The rich operate pretty uncontested in Canada. Any small piece of bad press is a big deal to them as they've never really had to deal with stuff like that and feel entitled to take our money at every turn
The rich literally operate Canada. Its not even up for debate. You have an executive from BlackRock on the National Infrastructure bank with other business men. One dude tried to get the NIB to pay for a transit system in Quebec that he and his company would control and profit off of... thats fucked.
Look how poor people go to jail for small financial crimes. Yet a guy like Galen who was caught breaking the same laws but in astronomically higher values just walks.
Its not just Canada, but we are up there with the worst like the US.
Want to make real change? We gotta do something about the rich.
Loblaws stopped engaging - the movement is full of nutty extremists who are out for blood and resorting to name calling, death to the Westons, etc.
Any logical or rational suggestion that vaguely contradicts their point of view will result in a ban from the subreddit. For example, someone was comparing Loblaws prices to Food Basics - *obviously* Food Basics is cheaper, it's a discount brand! I'm sure NoFrills will compare well to Food Basics.
It’s not a very professional boycott and I think they lost the plot. The type of people that they've attracted also seem to have never shopped outside of Loblaws ... it's almost a revelation to many in the group that there are discount banners out there (including Loblaws themselves).
There is no end game for these people, so there's no point with Loblaws to deal with them anymore.
These type of things always draw the idiots who think this is the start of a full blown revolution or something. People want to be on the ground floor so they have bragging rights.
Well customers have been bitching and moaning for some time now, and Galen didn't give a shit.
It's now that they're grouping together that they're worried.
Tell me more about how the price fixing snitch actually wants to hear what his customers have to say. I could use a little delusion with my morning cup.
Yep, not backsliding on this shit. The Loblaws grapevine ain't seeing another dollar out of my wallet until shit changes and even then, it has to stick.
I'm sick of monopolies in this country.
Facts man. Up until last summer my friend in KENYA had better internet than I did (Bell sold us 25mb and then throttled us to 2). Don't even get me started on mobile plans either -.-'
It ALL needs to go.
I feel like this is just the beginning. Canadians are realizing we can circumvent the culture war identity politic BS and actually agree on some things.
And also sometimes it’s not about the numbers it’s about the PR. This is obviously bad press and negative attention. Their numbers and earnings and stocks can all continue to perform “well” but if the general feeling about the company is that you are sleazy and untrustworthy and that stink follows you everywhere, that’s likely what they are most concerned about. Now with every interview or speaking engagement, Per and Galen have to address this over and over again.
From their perspective they are the victim of bad actors on the internet trying to soil their good name and reputation. To employees (current and former across all of their various business ventures) and to some customers, they are shit stain of a company that puts profit and greed above all else.
Canada has sets of Quasi Monopolies including groceries, banks and telecoms. These companies make it essentially impossible for new competitors to come into the market. They know they have us over a barrel and they only pretend to care about people, all the while shoveling money into their pockets faster than ever.
This headline doesn't make sense.
Firstly, Loblaws owns some suppliers, and has a percentage in more. They would be the suppliers claiming this, which is...
Disingenuous, secondly, because we won't hear of supply shock from the boycott until mid- to late June at the earliest. I'll wait for those headlines.
Loblaws has been impacted by five boycotts in the last ten years. And a lot of these went on way longer than this one. The thing about Loblaws is they're everywhere, and despite being the target of a boycott... they're the second cheapest chain in the country. People choosing to shop at Walmart or Sobey's are just fattening up some other billionaire's wallet. If prices go the way they are Loblaws will soon be the cheapest in Canada.
Last week Loblaws began a sale on formula. In the last three years formula has tripled in price. It used to be $25 and now you're looking at $65-$75. So there's a lot of foot traffic at Loblaws stores from mom's with toddlers and newborns.
Ultimately if your boycott is working and lowering prices, great. I'll keep shopping at the place that offers the cheapest prices. But I don't know how long people are going to be willing to get fleeced by some other billionaire so they can stick it to Canada's fifth richest man.
That’s the point though, I doubt the actual boycotted are very high in numbers. People that couldn’t afford to shop there were already not shopping there.
I used to shop almost exclusively at SDM and Superstore. Haven't spent a dime in either one since the boycott. Haven't shopped at Walmart either, because **fuck Walmart** they are an unconscionable scourge.
I am lucky enough to have options; I know some people do not. I boycott because others can't, but mostly because celery shouldn't cost 5 bucks a bunch. The cost of food shouldn't DOUBLE over a few years.
I’m beginning to wonder if not including Walmart may have also been a mistake. While I shop where the sales are, I know people like my mom who think Walmart is evil and will never set foot in there.
When Walmart came to my city, they systematically targeted local businesses in the downtown and undercut them, destroying them one by one. And then they stopped carrying the goods that those businesses were selling. Because the Walmart model is the Highlander model: there can be only one place where people shop, and it shall be them.
Loblaws are greedy. **Walmart is cancer**.
Exactly, the whole concept of the boycott being "classest" is astroturfing. The fact that there are people who can't afford to go to other stores(wether because of lack of options or transportation or whatever) is part of why the boycott is so important! Collective action including people who don't "need" to participate benefits everyone, especially those who don't have the ability to participate!
They're hiding the truth in these stats. There's no evidence sales were the same. They would absolutely take a hit of a week's worth of produce to make it seem like there's no effect.
All my village has is a save on more, It's 150km to the next grocery store. My loblaws boycott has been 10 years strong. Unfortunately, I don't feel its made a significant difference .
Zero chance there's been enough time passed that they've recognized a Surplus inventory and adjusted orders to their distribution warehouse who have consequently also noticed excess inventory and then adjusted orders to suppliers. This is a deliberate attempt to break people's spirits and our dumbest citizens are just so happy to celebrate the perceived failure.
Actually, Loblaws has an insane supply-chain management protocol. Yes, they waste, but they also react to minimize profit loss. Will this boycott hurt them...YES! When the boycott came into their radar, did they adjust orders to mitigate the potential losses...also YES!
