This Canadian Woman Is Going Viral For Literally Crossing The Border To The States To Do Her Grocery Shopping

" I sleep together they say support local but right now everybody is suffer hugely . We ’re all trying to make it and it is so much cheaper for me to go next threshold than it is for me to shop in my own country . "

If you live in Canada, you’ve probably noticed your regular grocery run is making a heftier dent in the ol' bank account. Inflation is driving Canadian food expenses through our snowy, maple syrup covered roofs— and one Canadian woman’s unexpected solution recently went viral.

Brandi Dustin (@kade1613) lives in rural British Columbia about 45 minutes away from the nearest grocery store. However, she also happens to live next to the United States border… and can you guess what she does?

The TikTok starts with Brandi saying, “Everybody keeps talking about grocery prices in Canada and I wanted to make a video on that. […] The closest grocery store [in the US] is 15 minutes. So that is usually where I do most of my grocery shopping. Even with the crappy exchange!”

Part I: Brandi shows what she purchased in the United States for $85.04 USD.

What I’m calling, “Brandi’s USA Grocery Haul” includes two packs of hot dog buns for $6, two packs of Tillamook Cheese for $6, Mexican sour cream for $2.79 and fresh salsa for $2.50.

Brandi continues, “Two things of children’s pain reliever. I saved a ton on that, that was two for $5 dollars. I think I saved a total of $3.39 on EACH.”

“Two large, full fat cottage cheese: two for six dollars today. I believe each one of those tubs are $8.99 in Canada. Hamburger helper was two for $3. Two packs of 10 pack of waffles were $3. Doritos were on sale — we’re gonna be doing tacos in a bag and those were two for $7 for the large bag. A large bag of Chex Mix was two for $7 as well.”

Onto the produce: “Two big huge things of romaine lettuce were two for $3. Peppers were $2 or $3 today. It was $2.75 for my tomatoes, $1 for both of the limes and $1 if not less, for my jalapeños.”

Brandi acknowledges the huge price difference as she goes through the meat she purchased: “I got a pack of pork chops here for $4.76. The meat prices down there [in the US] are insanely cheap. A big thing of ground beef for $6.90 and pork sausage for $3.74.”

Part II: After walking us through the last of her purchases including alcohol, Brandi calculates what it would cost to do the same haul at a Canadian grocery store

Again, do NOT question Brandi’s research ethics because she ensures the viewers that she adds the closest comparable brand and price for the items in her cart. “This is hard to do with some stuff,” she notes but here are some of her swaps:

So, according to her calculations, to go into her local Canadian grocery store and buy all this stuff, she would be paying $146 CAD. “Keep in mind,” she says, “I paid $85 USD and it went through [conversion rate] at $117 CAD. That’s $117 CAD to $160 CAD. So, it is STILL worth it to go to the US and shop.”

Our hero signs off by saying, “Good luck to everybody out there and let me know how you think I did, if you think I’m crazy for going over there or if I did a good job, if I got some good deals — let me know what you think!”

This person, however, added to Brandi’s findings:

Considering the MUCH cheaper price of gas in the States, all of a sudden I’m feeling stupid for NOT buying my groceries in the US….

Whether you do your groceries at the market down the street from your house or you drive across the US border, there’s one thing Brandi got exactly right in her video— “we’re all just trying to make it” right now.

And we gotta help each other out. So give a big THANK YOU to Brandi for her science experiment and please check out her video here:

Grocery prices in Canada have become demented , so I go to the states to shop . Here ’s everything I got!#justinflation#trudeauneedstogo#inflation#savecanada#pierrepolievreforprimeminister