The high cost of gas could soon start affecting the price of your groceries

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Sure the price of gas is making it more and more expensive for you to drive but what does it mean for the cost of goods like groceries?

Last weekend, the pain at the pump spiked a little further and the Lower Mainland suddenly became the most expensive place in North America to buy gas.

BC Trucking Association President Dave Earle says as the price continues to reach new records, everything that needs to be shipped by ground is affected. “Because all the costs that are incurred by the vehicles that bring the goods that you and I use every day to where we are ultimately passed on to each one of us as individual consumers.”

Earle explains, much like gas prices, their line of work is also seeing a lot of fluctuation.

“Our industry moves up and down, not just constantly up in terms of rates for shipping. A good example is the day after the bridge tolls were removed in the Lower Mainland, our members and their customers were both enjoying the fruits of reduced rates. It’s a very, very responsive industry so as rates move, costs are moving as we speak.”

He adds prices of all ground-transported goods will go up incrementally if gas keeps rising but those that are shipped in greater quantities are more insulated.


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Retail analyst David Ian Gray says when it comes to your food, things may be working in your favour. “It’s a highly, highly competitive industry right now — grocery retail — it’s a consumer’s marketplace and the pressure downward on prices is massive.”

Gray predicts it will take a longer before you feel the effect of gas prices impacting you’re ability to put food on the table.

“There is so much supply and different choices of grocery stores that the competitive nature would need all the grocers to kind of happen to raise their prices at the same time.”

Meantime, Deb Marshall with BC Ferries says they’re monitoring the price of fuel as well, adding a change in their fuel rebate program is possible.

“We have a mechanism in place where we can have either a fuel surcharge, a fuel rebate or neither and currently we have a fuel rebate in place. It is 2.9 per cent on our major routes and 1.9 per cent on the northern routes.”

She adds the figure can change every quarter, every six months and really, it depends on the price of gas.

GasBuddy.com says the recent spike at the pump is costing the average BC family that purchases at least 60/L of regular a week, hundreds of dollars.

To add some salt to your wound, Lower Mainland drivers pay some of the highest gas taxes nation-wide, especially after the NDP implemented carbon tax kicked in on Apr. 1st.

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