last year. 600g chicken breast is £4.25 ($7.39). Eggs are about the same.
The very size of Canada is actually the problem with food prices. The cost of freight to ship the food to the stores depends on the distances needed to travel and oil prices. So we aren't just paying for the food, we are paying for the logistics to get it into the stores.
Where i am in ontario, the foods banks have been taking a hit the last 3 years. Thankfully there is a wonderful gentleman who fillects wcrap metal from people who then turns it in for money and that money goes to food for the food banks. Things are rough but its great that some people do what they can. Thank tou for rhe video! Hopefully it'll help people understand how bad things qre instead of blaming people for spending stupidly 😅
Being Danish and living in Sweden for 14 years, I have recently started to shop more in the local, non-big-chain supermarkets. This has basically cut our monthly cost for foods to about half of the price found in "Willy's" and similar brand stores. You don't easily find organic vegetables and the like in those non-chain-stores - but generally, I find the selection of vegetables and greens to be more fresh than what I see in the name brand stores. Also, the selection is MUCH bigger - specially when it comes to citrus fruits, olives, nuts and chili. In the small stores, meats like fresh chicken, beef and lamb are way lower. This actually makes me quite sad - because I work for one of those big chains... There are even more money to save if you buy in bulk. While you typically don't find bigger packages than 1kg of rice or pasta in the brand stores, you can easily get 10kg of rice, 5 liters of olive oil, or 2kg of pasta in the small stores. When shopping those items, there are even more to save.
Calgary here 🙋♀️ I easily spend $150+ a week on groceries for just myself. I try to bargain shop, but at this point the cheaper stores aren’t much less than the expensive stores. Calgary used to be an affordable city, but as the other cities have become too expensive so many people have moved here and now rent prices have skyrocketed but wages haven’t increased to meet the rising costs. It’s such a huge mess. I appreciate you talking about it. I follow another TH-camr who lives in Iceland, which is supposed to be notoriously expensive, she did a grocery haul and converted it to US dollars. I was like yeah, Canada is more expensive 😭
I'm in West Texas and a 3/4's full cart of groceries, household supplies and dog food at H.E.B. was $604, nothing fancy either and I left numerous things on the shelf because I refused to pay that much. A 5lb chub of ground beef is $20, ham for sandwiches is $11.37 lb. Heck a pack of weenies is nearly $9. I have spent as much as $900 on groceries before and that only covered about a third of a 5ft pickup bed. It's ridiculous.
As a native Swede who's lived the past 3 years in Toronto, Canada and just moved back home to Sweden... for one thing, really fascinating to actually see what I was feeling proven, but for another thing, I'm shocked you could actually buy Maple Syrup IMPORTED FROM CANADA in Sweden, and STILL end up with more groceries at the end of it! That's just kind of wild. If you ever do another one of these though, averaging price/100g or something like that could help make the point even clearer :) regardless, great video!
Same cucumber yesterday in New Brunswick, 3.46. Also sales tax on groceries is generally 0%, unless it's "junk food" (chips, candy, pop, less than six of a baked good, less than 500ml of ice cream) or ready-to-eat/restaurant. Usually can avoid it altogether but the tortilla chips get me every time.
Groceries in the US are outrageous as well. But where I live (Chicago suburb), taxes on most food in the grocery store is much less than Vancouver. I've also noticed a lot of "shrink-flation" where the package stays the same size and price, but the contents are less.
Food, like people, does not travel for free, in Europe you have everything nearby with huge food producers but in North America, imported food must travel long distances, every time the price of oil goes up so does groceries.
Basic groceries ARE NOT taxed. The only item that was taxed on your reciept was is the energy drink (luv Monster - peach is my current fav). There are exceptions for snacks, granolas, nuts, seeds, and a few other things. Regardless, it is hard for everyone to afford to eat with prices so high, wherever you might live, no matter your circumstances.
In Norway we have the same issue with grocery stores being owned by the same companies. So it is actually very common, especially for us that live close to the border, to do some grocery shopping in Sweden😂
People living on the east part are so lucky! I live in Stavanger 🙈 I bought a red bull and it cost 37 NOK last week 😬 I have to cut down on my energy drink consumption 🙈
To be fair. The chicken in Europe is mostly chicken without any additional water content. So a chickenbreast uncooked can look bigger. But when cooked is a lot smaller:)
@@KeltieOConnor it’s actually quite interesting. And worth checking out. You could easily notice it whilst baking the chicken. You will notice if there is more water in the pan. Also I know that a lot of European countries have banned the fast growing chickens who can’t walk because of their weight. I only know the Dutch word for it, plofkip, which means exploding chickens🤓
But also, she got the Eldorado brand of chicken, which is super cheap. Iirc their chicken is from Latvia or something. And I know a couple of years ago they had to do a recall cause there was salmonella in the chicken. If you get swedish chicken (raised in sweden) it's more expensive. (I checked willys online and Eldorado is 96.55 sek per kilo, while willys store brand is 135, and kronfågeln is 149. So quite a bit more expensive.)
The food retail market in Sweden is an oligopoly also, with three large corporation running the most of the stores. I think the exchange rate may have help to keep the Swedish prices down.
Hi Keltie! Is the salary and rents comparable in Sweden vs Canada to? How much money someone has to spend is also a factor when comparing. I find it quite strange when places in both Canada and US don´t have the tax included on the pricetags in the stores and it costs more because of it. We have 12% tax (called moms) on food in Sweden and you can read it on the receipt but it´s included in the price on the shelfs. The monopoly of stores/chains is the same in Sweden. Willys and Hemköp is same owners, Ica is sort of franchise and Coop that strangely are most expensive of the big ones is owned collective by it´s members.
Yep. This. I work in an organic store and even if you choose all of the most expensive versions of the things she bought, you'd end up at like 50-65€. Nowhere close to 100€. Crazy.
A note about frozen berries in Sweden: if they’re imported from outside EU you have to boil them for a minute before eating. They can have norovirus and hepatitis. You can refreeze them after boiling if you want.
When shopping at grocery stores in Canada. PST and GST is usually only on items that have been prepared, like a sandwich or salads sold at the delivery counter. There is usually a mark on the price tag thatdenotes whether an item is taxable. Some provinces tax "junk food," like pop or energy drinks.
No idea why you couldn't get a 12-pack of eggs at Willy's, it's a quite normal package size in Sweden (it's a dozen after all, a "dussin"!).. I feel like I see 12-packs more often than 10-packs, even!
The fact they don’t add your GST & PST onto the price ticket is crazy. I’m in Aus, we have 10% GST. It’s included in the tag price of everything. No confusion when you get to the checkout!
The US also doesn't include the tax on the price tag. It's probably just laziness and it would require a new law. plus each state has different taxes, and somethings are not taxed based on the state's tax rules, like in Massachusetts groceries are not taxed but prepared foods are taxed. I always feel badly for the foreigners and out-of-staters who are shocked by our taxes when they go to pay!
Em the bag of rice you bought in Canada was from what i can see 460g. The bag from Sweden was 1000g and also boil in bag which is more pricey. Im fairly positive that rice is also cheaper in Sweden.
As someone who lives in Canada, i would say you're going about shopping wrong. You need to look at the flyers and buy what is on sale or in season. I spend $150 maximum a month in food and i eat enough
In the U.S. sales tax varies by state and type of item. Lived in a state which taxed all groceries at 7%. If you eat in a restaurant some cities added an entertainment tax of 3%. In another state, most grocery foods that need to be prepared or divided into portions at home are not taxed. Items such as toilet paper are taxed. If you buy a meal or drink from the deli of the grocery store, that is taxed.
They're a "fairly new" addition over here. And most shops have these pull carts/baskets nowadays, as well as the "old" pushcarts and carry baskets. It's been a nice in-between addition😊
I'm in the US but being a vegetarian definitely pays off in the grocery bills. I also don't really buy eggs unless I'm baking (way more likely to get protein from beans/nuts and dairy). Groceries have definitely gotten out of hand but I'm not paying much more than 100 per week.
