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Cost of Living·Audio

Why we're shopping like it's 1979

Rising food prices have us shopping like the days of disco, but Canadians actually spend a much smaller portion of their income on food than they did in the Seventies. We explain why decades of cheap sustenance is making food inflation hurt so bad.

The Cost of Living for November 6, 2022

CBC News ·
It was the decade of disco and soaring inflation, with food hitting its highest year over year increase of 20.18 per cent in Canada in July 1978. (The Associated Press)
Cost of Living27:31Why we're shopping like it's 1979

The Cost of Living ❤s money — how it makes (or breaks) us. 
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We also repeat the following Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. in most provinces. 
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What we can learn from 70s bargain hunters  

Food price inflation hasn't been this bad since we wore bell bottoms and cheered on the Montreal Expos.

Danielle Nerman talks to a woman who remembers budget meals of wieners and beans, and explains how agricultural technology and a globalized food system gave us the last four decades of historically cheap food. 
Cost of Living10:31Why we're shopping like it's 1979

No more free returns?

Online returns cost retailers millions of dollars. Now some companies are pushing back.

In the UK, retailers like Zara and Uniqlo are starting to charge customers to return online purchases. Here in Canada, an online fashion website has come up with its own solution — customers ship their returned item to the next customer who wants it.

Think of it as "returning it forward." 
Cost of Living4:56No more free returns?

Hydrogen: great green hope? Or hype?

People have been pumping the tires for hydrogen for a long time. But now, some believe it is closer than ever to fulfilling its promise.

Paul Haavardsrud talks to the Mayor of Stephenville, Newfoundland — where residents are buzzing about the billions that could be spent in their community. But only if someone figures out how to ship hydrogen across the Atlantic. No biggie.  
Cost of Living8:38Hydrogen: Great green hope? Or hype?

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