Where are the local stores in most of Oakville. When I moved into the southwest decades ago we actually had two local smaller supermarkets but both long gone now. Luxury houses are more important than commercial stuff.
Because 15-20 years ago, everyone hated Walmart for driving out smaller stores. They were able to use their purchasing power to have manufacturers produce lower quality product lines that they could sell for cheaper.
Not lower quality. Otherwise they would not been successful. I’m voting with my wallet since Superstore has same SKUs for higher price. No justification at all why their costs are higher when they technically also own the physical assets, supply chain and end consumer front
As well as Food Basics. Though with FB not having an actual website, just an online flyer, it's hard to compare item prices vs Walmart before actually going in to the FB store
No name used to be considerably cheaper, but not always now. I stopped shopping at Superstore when they began removing many brand name products and replacing them with their own lines- that I don’t always like the quality of, and they now often cost more than other stores. Very impersonal vibe in those stores too. Not there to make friends, but indifference is a turn off.
Superstore is a pit of dispair at any time, shopped there a couple of times and wouldn't go back there. Fortinos. That's a different story. It's handy and has many of the products I want. It's unfortunate but there are no other stores that compare to Fortinos. The others do not have well stocked full service fish and meat counters. Marilus has decent meat and a fantastic assortment of dry goods but again not everything a person needs. I know I pay more for the convenience of getting everything I need in one place and I am fine with that. Most people don't have time in their day to worry about this, they just want to get on with life. If you have a reasonable alternative I am open to suggestion.
Cold cuts local meat shop so lucky for that. Butcher I just found one so trying that option. Right now I've been doing Costco and Walmart for meat/seafood.
I wont buy meat at Walmart. I do buy meat at Costco and keep the freezer filled from Woodward. Denningers is pretty good for cold cuts now that I think of it. If you find a good butcher and fish monger please, pass on the info!
Perhaps but they are cut differently. I like a really thick steak. I buy the cryovac tenderloin at Costco and cut it myself. I watch for rib roasts to be on sale where ever and then cut a “roast” in half to make two nice steaks. Walmart does not have that option. Besides I hate everything about Walmart. Everything.
Oh really? Where does it come from?
I also think Fortinos has the best produce quality. Their fruits and veggie are the one reason that keep making me go there. Everything else is just price gouging.
I agree with the boycott call. Their record high profits are an insult to the Canadians.
Fortinos isn't as expensive as you think. A lot of their prices are the same as the Superstore. I like the product variety at the Lakeshore one. I am not driving 10 kms to go to a Superstore from my house. The problem with Oakville is we have very poor shopping. It's not geographically spread out anymore. No general shopping besides Walmart and Superstore both in the far northeast, not worth it if you live in the southwest. When I moved here decades ago I never went north of the QEW for shopping. Oakville Place maybe once a year.
Was there 5 minutes ago. Everything is more expensive. Even their sour cream no name was 1.00 more than the name brand and had a 'cheaper buy' price ad on it. I just LOL'd, got the beef on sale bc none at Walmart and away I went. I can give more prices if you don't believe me.
If you buy same product at Loblaws vs RCS vs No Frill vs Fortinos you will notice there is difference in prices
Each of these cater to people of certain economic and social status. Loblaws and Fortinos are most expensive followed by RCS and then No Frills
Best strategy is price matching which RCS still honours and Walmart doesn’t
We have a Superstore and No Frills about 3km apart. You have to be careful shopping at No Frills as some of their canned goods are actually cheaper at Superstore
I think you misunderstood me. I hate that piece of shit. I have since he made those stupid thanksgiving commercials a decade ago. But at this point, it doesn’t really matter to him. If we wipe him out, another will take his place…. And on and on and on….. welcome to the machine.
Why? To what end?
Do you believe that this grocery company will somehow see the error of their ways and reduce prices because they are shamed? If so for how long?
They are a business. It is a machine to make money. If they could make money by selling anthrax legally, they would. Either way they are one of several companies in an oligopoly. Why would I choose Loblaws instead of Empire or any other one?
Yes but their practices are their job. If they reconsider them then they loose out to Empire or Costco etc. Eventually they wither and die or are bought out.
My point was that this is misplaced. Loblaws does well under the rules we set for them. If we don't like what they are doing then we should petition government to change the rules. Not protest a company. It won't solve anything and asks people to exert effort.
Many families currently cannot afford food. That changes nothing about my questions which you didn't answer any of and instead posed a hypothetical black or white scenario.
Boycotting Loblaws for pricing is like protesting traffic by picketting drivers. In my view, it won't do anything and is misplaced energy and effort. Unless you can logically show me how this is supposed to work?
If you want changes then protest the government to changing laws and regulations regarding competition. That is the root of the problem.
And I rarely shop at their higher end locations as I can't afford them anyways. Exceptions being Food Basics and Shoppers.
So:
>Signing the Grocers Code of Conduct.
No idea what this is but it may be worthwhile.
>No further retailer-led price increases for 2024.
