Groceries and the HST

Going for groceries seems like a pretty benign sort of activity. I have always thot so, also. The best way to add intrigue to this activity is to find a gimmick. I found this morning that I was in a bit of a funk and as the day went along, it got worse - to the point of being in tears during our daily walk. Then I came back to find out we were out of dog food and had to go out anyway. When I got into the store my concern was that I would buy fifty dollars worth of junk food and be living on ice cream and cookies all week, so would the animals. My fears were unfounded. I left the store with a dozen items, went thru the express check-out and spent fifty bucks!!! How did that happen?? Everything I purchased was serious groceries and the receipt didn't show any overcharges. I am inclined to think that this new HST tax is causing the local stores to be hiking up their prices just a teeny bit in all areas so that when the tax comes in we won't notice that it all When the GST came in, it was noticed by everyone that prices went up at the same time and there was a lot of confusion surrounding what was taxable and what wasn't. For a while we were being charged incorrectly and you had to catch the mistake and go back to the store over a couple of cents here and there. Its happening again and the same scenario seems to be starting up again and there seems to be less on the shelves too. Can we continue to allow the government to make changes in a tax structure that does not belong in the system and making the constant changes helps no one except the guys with the deep, bulging pockets who think they still need more of our money to keep those raises coming in. My day didn't get any better after I realized that it is going to cost me more to buy what little I keep in the house and I don't have many places I can cut down as I don't have a huge variety of food that I need to keep in. Unfortunately, if I can't figure out how to continue living in all the new ways of the economy, I have no idea how the people who don't watch their shopping habits as closely as I do. Meg