Sylvain Charlebois discusses the subtle alteration in the nutritional composition of some products as manufacturing costs soar in the industry.

        • So what you are saying is that when people shifted from eating in restaurants to eating at home with food sourced from grocery stores since COVID hit the streets, operating a grocery store became more profitable, while operating a restaurant became less profitable?

          I agree. I work in a restaurant and our prices haven’t risen since before COVID. Profitability has cratered. There isn’t the customer base accepting of higher prices anymore. They’d rather eat at home. The food delivery guy claims that he has been in the industry for a long time and has never seen so little food being delivered to the restaurants on his route.

          Although I’m surprised as it is clearly cheaper to eat in restaurants than it is to eat at home nowadays. Admittedly, it is hard to beat food cooked by your own hand.

          • There isn’t the customer base accepting of higher prices anymore.

            Because we’re being robbed by their grocery stores and landlords, and cannot afford to eat out like we used to. You suffer from the same problem as we do, just indirectly.

            Although I’m surprised as it is clearly cheaper to eat in restaurants than it is to eat at home nowadays.

            Not around here, it isn’t. Most restaurants have jacked up their prices as well. Eating at home is expensive, but eating out is even more so.

            Admittedly, it is hard to beat food cooked by your own hand.

            It’s very easy to beat food cooked by my hand. I’m a horrible cook. I sorely miss being able to afford to eat out frequently.

            • Because we’re being robbed by their grocery stores

              So, there was a short period of time during the height of COVID where some restaurants tried leveraging their wholesale networks to sell groceries to those cooking at home. It wasn’t tried at my job, so I have no personal experience, but I’m assuming it never really caught on as I don’t hear about it anymore (and if you can trust the food delivery guy, he’s not seeing it either).

              But, that was when the grocery stores were still cheap, comparatively speaking – That questions if you’ve tried knocking on restaurant doors to express your interest in starting that (back) up? They might be keen to expand into new opportunities, not realizing that people are growing fed up with the traditional grocery stores and are excited to try alternatives. It is not like grocery stores are the only place to get food.

              That said, perhaps you actually prefer to be voluntarily robbed? I don’t judge.