“We have got beef with these prices!”
Friday January 27, 2023
Many international students experience another form of ‘culture shock’ when confronted with the high prices of groceries in BC
This morning a conversation was heard between two students from TRU in Kamloops, Canada. One of them was an international student from France while the other was an original resident of British Columbia. They were apparently discussing about how Canada is so much more expensive than Europe, well mostly France for sure. The French student explained that thus the Canadian dollar and the Euro currencies have a similar value, a lot of groceries, mostly meat, is way cheaper in France than here in Kamloops. For example, ground beef is nearly twice the price as it is in France with a high price of nearly $18 to $20 on average while in France the price would translate to $11. The student explains that he struggles to do his grocery shopping because the total sums up to a big number for a student at the end of the month. Therefore he had to make sacrifices regarding eating meat everyday or cooking special meals all the time. Not that meat is an rare and unaffordable resource to get for students, he estimates that students must pay attention to their weekly spending’s on groceries because of the high prices in BC. On the other hand, other international students, mostly Indians agree with the fact that BC is quite the expensive province to live in. Some of the French student’s roommates explained to him that they had to go shopping to special grocery stores to get Indian spices and groceries that were way more expensive than they were back at their home towns.
Regardless of that, some instances like the Food Bank Society are created here in Kamloops to help students, families or just solitary people overcome the high prices surrounding them. With some people donating money to the organization, other’s can apply to be part of the food bank clients and receive gift cards for grocery stores or free food directly.
To sum it up, prices in British Columbia are generally more expensive than in Europe or other places in the world like India, which can be a real struggle for international students that have to readjust themselves to living here in Kamloops.
See link below for the food bank :
Keith Morgan
Taylor Peck
