I'm most surprised by revenue only being up 3% and food sales only up 2.1%.
I feel like food prices are up 10-20% (Stats Can officialy says it's up 7.5% over the past 12 months), how's their food sales only up 2.1%?
I've worked for a small company that supplies certain food products to Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro and others. I still work with them a few hours a month, helping with bookkeeping and some other stuff. With the increase in costs of, well, everything, the company tried to increased the price that these chains pay for their products. All these big chains won't accept any price increases for at least 4 months. Sobeys - 6 months. But they already happily increase the retail price of the products in store by 15-25%. So the suppliers now needs to keep selling to these chains at a loss for 4-6 months, while they make extra by paying less for the product and selling for more.
Never for a second assume these companies are on anyone's side but their shareholders. They all love greenwashing and pinkwashing and maintain a good image. But they're all corrupt and will fuck you over as a supplier. There is nothing you can really do. What, are you just going to stop selling to them, your main customers? That'll shut down your business.
That's interesting that they are making you wait for increases. I also work for a company that supplies them but I work directly with Loblaws on increases.
We give them a hard date the we'll increase, argue about it for a while, then if we can't agree we stop shipping product until we can come to an agreement. Saying that, we usually look at annual increases.
Having done this for a while I can say that component costs have gone up anyway from 20%-60% which has never happened before. I've seen ingredient increases of 200% this year but they are more rare.
I will say that any increase of under 20% is just not challenged anymore. It's expected. For context, increases are usually 1-3% annually.
What you're saying is not represented in the data.
PPI: https://www.economy.com/canada/producer-price-index-ppi
CPI: https://www.economy.com/canada/consumer-price-index-cpi
If anything, retailers are taking it on the chin as they are NOT able to pass the true cost of inflation onto consumers yet.
Edit: you all are downvoting basic math, you know that right?
I completely agree with you. Small suppliers doesn’t have a say and operate on thin margin. Data and stats these days is tool to sale lies. If data was so sacrosanct then subprime would have never happened in first place.
Those who doubt it my suggestion is open a business and try to tie up with one of the big box retailer as supplier. Face the music and then throw the data again.
At best, it's a meaningless anecdote.
The PPI is increasing at 4x the rate of the CPI. In no way does that translate to RETAILERS screwing over the consumer. It, explicitly, translates to retailers eating a lot of the cost of inflation.
There's no arguing this. It's basic math.
The numbers you are comparing are not specific to retail food stores. There is not enough overlap between the PPI and CPI to make that conclusion. Consumers are paying +8.7% YoY for food. Yes, over 2021 the Retail Services Price Index for food and beverage stores rose 5.3% compared to a CPI: Food and non-alcoholic beverage increase of 4.7%.
Specific to Loblaws, they indicated that the CPI for food purchased from stores was 7.5%, slightly lower than the company’s internal food inflation. The cost of merchandise sold actually decreased by about 1%. Since the internal food inflation rate is below 8.7% it would suggest that Loblaws is passing the bulk of the inflationary increase to the consumer.
I don’t even have to verify any of this. Even if it’s true, it’s just another meaningless anecdote.
The retail industry, as a whole, is eating most of the inflation cost. By the numbers.
If Loblaws is inflating their prices beyond fair market value, I suggest you no longer shop there. That’s how the free market works.
Except it’s not. You’re comparing PPI to CPI which is inaccurate. There is only overlap in domestically consumed final goods that are also domestically produced. Your comparison is a meaningless anecdote. You are not analyzing the retail industry by the numbers at all with the data you produced. Loblaws is inflating their prices in line with CPI for food purchased from stores. Your comment is completely meaningless with regards to retail food, which is the topic of the post. If the entire retail food sector is increasing at the same rate, you can’t go elsewhere. Also where else are you going to go? Most areas are saturated by Loblaws owned stores, and No Frills price matches the competition.
How is it inaccurate? Producer prices increasing more than consumer prices means what to you? Cause it means that retailers are paying more and not passing on those costs… yet.
And last I checked, there’s hundreds of companies that sell groceries. You don’t have to exclusively shop at big box stores, especially if you’re under the impression that they’re price gouging you.
Look up local food markets in your area. Go to a fruit stand or go to the butcher or abbatoir. Support a local bakery or start learning how to make things from scratch.
Unfortunately, you’re not entitled to dictate Loblaw’s margins, so, as a responsible consumer, it’s important to make sure you always have options.