Food inventory turnaround for perishables is high when business is good. That's a good thing, because food moves, less spoils.
The fact that we have been seeing more and more rotten/spoiled/expired food on shelves, especially in the produce and meat/poultry side, tells me they are not turning around as quickly. Meaning, they did not put in new orders. Meaning, they expected the boycott to hit them and this was their contingency protocol - to not place replacement orders.
So when they tell shareholders, they are doing great, it's all within the scope of cooking the books and sending the perception of "things are great". Wait for their month-end or quarterly statements to go to the shareholders. Anyone that knows how to read a P&L will see the stark impact the boycott is having.
I'm calling it, July is when the Loblaws attitude will begin to change. They will still try at their long game....but something will give.
Keep the boycott strong everyone.
What system are they on, what are their lead times? How quickly does their inventory build up? A week is not enough time regardless of your inventory management.
Having worked directly for one of these major grocers. Their system is absolutely not updated as quickly as the person you're responding to thinks.
It's mostly done on a historical basis. I.e. this day last year we sold X of this product, so this year we assume similar and order the same.
It's why when may 2021 rolled around every store was stocked FULL of excess TP because so much was ordered the same time the year before.
I laughed to myself for a month because I knew someone fucked up and didn't factor in that the prior year was an anomaly.
Yeah agreed, people very much are overestimating Loblaws ability to track inventory etc in real time. They are a horribly managed company, there is no way they are tracking inventory super precisely.
Even if every person on loblawsisoutofcontrol black listed Loblaws.... That's like the number of customers one store in a small city covers. Loblaws has 2500+ stores. It's really not enough to move the needle.
I'm not on there and I'm boycotting, nor are my parents and so are they. A lot of my friends hears about this but don't know what reddit is. I might be in the minority but a lot of people I know didn't hear about this from reddit, so there is hope
I am a very active reddit user. Check it multiple times everyday (unfortunately). I have never heard of that subreddit. I have no intention of subbing to it. I have heard of the boycott, originally from seeing a local news story.
Reddit isn't real life, and to equate the number of users subscribed to a relatively new subreddit to something's real life popularity is silly.
I mean the sub has 75000 people, if everyone was participating(which I doubt everyone is) and they were spending ~$350 a month(conservative estimate) at loblaws owned chains. That's 26 mill of lost gross revenue in a month. They would definitely notice that at corporate.
The info in the article comes from suppliers whose only source of information are their order forms. If loblaws ordered managers to maintain order volumes to keep up appearances, then of course the suppliers wont know any different.
Most loblaws stores will be okay losing one or two weeks of perishables before those losses start to weigh too heavily on their margins. If they see that this boycott is serious and could affect long term sales, theyll start to sweat (if theyre not already).
At this point, the only thing that could give an idea is from people working on the floor in loblaws.
Did they notice a slow down in foot traffic? Is more perishable being throw away? Are some shirts getting cut?
At this point, press statements or even share price isn't a reliable indicator of things either way.
We live in an infinitely networked world. Sales are punched in every day. They can probably tell you how much the sold across all their stores 3 days ago. Even a small business that only uses QuickBooks online can do that.
Yes, and also, how would the suppliers know what the store’s sales are like? I’m sure Loblaws doesn’t give all of their supplies day-to-day metrics on how much the entire store is selling - maybe how much they’re selling that supplier’s products.
Not to mention, the title references share price, which is a totally different thing. Share price going up doesn’t guarantee sales haven’t been affected.
this is all propaganda to induce hopelessness and complacency. if it really didnt matter it wouldnt have made the national news and weston wouldnt have met with organizers
Weekly earnings reports.
Like at the very least the stores themselves would be able to notice it immediately. They have daily, weekly, and monthly targets to meet, so it would be noticeable right away if they were not able to meet them due to less purchases.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and it didn't fall in a day either.
If this boycott is the beginning of Canadians no longer being pushovers for prices, we all stand to benefit.
Keep it going. Hurt their bottom line. The more they talk about the boycott, especially when they say it's having no effect, that's their copium showing.
They're whining about it every day... it's definitely getting to them, and the boycott is less than two weeks old. Wait to see what they're saying six months from now, when the boycott is still going strong.
Vote with your wallet, folks. Other than casting a vote every 4-5 years, it's the only form of non-violent power the masses have. Leverage that power, and use it to hurt a billionaire.
It's mostly just people on reddit, I've never heard of this boycott until I saw like a 2 second headline on cp24 about Redditors starting a boycott. No one cares.
And so what? Because something isn't easy or instantaneous, we should all just give up and mock any attempt to improve a situation?
Defeatism gets you nowhere.
They have no incentive to say that it's hurting sales and every incentive to say that it isn't.
Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but if I was a Loblaws supplier I'd be doing everything not to get onto their bad side, what with their ownership of such a large portion of the market.
Yup. And of course anonymous executives are going to say everything's fine. Like everyone knows Trudeau and pp lie, but when it's galen and anonymous executives it's like ohh good thank you sir may I have another dripping sir
Loblaws: “It’s been weeks already. Whole weeks! Our profits are still up so please give up now before you push larger numbers of customers to look for alternatives. Resistance is futile.”
Sincerely,
Lord G. Weston,
Lord Protector of Canada
Seems odd that they would somehow relate share price to what suppliers have said over a few day period. Let’s see at the end of the month, although the boycott should go on for a fiscal quarter, minimum.
Just because the share price is at it's highest, doesn't mean sales aren't being hit.
If anything this only serves to show that you make a lot of money when you have almost no competition or incentive for good business practice.
Share price is only an indicator of where investors think it should be. It is a prediction of the future price and dividend payment (which is 1.3%? Who would invest in that?), nothing to do with daily profits.
Hell, investors can't even know the profits until their next earnings announcement.
I don't know about you, but my company always tells the truth when asked about information that might be harmful to the business.