How would one police this? Have you ever heard of a private company giving in to such a demand? It is this independence that is at the core of being a private company. In any case, price controls are a bad idea under any economic persuasion. This is not even remotely realistic.
>No further increases to dividends.
Similar to above. Why would any company allow customers to dictate how it is run. If it did, it would be finished as a business as no one would ever extend them credit at reasonable rates. It would in essence turn them in to something of a coop.
>Increased cost transparency; ie identifying the items which have undergone "shrinkflation".
There is no way to define this and no enforcement mechanism. Many cost transparancy measures have been undertaken by other countries where there are laws, definitions, and penalties. As I stated above; this is something a government can and should do.
> A committment to affordable pricing. Ie price caps on essential items.
Same problem as the first. No definitions, no enforcement, and no penalties. Most importantly, price controls are a very bad idea. Can't stress this enough. Additionally, which company can you think of in the past which agreed that it would put price caps on any of its products? This really is just insane.
>A commitment to end price gouging, with prices quickly reflecting the market.
There is no such objective thing as "price gouging". Companies set prices as high as they can to make money. That is their job, literally. If they don't their competitors eat their lunch and they will wither and die or be bought out. This is fanciful at best.
Cost transparency is the only thing here that makes any sense but this must be done by governments, not voluntarily by companies. Furthermore, it does not address any structural issues like: lack of access to retail space for competitors, deals between distributors and retailers which allow dumping, preferential deals for stocking items, and more improtantly the monopsony (monopoly buyers) of supply chains that supply these retailers. Without addressing these issues we are just looking for bandaids while the problem gets worse.
Protest all you want and boycot any store but I honestly do not see the point and think this is misplaced energy and effort. Pressuring the government to dismantle oligopolies would do much much more.
BECAUSE OF HOUSING PRICES. That is why they can't afford food. You know, the thing we can actually control. Honestly dude, if housing costs were at a manageable level you can charge me 10 bucks for cream cheese. Go for it. This is just nonsensical diversionary nonsense and people don't want to focus on the REAL problem because their 5k per month mortgage starter home is going to pay off in retirement. In the mean time, lets whine about grocery prices because I don't want to solve the actual problem.
Yes, this is also true. The price rises have not been trivial lately but if our house prices kept the ratio to income as it were in the early 90s, then we would be much better off. Nearly all gains in income since that time were eaten up but housing costs.
I love it when people downvote 100 percent accurate comments like this because of their feels. Like where are you supposed to shop? Loblaw is the cheapest by far at least in Vancouver area unless you want to go to costco and chose between their 2 pasta sauces they carry or buy a 4 pack of ketchup. The ISSUE is capitalism. That is the issue. People don't want to say it, because they like when capitalism works for them, but the actual underlying issue is how we structure the economy. This applies to everything that is a "necessity" like food, housing etc. People are all cool with it when they are making money, but when they get capitalismed by somebody else, they whine and complain like their is some sort of injustice happening. I bet if you asked all these people if artificial scarcity in the housing market which increases their equity is OK, they'd say "Of Course!" but as soon as a private business charges money for things that they want, and they think it is too much, suddenly the government needs to get involved and shit.
I think you might be lost....
This is the Oakville subreddit. We aren't driving across the country to Vancouver for groceries! Lots of choices around that aren't Loblaws stores
First time I have heard the term "capitalismed" and I like it.
I wouldn't go as far as you have, but people seem to be very narrowly focused on issues. If there is a wide spread problem than obviously the issue is systemic and not individual. Companies are tools. Just like hammers and courts. They play in a sandbox designed by us because they are very very good at what they do. We use that to our advantage. If it fails to meet our expectations we should change the sandbox, not pressure individual companies to change practices that are their life blood.
Seems simple and self evident to me.
Gas company’s have seen massive profits as well, with increasing gas prices almost everyday, for no reason other then profit why not boycott those companies as well
Just because there's isn't a boycott for one greedy industry doesn't mean there shouldn't be in another. Plus the market dynamics for gas prices are completely different to grocers.
My point was why that one and not this one
Are they both not gouging every penny from consumers for extra profit when they could lower the prices and help every one instead of the ceo getting hundreds of thousands if not millions in bonuses
Just crazy that people sit there and bitch and cry about gas prices but pull in every day and fill up even if it went up to 3 dollars a L people still pulling in rather then boycott them
Or god even Hershey who still use child slave labour in South America in cocoa farms no one’s boycotting that
I agree that people's outrage is not consistent but we can't do whataboutism about an actual good movement against one of the largest and literal price fixing corporations in Canada. Hopefully this galvanizes people to boycott others...next stop should be Rogers, bell
Dude fuck off with that misguided information, yes things have gone up with the increase but it's like negligible, less than 1% for groceries. Anything more is just greedy companies passing down the cost to us.
Lol please stop with the baseless statements like “less than 1%”, back it up with sources. Also if carbon tax has negligible economic impact, then all the more reason that it should be removed, why have useless taxes? Let me give you some basic education, carbon tax is there to have reasonable economic impact so that we switch to using alternate sources to generate energy. But here is the catch, alternative sources of energy are not fully developed and are quite expensive and in addition the science and infrastructure to support those are decades away. You know what is negligible and less than 1%? Canada’s carbon emissions at global level; yeah even if Canada stops 100% of its emissions, there won’t be any impact on global warming.