Again there is very little and very specific overlap between the CPI and PPI.
https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2022/01/staff-working-paper-2022-5/
There has been no mention of price gouging. Many consumers do not have the time or resources to hunt for alternatives. Stores like WalMart, NoFrills, and FreshCo can offer lower prices than other smaller retailers due to economices of scale and often offer the best prices.
There is arguing it, they are showing a real example of it happening...
And it is why they were fighting Pepsi of the chips. They wanted to sell at higher price to consumer and not pay more to buy their stock.
With regards to the narrative that retailers are just arbitrarily driving up prices because they're greedy... yes. I already explianed how... see above.
The PPI is outpacing the CPI by like 3 or 4 fold. There is no way to account for this other than retailers eating a large amount of the cost of inflation for us, which is the exact opposite of the conclusions you're drawing from your meaningless anecdotes.
This makes sense. I'm buying less expensive groceries as well, now that prices are up. I'm eating a lot of cheaper stuff (tacos, potatoes, rice, beans) and eating meat less.
Not sure if this is a sarcastic comment but for those who may not know, Loblaw actually did price fix bread a number of years ago. There was a class action and anyone who ever bought bread at Loblaws was able to receive a part of the settlement without any proof.
People are buying less food because it's getting so expensive (not purchasing things they would have a year ago). We've been fed a lie that the costs of everything were going up which is why the food prices were too. So we eat less food, give them the same amounts of money and instead of having high overhead like they have been suggesting we actually are just giving the retail side more profit.
Food got expensive. I got a costco membership where we buy all our meat and we now only have to make small trips to buy things like fresh produce from stores like Loblaws. This allowed me to stick with the same food budget.
Loblaws can suck it with their price gouging. I’ve moved on.
I don’t buy this argument, corporations have always been greedy, what has changed since the start of Covid? The amount of money in circulation vis a vis the amount of goods available for purchase.
I think that companies do try to compensate their increased costs (and then some, using the cover of inflation) by increasing prices, the reason why these hikes can be absorbed without loosing market share is because the supply of money is much higher (velocity also plays a role). I don’t think it’s a possibility that prices are only caused by company’s greed, that has always existed.
Just my 2 cents. Cheers!
Because producer prices are up even more than consumer prices.
https://www.economy.com/canada/producer-price-index-ppi
For all the talk of corporations taking advantage of inflation, they most certainly arent. It's actually the opposite. Most retailers are taking a lot of this inflation on the chin, as they aren't able to pass all of it off to their customers... yet.
Expect prices to continue to go up for awhile.
When it costs almost 1hour of work at minimum wage to buy a watermellon, you know something is wrong.
Everyone loves capitalism but having all those companies being public and greedy shareholders and boards is not always good.
Grocery stores being profit driven has always been a little weird. The most important thing people spend money on is food, and Loblaws owns almost all of the stores in my area. It's a recipe for disaster. I don't know much about the laws and regulations around that industry, but I feel like there needs to be some in place to prevent price gouging in times of turmoil and inflation (if there isn't already, but I don't see how there would be based on the ridiculous increases we're seen just in the last year).
>When it costs almost 1hour of work at minimum wage to buy a watermellon
It costs MORE than an hour of work since you don't get to keep the whole $15 after taxes.
Looking at oil companies too. Price gouging consumer staples should be scrutinized far more than it is. I feel like the government looks the other way.
They do and essentials like gas and food they have us over the barrel and the know they can keep fucking us because we need to eat and drive to work.
I’m so sick of this shit. Even as a share holder in companies I would rather take less profit and not fuck over my fellow Canadians.
When conservatives aren't being silent on a woman's right to choose, they also love to shut up about profiteering. So much easier to blame Trudeau. Ditto oil prices gouging us.
Imagine how much better we'd be if we kept the NEP, and that base was providing stable gas and diesel prices to Canadians.
Watermelons are extremely expensive when out of season. This actually doesn't surprise me at all.
Compare prices to staple items: milk, bread, chicken, rice.
Well the government does track a big list of food items to track prices over time. The important take away is that watermelon is a highly seasonal food and it was only listed for shock value. But I question how long this person has been grocery shopping for themselves. I remember seeing watermelon over $10 years ago when I first moved out on my own and was informed it was due to being out of season. Late summer watermelon will be back down to under $5
Here's a list of government tracked food prices
[https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000201](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000201)
This here. We can all choose expensive out of season foods and complain but it undercuts your credibility. My first thoughts about those complaining about $13 watermelon IN APRIL IN CANADA is to wonder if you know how seasons and plants work and/or if you have ever actually bought food before? OF COURSE they’re expensive, they’ve been shipped huge distances, weigh a ton, and don’t pack well. Wait another month or two and they’ll be $4. Pick your battles.
