The hunt for affordable groceries in Ontario can be an arduous one, with shoppers increasingly relying on discount chains and special promotions to get their money's worth during weekly food hauls.

But, a few residents have been spotting certain in-store deals at their local grocers that can hardly be considered a bargain if they are really priced as advertised, and they've been taking Reddit to share — and question — these hilarious instances of "deals" that aren't really deals.

An oldie but a goodie? - Found this on my phone from two weeks ago. 😤
byu/Eggpuddin inloblawsisoutofcontrol

One user shared a photo taken at a Loblaws in Toronto that was advertising a sale on 1 L bottles of French's Ketchup earlier this month. Unfortunately, as the consumer noticed, the sale price and the regular price appeared to be the exact same, at $5.49 apiece.

Then there was a similar discovery at a Real Canadian Superstore, which had the same $5 price on both sale and regular price stickers for packs of smoked turkey breast, and also at a Rexall elsewhere in the province, where it looks like staff slashed the price of Lindt Lindor mini chocolates to $2.55 a bag from the store's original price of... $2.55 a bag.

Thanks, Rexall!
byu/Emergency-Gazelle954 inontario

And, at an outpost of competitor Metro, also in Ontario: organic 2 per cent milk was found to be reduced a whopping 10 cents, from $7.09 for 2L to $6.99. "What a deal!" a person sharing a snapshot of the laughable markdown wrote.

Others have recently noticed similar "discounts" that don't amount to much (or any) savings at all, or are on items that have recently gone up in price, many of which have been posted in the popular subreddit Loblaws Is Out Of Control.

What a deal!
byu/shawkawkaw inloblawsisoutofcontrol

But, while some absurd or non-sensical sale stickers can sometimes be chalked up to a pricing error in-store or even higher up, a spokesperson for Loblaw confirmed that in least the case of the $5.49 French's ketchup, the two different labels actually both reflect a sale price.

They call the use of a double sticker here a "safeguard should the sale sticker fall off."

They also added that if and when someone comes across an incorrect price that can be attributed to human error, Loblaw "always corrects them when it is brought to our attention."

"When products are scanned, the prices are accurate and would not reflect an incorrect tag," they assured.