A woman is baffled by a veggie platter priced at $44.99 each and takes to TikTok to confirm she’s not “crazy” for being shocked by the price.
In a viral video with over $679,000 views, content creator Nikita Cekay (@nikitacekay) shows two food platters and asks if the prices also seem abnormal to viewers.
“Am I crazy to think that this is literally so expensive?” Cekay begins, panning over the food products. Ironically, the price card in front of the platters is marked “New lower price.”
“This is a veggie platter for $45,” Cekay says, showing a five-part veggie tray complete with cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, cauliflower, and celery. The fruit tray next to it is also marked with a price tag of $44.99 and includes slices of watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe, and melons. “That’s insane,” Cekay vents.
She puts her hand on the vegetable plate to convey its size, her hand almost fully covering one of the five vegetable sections of the platter. “Is that worth $45?” she asks as the video ends.
In the comments section, viewers were also perplexed by what some assumed were inflated prices.
“Those are literally peasant veggies and NO DIP?” one viewer wrote.
“It’s airport pricing in our grocery stores now,” a second person added.
“‘ New lower price’ WHAT WAS IT BEFORE?” one person asked.
“This has got to be in Canada,” another viewer declared, “we’re literally in the trenches here.”
@nikitacekay what is going on
♬ original sound – Nikita Cekay
The viewer is correct, as the video seems to have been taken at Metro, a Canadian grocery chain.
While other viewers shared similar sentiments, inflation in Canada is actually on the decline. According to Blue Book, inflation in Canada declined to 2.8% last month. Food inflation is at its lowest since July 2021, sitting at 2.4%. It’s a huge decrease from Canada’s grocery inflation over the last two years, which averaged at a whopping 9%.
“Jesus. I would think anything over $15 would be pricey…metro has some audacity that’s for sure!” another commenter wrote.
Metro’s CEO, Erica La Flèche, reported at the end of January that higher prices were coming to Metro stores after an industry-wide blackout on supplier price increases ended just weeks earlier.
The CEO did say, however, that price spikes were going back to “more normal levels” compared to the ones seen in Metro stores during the COVID-19 pandemic and post-pandemic.
The freeze on supplier prices was an attempt by Canadian grocers to curb food inflation.
While inflation continues to affect food prices globally —the Daily Dot has previously reported on inflation rates in the U.S. and how it has affected consumers across industries—viewers under Cekay’s video seemed to sniff out her situation as a uniquely Canadian problem.
“Tell me you’re in Canada without telling me you’re in Canada,” a viewer quipped.
The Daily Dot has reached out to Cekay via Instagram direct message and Metro via email for more information.
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