New bakery to open its doors in Windsor amid soaring food prices

A new bakery in central Windsor, Ont. is opening this weekend despite soaring food prices across the country.

Management at the Golden Oven European Bakery on Westcott Road said they’ll be keeping an eye on production costs in the weeks and months ahead, after the heads of Canada's largest grocery chains on Monday pledged to stabilize food prices by Thanksgiving.

“Hopefully our bakery is not going to be as pricey as other bakeries,” said manager Sonia Abro. “Since May, we [have been] working hard to open the bakery.”

Abro said the new bakery will offer all kinds of breads, cakes and pastries along with other health conscious options, and suggested prices may vary over time, depending on the cost to make most things.

“Every time we will change the price if we see it's too much for the people. We will put it down and then we will see our shipping, our products, how much it's [going to] cost us, all that we have to calculate it and see the price at the end,” Abro said.

The Golden Oven European Bakery on Westcott Road in Windsor, Ont. is preparing to open its doors on Sept. 23, 2023. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

“Very excited,” Abro exclaimed, who added the doors open on Sept. 23 at 10 a.m.

Sylvain Charlebois, senior director with the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University said on Tuesday that he believes things will get better when it comes to food price stability in Canada.

“We're pretty confident that things will get better,” he said.

Charlebois suggested the market is beginning to level out after several years of unpredictability.

“The food inflation rate is now down to 6.8 per cent. A year ago, we were predicting that we would finish the year anywhere between 5 to 7 per cent. That's pretty much what's going on here,” he said.

Charlebois added, “We're not being hit by unpredictable events, which have occurred over the summer. India, the Black Sea deal, which ended. We were a bit nervous for a while, but not anymore. Things are much calmer now.”

According to Charlebois, despite what Ottawa decides to do he believes consumers should expect some relief in the coming months, including on staples such as flour and sugar.

“I think the market itself is taking care of our high food inflation rate, to be honest, and so I think Ottawa’s position is to help Canadians as soon as possible, and I'll leave it up to Mr. Champagne trying to decide what means are necessary to do that. But as far as I'm concerned, I actually think that the market is going in the right direction,” he explained.

The heads of Canada's largest grocers have made a pledge to stabilize food prices by Thanksgiving 2023. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor)

Charlebois told CTV News Windsor he thinks it’s still worthwhile to shop around between the big grocery stores, discount chains and independent grocers to find deals and save some money on food costs, and said some independent grocers have been offering good deals to consumers because they have good relationships with suppliers.

“The bottom line is if you do have time to shop around, absolutely you should look at your options around your neighbourhood,” he said.

In the meantime, independent grocers agree with shopping around to find savings.

“We really don't set the prices or make our percentages based on what we paid for the product,” said Fred Bouzide, who owns Fred’s Farm Fresh International Market in Windsor.

“If the supply is a lot, the prices come down, if there’s not enough supply, the prices go up,” he added. “They don't control the prices, what controls the prices is the supply and demand. If there's too much tenderloin, the tenderloin price comes down. There's not enough it goes up. It's very simple.”