The Retail Illusion: Why Canadian Shoppers Are Paying More for Less

Headline retail sales figures can easily paint an overly optimistic portrait of consumer resilience. In August, Statistics Canada’s Retail Trade survey reported a top-line sales uptick of +1.2%, pushing total monthly expenditures to $74.6 billion. On paper, an expanding top-line suggests accelerating consumer demand; in practice, price-adjusted (chained-dollar) volumes tell a starkly different story. When stripping out persistent price inflation across core staple categories, retail sales volume