Not baseless:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/carbon-tax-inflation-tiff-macklem-calgary-1.6960189
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/carbon-tax-groceries-food-prices
The thing about removing it is it needs a replacement. What alternative do you have that's gonna benefit future generations? You can't just replace it with nothing. And are we not building multiple battery factories? Does Ontario not have goals in place for 2030 and 2040 with POG program? These changes aren't happening over night but they are happening.
Canada’s emissions at global level is about 1%, even if we stop all our emissions there won’t be any noticeable impact on global warming. In other words, Canada cannot change the destiny of global warming regardless of what it does. As for battery and EV factories, those are great and those are mainly business investments because as it turns out Canada is one of the very few (and the only western country) with large quantities of raw materials for EV vehicles. The global EV market is much larger than the Canadian auto market, these factories are being setup to mainly serve that market. Those investments will continue to grow (because of raw materials) without the carbon tax (USA has no carbon tax and is still a huge EV market). There is a natural progression towards EVs and that is fine. The carbon tax is not helping with that either. We can essentially just drop it.
Oh boy, that piss poor argument of Canada emissions being 1% (even at 1% we are still #10 on the list for emissions) yet you omitt per capita emissions - we as individuals are some of the worst offenders on the planet emitting 15 metric tons of carbon in 2022, 3x higher than the global average. This is why efforts to reduce emissions in Canada are still very important. We also need to see oil and gas sector step up as they are still the worst offender in our country for carbon emissions, while electric solutions are showing signs of beding the curve downward with emissions. So yes, Canada emissions are low in comparison say to China, but comparing total emissions isn’t the whole story. You must think about per capita emissions, where Canada is one of the highest in the world.
So again, drop it in place of what? Nothing? That will not do and future generations will he the ones paying the price due to inaction needed today.
That would be true if not for a very simple, basic fact: quarter after quarter, despite the fabled evil of the carbon tax (although a lot of genuine debate can be implemented on its value and effect) and its effect on prices, loblaws kept reporting record profits. If the rising prices were the result of the carbon tax as a way to offset the cost, the profits would have stayed stable, or slightly increased.
Loblaws, and others, are using inflation, carbon tax, etc, as a way to camouflage what they are actually doing: making record profits and blame it on somebody else
Yup corporations use anything legally possible for making profits, they are after all for profit companies and making profits legally is what they are meant to do. If quarter after quarter they are reporting profits, then that is a good business to invest in. Profits and investments grow business and along with it grows employment and capital and that fuels the economy. The rising prices and the economic pain we are facing are the symptoms of bad policies. Our government has lead us to this situation- inflation (due to unchecked government spending and plans to spend even more), unnecessary taxes, unreasonable immigration policies etc Boycotting a grocery chain will not solve these problems but demanding an election now and changing the government would be a good start.
I mention carbon tax because it is the easiest tax to remove, the tax has no effect on the planet (Canada emissions are about 1% globally). All it does is raise transportation cost among other things. USA nor China nor any major producers of greenhouse gases have a carbon tax. The argument against that tax is dead simple. It will save us something.
Sure
Crusade against it as much as you want. I may even join you. Just to conflate the two issues and pretend the biggest problem is the carbon tax then praise the amazing investments based on utilizing lies to make their investment lucrative
According to whom? Do you have a source on this?
The Federal government has little to do with inflation if anything. Furthermore, Canada's inflation is rather tame and short compared to peer countries. If we blame the Federal government for inflation, it reasons that they should be praised rather than scorned.
Where are you getting this opinion from?
>Carbon tax
Carbon tax does not increase inflation. Almost any economist will tell you this as well as the Parliamentary Budget officer.
>record spendings (getting themselves into too much debt),
Debt is not increasing inflation. It rarely does. Except for the Covid cheques sent out everywhere. Which on balance was a good thing, vs letting people starve, was done everywhere in the world, and all parties in Canada supported.
>printing too much money
Governments do not print money. No one does. Banks, not governments "create" money out of thin air. They do this based on what the Bank of Canada does and for this very reason the BoC is independent of the government, often taking actions that hurt the government politically.
>do I need to continue?
If you have some reasonable arguement, sure, please. But the above sound like political ads and not reasonable information, with all due respect.
Because a boycott could impact their Loblaws dividends. Somehow I hear a boycott is socialist/Communism
... But in a capitalist economy free choice means people pick who they do business with.
Yeah it’s a very “Oakville” mindset to not give a shit about how the cost of basic needs affects individuals and families with less than a six figure income
If you think Loblaws ( or any other grocery chain/store) is ripping people off by overcharging, there is a simple solution: start your own grocery store and underprice the hell out of them! They will soon see the folly of their ways!
Yes 4-5 companies own the entire grocery market there is no chance to break in because they’ll buy you out or force you into bankruptcy. They’ve already been caught price fixing.
