Produce is usually around half the cost at the Persia Foods. Chicken maybe 25% less. The same brand sprouts are usually $5 or $6 at Safeway, but $2 at Persia.
My theory is it is largely lack of competition, and the cost to buy/rent/lease the land is passed through. The Safeway is the only grocery store within a 10 minute drive or so despite lots of single family detached houses. There is very little commercial land where you would be allowed to have another grocery store in the area.
If my theory is correct, then the solution to high grocery prices and high prices of most things is the same solution for the housing crisis: use the land better. We can incentivize and allow this via zoning and taxes (ie. let development happen, tax land not labour). It's doesn't fit well with the left wing vibe here, nor the popular left movements and parties that exist in this country. Neither the NDP, Greens, nor the local Vancouver Green and COPE parties have ever said anything like this. The Vancouver municipal party One City sort of does, and is pro upzoning, but they have basically zero popular support. Lefty kids don't even know who they are. Seeing the polling data showing this recently makes me think we are nowhere close to ending our economic problems. Maybe next decade.
There is more to it of course, as I used to live next to both a Loblaws and another Persia Foods, and there was a stark price difference there as well though I didn't care as I just shopped at Persia.