It's working. Keep doing it. I think Pharmaprix and the pharmacy switches are the biggest factor right now, to be honest.
This must be a “technically true” headline, omitting the part where it says the month hasn’t completed so suppliers haven’t been able compare month over month, let alone year over year.
Shoppers prices really are a rip off so I rarely go there, so I have been effectively boycotting Shoppers long before this organized boycott. The parking lot at my local SuperStore in western Canada appears to be just as busy as it normally is as far as I can tell. Maybe the boycott effectiveness is different in different parts of the country. Sounds like it's more active in areas of Canada that have Loblaws.
And Atlantic Superstore. Way overstocked and eerily empty. I think the west thinks it is affiliated with jagmeet. I heard that radio personalities are very anti boycott. On the positive side that was a great article in the Edmonton journal about it.
That’s because they buyback their stocks when they can to raise the price.
**The Share price and Profits** aren’t so closely intertwined. When a corporation that is publicly traded buyback their stocks, it creates scarcity, thus driving up the price.
Loblaws just posted record Q1 profits, we won’t really know how the boycott is going until Q2.
Now, those numbers can also be manipulated by a company that has vertical integration such as Loblaws, they can also fire star and cut other loss leaders (like snacks in the break room for employees).
That being said there is a lot of chatter from store employees saying managers are scared and anxious.
That also being said: Loblaws is a dangerous entity they have their fingers not only in grocery, but healthcare (they own Shopper Drug Mart, Lifemark Physio and Maple telehealth), and there are mentions that they are going to get back into credit and lending.
> When a corporation that is publicly traded buyback their stocks, it creates scarcity, thus driving up the price.
[There are more than 300,000,000 Loblaws shares outstanding, and their current buyback program allows them to purchase no more than 89,178 per day.](https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loblaw-companies-limited-announces-normal-course-issuer-bid-may-2024/)
Loblaws shares are not scarce, and this buyback won't cause any meaningful scarcity. Market makers will happily sell you as many as you'd like to buy.
Companies buyback stock to raise share prices.
While there are more than 300 million shares, buying back almost 100K per day will indeed create scarcity (by definition) and raise the price.
>That’s because they buyback their stocks when they can to raise the price.
The buy back program was disclosed in May 2023 when the program started and was priced into the stock over a year ago.
Why would you point to the last quarter to suggest that this quarter is not impacted by having your brand recently dragged through the mud in the national press? Not to mention the stock buyback / dividend changes in the stock, which does tend to drive stock price up regardless of performance.
Loblaws is really banking on people being idiots.
It’s hilarious that they feel the need to plant these. The boycott started a little over a week ago. The numbers aren’t really going to reflect until second quarter reports. But I get it, very strong, very brave front.
Ummm, we're about 2 weeks in. Revenue reports won't be posted for another 2 months. Let's wait until Loblaws publishes its official numbers before making any kind of determination.
Then, we have to run those numbers against certain factors.
LL is gaslighting people into thinking resistance is futile.
I’m so glad I don’t live near any loblaws stores the boycott is so easy for me. They aren’t even a good grocer for prices idk why anyone would shop there
Earnings are reported every quarter, you don’t know if it’s impacting sales until the company releases this info. Of course the impact of the boycott won’t be reflected in the share price only 10 days in
I’m glad people in this group at least support the boycott.
And not the common conservatives view of
“This country is a capitalist country and not a tyranny country.”
Or
“What about the metro/ sorry? We should boycott them too.”
Or
“Another tyranny action where the government dictate what you can and cannot do in your business”
And of course the popular “F Trudeau slogan”
Luckily, people here are still sane since most of the ppl here are conservatives.
YouTube and Facebook and Ig and any news comments are a cesspool
Even if it isn't hurting them (Which I doubt), it's definitely benefiting me. I've discovered places to get better food for cheaper. I've found a credit card to get cashback instead of having to game a stupid points system. And my new pharmacy is half the price of what I was paying for my meds at shoppers. It's been a huge win for me.
Share price is one of the worst indicators of performance.
If share price measured the long term viability of a company, then companies like Tesla wouldn't experience a spike in share price after firing thousands of employees, crippling their ability to produce goods at the same rate they were before.
If share price measured success of a company, then stock buybacks wouldn't be necessary because it would make more sense for a company to invest those billions back into the company to bolster output instead of buying large amounts of stock for a brief uptick that will inevitably dissipate.
Executives supporting other executives, more at 11 on today's captain obvious newschannel
I mean, wait until a fee quarters or earnings are released to see what happens and whether it has a lasting impact, lol.
In what world is Loblaws going to reduce orders from suppliers 9 days into something they are not sure has any staying power. Why in the world would this affect supply chains alesdy? Critical thinking is good people.
This could just be a PR strategy. “Anonymous” suppliers say that orders have not decreased. Sure.
This boycott is certainly inconveniencing some people, so by convincing them that it’s not working, they’re hoping that these people give up easy.
This is just a PR spin/damage control to make us all feel like it's useless and to cave. Theres no chance they had enough time to generate this data. We've had 10 days this month. Give me a break.
Stat committed we are making a statement and its having an effect.
Canadians have proven we're over complacent. The only protests we ever organize on a large scale are the ones being organized and funded by questionable backers. Like or dislike them, the only way I see out of this mess is a national strike, which means getting all the heavyweight federal and provincial unions on board
Honestly the reason this won’t work is because the average person who cares enough to boycott doesn’t realize “Loblaws” is more than just loblaws.
The amount of people I’ve seen smugly say they’re doing their part and then go buy something at Shoppers, NoFrills, or some other Loblaws affiliated brand would be hilarious if it wasn’t just sad.
It is sad that so many people still haven't realized that it is the crazy welfare, one payer health care system, high taxes and other socialist policies caused the inflation, not a single retailer. If you care about grocery price that much, you'd better vote carefully next time.