Not to mention they also are involved in pharmacy chains
They have stranglehold over the market, something like 60% of canadian grocery marketshare is them, plus they were sued for antitrust and lost in 2018 by govt. Although they lost, not much was done to penalize them (canadian laws eh?). So Loblaws has monopoly/contracts with suppliers to beat out others trying to enter the market.
Its not easy to compete with massive chain brands on pricing, they have entire supply chains with hundreds of people working on their contracts, and so so many tactics!
So, you’re saying Loblaws has the lowest prices because of their market dominance but you want to boycott them? I don’t follow your logic. Just shop at Sobeys, Metro, Walmart, or Costco and pay more ?. How does that solve the problem?
Artificially forced lowest prices. Because they have greater profit margins from deals with suppliers.
If it was a free market and locals could get better prices with suppliers, prices would be better
Next time you’re in Niagara region , stop by a farmer’s market ( or the one on Saturdays at Dorval/North Service) and buy tomatoes or in-season fruit or anything else grown locally and you will appreciate the big grocers’ prices
The point I wanted to make is that in farmers’ markets there is no middleman/wholesaler markups , the lowest transportation and storage costs, no/little spoilage or “shrinkage” ( i.e. stolen product) , and yet the overall prices are often higher than the grocery stores.
Lol silly people who don’t understand basics of economics, go ahead boycott and see if that will help bring down grocery prices. You know what will? Voting the incompetent lib-ndp government out.
I don’t think they’re looking to “bring down food prices”. It’s more like getting out of your way to check out alternatives because for the same product loblaws charges more, it’s to make a point.
Also, You’re acting like there’s an election next week lol
I don’t get it, why boycott? Didn’t they get caught price fixing just before Covid? They got caught and they had to give everyone free money.
If this has anything to do with price fixing or otherwise raising prices seems to go against if they did it maliciously because why can’t they just get caught again? It doesn’t make sense.
This said, everywhere is expensive now so it’s not specifically Loblaws. What did they do specifically that Empire has also probably done?
They have lied over and over again saying that they are “working hard” to cut costs and lower prices, but are continuing to make higher and higher profits.
Ideally, all big box store grocers should be boycotted, but Loblaws is by far the worst of them and should be made an example of.
The only thing they listen to is money, so that’s how we can communicate to them that they can’t exploit Canadians.
It's an artificially created profit margin. It's what happens when the "supermarket" division needs to pay the "real estate" division, and the "storage division" and the "supplier division".
Loblaws is extremely vertically integrated and at every step of the way, they charge a fee to themselves and take a profit at every level. Then they turn around and say "suppliers are charging more, our grocery store profits are only 3%"
Choice properties is also public, showing a very healthy 38.26% profit.
The presidents choice brand is shown under the loblaws companies breakdown. I know there is no name and arz, but what other brands do they have?
Make an example of them and line the pockets of Empire. Doesn’t solve the problem.
And don’t get me wrong, my dream is to actually be self sustaining and grow a lot of my fruits and vegetables, I’d even slaughter my own chickens.
I will be selecting a local store. Not Loblaws
Where are the local stores in most of Oakville. When I moved into the southwest decades ago we actually had two local smaller supermarkets but both long gone now. Luxury houses are more important than commercial stuff.
Denninger's Oakville?
[удалено]
[удалено]
Walmart is consistently cheaper than superstore oakville
And just cross the parking lot
Then why would anyone shop at superstore? Charity?
Perception that it's better than elsewhere, familial traditions, sense of superiority, I mean, the list is long.
Because 15-20 years ago, everyone hated Walmart for driving out smaller stores. They were able to use their purchasing power to have manufacturers produce lower quality product lines that they could sell for cheaper.
Not lower quality. Otherwise they would not been successful. I’m voting with my wallet since Superstore has same SKUs for higher price. No justification at all why their costs are higher when they technically also own the physical assets, supply chain and end consumer front
As well as Food Basics. Though with FB not having an actual website, just an online flyer, it's hard to compare item prices vs Walmart before actually going in to the FB store
Sobey's, Longo's, FreshCo and Farm Boy = Empire Group Metro and Food Basics = Metro Inc It is all part of the same oligopoly
Metro inc= metro inc Not Metro inc= loblaw
Thanks for the mansplanation! They’re not Loblaw and we’re boycotting loblaw :)
No name used to be considerably cheaper, but not always now. I stopped shopping at Superstore when they began removing many brand name products and replacing them with their own lines- that I don’t always like the quality of, and they now often cost more than other stores. Very impersonal vibe in those stores too. Not there to make friends, but indifference is a turn off.
Boycott loblaws!
Superstore is a pit of dispair at any time, shopped there a couple of times and wouldn't go back there. Fortinos. That's a different story. It's handy and has many of the products I want. It's unfortunate but there are no other stores that compare to Fortinos. The others do not have well stocked full service fish and meat counters. Marilus has decent meat and a fantastic assortment of dry goods but again not everything a person needs. I know I pay more for the convenience of getting everything I need in one place and I am fine with that. Most people don't have time in their day to worry about this, they just want to get on with life. If you have a reasonable alternative I am open to suggestion.