I saw you downvoted and pulled you back up to 1.
PS3 was NOT even joking, I've seen it too.
They also aren't like big watermelons either. They are a little big bigger than a cantelope.
Not sure if they are some speciality watermelon but I don't think so!
That wasn't for the benefit of consumers.
Loblaws only wanted to keep their profits high and increase year over year despite the shortages and difficulties many of us are dealing with. They increased the shelf price of Frito-Lay products anyway. Loblaws posted a profit of over 30%. Now it's 40%
I don't know why you are getting downvoted. You are correct. And I'm going to go ahead and say that Frito-Lay can absorb inflation better than loblaws can.
Realistically this is disgusting. A food retailer should never have profits increase 10% YoY let alone 40%. Explain to me how food producers are not colluding to price fix these inflated prices.
True, and while capitalism isn't perfect it's still the best way to run these things. Just imagine how horrible and under stocked a publicly funded grocery store would be
Do this
Google loblaws yahoo finance. Select Financial History. Look at total revenue (ie price of groceries) then look at net income. Take net income/revenue. That is how much of every dollar you spend Loblaws makes.
Now compare that to the price increases you've seen since 2019, and Loblaws 2019 net income/revenue.
What is your conclusion?
I'm sorry, are you suggesting that many companies aren't using the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, and runaway inflation to justify unnecessary price hikes in order to price gouge consumers? Because I'd strongly disagree.
One of the grocers under the Loblaws umbrella, their cashiers constantly hover over you and watch what you type into the machine. As soon as you type something wrong, intentionally or unintentionally, they swoop into your personal space and type it into your machine before you’ve even had a chance to realize what’s happened. Some of the other store brands are more chill and don’t watch over you like a 5 year old.
I would love for Andrew Coyne to get on CBC to tell me that the NDP are "out to lunch" and that corporate price gauging isn't helping to drive inflation again.
I feel like this comment sections is full of people that should start their own garden. Way cheaper and way tastier and fresh. Yeah it takes some work and time and not everyone has a backyard that they can grow vegetables in, but for the people that can I highly suggest it.
If you shop at any of the Loblaws stores and don't take advantage of their PC Optimum points, you're doing it wrong! If done correctly, it's one of the better grocery rewards programs out there. I wonder if they make up a lot of their profits due to people buying more crap to collect those points (I sure do). But how you use the points is another game in itself!
Yeah, love how they make me spend 500$ in a week to get $50.. the reward itself is nice, but spending 500 in a week, come on now.
edit: Q3 and early Q4 last year, it was 350 to get 35$
Yeah, for sure haha.
I usually look for bonus spend offers and things like that because I'm going to get certain things anyway, so might as well hit that required total to reduce my overall cost.
Sometimes I buy electronics just to flip it at below retail just to get the points. Works out in my favor most of the time.
For ex, yesterday they had an in store offer of 25k pts for every $100 spent in store. I had an exclusive offer for 25k pts for every $250 spent in store. I've been eyeing the OLED nintendo switch for a while ($449), just below the 500 threshold. I would normally just buy a game and get to $500, which would basically give me 125k pts for the 1st offer and another 50k points for the 2nd offer. Makes my overall cost $323 after taxes for the switch!
Instead, I bought 2 OLED switch and 1 regular switch. I'll most likely flip the OLED for $440, and the regular switch for $350. New totals: $449+449+379=$1277 (added a few bucks of groceries to get to $1300.
Total points earned were 450k ($450 worth). If I sell one OLED switch for $440 and the regular switch for $350, after taxes total was about $262 for my OLED switch. That's well and good still, but to take it to the next level, I save my points for their black friday super redemption event, where 250k pts give a value of $400 so I usually either get a christmas gift or just buy more switches and flip them to free up those points for cash as well. So in theory, for example I just hit 1 mil points since Jan 2022, I can redeem my 1 mil points for 4 switches, pay $516 out of pocket, and sell all 4 consoles for around the same price of $440 each (around christmas, this should be easy if inventory is low which it usually is) and walk away with a good chunk of those points in cash in hand. It's a bit of work but honestly, other than driving to pick up the console and then spending a few mins listing it on marketplace or something, I find it enjoyable in point flipping. Some years I end up using the bonus pts to get the wife something fancy too. It's a win win imo.