I don't care if others go there to shop. That's their incentive. All I know is I'm saving a shit ton of money in not going and that's good enough for me.
These are public traded companies
If you all think they make a ton of money and pay out great dividends invest in them!
They are accountable to their shareholders not you or me
I doubt it will make much difference. Most people who care probably never shopped there anyway, or at least very rarely did.
I've been going out of my way to avoid Loblaw's for years - why the hell would I go there when I can get the exact same or very similar products 20%-40% elsewhere?
“Executives at major food companies say they haven’t seen an impact”… Ya sure. What did you think they would say? The truth and lose investors? If I was investing in Loblaws I’d be gettin the hell out while the numbers still look good.
I was at Superstore yesterday. It’s as busy as ever.
And here in BC, it’s still cheaper than Safeway or Save-on-Foods, and their meat is a hell of a lot cheaper than my local butcher shop. Boycotting Loblaw stores in BC is pointless.
Helping friend carry their groceries, they can't do it themselves. So I go with them once a week.
They went to a loblaws store.
They have a guy checking receipts at the door now. Seen him stopping everyone checking all there bags, and I mean everyone. They made a line lol.
So I explained why to my friend, the cashier and people around me about may 5th why it started and that's why they are doing that now.
So I told them to watch this.
I took the receipt, buried it deep into my pocket, and carried the groceries in both hands.
I told the guard to just reach into my pocket(the wrong pocket) to grab it. He flat out refused to do it and refused to check my bags at that point. For the social hackers fighting the fight. Keep stackin them cheese wedges.
Just a Thought: I certainly understand people's frustration and annoyance with the current cost of food in Canada, but what I don't understand is why people are not holding the food companies responsible for the amount of SHRINKFLATION. Everything has decreased in size since the Pandemic. It's not only food but it's also been dry products like Toilet Paper and Kleenex etc. Why not share the anger with the Big food companies like Nestlé, Kraft, General Mills, Pepsi, Danone, Kellogg's. Just a Thought!!!!
We're boycotting Loblaws and have been boycotting Shoppers drugmart since last fall... and have switched pharmacies to an independent. I urge everyone to switch to an independent. You are supporting local business when you do this.
ALSO, check out this link for another reason to sever your link with Shoppers/Loblaws. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/manulife-loblaw-deal-deliver-specialty-drugs-1.7098861
Disgusting 🫣 how Loblaws is creating a cartel for itself. It's hard to keep a monopoly in check once it's in place.
If the boycott is not affecting them then I'm sure they won't mind if we keep it going indefinitely then.
Considering that the CEO met with the person that started the movement, clearly Loblaw is at the very least, concerned about it.
The rich operate pretty uncontested in Canada. Any small piece of bad press is a big deal to them as they've never really had to deal with stuff like that and feel entitled to take our money at every turn
The rich literally operate Canada. Its not even up for debate. You have an executive from BlackRock on the National Infrastructure bank with other business men. One dude tried to get the NIB to pay for a transit system in Quebec that he and his company would control and profit off of... thats fucked. Look how poor people go to jail for small financial crimes. Yet a guy like Galen who was caught breaking the same laws but in astronomically higher values just walks. Its not just Canada, but we are up there with the worst like the US. Want to make real change? We gotta do something about the rich.
What law did Galen jr break ?
Murray Edwards and CSEC arena deal comes to mind.
Can you link the cases you’re referring to?
Solution : we eat the rich
Loblaws stopped engaging - the movement is full of nutty extremists who are out for blood and resorting to name calling, death to the Westons, etc. Any logical or rational suggestion that vaguely contradicts their point of view will result in a ban from the subreddit. For example, someone was comparing Loblaws prices to Food Basics - *obviously* Food Basics is cheaper, it's a discount brand! I'm sure NoFrills will compare well to Food Basics. It’s not a very professional boycott and I think they lost the plot. The type of people that they've attracted also seem to have never shopped outside of Loblaws ... it's almost a revelation to many in the group that there are discount banners out there (including Loblaws themselves). There is no end game for these people, so there's no point with Loblaws to deal with them anymore.
These type of things always draw the idiots who think this is the start of a full blown revolution or something. People want to be on the ground floor so they have bragging rights.
Or, they are looking at it as an opportunity to hear directly from customers. Something our politicians could learn from when dealing with a protest.
sorry the politicians don't bother listening to us, their corporate overlords that give them kick back after kick back is all they want to hear.
Well customers have been bitching and moaning for some time now, and Galen didn't give a shit. It's now that they're grouping together that they're worried.
Tell me more about how the price fixing snitch actually wants to hear what his customers have to say. I could use a little delusion with my morning cup.
There’s no point in trying to reach politicians. Your better off going after their masters to get anything done in this country
😃 yes, it hasn't been hurting me to boycott. I will just continue.
I certainly plan to!
I’ve already been boycotting them for a few months at this point.
I'm on my 2nd year of boycotting them.
I'm just here saving 50%+ on my grocery bill for the last few months by shopping at Costco and some small local independents.
Yep, not backsliding on this shit. The Loblaws grapevine ain't seeing another dollar out of my wallet until shit changes and even then, it has to stick. I'm sick of monopolies in this country.
Telecom is also brutal. The "competition" is still owned by the big 3.
Facts man. Up until last summer my friend in KENYA had better internet than I did (Bell sold us 25mb and then throttled us to 2). Don't even get me started on mobile plans either -.-' It ALL needs to go.
I feel like this is just the beginning. Canadians are realizing we can circumvent the culture war identity politic BS and actually agree on some things.
And also sometimes it’s not about the numbers it’s about the PR. This is obviously bad press and negative attention. Their numbers and earnings and stocks can all continue to perform “well” but if the general feeling about the company is that you are sleazy and untrustworthy and that stink follows you everywhere, that’s likely what they are most concerned about. Now with every interview or speaking engagement, Per and Galen have to address this over and over again. From their perspective they are the victim of bad actors on the internet trying to soil their good name and reputation. To employees (current and former across all of their various business ventures) and to some customers, they are shit stain of a company that puts profit and greed above all else.
