There's nothing to make Ontario shoppers realize just how exorbitant grocery prices have gotten lately like a quick comparison to the prices of just a few years ago.

Flyers shared to social media this weekend show how good we once had it, with deals that consumers likely can't imagine ever seeing in their local supermarket again.

Two different Food Basics flyers were shared to the Toronto subreddit in the last two days, one from 2009, and the other from 2020.

While one can't really expect a price match to the earlier year — when an array of items were listed as low $0.99 — the disparities between current costs and those from less than four years ago are serving as a huge blow to consumers who have had to endure record grocery price inflation and a cost of living crisis simultaneously.

Food Basics flyer from 2020...
byu/Equivalent-Net-7496 intoronto

Eleven-pound watermelons going for just $2.99 and bags of chips marked to two for $5 are particularly bothersome, given how bills for both have skyrocketed to shocking highs in recent months.

"The watermelon is wild. I've seen watermelons go for $10+ each. $2.88 each 3-4 years ago. Obscene. These posts really put things into perspective," reads one among hundreds of comments on Reddit.

"I thought it said 2000 at first and then I realized how numb and tired I am that this was only 3-4 years ago," says another.

And still another: "Two for $5 bag of chips? Just one bag is $7 at some places now!," to which one person agreed "the chips price was defs the biggest shocker for me."

People also chimed in to notice not only price hikes for various staples, but also "shrinkflation," a growing trend that citizens are picking up on at the nation's biggest chains, along with "scamflation."

"The bacon... Where can you find bacon for less than $6.99 now? And it all used to be 500 g, now the packages are almost all 375 g," one person said of the $2.88 packs of the meat depicted in the flyer.

Throwback to a Food Basics flyer from 2009
byu/FoodRivalry intoronto

While many are disheartened by the confronting contrast, others are hopeful for change, crossing their fingers that politicians will be successful in bringing another competitor from abroad into Canada's very limited market sometime in the near future.

Others simply encouraged one another to boycott stores and products with outrageously high prices.

"I refuse to buy them at that price," one person said of $10 Doritos spotted at a downtown 7-Eleven.

"I really hope people stop buying stuff when it's overpriced like that. Not buying is the only power we have."