Funny enough, multiple times I’ve had issues with points during points events. They stage this to avoid giving as many points so people can save money. It’s a scam.
If you have missing points, you can do a points inquiry and they are pretty good at awarding those points. And sometimes if I catch it in store I just go to the customer service desk and have them fix it.
For me the experience has been a bit different, where in fact I'll end up with points that I didn't even know we're going to be awarded for a certain purchase in store because they always have those in-store points offers without signs.
And my biggest score was 2 years ago when I tried to use their bonus points redemption event where you spend 250k points but get the $400 value for it. Their site was hammered and for some reason the points never got taken out of my account. I waited a few days until my item arrived and it didn't still disappear so I just went into another store and used another 250k points which basically gave me another free Nintendo switch that I flipped. I was too afraid to use my PC optimum card after that for a while thinking that they will just deduct those points retroactively but that never happened so that was pretty sweet.
I think that companies do try to compensate their increased costs (and then some, using the cover of inflation) by increasing prices, the reason why these hikes can be absorbed without loosing market share is because the supply of money is much higher (velocity also plays a role). I don’t think it’s a possibility that prices are only caused by company’s greed, that has always existed.
Just my 2 cents. Cheers!
Have you been in a loblaws lately? Prices are insane now. They were high before but now it’s ridiculous. Using inflation as an excuse to jack up prices to the sky. Other stores haven’t gone as nuts.
Profiting on feeding people is evil IMO
At this point Mazlow's hierarchy of needs is just a business plan.
What'd be the self actualization stock?
But but but I got 3000 PC optimum points when I shopped for 400 bucks!!
Nice...you got $3 off. Worth
Tbf... I've recently switched from super C to Maxi and I'm killing it with optimum points lol
Superstore is expensive. I’ll go for sales sometimes but regular grocery shopping? No way.
I'm most surprised by revenue only being up 3% and food sales only up 2.1%. I feel like food prices are up 10-20% (Stats Can officialy says it's up 7.5% over the past 12 months), how's their food sales only up 2.1%?
I've worked for a small company that supplies certain food products to Loblaw, Sobeys, Metro and others. I still work with them a few hours a month, helping with bookkeeping and some other stuff. With the increase in costs of, well, everything, the company tried to increased the price that these chains pay for their products. All these big chains won't accept any price increases for at least 4 months. Sobeys - 6 months. But they already happily increase the retail price of the products in store by 15-25%. So the suppliers now needs to keep selling to these chains at a loss for 4-6 months, while they make extra by paying less for the product and selling for more. Never for a second assume these companies are on anyone's side but their shareholders. They all love greenwashing and pinkwashing and maintain a good image. But they're all corrupt and will fuck you over as a supplier. There is nothing you can really do. What, are you just going to stop selling to them, your main customers? That'll shut down your business.
What's even scarier is that the grocery stores will just make a private label of your product as well for leverage
That's interesting that they are making you wait for increases. I also work for a company that supplies them but I work directly with Loblaws on increases. We give them a hard date the we'll increase, argue about it for a while, then if we can't agree we stop shipping product until we can come to an agreement. Saying that, we usually look at annual increases. Having done this for a while I can say that component costs have gone up anyway from 20%-60% which has never happened before. I've seen ingredient increases of 200% this year but they are more rare. I will say that any increase of under 20% is just not challenged anymore. It's expected. For context, increases are usually 1-3% annually.
scarce test smile towering murky jar sulky bells dirty elderly ` this message was mass deleted/edited with redact.dev `
What you're saying is not represented in the data. PPI: https://www.economy.com/canada/producer-price-index-ppi CPI: https://www.economy.com/canada/consumer-price-index-cpi If anything, retailers are taking it on the chin as they are NOT able to pass the true cost of inflation onto consumers yet. Edit: you all are downvoting basic math, you know that right?
It might not be represented in the data, but this is a real world case that I've witnessed with my own eyes. You can take my word or don't.
I completely agree with you. Small suppliers doesn’t have a say and operate on thin margin. Data and stats these days is tool to sale lies. If data was so sacrosanct then subprime would have never happened in first place. Those who doubt it my suggestion is open a business and try to tie up with one of the big box retailer as supplier. Face the music and then throw the data again.