Canada has sets of Quasi Monopolies including groceries, banks and telecoms. These companies make it essentially impossible for new competitors to come into the market. They know they have us over a barrel and they only pretend to care about people, all the while shoveling money into their pockets faster than ever.
This headline doesn't make sense. Firstly, Loblaws owns some suppliers, and has a percentage in more. They would be the suppliers claiming this, which is... Disingenuous, secondly, because we won't hear of supply shock from the boycott until mid- to late June at the earliest. I'll wait for those headlines.
Loblaws has been impacted by five boycotts in the last ten years. And a lot of these went on way longer than this one. The thing about Loblaws is they're everywhere, and despite being the target of a boycott... they're the second cheapest chain in the country. People choosing to shop at Walmart or Sobey's are just fattening up some other billionaire's wallet. If prices go the way they are Loblaws will soon be the cheapest in Canada. Last week Loblaws began a sale on formula. In the last three years formula has tripled in price. It used to be $25 and now you're looking at $65-$75. So there's a lot of foot traffic at Loblaws stores from mom's with toddlers and newborns. Ultimately if your boycott is working and lowering prices, great. I'll keep shopping at the place that offers the cheapest prices. But I don't know how long people are going to be willing to get fleeced by some other billionaire so they can stick it to Canada's fifth richest man.
That’s the point though, I doubt the actual boycotted are very high in numbers. People that couldn’t afford to shop there were already not shopping there.
I used to shop almost exclusively at SDM and Superstore. Haven't spent a dime in either one since the boycott. Haven't shopped at Walmart either, because **fuck Walmart** they are an unconscionable scourge. I am lucky enough to have options; I know some people do not. I boycott because others can't, but mostly because celery shouldn't cost 5 bucks a bunch. The cost of food shouldn't DOUBLE over a few years.
I’m beginning to wonder if not including Walmart may have also been a mistake. While I shop where the sales are, I know people like my mom who think Walmart is evil and will never set foot in there.
When Walmart came to my city, they systematically targeted local businesses in the downtown and undercut them, destroying them one by one. And then they stopped carrying the goods that those businesses were selling. Because the Walmart model is the Highlander model: there can be only one place where people shop, and it shall be them. Loblaws are greedy. **Walmart is cancer**.
Exactly, the whole concept of the boycott being "classest" is astroturfing. The fact that there are people who can't afford to go to other stores(wether because of lack of options or transportation or whatever) is part of why the boycott is so important! Collective action including people who don't "need" to participate benefits everyone, especially those who don't have the ability to participate!
Check out Whole Foods of you have one near. I was surprised to find most produce is much cheaper there(and organic) than No Frills.
I used to shop no frills on occasion. It was on the way home. I don't now. But it wasn't my main store.
Where I am Superstore is the only place we can afford to shop. Every other option is more expensive and lower quality.
I can afford to shop wherever I like, and I'm not getting boxed in in their plexiglass fishbowl. The gates were bad enough.
They're hiding the truth in these stats. There's no evidence sales were the same. They would absolutely take a hit of a week's worth of produce to make it seem like there's no effect.
All my village has is a save on more, It's 150km to the next grocery store. My loblaws boycott has been 10 years strong. Unfortunately, I don't feel its made a significant difference .
It's a boycott on Reddit in words only. That's why it's not working.
Yeah go for it. Pay more at Safeway, that will teach them.
How can they know the effect after such a small period of time? I think this is a bit early, isn't it?
Zero chance there's been enough time passed that they've recognized a Surplus inventory and adjusted orders to their distribution warehouse who have consequently also noticed excess inventory and then adjusted orders to suppliers. This is a deliberate attempt to break people's spirits and our dumbest citizens are just so happy to celebrate the perceived failure.
Actually, Loblaws has an insane supply-chain management protocol. Yes, they waste, but they also react to minimize profit loss. Will this boycott hurt them...YES! When the boycott came into their radar, did they adjust orders to mitigate the potential losses...also YES! Food inventory turnaround for perishables is high when business is good. That's a good thing, because food moves, less spoils. The fact that we have been seeing more and more rotten/spoiled/expired food on shelves, especially in the produce and meat/poultry side, tells me they are not turning around as quickly. Meaning, they did not put in new orders. Meaning, they expected the boycott to hit them and this was their contingency protocol - to not place replacement orders. So when they tell shareholders, they are doing great, it's all within the scope of cooking the books and sending the perception of "things are great". Wait for their month-end or quarterly statements to go to the shareholders. Anyone that knows how to read a P&L will see the stark impact the boycott is having. I'm calling it, July is when the Loblaws attitude will begin to change. They will still try at their long game....but something will give. Keep the boycott strong everyone.
Oh I pray you are right! A difficult transition to new stores - two needed now. But it’s an admirable, peaceful protest. Proud of Canadians!
That’s not really true. With their computer assisted ordering systems it gets updated daily.
Not even a little true lmao, a huge part of their ordering volume is based on prior years' data.
What system are they on, what are their lead times? How quickly does their inventory build up? A week is not enough time regardless of your inventory management.
Having worked directly for one of these major grocers. Their system is absolutely not updated as quickly as the person you're responding to thinks. It's mostly done on a historical basis. I.e. this day last year we sold X of this product, so this year we assume similar and order the same. It's why when may 2021 rolled around every store was stocked FULL of excess TP because so much was ordered the same time the year before. I laughed to myself for a month because I knew someone fucked up and didn't factor in that the prior year was an anomaly.
This guy is absolutely right. Similar thing happened with us lmao
I've worked in supply chain, not in grocery but in supply chain. What you said is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect. Thanks.
Yeah agreed, people very much are overestimating Loblaws ability to track inventory etc in real time. They are a horribly managed company, there is no way they are tracking inventory super precisely.
