Grant Packard, associate professor of marketing at York University, talks with Financial Post's Larysa Harapyn about a planned consumer boycott of Loblaw brands in May over food inflation.
I was shopping at Real Canadian Super Store, No Frills , Independent and Shoppers Drug Mart because they are Canadian and close by. BUT, Shoppers is way too expensive and pushy with the self checkout...and I've noticed that some of these stores are not quite as busy as they use to be. I believe Canadians feel like they are being punched in the face after years of loyalty to Loblaw.
I found it interesting to learn Loblaw brands are the expensive stores in Eastern Canada. In Western Canada, Superstore is one of the cheapest stores. Safeway, Coop, and Sobeys are way more expensive
@@c-j-p Such as? Maybe I have them too and don't know it. I get certain things cheaper at Dollarama and Giant Tiger but for full service supermarkets, I find Superstore better than Sobeys.
If you get your prescriptions filled at Shoppers DM, switch to a smaller pharmacy in your neighbourhood. The dispensing fee will prob be cheaper and the service will be much better. We have a plan that covers our prescriptions but why support corporate greed?
I SEE THE PRICE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUPERSTORES AND WALMART. AND WALMART ARE WAY LESS CHEAPER THAN THE OTHER. I ONLY SHOP TO SUPERSTORE WHEN NOTHING-RUN OUT OF STOCK IN OTHER STORES.
That's not true. Walmart and Superstore are both equally inexpensive. They just go back and forth as to which items are cheaper, each week. You just need to learn to shop smarter.
does Loblaws service the health and well being of its customers or the well being of its own bank account? their prices already answered this question.
Loblaws has taken away our consumer options from high to low end shopping. They also wanted to be the face of the sophisticated grocery shopping experience, which in these times is a slap in face where food is luxury to many consumers. In major cities like Toronto there is Chinatown, Rabba foods, St Lawrence Market and all the neighbourhood specialty stores but once you leave the city you are out of choices for inexpensive but quality food. The whole country suffers whilst this massive corporation is profiting, they can lower prices but they choose not to.
@@aman888 In many cities and towns Loblaws companies are the only options, they have even entered the drug store/grocery hybrid arena which further limits options because Shoppers have the lion share of pharmacies/food for many communities in Canada. This further limits options. If you live in a large city great more power to you, but most of Canada does not. live this way.
And we can add that their no name products are sold massively under the weight the package says it should be. Why haven't these guys been sued out of existence?
Think of Loblaw as run like a mafia, so it’s great if we take a stand against this! Yes, of course we need more players in so many sectors to increase competition and provide better service that customers benefit from, but it isn’t going to happen as things are bcs our biggest businesses are in bed with our government and they have all been working for their own benefit, not the “little Canadians”, for a very long time, it’s really gotten progressively worse since the 80’s:political contributions, lobbying, trade agreements, union busting, price fixing, the smaller producers of food can’t afford to pay for prime grocery shelf placement so we see the big names more and more… the government doesn’t even make sure the food is healthy and safe anymore. Proof of their evil is how they screwed over the Ontario organic farmers by making a deal with Neilson’s after the farmer coop built a huge factory and painstakingly built up a brand new market for organic milk over decades. They can slip the rug out and not flinch bcs like so many in the world they are greedy Narcissistic ppl and just practice evil in so many ways - we would be horrified to know the many details! No company should have so much power and profit at our expense.
this guy is spokesperson for Loblaws, this segment does not look into the higher than normal profits generated by loblaws in the last 2-3 years, which is hurting Canadians. Loblaws negotiates for bulk purchases, how can this guy say we do not see the profit at the grass roots level..... the grassroots (farmers, et.) should be paid fairly, there is no comparison between profits generated by the large corporations vs. farmers....