What you should probably look at is income. European salaries are nowhere near Canadian or US salaries, so what seems cheap to you is pushing many Europeans towards poverty. It only seems cheap measured by the prices you are used to, on an average salary over here you wouldn't think that it's cheap.
That heavily depends on where you live. I currently live in western Canada, and have lived in several European countries. In general, life in Europe was more affordable. Amongst one of the countries I lived in was Switzerland, known to be very expensive. Food is a fraction of the cost of what I pay in Canada. I lived in the NL making a lot less money, and still found it more affordable than Canada. Regardless, the issue is that everything is becoming more expensive and salaries are not keeping up with it. Corporate greed is making it even worse.
That last comment about Swedish taxes subsidizing food prices confused me. I haven't heard anything about that? By the way, Sweden actually has a lower VAT (Value Added Tax) rate on food compared to other goods and services. It's currently 12%, while the standard rate is 25%. The VAT is included in the price tag, so you don't see it added separately at checkout.
There are some subsidies for milk products. Other than that, I don't know. There are lots of exceptions to the 25% VAT. Restaurants, travelling (bus, train, taxi etc), visiting sports, museums, books, magazines, most of art (paintings etc) etc... The majority of what we pay for everyday goes to something that is either 6% or 12% in VAT.
Swede here. Just wanted to say that we do have 12 pack eggs here too. Not all stores carry them though. Prices here have gone up way more than inflation, so it is really expensive in our point of view. The funny thing is that so many people drive around from store to store to look for various deals, claiming they got their stuff cheaper. Yet forget to account fo the price of fuel. How much did they actually save? Nothing. There are 4 store chains that compete with each other in Sweden. ICA is a franchise so each store decides their prices, which means that two ICA's can have widely different pricing. Sometimes ICA Maxi's are cheaper than Willy's. Sometimes they're not. Willy's and Hemköp are owned by the same company. Hemköp is weird since they're divided into two categories, franchise and self-owned. As usual, the franchise owner can, and will, set their own prices; while the self-owned have thier prices decided by the company. This confuses the customers since, once again, prices can be really high or, decent. Then there's Coop and Lidl. ICA basically has monopoly on groceries here. My latest haul from ICA was around 1800SKR, and I didn't even get eggs, bread, meat or fruits. Just laundry detergent, a few strawberries, soy sauce and some other basics we were out on. Got my meat and veggies from Willy's for just under 500kr.
What do you mean, "Ica basically has monopoly on groceries here"? You obviously list the alternatives, and depending on how you look at it, there's at least 3 other chains to choose from. Personally I mainly buy my groceries from Coop or Willy's.
In Canada, tax isn’t added on most food items. You pay tax on junk food or prepared food but the majority is tax free. Your comparison figures for Canada are a bit higher than they should be because you’ve added tax.
As a fellow Canadian I just want to say that you left out an important piece of information. Taxes are charged only on items that have been transformed or prepared for you. For example if you buy a rotisserie chicken or a cake from the bakery section. You will not pay taxes if you buy milk, eggs or chicken breasts. So there is a large portion of your grocery that is not taxable.
Biology.. Sodium in food needs to be digested first, where sodium in water/drink can be absorbed almost instantly. So if u need it fast, like after/during a workout, drink is the way to go.
Another thing about Canada and the province of Ontario is that the monthly disability support is only about $CDN1039. As a result, I must get a majority of my food from the food bank because grocery stores are so expensive and rent is ridiculous with a typical non-rent supplement being just over $CDN2100. Most working people spend between $CDN400 and $CDNB600 a month on groceries
Thanks for doing the comparison between similar societies. When browsing through the comments I could not find any reference to agricultural support so here is just one thought. Almost ten years ago I did the accounting for a Swedish farmer and to my surprise almost 50% of the income where support from EU. The crop produced was animal food which might have a lower prize tag than crop produced for human consumption. The thought which came to my mind was - what would the shop prices be without the agricultural support? Ok, our taxes would be lower but I think it would be an interesting thought experiment. Now I do think there is a reason “all” societies in “all” time has made food subsidies one way or another. Enjoy life and improve it little by little!
omg my husband and I just did this experiment! He went to Sweden a couple weeks ago for job interviews and to visit his mom. He and his stepfather went to three different grocery stores to compare prices on items we regularly buy and it averaged out to 30% cheaper in Sweden as compared to Ontario. This was comparing regular price (not sale price) to regular price and comparable quality of brand.
The VAT for food is 12% but it is already calculated in the price presented to consumers (prices are with inclusive VAT). You can also see the amount of VAT on the receipt for various categories of items, like if you had bought shampoo that item would have 25% VAT. The increase in cost for food is to a large depended of energy prices, which have gone crazy the last years, fuel for the production and then Sweden as well as Canada have a climate which makes transports for food produced elsewhere during large part of the year. In Sweden we have a lot of the food that is produced in other European countries and the heat waves of later years have resulted in lesser harvest, of for instance olive oil we get from Italy, Greece or Spain. Recall just last year when it was so hot in many European countries, in France they had to shut down nuclear power plants for the rivers they use for cooling had low water stand and the temperature was too high (fish also died).
Sweden have VAT included. And the egg situation is that the biggest egg farm CA Cedergren having lots of problem with Salmonella last couple of years. We buy very little egg from outside Sweden because we have so strict Salmonella laws/rules. Have a neighbour eating raw eggs every morning for his whole adult life (64) and never got sick.
The cruel irony is that the food that is best for us is also the most expensive in the grocery store. So I can see why people get obese on faster processed food, which is less expensive.
Frozen veg (£1.50/kg), oats (£0.90/kg), bananas (£0.13 each), peanut butter (£3/kg), wholemeal bread (£1.30), beans (£2/kg), are all cheap. Even avocados have become pretty cheap lately. You can comfortably eat healthy food for £3 a day if you put some effort and give up meat/dairy.
By no means vegetarian but this is true. Weeks where I dont have to buy meat I can feed 2 people for $50 easily and still buy a variety of fruits and vegetables.
English cucumber at Waremart (WinCo) in Oregon (no tax) is .98¢ ea. when on sale. Regular 1.98. The regular short and dark cucumber is close in both. Our eggs really do jump every day/week. Large, 5 doesn't. 11-20$ and a dozen is in the 4-5 bucks. Of course it'll depend on size, free range or white eggs
I just watched your video about trampoline exercise and at 12.23 i was screaming noo don’t eat that before the exercise to my screen. I am just so devoted to you now 😂
I actually did a cost break down comparing subway to my local grocery store here in Canada. It cost nearly the same to just buy 2 subway sandwiches as it costs to make them with grocery store ingredients (i only factored the amount needed for the 2 sandwiches). At this point in Canada for a single/ 2 person household its often cheaper just to buy pre-made food then to buy the ingredients.
Ok, so here is the biggest thing you did not account for: in Canada the average salary is 65k/year. In Sweden it's 45k/year in Canadian dollars and that is before taxes, I don't know Canadian taxes but in Sweden ~34% of that goes directly to our tax office. Then start looking at electronics and booze and you will probably feint 😅
As a French who was floored yesterday seeing the bill at the supermarket checkout, this video brought me a sliver of relief because apparently it's much worse in Canada and Sweden. My tips for cheaper groceries: buy a whole chicken and prepare the cuts yourself, buy groceries direct from farmers, buy essentials in larger quantities
Cost of Living in Atlanta, GA is 9.5% higher than in Vancouver (without rent) Cost of Living Including Rent in Atlanta, GA is 0.2% higher than in Vancouver Rent Prices in Atlanta, GA are 13.7% lower than in Vancouver Restaurant Prices in Atlanta, GA are 12.5% higher than in Vancouver Groceries Prices in Atlanta, GA are 4.0% higher than in Vancouver Local Purchasing Power in Atlanta, GA is 71.2% higher than in Vancouver
Many grocery stores in Canada add water to meat to get it to weigh more ( industry secret) which is why you don,t just have oil comin out of your cooked meat, but also water. Compare cooked hamburger from LOBLAWS vs cooked hamburger you get from a butcher or direct from farmer, it will shock you.
5:06 hardly anyone needs extra sodium because there’s already too much in most processed food. If you’d really need extra sodium, just add some plain old tablesalt to your food. Tablesalt is sodium-chloride.