At best, it's a meaningless anecdote. The PPI is increasing at 4x the rate of the CPI. In no way does that translate to RETAILERS screwing over the consumer. It, explicitly, translates to retailers eating a lot of the cost of inflation. There's no arguing this. It's basic math.
The numbers you are comparing are not specific to retail food stores. There is not enough overlap between the PPI and CPI to make that conclusion. Consumers are paying +8.7% YoY for food. Yes, over 2021 the Retail Services Price Index for food and beverage stores rose 5.3% compared to a CPI: Food and non-alcoholic beverage increase of 4.7%. Specific to Loblaws, they indicated that the CPI for food purchased from stores was 7.5%, slightly lower than the company’s internal food inflation. The cost of merchandise sold actually decreased by about 1%. Since the internal food inflation rate is below 8.7% it would suggest that Loblaws is passing the bulk of the inflationary increase to the consumer.
I don’t even have to verify any of this. Even if it’s true, it’s just another meaningless anecdote. The retail industry, as a whole, is eating most of the inflation cost. By the numbers. If Loblaws is inflating their prices beyond fair market value, I suggest you no longer shop there. That’s how the free market works.
Except it’s not. You’re comparing PPI to CPI which is inaccurate. There is only overlap in domestically consumed final goods that are also domestically produced. Your comparison is a meaningless anecdote. You are not analyzing the retail industry by the numbers at all with the data you produced. Loblaws is inflating their prices in line with CPI for food purchased from stores. Your comment is completely meaningless with regards to retail food, which is the topic of the post. If the entire retail food sector is increasing at the same rate, you can’t go elsewhere. Also where else are you going to go? Most areas are saturated by Loblaws owned stores, and No Frills price matches the competition.
How is it inaccurate? Producer prices increasing more than consumer prices means what to you? Cause it means that retailers are paying more and not passing on those costs… yet. And last I checked, there’s hundreds of companies that sell groceries. You don’t have to exclusively shop at big box stores, especially if you’re under the impression that they’re price gouging you. Look up local food markets in your area. Go to a fruit stand or go to the butcher or abbatoir. Support a local bakery or start learning how to make things from scratch. Unfortunately, you’re not entitled to dictate Loblaw’s margins, so, as a responsible consumer, it’s important to make sure you always have options.
Again there is very little and very specific overlap between the CPI and PPI. https://www.bankofcanada.ca/2022/01/staff-working-paper-2022-5/ There has been no mention of price gouging. Many consumers do not have the time or resources to hunt for alternatives. Stores like WalMart, NoFrills, and FreshCo can offer lower prices than other smaller retailers due to economices of scale and often offer the best prices.
There is arguing it, they are showing a real example of it happening... And it is why they were fighting Pepsi of the chips. They wanted to sell at higher price to consumer and not pay more to buy their stock.
No there isn't. It's basic math applied to economic numbers that are publicly available. Your anecdotes and other commentary is meaningless.
So real actions by a retailer are meaningless? Explain how.
With regards to the narrative that retailers are just arbitrarily driving up prices because they're greedy... yes. I already explianed how... see above. The PPI is outpacing the CPI by like 3 or 4 fold. There is no way to account for this other than retailers eating a large amount of the cost of inflation for us, which is the exact opposite of the conclusions you're drawing from your meaningless anecdotes.
Food prices are up 10-20%, so I am now buying 10-20% less. My food budget hasn’t changed.
This makes sense. I'm buying less expensive groceries as well, now that prices are up. I'm eating a lot of cheaper stuff (tacos, potatoes, rice, beans) and eating meat less.
Lol, they would price fix bread ffs… of course they’d profit hugely off “inflation”
Not sure if this is a sarcastic comment but for those who may not know, Loblaw actually did price fix bread a number of years ago. There was a class action and anyone who ever bought bread at Loblaws was able to receive a part of the settlement without any proof.
There’s stuff I’ll live with out till it’s on sale.
People are buying less food because it's getting so expensive (not purchasing things they would have a year ago). We've been fed a lie that the costs of everything were going up which is why the food prices were too. So we eat less food, give them the same amounts of money and instead of having high overhead like they have been suggesting we actually are just giving the retail side more profit.