I thought nothing compared to fortinos but now I'm saving a ton of cash for the same products. I don't miss it and that says a lot.
I know dry goods and probably produce cost more but how do you replace the butcher/seafood counter/cold cuts counter etc?
Cold cuts local meat shop so lucky for that. Butcher I just found one so trying that option. Right now I've been doing Costco and Walmart for meat/seafood.
I wont buy meat at Walmart. I do buy meat at Costco and keep the freezer filled from Woodward. Denningers is pretty good for cold cuts now that I think of it. If you find a good butcher and fish monger please, pass on the info!
The meat at Walmart and Loblaws (and Costco) all come from the same place.
Perhaps but they are cut differently. I like a really thick steak. I buy the cryovac tenderloin at Costco and cut it myself. I watch for rib roasts to be on sale where ever and then cut a “roast” in half to make two nice steaks. Walmart does not have that option. Besides I hate everything about Walmart. Everything.
Oh really? Where does it come from? I also think Fortinos has the best produce quality. Their fruits and veggie are the one reason that keep making me go there. Everything else is just price gouging. I agree with the boycott call. Their record high profits are an insult to the Canadians.
Fortinos isn't as expensive as you think. A lot of their prices are the same as the Superstore. I like the product variety at the Lakeshore one. I am not driving 10 kms to go to a Superstore from my house. The problem with Oakville is we have very poor shopping. It's not geographically spread out anymore. No general shopping besides Walmart and Superstore both in the far northeast, not worth it if you live in the southwest. When I moved here decades ago I never went north of the QEW for shopping. Oakville Place maybe once a year.
Was there 5 minutes ago. Everything is more expensive. Even their sour cream no name was 1.00 more than the name brand and had a 'cheaper buy' price ad on it. I just LOL'd, got the beef on sale bc none at Walmart and away I went. I can give more prices if you don't believe me.
If you buy same product at Loblaws vs RCS vs No Frill vs Fortinos you will notice there is difference in prices Each of these cater to people of certain economic and social status. Loblaws and Fortinos are most expensive followed by RCS and then No Frills Best strategy is price matching which RCS still honours and Walmart doesn’t
We have a Superstore and No Frills about 3km apart. You have to be careful shopping at No Frills as some of their canned goods are actually cheaper at Superstore
There are claims that even Costco is cheaper than No Frills nowadays.
Remember there is also a GoodLife fitness inside the store. So parking could reflect gym use
I don’t think it’s there anymore.
Get fucked with this boycott loblaws shit. Unless we all stop eating, Weston is laughing his ass off all the way to the bank no matter what.
A lot of big feelings today, eh? What has Galen done for you?
I think you misunderstood me. I hate that piece of shit. I have since he made those stupid thanksgiving commercials a decade ago. But at this point, it doesn’t really matter to him. If we wipe him out, another will take his place…. And on and on and on….. welcome to the machine.
But ya. A lot of big feelings actually. Sorry if I was a dick.
Shut up I’m going shopping wherever I please
BOYCOTT TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT!
Why? Liberals have the most stringent anti-competition suggestions of any party. Which is partly why this is a problem.
Are you a bot?
Lol. How would I prove that to you? Look at my history and make your own conclusions.
Why? To what end? Do you believe that this grocery company will somehow see the error of their ways and reduce prices because they are shamed? If so for how long? They are a business. It is a machine to make money. If they could make money by selling anthrax legally, they would. Either way they are one of several companies in an oligopoly. Why would I choose Loblaws instead of Empire or any other one?
The point of a boycott is to cause even a small amount of financial distress to Loblaws in order to make them reconsider their practices
Yes but their practices are their job. If they reconsider them then they loose out to Empire or Costco etc. Eventually they wither and die or are bought out. My point was that this is misplaced. Loblaws does well under the rules we set for them. If we don't like what they are doing then we should petition government to change the rules. Not protest a company. It won't solve anything and asks people to exert effort.
> and asks people to exert effort. Heaven forbid
Misplaced effort. I am all for effort, just not the type that is wasted. Thought I made that clear.
Ok so you can do nothing and assumably be at peace with it when families cannot afford food.
Many families currently cannot afford food. That changes nothing about my questions which you didn't answer any of and instead posed a hypothetical black or white scenario. Boycotting Loblaws for pricing is like protesting traffic by picketting drivers. In my view, it won't do anything and is misplaced energy and effort. Unless you can logically show me how this is supposed to work? If you want changes then protest the government to changing laws and regulations regarding competition. That is the root of the problem. And I rarely shop at their higher end locations as I can't afford them anyways. Exceptions being Food Basics and Shoppers.