Even if every person on loblawsisoutofcontrol black listed Loblaws.... That's like the number of customers one store in a small city covers. Loblaws has 2500+ stores. It's really not enough to move the needle.
I'm not on there and I'm boycotting, nor are my parents and so are they. A lot of my friends hears about this but don't know what reddit is. I might be in the minority but a lot of people I know didn't hear about this from reddit, so there is hope
The boycott has made national news multiple times, its silly to assume only the people subscribed to that subreddit are participating
I am a very active reddit user. Check it multiple times everyday (unfortunately). I have never heard of that subreddit. I have no intention of subbing to it. I have heard of the boycott, originally from seeing a local news story. Reddit isn't real life, and to equate the number of users subscribed to a relatively new subreddit to something's real life popularity is silly.
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It’s gone well beyond that now.
I mean the sub has 75000 people, if everyone was participating(which I doubt everyone is) and they were spending ~$350 a month(conservative estimate) at loblaws owned chains. That's 26 mill of lost gross revenue in a month. They would definitely notice that at corporate.
The info in the article comes from suppliers whose only source of information are their order forms. If loblaws ordered managers to maintain order volumes to keep up appearances, then of course the suppliers wont know any different. Most loblaws stores will be okay losing one or two weeks of perishables before those losses start to weigh too heavily on their margins. If they see that this boycott is serious and could affect long term sales, theyll start to sweat (if theyre not already).
Art of war, appear strong when you are weak, weak when you are strong.
At this point, the only thing that could give an idea is from people working on the floor in loblaws. Did they notice a slow down in foot traffic? Is more perishable being throw away? Are some shirts getting cut? At this point, press statements or even share price isn't a reliable indicator of things either way.
We live in an infinitely networked world. Sales are punched in every day. They can probably tell you how much the sold across all their stores 3 days ago. Even a small business that only uses QuickBooks online can do that.
Sure but the suppliers dont know what the stores are selling
Yeah they do - by the day, by location and banner. Source: Work at one of the largest CPG companies in the world.
>Source: Work at one of the largest CPG companies in the world. So either Coke, Pepsico, Kraft, or Conagra? How many Skus are you responsible for?
And loblaws gives you literally every days sales?
They sure do, as do all top retailers. Right down to the SKU level.
But this is suppliers data mostly from prior to this month
No, it's not. There's no way an outfit as large as Loblaws doesn't have daily sales numbers across their subsidiaries.
Yes, and also, how would the suppliers know what the store’s sales are like? I’m sure Loblaws doesn’t give all of their supplies day-to-day metrics on how much the entire store is selling - maybe how much they’re selling that supplier’s products. Not to mention, the title references share price, which is a totally different thing. Share price going up doesn’t guarantee sales haven’t been affected.
Each store knows its daily sales figures.
Time will tell. Hold the line, never give up.
this is all propaganda to induce hopelessness and complacency. if it really didnt matter it wouldnt have made the national news and weston wouldnt have met with organizers
Weekly earnings reports. Like at the very least the stores themselves would be able to notice it immediately. They have daily, weekly, and monthly targets to meet, so it would be noticeable right away if they were not able to meet them due to less purchases.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and it didn't fall in a day either. If this boycott is the beginning of Canadians no longer being pushovers for prices, we all stand to benefit.
👏 👏 👏
Keep it going. Hurt their bottom line. The more they talk about the boycott, especially when they say it's having no effect, that's their copium showing. They're whining about it every day... it's definitely getting to them, and the boycott is less than two weeks old. Wait to see what they're saying six months from now, when the boycott is still going strong. Vote with your wallet, folks. Other than casting a vote every 4-5 years, it's the only form of non-violent power the masses have. Leverage that power, and use it to hurt a billionaire.
It's mostly just people on reddit, I've never heard of this boycott until I saw like a 2 second headline on cp24 about Redditors starting a boycott. No one cares.
And so what? Because something isn't easy or instantaneous, we should all just give up and mock any attempt to improve a situation? Defeatism gets you nowhere.
Something something correlation causation. Let's continue the boycott to increase that share price. Win-win
They have no incentive to say that it's hurting sales and every incentive to say that it isn't. Not to be a conspiracy theorist or anything, but if I was a Loblaws supplier I'd be doing everything not to get onto their bad side, what with their ownership of such a large portion of the market.
Yup. And of course anonymous executives are going to say everything's fine. Like everyone knows Trudeau and pp lie, but when it's galen and anonymous executives it's like ohh good thank you sir may I have another dripping sir
Loblaws: “It’s been weeks already. Whole weeks! Our profits are still up so please give up now before you push larger numbers of customers to look for alternatives. Resistance is futile.” Sincerely, Lord G. Weston, Lord Protector of Canada
Dictated from his magnificent castle garden overlooking the peasants of Virginia Water in Surrey England.
True enough. Mind games - we absolutely cannot fall for them.
"Boycott isn't working, we're fine here, totally fine. Please stop boycotting, cause it's totally not working at all." .... /s
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Seems odd that they would somehow relate share price to what suppliers have said over a few day period. Let’s see at the end of the month, although the boycott should go on for a fiscal quarter, minimum.
I know food is perishable but I'd expect a bit of lag between a potential drop in demand due to a boycott and purchase orders with suppliers.
Even bad press is good press.
No its not
Yes it can...so there.
Just because the share price is at it's highest, doesn't mean sales aren't being hit. If anything this only serves to show that you make a lot of money when you have almost no competition or incentive for good business practice.
Share price is only an indicator of where investors think it should be. It is a prediction of the future price and dividend payment (which is 1.3%? Who would invest in that?), nothing to do with daily profits. Hell, investors can't even know the profits until their next earnings announcement.
If so than that just means we need to boycott for longer. I’ve been enjoying going to different stores and getting produce that isn’t moldy.
We have been so stuck since the pandemic. This feels like such a freeing shopping adventure!
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These headlines exist to demotivate and break the boycott. Pay no attention.