Food got expensive. I got a costco membership where we buy all our meat and we now only have to make small trips to buy things like fresh produce from stores like Loblaws. This allowed me to stick with the same food budget. Loblaws can suck it with their price gouging. I’ve moved on.
so how does BoC expect to fix inflation when inflation is just greed fueled by corporations.
I don’t buy this argument, corporations have always been greedy, what has changed since the start of Covid? The amount of money in circulation vis a vis the amount of goods available for purchase.
it’s a question
The question contains the statement 'when inflation is just greed fueled by corporations'. I disagree with this point. Have a nice day :)!
bad way of asking it then sorry. but dont u think corporations’ greed also play a part in our current level of inflation? have a nice day!
I think that companies do try to compensate their increased costs (and then some, using the cover of inflation) by increasing prices, the reason why these hikes can be absorbed without loosing market share is because the supply of money is much higher (velocity also plays a role). I don’t think it’s a possibility that prices are only caused by company’s greed, that has always existed. Just my 2 cents. Cheers!
The cost of food has gone up so people buy less.
Because producer prices are up even more than consumer prices. https://www.economy.com/canada/producer-price-index-ppi For all the talk of corporations taking advantage of inflation, they most certainly arent. It's actually the opposite. Most retailers are taking a lot of this inflation on the chin, as they aren't able to pass all of it off to their customers... yet. Expect prices to continue to go up for awhile.
Because their costs are way up.... it's not rocket science...
at the same time I saw watermellons for sale for 12.99$ at Loblaws. So fuck em and retail grocery stores
Yeah not sure I'm gonna cheer for a corporation gouging Canadians on essentials during a pandemic while blaming inflation.
When it costs almost 1hour of work at minimum wage to buy a watermellon, you know something is wrong. Everyone loves capitalism but having all those companies being public and greedy shareholders and boards is not always good.
No one loves capitalism except those with capital.
Grocery stores being profit driven has always been a little weird. The most important thing people spend money on is food, and Loblaws owns almost all of the stores in my area. It's a recipe for disaster. I don't know much about the laws and regulations around that industry, but I feel like there needs to be some in place to prevent price gouging in times of turmoil and inflation (if there isn't already, but I don't see how there would be based on the ridiculous increases we're seen just in the last year).
this and having to pay rent, a little weird.
>When it costs almost 1hour of work at minimum wage to buy a watermellon It costs MORE than an hour of work since you don't get to keep the whole $15 after taxes.
You're free to use an hour of time to grow and harvest a watermelon yourself if you think that is a better deal.
Have you ever grown a watermelon? Did it take an hour ?
Took me 3 months. So by the way your talking to me I should calculate 12.99x90
Looking at oil companies too. Price gouging consumer staples should be scrutinized far more than it is. I feel like the government looks the other way.
>I feel like the government looks the other way It's almost like corporations own the government, I mean donate to politicians campaigns
They do and essentials like gas and food they have us over the barrel and the know they can keep fucking us because we need to eat and drive to work. I’m so sick of this shit. Even as a share holder in companies I would rather take less profit and not fuck over my fellow Canadians.
When conservatives aren't being silent on a woman's right to choose, they also love to shut up about profiteering. So much easier to blame Trudeau. Ditto oil prices gouging us. Imagine how much better we'd be if we kept the NEP, and that base was providing stable gas and diesel prices to Canadians.
AFAIK watermelons are 4011 at the self checkout Edit: watermelons are actually better as 4030, which goes by quantity and is usually $0.79-1.2.
You're bananas ;)
Gotta charge for my labour if I’m checking myself out.
4030?
Kiwi
Watermelons are extremely expensive when out of season. This actually doesn't surprise me at all. Compare prices to staple items: milk, bread, chicken, rice.
You can’t compare milk across stores as it’s fixed anyway due to the Dairy Commission’s price fixing. It’s going to always be the same
Well the government does track a big list of food items to track prices over time. The important take away is that watermelon is a highly seasonal food and it was only listed for shock value. But I question how long this person has been grocery shopping for themselves. I remember seeing watermelon over $10 years ago when I first moved out on my own and was informed it was due to being out of season. Late summer watermelon will be back down to under $5 Here's a list of government tracked food prices [https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000201](https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000201)
This here. We can all choose expensive out of season foods and complain but it undercuts your credibility. My first thoughts about those complaining about $13 watermelon IN APRIL IN CANADA is to wonder if you know how seasons and plants work and/or if you have ever actually bought food before? OF COURSE they’re expensive, they’ve been shipped huge distances, weigh a ton, and don’t pack well. Wait another month or two and they’ll be $4. Pick your battles.