9:25 I was gonna say rice or coffee. Together with eggs they've gone up a lot in prince in Sweden recent years. But. There's a trick. At least for the rice. A lot of Asian stores seems to import rice from Pakistan themselves and that's a lot cheaper. Last time I think I paid 120kr (15.52 CAD, 11.29 USD). Not Ben's though. And yeah, we have a bit of a problem with the canoodling among Swedish stores too. Three companies have 90% of the stores, and it's not trickling down to the consumers.
I was recently on a trip to Southeast Asia. I was shocked to find out that when I was in Singapore, a country that has a higher GDP per capita than Canada, a plate of chicken rice only costed $8 including tax (considering the fact that Singapore dollars are the same exchange rate as Canadian dollars) while in Canada cost over $10.
Moved to Toronto when I was 12... Walked into a convenience store and wanted to buy a $1 candy bar... Had a dollar with me - and an unpleasant surprise when I realized it was actually $1.15. That was my introduction to PST+GST.
I’m from the UK and we’re also feeling the pinch with rising costs but $4-5 for iceberg lettuce is crazy, we pay about 60p. Obviously the price increases if you buy branded items or organic. If you go to what you probably call convenient stores, we call them express, a small version of the big supermarket then prices are increased because they know you’re in a rush and need something quick so you’ll pay
Swede here - there is also 12% value added tax on all food purchases in Sweden, so equivalent to BC. Difference is that all prices are lists including the VAT in Sweden. So actually even cheaper in Sweden
The general VAT in sweden is 25% but on groceries its reduced to 12%. Always included in the price. I really dont understand why prices are listed without VAT in Canada and the USA.
@@allthetimespentgaming2950 I believe theres a law that when selling to private persons you have to list with VAT included. But not when selling B2B.
@@TheJuzy In B2B I believe you separate it out , because you are expected to sell it on or use it it manufacturing, which means you can get the VAT you paid back, to prevent double taxation. In the end its always the final customer who pays the whole VAT ( thatswhy its not a sales tax but a Value added Tax)
@TheJuzy that's because a business that buys something also deducts the vat in their tax reports.
With the system in Sweden were VAT is unspecified and included in the pricetag is basically forcing business to cover for the government so the extremely gullible 🇸🇪s don't realize how much they're charged in hidden taxes
It would be better if the tax was added at checkout just as in US/ CA
That would make it more obvious to people how much tax they're actually paying and how little they're getting for it.. Manny 🇸🇪s I talked to don't even know their paying VAT on everything and that around 75% of the price of gas is tax there..
About rice: in Sweden it’s common to buy rice in bulky 2-5kg packages, which cost a LOT LESS a kg than Uncle Ben’s which in Sweden is kind of a high end brand
also the Swedish one was the boil in bag version while the Canadian was just rice. the boil in bag thing is kind of a scam to raise the price.
I think Uncle Ben's is a high end brand in most European countries.
As an Asian French, I buy my rice in 22 to 25 kg bags. Except for sushi rice or paëlla rice that just too hard to replace with SE Asia common rice. Too much work to get the right results.
By the way new harvest rice is about 1.70 to 2€ per kilogram, from month to month. Very far from the Uncle Ben's and other brands prices.
and another thing thatis different between the Two unclebens Jazmin rice is swedish one is boil inbag is alot mor expensive then a regular one as the canadian rice bag is. sd 25% on the boil in bag price on the canadian one then iit is comparable :D
Sure, but that's same everywhere.
Yeah I wouldn't purchase small bags like that.
That part about coffee... as a born and raised swede, i can 100% confirm that we would burn this country to the ground in less then 48 hours if it was anymore expensive than it is now.
We literally cant live without it.
24 hours at tops. we would last 12 hours with some support from Finnland shipping over emergency drop cases over the sea by helicopter. But when that runs out, its The Purge 24/7 for coffee.
@@stefana.jansson32 Stay away from our Coffee we need it more. :D
PS. I don't even drink coffee :D :D
No coffee in Sweden. All wars would end because they have to be ready for the caffeine deprived Swedes morning mood. ;)
Bread has gotten so expensive in the US (I live in Arkansas, one of the cheapest US states) that I bought a bread machine. I didn’t want to make homemade bread by hand. And it’s too hot to use my oven in spring/ summer/ early fall. It was $100. It paid for itself in about 2 months. And the bread tastes so much better than what I bought from the store.
This makes me want to make bread!
I have a sourdough starter going . With it being in the 90s I don’t know how the baking will go .. but I know sourdough is healthier and I love to make bread
I want to start doing this. Homemade bread is much cheaper and much cleaner with less preservatives.
I bought one when I got made redundant a few years back, it was a game changer 👍
CEREAL TOO. 20 years ago when I was a kid a box of cereal was, I don't know, maybe $3? Now it's at least $6 for a regular sized box not even family size!!
Fellow Canadian from the Southern Interior of BC. We're boycotting most grocery stores and opting to grow our own amongst a few different family friends places. We are trying to source our meat and eggs as best as possible and support local farmers in the area with things we do not have access to. Growing our own herbs and freezing/canning/vacuum sealing what we can. Everyone I know is struggling with food right now and most have more than one source of income to afford bills and food. Although it's more time consuming, the quality of food is vastly different. I could go on about this for hours!
American here, Oregonian to be exact. I wanted to say the same thing. We grow our own fruits and veggies. We have duel purpose birds (eggs/meat). Our neighbors raise beef , dairy, and pork. We fish for salmon, tuna, catfish, trout, ect. We go claming and crabbing. All is saved for year round use. We only have .67 of an acre so every single square inch is used for food production. I understand that there are people who cannot do this on a large scale but every patio and window sill could be utilized to produce something. Grow lights can be used on a simple metal shelf in a corner somewhere. Rent a space in a community garden. You could even share that expense with family or friends. People need to do something rather than just complain.
Same on the Coast in BC
a piece of advice for olive oil and saving money - as someone living in Istria Croatia my whole life, where the best olive oil from world comes from - please stop buying olive oil from markets/supermarkets. It is actually NOT olive oil, it is made from a mix of oils and most of them are made from already fallen olive (the kind you don’t want to put in your body, can be toxic!) - real olive oil is NOT affordable, it is expensive. There are many other options that are better and cheaper - go for cold pressed omega oils like linseed oil or cook with a little butter. Here in Europe a bunch of real olive oil makers are trying for years to change the regulative regarding labelling olive oils, but it’s really difficult because, like big Pharma, they also have a big lobby. Save your health and money, it’s not worth it.
Thank you!!! Going to look more into this!
It's because the Italian Mafia controls 1/3 of the olive fields in Italy, they import other cheap oils to cut it with, then cut it prior to bottling and sell it at a lower rate. My understanding it that it isn't labeling regulations that are the problem, but the fact that the Mafia isn't following the law to begin with.
I always get things like Olive oil and pastas at an Italian grocery. Like the kind that all the Italians shop at. Always the best quality and much less than supermarket pricing.
Holy shit I will now be going down a rabbit hole
can confirm (hi neighbor 👋🏽🇸🇮)
I live in Australia and we are feeling it too. Basically 2 grocery stores making record profits while also complaining about increasing shoplifting while normal people are struggling to get by.
This! I'm so glad I live in Adelaide and have access to Foodlands so I can avoid the duopoly.
Same in New Zealand!
Aldi is so much cheaper for th3 basics. I spent $80 there the other week and came out with 2 bags. Went to woolies and came out with 1 bag for over $100.
I live in SA and mainly shop Aldi, Drakes and shop only at Coles and Woolworths if its on Special. Drakes Friut & veg is usually cheapest
Keltie thanks for making this. As a fellow Canadian, GIRL I'M BROKE. ATP I want to eat air. I learned how to garden and can my own produce 3 years ago and it was one of the most invaluable skills I've ever learned in my life. The money you save and the pleasure you get from it is unmatched. Grocery stores here are making record profits because we have no choice to eat.
Also getting into gardening as a fellow Canadian!