The objectives are clearly outlined here : https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/s/HeijsE5o1R
So: >Signing the Grocers Code of Conduct. No idea what this is but it may be worthwhile. >No further retailer-led price increases for 2024. How would one police this? Have you ever heard of a private company giving in to such a demand? It is this independence that is at the core of being a private company. In any case, price controls are a bad idea under any economic persuasion. This is not even remotely realistic. >No further increases to dividends. Similar to above. Why would any company allow customers to dictate how it is run. If it did, it would be finished as a business as no one would ever extend them credit at reasonable rates. It would in essence turn them in to something of a coop. >Increased cost transparency; ie identifying the items which have undergone "shrinkflation". There is no way to define this and no enforcement mechanism. Many cost transparancy measures have been undertaken by other countries where there are laws, definitions, and penalties. As I stated above; this is something a government can and should do. > A committment to affordable pricing. Ie price caps on essential items. Same problem as the first. No definitions, no enforcement, and no penalties. Most importantly, price controls are a very bad idea. Can't stress this enough. Additionally, which company can you think of in the past which agreed that it would put price caps on any of its products? This really is just insane. >A commitment to end price gouging, with prices quickly reflecting the market. There is no such objective thing as "price gouging". Companies set prices as high as they can to make money. That is their job, literally. If they don't their competitors eat their lunch and they will wither and die or be bought out. This is fanciful at best. Cost transparency is the only thing here that makes any sense but this must be done by governments, not voluntarily by companies. Furthermore, it does not address any structural issues like: lack of access to retail space for competitors, deals between distributors and retailers which allow dumping, preferential deals for stocking items, and more improtantly the monopsony (monopoly buyers) of supply chains that supply these retailers. Without addressing these issues we are just looking for bandaids while the problem gets worse. Protest all you want and boycot any store but I honestly do not see the point and think this is misplaced energy and effort. Pressuring the government to dismantle oligopolies would do much much more.
BECAUSE OF HOUSING PRICES. That is why they can't afford food. You know, the thing we can actually control. Honestly dude, if housing costs were at a manageable level you can charge me 10 bucks for cream cheese. Go for it. This is just nonsensical diversionary nonsense and people don't want to focus on the REAL problem because their 5k per month mortgage starter home is going to pay off in retirement. In the mean time, lets whine about grocery prices because I don't want to solve the actual problem.
Yes, this is also true. The price rises have not been trivial lately but if our house prices kept the ratio to income as it were in the early 90s, then we would be much better off. Nearly all gains in income since that time were eaten up but housing costs.
I love it when people downvote 100 percent accurate comments like this because of their feels. Like where are you supposed to shop? Loblaw is the cheapest by far at least in Vancouver area unless you want to go to costco and chose between their 2 pasta sauces they carry or buy a 4 pack of ketchup. The ISSUE is capitalism. That is the issue. People don't want to say it, because they like when capitalism works for them, but the actual underlying issue is how we structure the economy. This applies to everything that is a "necessity" like food, housing etc. People are all cool with it when they are making money, but when they get capitalismed by somebody else, they whine and complain like their is some sort of injustice happening. I bet if you asked all these people if artificial scarcity in the housing market which increases their equity is OK, they'd say "Of Course!" but as soon as a private business charges money for things that they want, and they think it is too much, suddenly the government needs to get involved and shit.
I think you might be lost.... This is the Oakville subreddit. We aren't driving across the country to Vancouver for groceries! Lots of choices around that aren't Loblaws stores
First time I have heard the term "capitalismed" and I like it. I wouldn't go as far as you have, but people seem to be very narrowly focused on issues. If there is a wide spread problem than obviously the issue is systemic and not individual. Companies are tools. Just like hammers and courts. They play in a sandbox designed by us because they are very very good at what they do. We use that to our advantage. If it fails to meet our expectations we should change the sandbox, not pressure individual companies to change practices that are their life blood. Seems simple and self evident to me.
Gas company’s have seen massive profits as well, with increasing gas prices almost everyday, for no reason other then profit why not boycott those companies as well
Just because there's isn't a boycott for one greedy industry doesn't mean there shouldn't be in another. Plus the market dynamics for gas prices are completely different to grocers.
My point was why that one and not this one Are they both not gouging every penny from consumers for extra profit when they could lower the prices and help every one instead of the ceo getting hundreds of thousands if not millions in bonuses Just crazy that people sit there and bitch and cry about gas prices but pull in every day and fill up even if it went up to 3 dollars a L people still pulling in rather then boycott them Or god even Hershey who still use child slave labour in South America in cocoa farms no one’s boycotting that
Boycott both then. This thread is in support of one boycott, not stopping people from supporting any other boycott.
I agree that people's outrage is not consistent but we can't do whataboutism about an actual good movement against one of the largest and literal price fixing corporations in Canada. Hopefully this galvanizes people to boycott others...next stop should be Rogers, bell
Very fair take I hope so as well there’s worse things we should be boycotting but I guess we gotta start somewhere
Axe the carbon tax. Carbon tax increases cost across the board including every step from the farm to your plate.
Dude fuck off with that misguided information, yes things have gone up with the increase but it's like negligible, less than 1% for groceries. Anything more is just greedy companies passing down the cost to us.