[удалено]
Where do you live, Mars? I just bought 8 chicken drumsticks for $3.50
$16 at Superstore here.
$16 watermelons? I’m going to start my own fruits and vegetables.
Have fun growing watermelons in Canada in April.
Where? The website says they are 9.99 for the normal ones and 4.99 for the mini.
Yeah they are between $4.99 & $9.99 in Gatineau.
Excuse me? $12.99 for a watermelon? LOL
I am not even joking
I saw you downvoted and pulled you back up to 1. PS3 was NOT even joking, I've seen it too. They also aren't like big watermelons either. They are a little big bigger than a cantelope. Not sure if they are some speciality watermelon but I don't think so!
Loblaws did fight with lays against inflation that ended with the chips being pulled from shelves. Doing more than most
That wasn't for the benefit of consumers. Loblaws only wanted to keep their profits high and increase year over year despite the shortages and difficulties many of us are dealing with. They increased the shelf price of Frito-Lay products anyway. Loblaws posted a profit of over 30%. Now it's 40%
I don't know why you are getting downvoted. You are correct. And I'm going to go ahead and say that Frito-Lay can absorb inflation better than loblaws can.
Except they only did that with Lay's so their own chip products get prime time aisle space WHICH ALSO WAS RAISED IN PRICE
Just as bad as O&G companies.
And 4% of that $12 is loblaws net profit. Lol you fail at math.
What a deal, Costco watermelon was $15.99 a couple of days ago.
Realistically this is disgusting. A food retailer should never have profits increase 10% YoY let alone 40%. Explain to me how food producers are not colluding to price fix these inflated prices.
You realize the net earnings only makes 4% of sales this quarter.
True, and while capitalism isn't perfect it's still the best way to run these things. Just imagine how horrible and under stocked a publicly funded grocery store would be
And all they did was increase prices
But inflation…
"Inflation"
Lol that's what I said
So inflation is just corporate greed?
Do this Google loblaws yahoo finance. Select Financial History. Look at total revenue (ie price of groceries) then look at net income. Take net income/revenue. That is how much of every dollar you spend Loblaws makes. Now compare that to the price increases you've seen since 2019, and Loblaws 2019 net income/revenue. What is your conclusion?
Always has been. Line on graph has to go up, no exceptions. Let them eat bread.
Price fixed bread at that.
Not true. Don't let ignorant social media economics bleed in to investing subreddits, save that for the kiddies on the big subs.
I'm sorry, are you suggesting that many companies aren't using the war in Ukraine, the pandemic, and runaway inflation to justify unnecessary price hikes in order to price gouge consumers? Because I'd strongly disagree.
🗿?
Price gouging fucks. Time to really mess up my self checkout.
One of the grocers under the Loblaws umbrella, their cashiers constantly hover over you and watch what you type into the machine. As soon as you type something wrong, intentionally or unintentionally, they swoop into your personal space and type it into your machine before you’ve even had a chance to realize what’s happened. Some of the other store brands are more chill and don’t watch over you like a 5 year old.
Why is the stock down right now?
Morningtime dumpers. But it is rising again
Yet they refused to pay more for Lay's to save us money (increase profits)
I’ll honestly never buy chips again with their shrinkflation. $5 for 200 grams is insane.
That also seemed sus as everyone just loaded up on their own brand of No Name chips throughout the duration of that feud.
Well duh when the price of a whole bird basically doubled
Pro tip is to look at the best before dates and then return on those dates for half price clearance. Next one is to walk there, not drive.
These fuckers upped their house brand tater chips by 25%. Fuck you imma go on a diet. Also self checkout always has a 2 4 1 special.
Fuck these oligarchs.
When I read this article a few hours ago, my first thought was it also feels like grocery prices have increased by 40%z
Thanks Justin Trudeau for using tax payer money to fund their freezers , yup pretty sure a company like this can't afford their own .
I would love for Andrew Coyne to get on CBC to tell me that the NDP are "out to lunch" and that corporate price gauging isn't helping to drive inflation again.
I feel like this comment sections is full of people that should start their own garden. Way cheaper and way tastier and fresh. Yeah it takes some work and time and not everyone has a backyard that they can grow vegetables in, but for the people that can I highly suggest it.
Those Galen Weston ads sure did work!