Hey Jazzy_babbby I just did a reply about this, but just want to say to you that grocery stores, while making record profit, are only doing so because of record immigration that is being let into Canada. Proof of that is the major housing crisis we are experiencing now. Record profits as millions of more people are shopping for food. Grocery pricing increasing is not because of greed, but because of the Carbon Tax (expect it to go up again around July 1st as carbon tax goes up again btw). Carbon tax makes food more expensive because farmers have to spend more on the gas to power their machinery. Truckers have to spend more money to deliver the food as well as they have to pay for the gas also. All this creates more expensive food as the grocery stores THEMSELVES are paying more for the same food as well. I invite you to look into it on your own as well. I totally get why you think its just Grocery store greed as that is all the media and liberal/NDP government talk about, but that isn't really the full story.
Where I live in Europe, VAT is 21%. But vegetables and fruits has VAT 12% so that people can afford more healthier food
Where do you come from? Here in Germany it´s 19%, but for basic groceries like potatoes etc. it´s 7%.
UK does not have VAT for basic food items. There is some VAT for other food items
I think VAT is different everywhere, here it is 7% for fruits and vegetables, everything else is 22%. I’m not sure the income of other places, but here I’ve been told it’s €1200 a month. So maybe that is why our prices are lower.
@@christinawentzel9624 Mh, in Germany there's a medium income of about 3500€ a month and when I watched the video, nearly every item was a good amount less expensive than even the swedish counterpart. For example whole wheat toast is 1,49€ (about 2,20 CAD) in Germany. Nevertheless it's just the medium imcome and a lot of people are struggeling with food shopping here in Germany, especially with the inflation due to the russian-ukraine-war, climate change etc. etc.
Not sure what it is here in Norway, but fruits and veggies are crazy expensive like all foods! 🙈 I spend average 700 USD on food here just for me a month.
Like strawberryies now is over 8 USD for 0,5 kg
1 cucumber around 2 USD
Paprika is around 10 USD per kg (sometimes 6-7$)
Bread too, around 4,5 USD for a regular bread, I've seen bread for 7USD too recently..
Average salary here is around 3 500 USD after tax, but many have less than 2 500 USD
The elderly get often around 1500 USD a month and can hardly live at all now 😔
Specially since rent and the % of loands have gone up a LOT (at less than 1% in 2021 to over 5% on house loans now, my bff have 6,5% on her house loan and she pays over 2/3 of her income on only the apartment each month and had to get an extra job).
I live in Czech republic and the sudden rise of price for eggs was caused by bird flu. They had to get rid of big flocks of animals. At some point chicken breasts were almost gone from stores.
There was nothing wrong with the chickens, govt wanted to keep prices high by killing all the chickens!
"bird flue"...
That is what the globalists are trying all over the western world now. Their end goal is war and famine.
@@Br1cht What do you mean with your reply?
@@Br1cht Birdflu and salmonella, if just a few birds are sick the whole stable of 30k or so birds will be put down. Both diseases are zoononosis and can infect people.
I moved from the US to Albania. I can buy an entire bag of produce (like, 3 bell peppers, 3 onions, a cucumber, head of cauliflower, bag of spring mix, a tomato for around $5.50.) Eggs are about $4.50 for 18. 1 kilo of chicken for around $3.50. I kilo of ground beef for about $10. A Monster energy drink is $1.50.
North America is out of control. Yes, there are drawbacks to living here, but I can live on 1K USD/month. My rent is $275/month for a 2-bed/3- balcony with a partial view of the sea.
You can go to the bakery and get a great big fresh loaf for about $1.50--or you can buy a ciabatta loaf (enough for about 2 sandwiches) for 25 cents.
(PS: High speed internet is only $15/month.)
I’m from Canada and I see Albania in my future.
@@paulashealthyliving It aint bad. USA gets a major red carpet. Canada still has only 3 months, but I can help you with an immigration lawyer in Vlora.
@@paulashealthyliving Something you will not like. Rolling blackouts are fairly common in Albania.
Tirana?
How is Albania with healtcare, schools aso, who is paying for that, state of you? And how hig are your salaries, cost for rent/housing and transportations?
Just a point of clarification from a fellow Canadian regarding PST - the provincial sales tax is not charged on food, you will only find that it is assessed on the non-food items on your grocery bill (ie. dish soap, toilet paper, etc). Same thing with the GST, it is not assessed on food, only the non food items. That isn't to say our grocery prices aren't high! But it also depends on what you're buying. I don't find that my grocery bill has increased that much, but i don't buy anything prepared/processed, i don't buy cereals or pop/energy drinks, i generally tend to buy fresh ingredients you have to make meals out of. That automatically is going to keep your grocery bill lower.
But PST/GST is charged on junk food and anything ready to eat from the deli/restaurant section. It's a weird distinction but for whatever reason there's no tax on things like ritz crackers or pudding cups but there is on potato chips or chocolate bars or if you get a pre-made sandwich from the to-go case. Go figure 🤔
Salted peanuts are taxed whereas unsalted peanuts are not. Snack vs grocery food item. Pastries of six or more sold in bakery department are not taxed. Less than six are taxed. Toilet paper is taxed but now menstrual items are not. Luxury goods vs essential 🤣
@@BonaKim-hd8ec And I thought taxation on food and hygiene products was wild in Germany 😅
Depends on the Province. Ontario does not have PST exemptions any more.
Sales tax is differentiated in Sweden now, but it used to be 20 % flat. Having one flat rate is better, as it avoids the extra bureaucracy with deciding what is food and what is not, and other administrative costs.
And actually, it doesn't matter for consumers. The change was motivated by claiming that this is good for low income families, but it is actually hogwash. People have to buy both food and other things, and the percentage put on food is the same independent of income level. Basically, well-off people buy more expensive food, but use the same cut of their income on food. In the end, all would pay the same amount of VAT with differentiated levels as with a flat rate.
I do love a good use of the word “canoodling”😂
The best line to come out of an interview!
I really like it. @@KeltieOConnor
I added the same items up in my state in the U.S. (Maine)
Berries: $4.67
An Apple:$1.29
Cucumber: $0.83
Olive oil: $8.99
Bread loaf: $3.79
Rice: $4.99
Coffee: $8.59
Chicken breast: $11.98
Head of lettuce: $1.99
1 Qt (946ML) 1% milk: $0.99
Can of white monster: $2.39
1 egg: $0.18 (a dozen: $2.19)
Peanut butter $2.99
Oats: $3.99
Carrots: $1.29
Pasta: $1.89
Yogurt: 3.69
Butter: $4.29
Frozen fruit: $8.79
Total cost (USD before tax- $79.62)
Each state has its own tax. Maine is 5.5%. After tax: $83.99USD
$83.99 is about $114 CAD
So if I take out the frozen fruit, and pasta which she didn’t get in Canada. Then it puts me at $72.47 USD / 98.94CAD
I worked it out for the UK, trying to get the same sizes and quality.
apple: £0.42
cucumber: £0.89
olive oil 500ml: £5.75
bread: £1.60
rice: £2.80
coffee: £5.99
chicken breast: £4
lettuce: £0.79
1 litre milk: £1.20
can of monster: £1.70
12 medium eggs: £2.60
peanut butter: £1.80
oats: £1.25
carrots: £0.82
pasta: £0.69
yoghurt: £1.10
butter: £1.69
frozen fruit: £4.50
tax, if that food has tax on it, is included in the price
total: £39.59 (US $50.72, CAD $69.17)
A lot of these can be bought for cheaper, though - I just tried to match the quality from the video.
Doing the budget version, I came up with: £24.74 (US $31.70, CAD $43.23)
Thank you all for doing the heavy math lifting thingy. It's so interesting to compare prices from different places
Wow! So in Maine it's almost same as in Norway a few years ago, and the UK prices was the same as in Norway 15 years ago 😱 I love going to the UK, the food is so cheap 😍
Some examples here:
Cucumbers: 1,8 $
Bread: 4,5$ (depends ofc, but average cost)
Milk (1L): 1,6 $
Monster (0,5L): 2,6 to 3,6 $ (in foodstores)
1 Egg: 4 $
Carrots: ~ 2,3 for 0,5 kg
Not sure about all of the costs so can't tell all the prices, but in general everything is suddenly so expensive here! I use over 500 $ a month for just me, and thats when I'm super strict! When I use mor normal, and maybe 2 restaurants a month I pay 700 to 1000 $ for 1 month in food 😱
@@hege4318 I studied in Norway and had a much lower bill. My tricks were adapting to local cuisine (so less bell peppers and more root vegetables 😉) and buying frozen veg instead of fresh. No sugary drinks unless for parties.