I feel like this guy really misrepresents the hate towards Loblaws. It's not just misdirected anger. Like, you know the bread price fixing thing he mentioned? He doesn't say what it is but what happened was Loblaws and bunch of other companies like bread making factories (like Canada Bread that was convicted for this) and other supermarket chains conspired to inflate the cost of bread. This made them excessive profits on it for years. They literally ripped everyone off off like $400 until they were caught if you consistently bought bread from any of their stores. Also, Loblaws got immunity for this crime by snitching. They didn't even get a penalty from the government - All they did was give out $25 gift cards to everyone who applied for them not too long ago when Canada Bread plead guilty for the crime BUT again, they still pocketed basically everyone's $400. That's atrocious and insulting. There's no way they aren't doing this exact same thing again with Walmart, Safeway, Save On Foods, etc, but for all grocery prices this time and blaming it on what's happening in the world today. They're also one of the few companies right now that are earning MORE profits than expected during this crazy inflation time. This means they didn't just make the profits they anticipated, they made BEYOND that. It also means they didn't increase their prices to cover additional costs - they're making even more than that! I've heard the argument that "oh, they only make 3% in profits" but the people making this money are the almost 600 shareholders. These people are literally multi-millionaires and the boycott isn't to say that rich people can't exist or anything. It's to make a point that it's got to be done fairly and not by tricking Canadians. Another thing he mentioned with no details is the 50% off scandal. Loblaws stores offer 50% off discounts on food that's old and about to go bad. This is stuff that's near expiry fruits and vegetables, damaged items, crusty ass bread and donuts, etc. They reduced that to 30% off for a few months until rolling this decision back when they received bad media coverage from it. Loblaws also took 12 million from a government initiative to lower fridge / freezer emissions that was meant for smaller businesses. There's no reason they needed tax payer dollars for this. I wonder how much that costed everyone individually, along with that $400 extra for bread I mentioned earlier. They're also one of five large grocery retailers in Canada. If everyone boycotts Loblaws and it successfully kills their profits even if it's just for a month, the others that they're in cahoots with will definitely take notice because who is to say they aren't next? Also here's some sources if you read this far and are still interested lol: www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaw-q1-revenue-boycott-1.7190272 www.ctvnews.ca/business/still-no-answers-on-yearslong-bread-price-fixing-scandal-law-professor-1.6253803 macleans.ca/news/canada/14-years-of-loblaws-bread-price-fixing-may-have-cost-you-at-least-400 nationalpost.com/news/canada/loblaw-stores-ending-50-discount-expiring-items www.ctvnews.ca/business/how-is-that-fair-12m-government-funding-for-loblaw-attracts-outrage-1.4372001?cache=yesclipId104062
@@svenhodaka9145they will put themselves out of business by over pricing its goods to customers. its a give and take relationship where business was built on the fictciious model of "the customer is always right"... time for LOBLAWS TO BEND A KNEE
Why even interview this dude, why can't people say the ugly facts? Loblaws doesn't care, if they did, their prices would be less! Stupid story and it's damn frustrating!
Walmart has cheaper bulk meats than Nofrills right now. And Walmart is usually stocked too unlike Loblaws controlled NoFrills. Bring back free market competition in Canada!
@@ontariofirs7347 Quite the opposite, the Liberals are trying to court more grocers from the US but they don't want to come because of Canadian regulations. And I'm not even a Trudeau supporter, but let's tell the truth here.
Don't blame Loblaws, blame your government because they are the ones increasing the price of food in general. My brother is a farmer and his costs have increased by 4 times in the past year. These prices have increased because of government interference and red tape. If you don't allow prices to fluctuate based on their costs, they will lose money, and you will get no food. Literally.
Loblaws has got well into the bloodline of Canadian groceries. If you think that buying from local grocers instead of loblaw stores is boycotting Loblaws. Well keep dreaming. Anywhere a grocery item is sold in Canada, loblaw earns money! Yes that’s true. They are involved in procurement, distribution, while selling, supply chain, retail etc. I have worked for Loblaws for a decade and I know how much efforts are put in to destroy competition. Loblaw is one of the biggest employers in Canada and based on this they do influence political decision as well. Although I hate the monopoly that they enjoy but realistically if Loblaws doesn’t do well, we will have a bigger problem. Be careful what you wish.
@CanadaTop5 Thanks for your very informative comment knowing you worked for Loblaws. 👌 It's very frightening that the capitalist company influences political decisions. 😥
This guest has thrown in the word "fair" about a dozen times to psychologically get to us by implying we the consumer are not being fair. Bullcrap! They are the ones not FAIR. Greed!
Loblaws is the target of an organized NDP campaign. Gurratan - Jagmeet's Singh's brother, is employed by Crestview Strategy who works for Metro. Follow the money.
Galen Weston, chairman of Loblaws (and his father and grandfather before him) have been consistent donors exclusively to the Conservative party. Galen is no friend of Trudeau's or the Liberals. Look at the way he tried to jack up the price of expired food (Enjoy Tonight stickers increased from 50% to 30% off) when Trudeau suggested the most profitable grocers should take some responsibility for the high price of groceries, since post-Covid inflation had returned to normal levels and couldn't be blamed anymore.Poilievre's top strategist is also the CEO of a Loblaws lobbyist firm pressuring gov't to help increase their profits.
The CONSERVATIVE party designed carbon pricing to continue increasing in small amounts until emission targets were met in 2030. Trudeau came along and decided to give YOU a Rebate instead of sending it directly back to Big Oil as a subsidy for "business development". That's why the Cons and their Big Oil bosses are are working so hard to rally their troops (you) to protest it. Big Oil wants your rebate. Poilievre wants to give it to them. --
Simple logic: If Loblaw's prices are higher than other stores - you do not need boycott, just buy where it is cheaper. If price is about the same - how is that Loblaw's fault?
Loblaws in the end of the day is there to make money. If people got a problem with Loblaws they should open their own Grocery Store, team up. Loblaws is not charity it's a business.
@@TristynRusselo Why are you blaming Loblaws when the food prices have increased in every store, including at local butcher shops? The blames goes to government unfortunately, they are literally destroying our ability to grow food because of "climate change".
@@MakeYouFeelBetterNow I'm not blaming loblaws, I never said that. But since you bring it up, I blame all grocery chains. They have all reduced their staff and replaced it with self checkout, therefore reducing their operating costs, yet their prices go up
@@TristynRusselo In a capitalistic society, everything is a commodity as long as they are bought and sold on a stock exchange. Loblaws is responsible to its shareholders.