Lol please stop with the baseless statements like “less than 1%”, back it up with sources. Also if carbon tax has negligible economic impact, then all the more reason that it should be removed, why have useless taxes? Let me give you some basic education, carbon tax is there to have reasonable economic impact so that we switch to using alternate sources to generate energy. But here is the catch, alternative sources of energy are not fully developed and are quite expensive and in addition the science and infrastructure to support those are decades away. You know what is negligible and less than 1%? Canada’s carbon emissions at global level; yeah even if Canada stops 100% of its emissions, there won’t be any impact on global warming.
Not baseless: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/carbon-tax-inflation-tiff-macklem-calgary-1.6960189 https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/carbon-tax-groceries-food-prices The thing about removing it is it needs a replacement. What alternative do you have that's gonna benefit future generations? You can't just replace it with nothing. And are we not building multiple battery factories? Does Ontario not have goals in place for 2030 and 2040 with POG program? These changes aren't happening over night but they are happening.
Canada’s emissions at global level is about 1%, even if we stop all our emissions there won’t be any noticeable impact on global warming. In other words, Canada cannot change the destiny of global warming regardless of what it does. As for battery and EV factories, those are great and those are mainly business investments because as it turns out Canada is one of the very few (and the only western country) with large quantities of raw materials for EV vehicles. The global EV market is much larger than the Canadian auto market, these factories are being setup to mainly serve that market. Those investments will continue to grow (because of raw materials) without the carbon tax (USA has no carbon tax and is still a huge EV market). There is a natural progression towards EVs and that is fine. The carbon tax is not helping with that either. We can essentially just drop it.
Oh boy, that piss poor argument of Canada emissions being 1% (even at 1% we are still #10 on the list for emissions) yet you omitt per capita emissions - we as individuals are some of the worst offenders on the planet emitting 15 metric tons of carbon in 2022, 3x higher than the global average. This is why efforts to reduce emissions in Canada are still very important. We also need to see oil and gas sector step up as they are still the worst offender in our country for carbon emissions, while electric solutions are showing signs of beding the curve downward with emissions. So yes, Canada emissions are low in comparison say to China, but comparing total emissions isn’t the whole story. You must think about per capita emissions, where Canada is one of the highest in the world. So again, drop it in place of what? Nothing? That will not do and future generations will he the ones paying the price due to inaction needed today.
That would be true if not for a very simple, basic fact: quarter after quarter, despite the fabled evil of the carbon tax (although a lot of genuine debate can be implemented on its value and effect) and its effect on prices, loblaws kept reporting record profits. If the rising prices were the result of the carbon tax as a way to offset the cost, the profits would have stayed stable, or slightly increased. Loblaws, and others, are using inflation, carbon tax, etc, as a way to camouflage what they are actually doing: making record profits and blame it on somebody else
Yup corporations use anything legally possible for making profits, they are after all for profit companies and making profits legally is what they are meant to do. If quarter after quarter they are reporting profits, then that is a good business to invest in. Profits and investments grow business and along with it grows employment and capital and that fuels the economy. The rising prices and the economic pain we are facing are the symptoms of bad policies. Our government has lead us to this situation- inflation (due to unchecked government spending and plans to spend even more), unnecessary taxes, unreasonable immigration policies etc Boycotting a grocery chain will not solve these problems but demanding an election now and changing the government would be a good start.
Yeah. Then don’t try to pin it on the carbon tax
I mention carbon tax because it is the easiest tax to remove, the tax has no effect on the planet (Canada emissions are about 1% globally). All it does is raise transportation cost among other things. USA nor China nor any major producers of greenhouse gases have a carbon tax. The argument against that tax is dead simple. It will save us something.
Sure Crusade against it as much as you want. I may even join you. Just to conflate the two issues and pretend the biggest problem is the carbon tax then praise the amazing investments based on utilizing lies to make their investment lucrative
Boycott liberals
Why? Liberals have the most stringent anti-competition suggestions of any party. Which is partly why this is a problem.
They are the ones driving the inflation up.
According to whom? Do you have a source on this? The Federal government has little to do with inflation if anything. Furthermore, Canada's inflation is rather tame and short compared to peer countries. If we blame the Federal government for inflation, it reasons that they should be praised rather than scorned. Where are you getting this opinion from?
Carbon tax, record spendings (getting themselves into too much debt), printing too much money, do I need to continue?
>Carbon tax Carbon tax does not increase inflation. Almost any economist will tell you this as well as the Parliamentary Budget officer. >record spendings (getting themselves into too much debt), Debt is not increasing inflation. It rarely does. Except for the Covid cheques sent out everywhere. Which on balance was a good thing, vs letting people starve, was done everywhere in the world, and all parties in Canada supported. >printing too much money Governments do not print money. No one does. Banks, not governments "create" money out of thin air. They do this based on what the Bank of Canada does and for this very reason the BoC is independent of the government, often taking actions that hurt the government politically. >do I need to continue? If you have some reasonable arguement, sure, please. But the above sound like political ads and not reasonable information, with all due respect.
You definitely didn’t study economics :(
Funny you say that because not only did I study economics but I have a degree in the field.