Having yoghurt and oats with fruit for breakfast, salmon or chicken with veg for lunch and bread with cream cheese/ cheese for dinner worked well for me to save money 😊
Eating out is obviously super expensive, so we’d have dinner parties and cook together.
@@bellathemusicaddict you were good. But when did you study here? Because prices have gone up extremely last two years. In 2017 I paid 2000 nok a month for food, not the same diet is at least 7000 nok. Like the pesto I used was 7 nok 2 years ago, now it's over 20, kiwi was 4 nok 2 years ago and last I checked it was 13 nok for 1 kiwi 🙈
My husband and I are spending $150 to $175 a week in Nashville, TN...same problem with monopolies in the US. The only way we get groceries as low as we do is shopping at Trader Joe's (smaller privately owned grocer w generic items) and Costco to buy in bulk. Would be MUCH more expensive if we bought name brand or shopped at Walmart/Target/Kroger
Trader Joe’s is owned by Aldi (German company)
I’m so jealous you have trader Joes 🥲🩵
@@KeltieOConnor it's the best!😍
@@HomeWorkouts_LS so I guess Trader Joe's is owned by the German Aldi (Aldi sud) while the American Aldi is a separate company (Aldi nord). That is a really confusing bit of lore
@@Christine.BarakaAldi Nord (North) runs trader’s Joe. Aldi Sud (South) is Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s.
My boyfriend had a power outage the other day and said there was barely any food at home and he wasn't sure how long the power was going to be out, so he had to scrape together the only cash he could find in the house to go grab some essentials.
It didn't hit me at first, and then the öre dropped. The only Swedish krona I've ever seen was in your video. When Swedes have a power cut, life screeches to a halt.
Bet you wondered where this story was going. My ADHD brain went, Sweden, groceries, price comparison, Keltie was the first person to show me Swedish cash!
You help curb the homesickness when I'm missing my boyfriend and Sweden. Tack!😊 love the video.
How's the Swedish coming along, btw? Mine is primitive.
Glad this video could provide you with a little curb to the homesickness and being away from your BF 🩵
Mines not great either but getting better!
the power seldom goes out in Sweden. Here where I live in Canada it goes out almost once a week. It's like a 3rd world country at times here in Canada. I am a Swedish-Canadian.
I live in Washington state and the Canada haul feels very similar to our groceries here. It's absolutely insane. I hold my breath every time I check out of the grocery store and then just silently cry on my way home.
Yes! Oregon here and I feel the same. IDK how y'all are doing it with sales tax on top
I moved from Portland to Richland, WA, recently, and I quickly fell in love with WinCo. Safeway and Fred Meyer have become ridiculously expensive.
@@erinnorrisSales tax in Richland, WA, is 8.7%, but on my last grocery receipt the tax was only 42¢ on $46.07. that's less than 1% tax. A lot of foods must be exempt. Plus, we don't have an income tax.
And then you buy a bag for eight cents and carry your tiny haul to your car and weep.
Just to save you on the math of adding tax every time- you could take you budget & divide it by 1+.12 (tax) to get the pre-tax budget. Example: 100/1.12=89.28.
WHY DIDNT I THINK OF THIS HAHAHHAHA genius
@@KeltieOConnor In your defense, I'm getting a PhD in economics, so I'm not sure that would be obvious to most people lol
No tax on food staples in Canada. Potato chips, yes, bread, flour, rice, etc. No tax!
I can save even more time, on the receipt (see 7:02) it is clear that the only item any tax was charged was for the energy drink. That tax totaled $0.43. So the bread wasn't $4.47, it was $3.99 as stated on the receipt, etc. Math for no reason.
In Sweden if the price say 100 SEK then you pay... *ghasp* 100 SEK.
I have no clue why countries like the US and Canada does not include the tax in the price... seems completely stupid to someone like me who is used to pay what the price say.
Hey. Swedish person here. 👋Something to consider here is also that the salaries in Canada are much higher than in Sweden. I’m not saying that anything is justified because of that, but it’s something to take into account.
Samma som jag tänkte på angående lönerna. Tror deras drivmedel är billigare med men jag vet inte hur det är med huspriser och hyror.
Vi har ju också skatt på vår mat men den är redan inräknad i priset så inga "överaskningar" i kassan.
Cost of living in Canada is really expensive right now. Salaries have absolutely not kept up with inflation of goods and services. Our country has one of the highest debt to GDP ratios.
@@victoriaalover Cost of living has definitely risen in Sweden too.. 😞 however, when you take out of a loan of the bank to buy a home, the bank doesn’t really expect you to pay the whole loan back because the amount is so big.
I’ve heard from friends in the US that the bank definitely expect you to pay the full loan back, so their monthly payment are HUGE. Does it work like this in Canada as well?
Canadian Salaries are about the same as Sweden actually if not lower (lately). Cost of living also is approx. 50-60% of people's salary to pay for rent each month here and taxes taken off of the salaries are also very high at the end of the day. Also to consider Swedish salary gets you more vacation per year (meaning higher hourly rate for work done)
Stupid that the prices in the U.S. and Canada don't include tax already. In Europe many countries have no or zero tax on basic foodstuffs. No real reason why shops can't show both prices, i.e. with/without tax.
For the chicken, there's a price per kg on the package - therefore you can accurately compare vs a "debate that how you want" response. Just because the breasts are small doesn't mean you still can't compare the cost accurately.
Bread is 75p for 800g milk for 2pints is 90p butter is £1.50 eggs £1.55 for 6 and 6 bananas 76p for some avg prices in the uk. Avg food shop for single person is £20-£50 a week depending on area they are in and what shops they got close to them
In my opinion, it would have been good if you touched on the average income in both country’s (without that information we don’t really know if canada even is more expensive for the ppl living there).. but still a very good video, thanks
So it´s a bit complicated as the economid divides in Sweden has increased exponentially with rouhly now 18 years of right - wing budgets to the point that both Bill Gates and the UN ( neither exactly known for being even social liberal) has issued warnings that the economic divides in Sweden pose a risk to society so medium or median income won´t tell you much as the divides are too great .To eat decently ( whether you can afford it or not ) you would need roughly 300 canadian a month per person many live on roughly 180 with the health problems that causes.
@@gaelle4328 The divides is mostly due to a few people making ALOT more money, rather than poor people getting further away from the middle class, and massive immigration causing a bigger share of poor people.
I'm near Boston in the US, widowed, raising 5 kids, including teenage boys with huge appetites and just grocery shopped for the week yesterday. I spent a whopping $737. Our groceries, except for premade food and non-food items, have no tax. I have been spending minimum $600 a week this year.
That's food stamps 😂
@@h33-q8w You receive food stamps? Maybe you should work harder. I'm an attorney thus I could never qualify to have taxpayers foot my living expenses.
He made a joke, you are cringe.
As someone who lives in the states, in Missouri, these prices are SHOCKING. I only spend about $250/month in groceries, but that’s also shopping at Aldi and planning all my meals out.
FWIW these are Canadian dollars so it would be less in USD ($100 CAD is ~$73 USD). But still, yea. Groceries have gotten so costly here.
There are discount stores like she said. But it is very expensive here.
Bread, milk, fresh meat, fruits, vegetables, & eggs are not taxed in Canada
Beg to differ. There is still Carbon tax on that food at many levels. Food delivered to stores is all carbon taxed for the fuel/energy to get it there. Then there are the hidden taxes…….
carbon tax adds a penny or two….. stop the crap… farmers don’t pay carbon tax
She made a big deal about above the taxes. If you look at the receipt the only tax she paid was on the energy drink ( Junk food) she purchased.
@@KKnitsthe cost of this is so little per 20000 kg truck of food..