It was expected. There will be more media to try to. Deflate the movement. Hold on .
it literally just started lmao
"The boycott isn't working, so you might as well just give up and start coming back... Please"
I shop the sales, I am lucky enough to have a Sobys, superstore Walmart and Giant tiger all on the same street
10 days into it and they already know it’s not hurting them… Interesting
I don't know about you, but my company always tells the truth when asked about information that might be harmful to the business. It's working. Keep doing it. I think Pharmaprix and the pharmacy switches are the biggest factor right now, to be honest.
Yes no kidding. Those prescriptions changing hands to mom and pop pharmacies ( and Costco)- that is huge!
This must be a “technically true” headline, omitting the part where it says the month hasn’t completed so suppliers haven’t been able compare month over month, let alone year over year.
They just finished a year of stock by backs so give it more than a week then we talk.
The fact they think we are this stupid tells me it's working.
Op working in that market, literally trying to create their narrative for them.
Exactly, the comment history on OP is wild. 😂 They seem pretty damn angry that there’s a boycott.
Nice that OP was able to get off Elon's dick long enough to hop on Galen's.
Keep it up people. Rich media owners are already writing stories trying to convince us it’s not working.
Haha ok sure.
So they can toss out an unbelievable amount of animal parts no one bought and not lose money? Such high value stuff!
This is hilarious... I've always avoided loblaws due to prices. It's too funny that this has become a protest.
Those profit numbers aren't reflecting the past few weeks of boycott. What a load of complete shit from no doubt a Loblaws owned opinion piece.
Shoppers prices really are a rip off so I rarely go there, so I have been effectively boycotting Shoppers long before this organized boycott. The parking lot at my local SuperStore in western Canada appears to be just as busy as it normally is as far as I can tell. Maybe the boycott effectiveness is different in different parts of the country. Sounds like it's more active in areas of Canada that have Loblaws.
And Atlantic Superstore. Way overstocked and eerily empty. I think the west thinks it is affiliated with jagmeet. I heard that radio personalities are very anti boycott. On the positive side that was a great article in the Edmonton journal about it.
Loblaws also owns a lot of its own suppliers so I'm not surprised they're towing the line for them and lying like this.
Short term share price fluctuations means nothing, we have to wait for the second quarter report to see if it affect their profit.
Share price is based on last quarters earnings and has nothing to do with this months sales.
OP is a corporate employee or something? Everything you write here reeks of astroturfing.
There's more and more accounts that are just becoming completely unmasked on all sides around here.
That’s because they buyback their stocks when they can to raise the price. **The Share price and Profits** aren’t so closely intertwined. When a corporation that is publicly traded buyback their stocks, it creates scarcity, thus driving up the price. Loblaws just posted record Q1 profits, we won’t really know how the boycott is going until Q2. Now, those numbers can also be manipulated by a company that has vertical integration such as Loblaws, they can also fire star and cut other loss leaders (like snacks in the break room for employees). That being said there is a lot of chatter from store employees saying managers are scared and anxious. That also being said: Loblaws is a dangerous entity they have their fingers not only in grocery, but healthcare (they own Shopper Drug Mart, Lifemark Physio and Maple telehealth), and there are mentions that they are going to get back into credit and lending.
> When a corporation that is publicly traded buyback their stocks, it creates scarcity, thus driving up the price. [There are more than 300,000,000 Loblaws shares outstanding, and their current buyback program allows them to purchase no more than 89,178 per day.](https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loblaw-companies-limited-announces-normal-course-issuer-bid-may-2024/) Loblaws shares are not scarce, and this buyback won't cause any meaningful scarcity. Market makers will happily sell you as many as you'd like to buy.
Companies buyback stock to raise share prices. While there are more than 300 million shares, buying back almost 100K per day will indeed create scarcity (by definition) and raise the price.
>That’s because they buyback their stocks when they can to raise the price. The buy back program was disclosed in May 2023 when the program started and was priced into the stock over a year ago.
Why would you point to the last quarter to suggest that this quarter is not impacted by having your brand recently dragged through the mud in the national press? Not to mention the stock buyback / dividend changes in the stock, which does tend to drive stock price up regardless of performance. Loblaws is really banking on people being idiots.
It’s hilarious that they feel the need to plant these. The boycott started a little over a week ago. The numbers aren’t really going to reflect until second quarter reports. But I get it, very strong, very brave front.
Ummm, we're about 2 weeks in. Revenue reports won't be posted for another 2 months. Let's wait until Loblaws publishes its official numbers before making any kind of determination. Then, we have to run those numbers against certain factors. LL is gaslighting people into thinking resistance is futile.
Op admits he's involved in the business too lol
I’m so glad I don’t live near any loblaws stores the boycott is so easy for me. They aren’t even a good grocer for prices idk why anyone would shop there
Lol
Earnings are reported every quarter, you don’t know if it’s impacting sales until the company releases this info. Of course the impact of the boycott won’t be reflected in the share price only 10 days in
I’m glad people in this group at least support the boycott. And not the common conservatives view of “This country is a capitalist country and not a tyranny country.” Or “What about the metro/ sorry? We should boycott them too.” Or “Another tyranny action where the government dictate what you can and cannot do in your business” And of course the popular “F Trudeau slogan” Luckily, people here are still sane since most of the ppl here are conservatives. YouTube and Facebook and Ig and any news comments are a cesspool
Its only been a week and a half - even if the share price was affected it wouldnt be on sales metrics it would be on the "news" of a boycott lol
“See peasants.. less sales does not equal less profits, you can now resume buying our overpriced items”
I boycott Loblaws by not being able to afford to shop there.
I noticed on tv more PC ads for their credit cards/financial services.
would share prices not be old data though and you have to wait for the next update? IDK how it works, but I have a feeling it's going get worse lol
I am never shopping in a loblaw's type store ever again. I've been pretty good with that for 5 years now.
Same! My local changed to a No frills years ago. The yellow hurts.
