New tax cut offers little price relief, grocery shoppers say

As Winnipeg shoppers hit grocery stores today, many said they did not notice a change in prices following the removal of provincial sales tax on some grocery items.

July 1 marked the first day Manitoba removed its seven per cent PST from a range of grocery-store foods, including chips, rotisserie chickens, baked goods and other prepared items. Most groceries are already tax-exempt.

The cut applies to food sold at grocery and convenience stores, but the tax is still charged at restaurants, bakeries and bars.

Business groups, including Restaurants Canada and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, want the policy expanded, saying the rule puts restaurants at a disadvantage.

But for many out picking up groceries on a quiet Canada Day for stores, the change went largely unnoticed.

Domenico, who didn’t give his last name, was finishing a large grocery run at Food Fare and said he shops there for cheaper meat prices, holding a family pack of pork chops priced at $2.99 per pound.

He said the PST change did not have much impact on his overall bill.

“I didn’t notice a difference,” Domenico said of the PST changes.

The Manitoba NDP government estimates the exemption will save the average family about $8.33 a month, or roughly $100 a year.

“My go-to is whatever is on sale,” Winnipeg resident Tricia Grainger-Viles said, adding that a few cents off doesn’t do much good. “Who can afford anything else?”

Asking around seven people outside a FreshCo location, most said they did not notice any change at checkout, and that grocery prices still felt high.

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives say the cut serves only to make junk food cheaper while doing little to help family finances.

But Bernice Wollman, loading groceries into her trunk, said she had been watching for the change after hearing about it a few days earlier and felt it was a positive step to help with high grocery prices.

“I think it’s good,” she said. “Anything helps.”

Tarik Zeid, manager of Food Fare and son of owner Munther Zeid, said the switch was relatively quick for the company.

“We have our item file pretty divided by department category and all these different things, so we just choose the categories that apply and take off the PST. Sub-five minute thing for us,” he said.

He added that a recent switch in the store’s point-of-sale system has also helped streamline the change.

“Not really,” Zeid said when asked if he has heard much from customers about it. “My concern is people thinking that it should be everything in the store, like household products, toilet paper, so I’m a little worried of people getting mad at us, being like, ‘you’re not doing it right.’”

“I don’t think it makes much of a difference,” he added. “Most of the store was not taxable anyway. So I don’t think it’s saving people too much money.”

zoe.pierce@freepress.mb.ca