Unless you have a source
@@FaultyStreams the hidden costs are not just the transport. The heat for barns, the fertilizer, etc. it’s costing farmers a lot more more. And it’s many truck drives before the stuff even gets to the grocers. It all adds up, bit by bit.
As a Canadian currently living in the US I can't believe the prices I see when I go home to Canada. Inflation is very bad in the US but so much worse in Canada.
Right now, a box of berries in USD are around 12 dollars and at Farm Boy they are 5.99.
It's so wild! I live in Seattle but visited Stockholm in 2022. The whole time things felt quite affordable (so many cardamom buns), but when we had lunch at Grona Lund it was next level - we both got a full entree sized portion of a gyro plate type thing with meat, salad, and fries, paid extra for garlic sauce and each got drinks. The TOTAL was $21. At an amusement park. For two people. You can't find an entree in Seattle for less than $12, then add 10.25% sales tax, and a 20% tip so it's $16 right there, and then you're going to pay another $2 for an extra sauce and $4 for a drink (plus tax and tip). Couldn't believe how affordable Sweden felt.
You are more than welcome back to spend your money here again!
For me as a swedisg person thats expensive, I hate going places like that mostly becouse the price is so high. I go anyway ofcourse but im always upset about the food prices.
As someone who LOVES to cook, experiment with recipes, and prefers whole foods, the insane grocery prizes are gut wrenching. I live in the states (Illinois to be exact) and I can't get a week's worth of groceries for less than $150. FOR TWO PEOPLE. I instead shop a little throughout the week, picking up necessary produce when I need it. Also, good luck finding bread and other items without added sugar in it. And when you DO find them, they cost twice as much. We can't win.
If you like whole foods then buy in bulk. $150 will get you nearly a years worth of rice and chickpeas. Or nearly 150 kg of bread flour, which will make 300 loaves.
as a Canadian I felt that with my soul. About a cellphone bill - I recently switched to Fizz (they just came to BC), they are much cheaper than every other company! (not a sponsored comment lol)
Its so cool ! I save so much money its crazy
Cheaper than Fongo? I think not.
From what I've experienced, my country (the UK) is way cheaper than the US for groceries, if you buy own brand stuff. I checked my local store and an apple, raspberries, cucumber, lettuce & 500g carrots costs the equivalent of $7.62 CAD (compared to $16.03). The nicest loaf is £1.30, basic is £0.75. 1l of EVOO is £8.40, which is crazy expensive compared to last year. 600g chicken breast is £4.25 ($7.39). Eggs are about the same.
The very size of Canada is actually the problem with food prices. The cost of freight to ship the food to the stores depends on the distances needed to travel and oil prices. So we aren't just paying for the food, we are paying for the logistics to get it into the stores.
Australian here, you sure about that?
You are paying for price gouging Big Grocery Conglomerates.
Groceries is expensive in Australia too. We have 10% GST on most items, but it's already shown in the price advertised.
Where i am in ontario, the foods banks have been taking a hit the last 3 years. Thankfully there is a wonderful gentleman who fillects wcrap metal from people who then turns it in for money and that money goes to food for the food banks. Things are rough but its great that some people do what they can. Thank tou for rhe video! Hopefully it'll help people understand how bad things qre instead of blaming people for spending stupidly 😅
All praise to that gentleman!!! He deserves to win the lottery
@@KeltieOConnor absolutely hope he does!
Being Danish and living in Sweden for 14 years, I have recently started to shop more in the local, non-big-chain supermarkets.
This has basically cut our monthly cost for foods to about half of the price found in "Willy's" and similar brand stores.
You don't easily find organic vegetables and the like in those non-chain-stores - but generally, I find the selection of vegetables and greens to be more fresh than what I see in the name brand stores. Also, the selection is MUCH bigger - specially when it comes to citrus fruits, olives, nuts and chili.
In the small stores, meats like fresh chicken, beef and lamb are way lower.
This actually makes me quite sad - because I work for one of those big chains...
There are even more money to save if you buy in bulk.
While you typically don't find bigger packages than 1kg of rice or pasta in the brand stores, you can easily get 10kg of rice, 5 liters of olive oil, or 2kg of pasta in the small stores. When shopping those items, there are even more to save.
Calgary here 🙋♀️ I easily spend $150+ a week on groceries for just myself. I try to bargain shop, but at this point the cheaper stores aren’t much less than the expensive stores. Calgary used to be an affordable city, but as the other cities have become too expensive so many people have moved here and now rent prices have skyrocketed but wages haven’t increased to meet the rising costs. It’s such a huge mess. I appreciate you talking about it. I follow another TH-camr who lives in Iceland, which is supposed to be notoriously expensive, she did a grocery haul and converted it to US dollars. I was like yeah, Canada is more expensive 😭
I'm in West Texas and a 3/4's full cart of groceries, household supplies and dog food at H.E.B. was $604, nothing fancy either and I left numerous things on the shelf because I refused to pay that much. A 5lb chub of ground beef is $20, ham for sandwiches is $11.37 lb. Heck a pack of weenies is nearly $9. I have spent as much as $900 on groceries before and that only covered about a third of a 5ft pickup bed. It's ridiculous.
As a native Swede who's lived the past 3 years in Toronto, Canada and just moved back home to Sweden... for one thing, really fascinating to actually see what I was feeling proven, but for another thing, I'm shocked you could actually buy Maple Syrup IMPORTED FROM CANADA in Sweden, and STILL end up with more groceries at the end of it! That's just kind of wild.
If you ever do another one of these though, averaging price/100g or something like that could help make the point even clearer :) regardless, great video!
Same cucumber yesterday in New Brunswick, 3.46.
Also sales tax on groceries is generally 0%, unless it's "junk food" (chips, candy, pop, less than six of a baked good, less than 500ml of ice cream) or ready-to-eat/restaurant. Usually can avoid it altogether but the tortilla chips get me every time.
Exactly. And compare apples to apples in your shopping.
Groceries in the US are outrageous as well. But where I live (Chicago suburb), taxes on most food in the grocery store is much less than Vancouver. I've also noticed a lot of "shrink-flation" where the package stays the same size and price, but the contents are less.
Food, like people, does not travel for free, in Europe you have everything nearby with huge food producers but in North America, imported food must travel long distances, every time the price of oil goes up so does groceries.
Basic groceries ARE NOT taxed. The only item that was taxed on your reciept was is the energy drink (luv Monster - peach is my current fav). There are exceptions for snacks, granolas, nuts, seeds, and a few other things. Regardless, it is hard for everyone to afford to eat with prices so high, wherever you might live, no matter your circumstances.
In Norway we have the same issue with grocery stores being owned by the same companies. So it is actually very common, especially for us that live close to the border, to do some grocery shopping in Sweden😂
People living on the east part are so lucky! I live in Stavanger 🙈 I bought a red bull and it cost 37 NOK last week 😬 I have to cut down on my energy drink consumption 🙈
😂 Same in Finland. Especially if there is a party coming and you need alcohol.
@@jens1924 yes the alcohol and nicotine prices in Sweden is so much cheaper
Living near the Swedish-border, collecting Norwegian wages and pension, while buying everthing in Sweden. Must be a rich-life. !
I live in Norway. We go to Sweeden for groceryshopping because food over there is so cheap 😅
And we in Sweden goes to Norway becuse it better pay xD haha
yh, danes do too, or to Germany :P
To be fair. The chicken in Europe is mostly chicken without any additional water content. So a chickenbreast uncooked can look bigger. But when cooked is a lot smaller:)
Woah!!!! I did not know this 🤯🤯🤯
@@KeltieOConnor it’s actually quite interesting. And worth checking out. You could easily notice it whilst baking the chicken. You will notice if there is more water in the pan.
Also I know that a lot of European countries have banned the fast growing chickens who can’t walk because of their weight. I only know the Dutch word for it, plofkip, which means exploding chickens🤓
But also, she got the Eldorado brand of chicken, which is super cheap. Iirc their chicken is from Latvia or something. And I know a couple of years ago they had to do a recall cause there was salmonella in the chicken.
If you get swedish chicken (raised in sweden) it's more expensive.
