As the cost of food rises with inflation, one TikToker’s video highlighting the expense of buying mostly essentials at bulk stores like Costco has drawn over 600,000 views on the platform.
In the video, user Brittany Aucoin (@brittanyaucoin_) shows her cart with the six items she took home for an exorbitant price.
“I think I’m just going to quit eating,” she says in the video. “I just went to Costco. I bought chicken and ground beef, a box of fish, toilet paper, some Christmas chocolates, and chips. This was $140.”
@brittanyaucoin_ It’s actually paper towel but you get the point 😂 can anyone in Nova Scotia actually afford to live right now because I’m not sure wtf to do anymore???? 😫 #fyp #canada #novascotia #foodcosts ♬ original sound – Brittany Aucoin
Several viewers accused Aucoin of lying about the cost of her grocery run.
“I shop at Costco that wasn’t it $140,” one commenter wrote.
“I literally went to Costco, and bought the same things, plus a lot more and it was $174…..soooooooooo,” another user shared.
“What, how, where,” a third added. “That’s like $45-$50.”
In a follow-up video, she shows her receipt came out to $135.81 CAD, equivalent to about $101.38 USD.
Others who are from the area acknowledged that those who are confused simply are not familiar with the cost of living in Canada, and provinces like Nova Scotia.
“For everyone annoyed in the comments this isn’t the US it’s Canada,” one commenter wrote.
“The amount of people not reading the fact you’re in NS Canada like dammit we don’t have these cheap stores you’re recommending,” another commenter wrote.
“This is Nova Scotia; we are in a crisis and this is absolutely true!” a commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Aucoin for comment regarding the video via Instagram direct message, but did not receive a response ahead of publication time.
Update 11:29am CT December 27: Aucoin, a hairstylist who lives in Nova Scotia, Can., told the Daily Dot over a phone call that she has been observing the cost of food increase due to global inflation. On a recent trip to Costco, she shared that she had spent $140 on a relatively small number of items and that her money used to go much farther at the store.
When she shared the video, Aucoin said she was unprepared for the number of people who insisted she was not being truthful about the cost of her grocery run.
“There are a lot of people who were very angry,” she said. “I was not fully expecting a lot of comments saying that I am a liar, that there’s no way that many things cost that much money. That’s sort of the whole point of the video. None of these things used to cost as much money but now we’re in a place that they did.”