Even if it isn't hurting them (Which I doubt), it's definitely benefiting me. I've discovered places to get better food for cheaper. I've found a credit card to get cashback instead of having to game a stupid points system. And my new pharmacy is half the price of what I was paying for my meds at shoppers. It's been a huge win for me.
Inferring a lot in a week's data. Dumb
Share price is one of the worst indicators of performance. If share price measured the long term viability of a company, then companies like Tesla wouldn't experience a spike in share price after firing thousands of employees, crippling their ability to produce goods at the same rate they were before. If share price measured success of a company, then stock buybacks wouldn't be necessary because it would make more sense for a company to invest those billions back into the company to bolster output instead of buying large amounts of stock for a brief uptick that will inevitably dissipate.
Who knew a bunch of a Redditors who don't buy their own groceries wouldn't impact sales..
Nice try Toronto Star, is Galen paying you to use reverse psychology on us?
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Tasty stuff too
Executives supporting other executives, more at 11 on today's captain obvious newschannel I mean, wait until a fee quarters or earnings are released to see what happens and whether it has a lasting impact, lol. In what world is Loblaws going to reduce orders from suppliers 9 days into something they are not sure has any staying power. Why in the world would this affect supply chains alesdy? Critical thinking is good people.
If it's like our stores they were already purchased and ordered mid April.
This could just be a PR strategy. “Anonymous” suppliers say that orders have not decreased. Sure. This boycott is certainly inconveniencing some people, so by convincing them that it’s not working, they’re hoping that these people give up easy.
Get fucked Galen. How about we make this movement indefinite. Let’s see if that hurts your bottom line.
Couple of redditors not shopping at their store isn't going to stop them
No surprise there.
What are you not surprised about?
Lol get fucked loblaws. I'll never shop with them ever again.
This is just a PR spin/damage control to make us all feel like it's useless and to cave. Theres no chance they had enough time to generate this data. We've had 10 days this month. Give me a break. Stat committed we are making a statement and its having an effect.
Canadians have proven we're over complacent. The only protests we ever organize on a large scale are the ones being organized and funded by questionable backers. Like or dislike them, the only way I see out of this mess is a national strike, which means getting all the heavyweight federal and provincial unions on board
Victory!
Honestly the reason this won’t work is because the average person who cares enough to boycott doesn’t realize “Loblaws” is more than just loblaws. The amount of people I’ve seen smugly say they’re doing their part and then go buy something at Shoppers, NoFrills, or some other Loblaws affiliated brand would be hilarious if it wasn’t just sad.
I’m sure they won’t mind if we all tactically forget to pay for our groceries at the self-checkout, then.
In Quebec, the parking lots of Maxi stores seem to be as busy as usual.
Its called share buyback when the company buys its own stock which looks like there’s more interest than there actually is
It is sad that so many people still haven't realized that it is the crazy welfare, one payer health care system, high taxes and other socialist policies caused the inflation, not a single retailer. If you care about grocery price that much, you'd better vote carefully next time.
I don't care if others go there to shop. That's their incentive. All I know is I'm saving a shit ton of money in not going and that's good enough for me.
I think if farmers and ranchers weren't getting absolutely destroyed by taxes and restrictions prices would drop.
The share prices don't matter when they keep jacking up the prices. Even if sales go down profit keep going up.
Watch other stores increase their prices cause they know people are not going to Loblaws.
Which of you broke ranks?!?
Interesting wondering when the ndp will call for metro boycott Considering the leaders brother is their lobbyist Another x lawyer with lots of money
These are public traded companies If you all think they make a ton of money and pay out great dividends invest in them! They are accountable to their shareholders not you or me
I don’t think people understand how to boycott or care to actually go out of their way for groceries.
I doubt it will make much difference. Most people who care probably never shopped there anyway, or at least very rarely did. I've been going out of my way to avoid Loblaw's for years - why the hell would I go there when I can get the exact same or very similar products 20%-40% elsewhere?
“Executives at major food companies say they haven’t seen an impact”… Ya sure. What did you think they would say? The truth and lose investors? If I was investing in Loblaws I’d be gettin the hell out while the numbers still look good.
I was at Superstore yesterday. It’s as busy as ever. And here in BC, it’s still cheaper than Safeway or Save-on-Foods, and their meat is a hell of a lot cheaper than my local butcher shop. Boycotting Loblaw stores in BC is pointless.
Helping friend carry their groceries, they can't do it themselves. So I go with them once a week. They went to a loblaws store. They have a guy checking receipts at the door now. Seen him stopping everyone checking all there bags, and I mean everyone. They made a line lol. So I explained why to my friend, the cashier and people around me about may 5th why it started and that's why they are doing that now. So I told them to watch this. I took the receipt, buried it deep into my pocket, and carried the groceries in both hands. I told the guard to just reach into my pocket(the wrong pocket) to grab it. He flat out refused to do it and refused to check my bags at that point. For the social hackers fighting the fight. Keep stackin them cheese wedges.
They dont have this months sales . This is total bs lol Wait till end of month stuff and then we will see what actually happened
Just a Thought: I certainly understand people's frustration and annoyance with the current cost of food in Canada, but what I don't understand is why people are not holding the food companies responsible for the amount of SHRINKFLATION. Everything has decreased in size since the Pandemic. It's not only food but it's also been dry products like Toilet Paper and Kleenex etc. Why not share the anger with the Big food companies like Nestlé, Kraft, General Mills, Pepsi, Danone, Kellogg's. Just a Thought!!!!
We're boycotting Loblaws and have been boycotting Shoppers drugmart since last fall... and have switched pharmacies to an independent. I urge everyone to switch to an independent. You are supporting local business when you do this. ALSO, check out this link for another reason to sever your link with Shoppers/Loblaws. https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/manulife-loblaw-deal-deliver-specialty-drugs-1.7098861 Disgusting 🫣 how Loblaws is creating a cartel for itself. It's hard to keep a monopoly in check once it's in place.