(I checked willys online and Eldorado is 96.55 sek per kilo, while willys store brand is 135, and kronfågeln is 149. So quite a bit more expensive.)
@@MsLilly200 ICA Basic have had no problems with Salmonella and its dirt cheap (don't know the price right now though).
The food retail market in Sweden is an oligopoly also, with three large corporation running the most of the stores. I think the exchange rate may have help to keep the Swedish prices down.
Hi Keltie!
Is the salary and rents comparable in Sweden vs Canada to? How much money someone has to spend is also a factor when comparing.
I find it quite strange when places in both Canada and US don´t have the tax included on the pricetags in the stores and it costs more because of it. We have 12% tax (called moms) on food in Sweden and you can read it on the receipt but it´s included in the price on the shelfs.
The monopoly of stores/chains is the same in Sweden. Willys and Hemköp is same owners, Ica is sort of franchise and Coop that strangely are most expensive of the big ones is owned collective by it´s members.
Groceries are not taxed in canada fyi. The 33 cents you paid in taxes was propably from the energy drink.
These prices are insane.... That grocery haul would be around 25 € in Germany. Maximum 35 if you go to an organic type supermarket
Yep. This. I work in an organic store and even if you choose all of the most expensive versions of the things she bought, you'd end up at like 50-65€. Nowhere close to 100€. Crazy.
A note about frozen berries in Sweden: if they’re imported from outside EU you have to boil them for a minute before eating. They can have norovirus and hepatitis. You can refreeze them after boiling if you want.
Sale, sale, sale!! Last week cucumbers were .44 in toronto. I never buy anything thats not on sale and I meal plan.
“And now my final thoughts: sad. Just sad” 😂😂😂 SO TRUE! Grocery shopping hurts my heart.
I recently started shopping at no frills instead of any of the other Canadian stores and it really helps. A $100 bill becomes like a $70 bill
If you went for Norway instead of Sweden, you’d get quite different results. A lot of Norwegians actually travel to Sweden to buy «cheap» groceries!
When shopping at grocery stores in Canada. PST and GST is usually only on items that have been prepared, like a sandwich or salads sold at the delivery counter. There is usually a mark on the price tag thatdenotes whether an item is taxable. Some provinces tax "junk food," like pop or energy drinks.
No idea why you couldn't get a 12-pack of eggs at Willy's, it's a quite normal package size in Sweden (it's a dozen after all, a "dussin"!).. I feel like I see 12-packs more often than 10-packs, even!
The fact they don’t add your GST & PST onto the price ticket is crazy. I’m in Aus, we have 10% GST. It’s included in the tag price of everything. No confusion when you get to the checkout!
The US also doesn't include the tax on the price tag. It's probably just laziness and it would require a new law. plus each state has different taxes, and somethings are not taxed based on the state's tax rules, like in Massachusetts groceries are not taxed but prepared foods are taxed. I always feel badly for the foreigners and out-of-staters who are shocked by our taxes when they go to pay!
Prices are up and quality goes down. Such a cool concept for a video, really intrigued by this one! 👀
Glad you enjoyed it!
Em the bag of rice you bought in Canada was from what i can see 460g. The bag from Sweden was 1000g and also boil in bag which is more pricey. Im fairly positive that rice is also cheaper in Sweden.
As someone who lives in Canada, i would say you're going about shopping wrong. You need to look at the flyers and buy what is on sale or in season. I spend $150 maximum a month in food and i eat enough
In the U.S. sales tax varies by state and type of item. Lived in a state which taxed all groceries at 7%. If you eat in a restaurant some cities added an entertainment tax of 3%. In another state, most grocery foods that need to be prepared or divided into portions at home are not taxed. Items such as toilet paper are taxed. If you buy a meal or drink from the deli of the grocery store, that is taxed.
I live in California and am in awe of the pull cart you used!! Here, we have push carts and hand held baskets.
They're a "fairly new" addition over here.
And most shops have these pull carts/baskets nowadays, as well as the "old" pushcarts and carry baskets.
It's been a nice in-between addition😊
But whats the dirrence in salary and taxes on salary
The same rice but not boil-in-bag is significantly cheaper tho ;) greetings from a snål smålänning ^^
Ahhh good to know! I just tried to find the same brand didn’t realize the Swedish was boil in 😅
I was wondering about the rice too. Could be because it's a brand that Sweden have to import? Anyway, yay for Sweden!
@@LivingTheZoeLife All rice is imported to Sweden.
@MrGunnar69 Ha, fair point! I suppose I mean it's not a generic bag of rice but a non-Swedish brand.
I'm in the US but being a vegetarian definitely pays off in the grocery bills. I also don't really buy eggs unless I'm baking (way more likely to get protein from beans/nuts and dairy). Groceries have definitely gotten out of hand but I'm not paying much more than 100 per week.
What you should probably look at is income. European salaries are nowhere near Canadian or US salaries, so what seems cheap to you is pushing many Europeans towards poverty. It only seems cheap measured by the prices you are used to, on an average salary over here you wouldn't think that it's cheap.
That heavily depends on where you live. I currently live in western Canada, and have lived in several European countries. In general, life in Europe was more affordable. Amongst one of the countries I lived in was Switzerland, known to be very expensive. Food is a fraction of the cost of what I pay in Canada. I lived in the NL making a lot less money, and still found it more affordable than Canada. Regardless, the issue is that everything is becoming more expensive and salaries are not keeping up with it. Corporate greed is making it even worse.
That last comment about Swedish taxes subsidizing food prices confused me. I haven't heard anything about that?
By the way, Sweden actually has a lower VAT (Value Added Tax) rate on food compared to other goods and services. It's currently 12%, while the standard rate is 25%. The VAT is included in the price tag, so you don't see it added separately at checkout.
There are some subsidies for milk products. Other than that, I don't know.
There are lots of exceptions to the 25% VAT. Restaurants, travelling (bus, train, taxi etc), visiting sports, museums, books, magazines, most of art (paintings etc) etc...
The majority of what we pay for everyday goes to something that is either 6% or 12% in VAT.
Swede here. Just wanted to say that we do have 12 pack eggs here too. Not all stores carry them though. Prices here have gone up way more than inflation, so it is really expensive in our point of view. The funny thing is that so many people drive around from store to store to look for various deals, claiming they got their stuff cheaper. Yet forget to account fo the price of fuel. How much did they actually save? Nothing.
There are 4 store chains that compete with each other in Sweden. ICA is a franchise so each store decides their prices, which means that two ICA's can have widely different pricing. Sometimes ICA Maxi's are cheaper than Willy's. Sometimes they're not. Willy's and Hemköp are owned by the same company. Hemköp is weird since they're divided into two categories, franchise and self-owned. As usual, the franchise owner can, and will, set their own prices; while the self-owned have thier prices decided by the company. This confuses the customers since, once again, prices can be really high or, decent. Then there's Coop and Lidl.
ICA basically has monopoly on groceries here.
My latest haul from ICA was around 1800SKR, and I didn't even get eggs, bread, meat or fruits. Just laundry detergent, a few strawberries, soy sauce and some other basics we were out on.
Got my meat and veggies from Willy's for just under 500kr.
What do you mean, "Ica basically has monopoly on groceries here"? You obviously list the alternatives, and depending on how you look at it, there's at least 3 other chains to choose from. Personally I mainly buy my groceries from Coop or Willy's.
9:24 I hope you took into account the bag of rice in Canada was 460 grams vs more than twice as much in Sweden at 1KG = 1,000 grams.
This was such a good video! Thank you for doing the heavy math! Xx
In Canada, tax isn’t added on most food items. You pay tax on junk food or prepared food but the majority is tax free.
Your comparison figures for Canada are a bit higher than they should be because you’ve added tax.
the chicken breast: 28,7 euros/kg in Canada vs 11,8 euro/kg in Sweden :/
64.90 kr/900 g for ICA Basic. That's about 72.11 kr/kg or 6.25 Euro/kg in Sweden! Yes 6.25 kr/kg vs 28.7 Euros/kg!
