‘A brighter day’: IGA Extra Candiac’s store director does weekly grocery giveaway

Canada’s 2025 Food Price Report forecasted costs would increase by three to five per cent, with the average family of four spending an extra $800 on groceries per year, with many struggling to afford the basics.

That’s why Enzo Gabrielli, store director at IGA Extra in Candiac on Montreal’s South Shore decided to do something about it – every week, he gives away free groceries to customers at random.

Gabrielli says the idea suddenly came to him one day, when he found himself wandering around the cash registers at his store, where he overhead a conversation between one of his cashiers and a customer.

“There was a lady at cash one who was buying groceries and she had flowers with her,” he began to explain. “The cashier asked her if she wanted to rip the price off and she said that they were for her, and I said wait a second you’re buying your own flowers, no no no, not in my store.”

According to Gabrielli, he was so touched by her reaction of utter shock, disbelief and appreciation, that he began giving a way groceries every week just to see similar smiles appear on his client’s faces.

“I started this maybe two months ago,” he said.

Since then, he can be found roaming around the cashes, waiting for another ‘folies du directeur’, as he proudly likes to call his moments of thoughtful generosity.

“You see it in newspapers, you know, costs gone up, costs gone up, costs gone up, so, by doing something like this, maybe I cut the cost of one person’s bill for that week,” Gabrielli exclaimed.

With high costs causing increased food insecurity among many Canadians, food banks have had to take the brunt of the demand for help. According to data revealed by the Food Banks Canada Count in March, food bank visits in Canada hit a record high this year, with 2 million Canadians turning to these services, which is a 90 per cent increase compared to 2019.

“The cost of living in general has actually squeezed a lot of families so if there is one place you can save you can save is when you purchase food, you can’t really save on rent,” said Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, visiting scholar at McGill University and co-author of Canada’s 2025 Food Price Report for the past 15 years, as he describes how families have been forced to trade down on nutritional brands, which he says can cause issues for people’s general health and well-being.

One of Gabrielli’s lucky customers of the day, Rejeanne Boivin, echoed Charlebois’ statement saying, “We try to shop for specials, sometimes we go grocery shopping twice a week to see what we need to buy, otherwise we buy accordingly.”

“I think it’s worse for our children and grand-children because they’re the ones who suffer,” added Isabelle Doiron, another one of Gabrielli’s free grocery recipients this week. “There are only two of us at home so it’s less difficult, but for small families it’s really really tough.”

But it’s not all bad news as Gabrielli says he has no intention of stopping “les folies du directeur” anytime soon.

“I can’t control the cost of living, I can’t control the cost of taxes, I can’t control that, but what I can control is hopefully making somebody smile,” said Gabrielli, emphasizing that he started doing this to make his clients happy and as a way to give back for the cherished life he feels he’s lived so far.

Experts even say some food prices may drop at the end of September or early October.

“For sure coffee, tea, nuts, spices, many products in jars coming from the U.S or even packed here and some ingredients come from U.S, we are expecting some price drops,” said Charlebois referring to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s decision to pause counter-tariffs against the United States, which he says will help Canadians.