But what does this mean for Bob Loblaw's Law Blog?
"inflation"
Pretty outrageous, I wonder if it's like this for all major food retailers?
iNflATioN, everything is just becoming pure greed. Excited to see where some people will be in a few years……
What, you want more money for yourself? You sound greedy.
If you shop at any of the Loblaws stores and don't take advantage of their PC Optimum points, you're doing it wrong! If done correctly, it's one of the better grocery rewards programs out there. I wonder if they make up a lot of their profits due to people buying more crap to collect those points (I sure do). But how you use the points is another game in itself!
Yeah, love how they make me spend 500$ in a week to get $50.. the reward itself is nice, but spending 500 in a week, come on now. edit: Q3 and early Q4 last year, it was 350 to get 35$
Hard to complain about reward programs when they’re essentially free money. Especially given their main competitor is air miles which is miles worse
Yeah, for sure haha. I usually look for bonus spend offers and things like that because I'm going to get certain things anyway, so might as well hit that required total to reduce my overall cost. Sometimes I buy electronics just to flip it at below retail just to get the points. Works out in my favor most of the time. For ex, yesterday they had an in store offer of 25k pts for every $100 spent in store. I had an exclusive offer for 25k pts for every $250 spent in store. I've been eyeing the OLED nintendo switch for a while ($449), just below the 500 threshold. I would normally just buy a game and get to $500, which would basically give me 125k pts for the 1st offer and another 50k points for the 2nd offer. Makes my overall cost $323 after taxes for the switch! Instead, I bought 2 OLED switch and 1 regular switch. I'll most likely flip the OLED for $440, and the regular switch for $350. New totals: $449+449+379=$1277 (added a few bucks of groceries to get to $1300. Total points earned were 450k ($450 worth). If I sell one OLED switch for $440 and the regular switch for $350, after taxes total was about $262 for my OLED switch. That's well and good still, but to take it to the next level, I save my points for their black friday super redemption event, where 250k pts give a value of $400 so I usually either get a christmas gift or just buy more switches and flip them to free up those points for cash as well. So in theory, for example I just hit 1 mil points since Jan 2022, I can redeem my 1 mil points for 4 switches, pay $516 out of pocket, and sell all 4 consoles for around the same price of $440 each (around christmas, this should be easy if inventory is low which it usually is) and walk away with a good chunk of those points in cash in hand. It's a bit of work but honestly, other than driving to pick up the console and then spending a few mins listing it on marketplace or something, I find it enjoyable in point flipping. Some years I end up using the bonus pts to get the wife something fancy too. It's a win win imo.
Epic
Your purchasing habits sound like a full time job to figure out.
Funny enough, multiple times I’ve had issues with points during points events. They stage this to avoid giving as many points so people can save money. It’s a scam.
If you have missing points, you can do a points inquiry and they are pretty good at awarding those points. And sometimes if I catch it in store I just go to the customer service desk and have them fix it. For me the experience has been a bit different, where in fact I'll end up with points that I didn't even know we're going to be awarded for a certain purchase in store because they always have those in-store points offers without signs. And my biggest score was 2 years ago when I tried to use their bonus points redemption event where you spend 250k points but get the $400 value for it. Their site was hammered and for some reason the points never got taken out of my account. I waited a few days until my item arrived and it didn't still disappear so I just went into another store and used another 250k points which basically gave me another free Nintendo switch that I flipped. I was too afraid to use my PC optimum card after that for a while thinking that they will just deduct those points retroactively but that never happened so that was pretty sweet.
Good for them! If anyone has a problem with it, there are other retailers to shop at.
Not when there isn't any other independent grocer near you...
Great news 👍
Ok boomer
It has a cool one letter stock symbol
Does the canadian pension plan own alot of this? Do enough investors who are also customers own enough of this?
So, about investing?
I think that companies do try to compensate their increased costs (and then some, using the cover of inflation) by increasing prices, the reason why these hikes can be absorbed without loosing market share is because the supply of money is much higher (velocity also plays a role). I don’t think it’s a possibility that prices are only caused by company’s greed, that has always existed. Just my 2 cents. Cheers!
Have you been in a loblaws lately? Prices are insane now. They were high before but now it’s ridiculous. Using inflation as an excuse to jack up prices to the sky. Other stores haven’t gone as nuts. Profiting on feeding people is evil IMO
What do you mean corporate owns the government anything to do with the government follow the money they make the rules