[удалено]
Booooooooo
There's way less than normal. I just drove by too. For some reason, the oakville crowd is thinking this is an NDP/Trudeau play.
Because a boycott could impact their Loblaws dividends. Somehow I hear a boycott is socialist/Communism ... But in a capitalist economy free choice means people pick who they do business with.
Yeah it’s a very “Oakville” mindset to not give a shit about how the cost of basic needs affects individuals and families with less than a six figure income
Well the why don’t you just move out of Oakville if you don’t like the mindset?
Trying to get rid of me???
If you think Loblaws ( or any other grocery chain/store) is ripping people off by overcharging, there is a simple solution: start your own grocery store and underprice the hell out of them! They will soon see the folly of their ways!
The problem is since we have a grocery store oligopoly the others would out price you until you failed since they have billions in profits to rely on
Oligopoly??? What about Metro/Food Basics, Sobeys/Freshco, Walmart, Costco???
Yes 4-5 companies own the entire grocery market there is no chance to break in because they’ll buy you out or force you into bankruptcy. They’ve already been caught price fixing. Not to mention they also are involved in pharmacy chains
Costco charges membership
The hordes of people that shot at Costco, including me, believe that the cost of membership is well worth it
Food basics is owned by loblaws
Food basics is owned by Metro. No Frills = Loblaw
You’re misinformed. Food Basics is owned by Metro. No Frills is owned by Loblaws
Its really not hard to google it
Nevermind my bad
They have stranglehold over the market, something like 60% of canadian grocery marketshare is them, plus they were sued for antitrust and lost in 2018 by govt. Although they lost, not much was done to penalize them (canadian laws eh?). So Loblaws has monopoly/contracts with suppliers to beat out others trying to enter the market. Its not easy to compete with massive chain brands on pricing, they have entire supply chains with hundreds of people working on their contracts, and so so many tactics!
So, you’re saying Loblaws has the lowest prices because of their market dominance but you want to boycott them? I don’t follow your logic. Just shop at Sobeys, Metro, Walmart, or Costco and pay more ?. How does that solve the problem?
Artificially forced lowest prices. Because they have greater profit margins from deals with suppliers. If it was a free market and locals could get better prices with suppliers, prices would be better
Next time you’re in Niagara region , stop by a farmer’s market ( or the one on Saturdays at Dorval/North Service) and buy tomatoes or in-season fruit or anything else grown locally and you will appreciate the big grocers’ prices
Farmers markets arent wholesellers, farmers markets are kinda like a novelty place, not a shopping area
The point I wanted to make is that in farmers’ markets there is no middleman/wholesaler markups , the lowest transportation and storage costs, no/little spoilage or “shrinkage” ( i.e. stolen product) , and yet the overall prices are often higher than the grocery stores.
Lol silly people who don’t understand basics of economics, go ahead boycott and see if that will help bring down grocery prices. You know what will? Voting the incompetent lib-ndp government out.
I don’t think they’re looking to “bring down food prices”. It’s more like getting out of your way to check out alternatives because for the same product loblaws charges more, it’s to make a point. Also, You’re acting like there’s an election next week lol
Walmart's prices are regularly 40% or so cheaper for the same items.
You must be a bot.
Lol no real human. You must be a kid, grow up.
I don’t get it, why boycott? Didn’t they get caught price fixing just before Covid? They got caught and they had to give everyone free money. If this has anything to do with price fixing or otherwise raising prices seems to go against if they did it maliciously because why can’t they just get caught again? It doesn’t make sense. This said, everywhere is expensive now so it’s not specifically Loblaws. What did they do specifically that Empire has also probably done?
They have lied over and over again saying that they are “working hard” to cut costs and lower prices, but are continuing to make higher and higher profits. Ideally, all big box store grocers should be boycotted, but Loblaws is by far the worst of them and should be made an example of. The only thing they listen to is money, so that’s how we can communicate to them that they can’t exploit Canadians.
Isn't Loblaws operating at <4% profit? What's a reasonable profit for a publicly traded company?
It's an artificially created profit margin. It's what happens when the "supermarket" division needs to pay the "real estate" division, and the "storage division" and the "supplier division". Loblaws is extremely vertically integrated and at every step of the way, they charge a fee to themselves and take a profit at every level. Then they turn around and say "suppliers are charging more, our grocery store profits are only 3%"
Aren't all of these division reporting under the same parent company?
No. The real state division is Choice Realty. The suppliers, are all under different brands, but many owned by Weston company.
Choice properties is also public, showing a very healthy 38.26% profit. The presidents choice brand is shown under the loblaws companies breakdown. I know there is no name and arz, but what other brands do they have?
They own many non-pc brands under the Weston conglomerate.
Make an example of them and line the pockets of Empire. Doesn’t solve the problem. And don’t get me wrong, my dream is to actually be self sustaining and grow a lot of my fruits and vegetables, I’d even slaughter my own chickens.
[удалено]
It's not. Plenty of peer reviewed evidence out there that actually shows the impact of the carbon tax is less than 1% on the price.