As a fellow Canadian I just want to say that you left out an important piece of information. Taxes are charged only on items that have been transformed or prepared for you. For example if you buy a rotisserie chicken or a cake from the bakery section. You will not pay taxes if you buy milk, eggs or chicken breasts. So there is a large portion of your grocery that is not taxable.
Why can’t u get sodium through foods?
Biology.. Sodium in food needs to be digested first, where sodium in water/drink can be absorbed almost instantly. So if u need it fast, like after/during a workout, drink is the way to go.
@@JesperSandgreenwhat about a pickle where it’s mostly water ?
Another thing about Canada and the province of Ontario is that the monthly disability support is only about $CDN1039. As a result, I must get a majority of my food from the food bank because grocery stores are so expensive and rent is ridiculous with a typical non-rent supplement being just over $CDN2100. Most working people spend between $CDN400 and $CDNB600 a month on groceries
Is the rice cheaper tho? The Canadian one is only 450g, and the the Swedish one is 1kg. (Yes, I paused the video to look closer!!!)
I don’t think math is her strong suit 😅
Thanks for doing the comparison between similar societies. When browsing through the comments I could not find any reference to agricultural support so here is just one thought. Almost ten years ago I did the accounting for a Swedish farmer and to my surprise almost 50% of the income where support from EU. The crop produced was animal food which might have a lower prize tag than crop produced for human consumption. The thought which came to my mind was - what would the shop prices be without the agricultural support? Ok, our taxes would be lower but I think it would be an interesting thought experiment. Now I do think there is a reason “all” societies in “all” time has made food subsidies one way or another. Enjoy life and improve it little by little!
Keltie, it’s my final week in the Philippines!🇵🇭😍
Enjoy your final week there Ervin!
omg my husband and I just did this experiment! He went to Sweden a couple weeks ago for job interviews and to visit his mom. He and his stepfather went to three different grocery stores to compare prices on items we regularly buy and it averaged out to 30% cheaper in Sweden as compared to Ontario. This was comparing regular price (not sale price) to regular price and comparable quality of brand.
I keep saying to you, while watching, “YOU CAN PRICE MATCH AT THE SUPERSTORE!!”
WOAH!! I wonder what would happen if I try and live matched a Swedish price hahHhHh
The VAT for food is 12% but it is already calculated in the price presented to consumers (prices are with inclusive VAT). You can also see the amount of VAT on the receipt for various categories of items, like if you had bought shampoo that item would have 25% VAT.
The increase in cost for food is to a large depended of energy prices, which have gone crazy the last years, fuel for the production and then Sweden as well as Canada have a climate which makes transports for food produced elsewhere during large part of the year. In Sweden we have a lot of the food that is produced in other European countries and the heat waves of later years have resulted in lesser harvest, of for instance olive oil we get from Italy, Greece or Spain. Recall just last year when it was so hot in many European countries, in France they had to shut down nuclear power plants for the rivers they use for cooling had low water stand and the temperature was too high (fish also died).
Now, please come to California and compare that 😂 and bring a heart defibrillator 😭
Sweden have VAT included. And the egg situation is that the biggest egg farm CA Cedergren having lots of problem with Salmonella last couple of years. We buy very little egg from outside Sweden because we have so strict Salmonella laws/rules. Have a neighbour eating raw eggs every morning for his whole adult life (64) and never got sick.
The cruel irony is that the food that is best for us is also the most expensive in the grocery store. So I can see why people get obese on faster processed food, which is less expensive.
Does break my heart healthy food isn’t as easily accessible 😢
Frozen veg (£1.50/kg), oats (£0.90/kg), bananas (£0.13 each), peanut butter (£3/kg), wholemeal bread (£1.30), beans (£2/kg), are all cheap. Even avocados have become pretty cheap lately. You can comfortably eat healthy food for £3 a day if you put some effort and give up meat/dairy.
By no means vegetarian but this is true. Weeks where I dont have to buy meat I can feed 2 people for $50 easily and still buy a variety of fruits and vegetables.
English cucumber at Waremart (WinCo) in Oregon (no tax) is .98¢ ea. when on sale. Regular 1.98. The regular short and dark cucumber is close in both. Our eggs really do jump every day/week. Large, 5 doesn't. 11-20$ and a dozen is in the 4-5 bucks. Of course it'll depend on size, free range or white eggs
love this!! thank you for all of the work you put into making your videos! you are so inspiring and amazing! hope you have the best day yet💗💗
Thank you so much Camryn 🩵🩵
Roughly speaking, real food doesn't have tax on it but processed food does in Canada.
I just watched your video about trampoline exercise and at 12.23 i was screaming noo don’t eat that before the exercise to my screen. I am just so devoted to you now 😂
You now know where the poutine came from hahahhaha
I actually did a cost break down comparing subway to my local grocery store here in Canada. It cost nearly the same to just buy 2 subway sandwiches as it costs to make them with grocery store ingredients (i only factored the amount needed for the 2 sandwiches). At this point in Canada for a single/ 2 person household its often cheaper just to buy pre-made food then to buy the ingredients.
Ok, so here is the biggest thing you did not account for: in Canada the average salary is 65k/year. In Sweden it's 45k/year in Canadian dollars and that is before taxes, I don't know Canadian taxes but in Sweden ~34% of that goes directly to our tax office. Then start looking at electronics and booze and you will probably feint 😅
As a French who was floored yesterday seeing the bill at the supermarket checkout, this video brought me a sliver of relief because apparently it's much worse in Canada and Sweden. My tips for cheaper groceries: buy a whole chicken and prepare the cuts yourself, buy groceries direct from farmers, buy essentials in larger quantities
There’s no tax on groceries in Canada. It’s the only thing we aren’t taxed harshly on
Cost of Living in Atlanta, GA is 9.5% higher than in Vancouver (without rent)
Cost of Living Including Rent in Atlanta, GA is 0.2% higher than in Vancouver
Rent Prices in Atlanta, GA are 13.7% lower than in Vancouver
Restaurant Prices in Atlanta, GA are 12.5% higher than in Vancouver
Groceries Prices in Atlanta, GA are 4.0% higher than in Vancouver
Local Purchasing Power in Atlanta, GA is 71.2% higher than in Vancouver
Many grocery stores in Canada add water to meat to get it to weigh more ( industry secret) which is why you don,t just have oil comin out of your cooked meat, but also water. Compare cooked hamburger from LOBLAWS vs cooked hamburger you get from a butcher or direct from farmer, it will shock you.
Thanks for making the best running playlist!
Hold up a minute...was that Downie?
You know it!
That was my thought! I came to the comments to see if anyone else noticed.
5:06 hardly anyone needs extra sodium because there’s already too much in most processed food.
If you’d really need extra sodium, just add some plain old tablesalt to your food. Tablesalt is sodium-chloride.
9:25 I was gonna say rice or coffee. Together with eggs they've gone up a lot in prince in Sweden recent years. But. There's a trick. At least for the rice. A lot of Asian stores seems to import rice from Pakistan themselves and that's a lot cheaper. Last time I think I paid 120kr (15.52 CAD, 11.29 USD). Not Ben's though.
And yeah, we have a bit of a problem with the canoodling among Swedish stores too. Three companies have 90% of the stores, and it's not trickling down to the consumers.
I was recently on a trip to Southeast Asia. I was shocked to find out that when I was in Singapore, a country that has a higher GDP per capita than Canada, a plate of chicken rice only costed $8 including tax (considering the fact that Singapore dollars are the same exchange rate as Canadian dollars) while in Canada cost over $10.
Moved to Toronto when I was 12... Walked into a convenience store and wanted to buy a $1 candy bar... Had a dollar with me - and an unpleasant surprise when I realized it was actually $1.15. That was my introduction to PST+GST.
I’m from the UK and we’re also feeling the pinch with rising costs but $4-5 for iceberg lettuce is crazy, we pay about 60p. Obviously the price increases if you buy branded items or organic. If you go to what you probably call convenient stores, we call them express, a small version of the big supermarket then prices are increased because they know you’re in a rush and need something quick so you’ll pay
3:19 There is no sales tax, federal or provincial, on most grocery items. On soft drinks and candy yes. Eggs and meat etc, no.