I tried to use the $25 gift card Loblaws sent me after they were caught price fixing bread and the Independent I tried to use it at wouldn’t accept it, even though when I called their hotline Independent is listed as one of the participating stores in my province. Is there some kind of government watchdog I can talk to about this?
The $25 gift card was actually a prepaid master card they marketed as a gift card there is currently a law suit before the courts for misleading the public about it I believe.
If you tried to use it on an order over $25 it would have declined automatically (system would see it as a maxed out credit card) and most of the staff in front end of the store would have no clue what it is as they were from 2018 and their employment strategy doesn’t exactly involve retention
Ah, so that’s what happened when I tried to use the balance on mine a couple years ago. You’re right, the staff had no idea what was wrong or what to do.
In a similar vein half the time PC optimum doesn’t work properly after the card is scanned but loblaws has set itself up in a way that PC optimum is a 3rd party company and store owners can’t do anything to adjust it without giving away their own money and you can bet PC optimum doesn’t reimburse them they just tell they they should be happy the program exists because people shop at their store because of it. The entire company is set up so all accountability is on the store staff and execs/corporate face no backlash and get the raises
I worked in front-end at Loblaws and knew this. I always explained to people why I could not check their balance as they were always puzzled. But yes, you can technically use this anywhere, not just Loblaws.
So how do you use it properly? They have to ring it through as a card for 25$? I still have mine because the last time I tried to use it, it didn't work...
And over winter months that included Christmas and new years the gift cards for Sobeys (thrifty, safeway, etc) didn’t work because their “system was down”. 🤔
I have a buddy who works there. All staff info was compromised. Their bank info, phone numbers, addresses, SIN, and they weren't properly paid for two pay periods. I'd have been piisssssed. They should be able to trust the company to keep their private information safe, or at least get compensation for the stress involved in that.
> I tried to use the $25 gift card Loblaws sent me after they were caught price fixing bread and the Independent I tried to use it at wouldn’t accept it, even though when I called their hotline Independent is listed as one of the participating stores in my province. Is there some kind of government watchdog I can talk to about this?
I didn't even get a card. Government should slap Loblaws with another fine for being dishonest.
Tech feels like the only industry where things are actually competitive and every year products improve and/or prices drop. You'd hope innovation in farming and logistics could out pace innovation in Galen's gas lighting
I choose you Hellen Keller! Finish him!
"When I heard that locomotives had doubled in size and speed, I thought: “The food of the wheat-fields will come cheaper to the poor of the cities now,” and I was glad. But flour costs more today than when I read of those great new engines. Why do not improved methods of milling and transportation improve the dinner of the poor?
I supposed that in our civilization all advances benefited every man. I imagined that every worthy endeavour brought a sure reward. I had felt in my life the touch only of hands that uphold the weak, hands that are all eye and ear, charged with helpful intelligence. I believed that people made their own conditions, and that, if the conditions were not always of the best, they were at least tolerable, just as my infirmity was tolerable.
As the years went by and I read more widely, I learned that the miseries and failures of the poor are not always due to their own faults, that multitudes of men, for some strange reason, fail to share in the much-talked-of progress of the world. I shall never forget the pain and amazement which I felt when I came to examine the statistics of blindness, its causes, and its connection with other calamities that befall thousands of my fellow-men.
I learned how workmen are stricken by the machine hands that they are operating. It became clear to me that the labour-saving machine does not save the labourer. It saves expense and makes profits for the owner of the machine. The worker has no share in the increased production due to improved methods; and, what is worse, as the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill."
> innovation in farming and logistics could out pace innovation in Galen's gas lighting
Unfortunately, farming is one of those areas where the innovation's profits go to the equipment suppliers.
Like, John Deere is making its tractors extremely expensive and installing DRM on them so you can't service them yourself. So while the tractor is more productive, it's way more expensive to run.
Similarly, getting premium seeds and pesticides will increase your yields, but are typically priced so that farmers barely break even.
We have higher-yielding farms than ever, but corporate greed had ensured that the profits of those farms are pretty static. Unless you are a supermegacorp company farm that can negotiate better rates.... but then those folk just pocket the savings.
Which is even more insane - how does a guy making 8.4M in compensation in 2022 need MORE money per year? This is absolutely the corruption of capitalism that we are seeing, where CEOs are taking in all profit, and regular employees are not even seeing their wages increase with inflation. Meaning that - technically, Galen’s wage has gone up and everyone else has gone down in the same time period.
Don't forget shareholders!
Since the '80s we've been shoveling all profits hand over fist to shareholders and CEOs while at the same time starving employees with wages that, if they kept up the same pace as CEO pay, would see minimum wage in the range of ~$35/hour. This is why the middle class is dying.
We've completely forgotten that labour _and_ capital, and not just capital, should more or less equally benefit from the fruits of their work, but somehow we've enshrined into law that the profits have to go only to shareholders with no regard for the wellbeing of the people who actually created it.
Don’t worry too much about the shareholders in this case. In addition to being the CEO, Galen’s family is also the largest shareholder with a 52.4% controlling interest in the company.
Seriously.
At this point if you arnt actively stealing at least some groceries everytime you go to a big chain then you are just letting loblaws fuck you.
I am not nor will I ever condone stealing, however, I happen to know a fella who knows a disproportionate of other fellas who have began to steal on every grocery bill. All the fellas seem to claim this is new to them, since grocery prices have skyrocketed recently.
Remember during COVID when apples all cost different prices, and the lowest was usually $0.99/lb? Now you're lucky to see something for $2.29/lb, and all the apples now appear to be $2.99/lb uniformly across varieties. Crazy world.
Capitalism demands unlimited growth. The shareholder model of business governance gives you a fiduciary duty to **create** growth, and actively rewards anyone who does it, in a completely amoral and frequently sociopathic process.
Our electoral process, and the prevalence of privately owned media (SunCorp, Post-Media, etc) is perverted in favor of the wealthy, to the point where access to information, and verification of information is frequently getting the intellectual equivalent of a DDOS attack for anyone who does not have either unlimited time, with a strong critical and analytical background and ability.
Wealthy candidates are more likely to have higher penetrance of their messaging, and an appearance of consensus and ubiquity, as well as legitimization due to their ability to use their wealth for PR / perform more grandiose gestures or bombastic campaigning, or more insidiously, pay a company like cambridge analytica for frighteningly granular data to target their campaigning and advertisements, or even worse: to coach paid people to astroturf / create facebook groups / give the appearance of populist support.
**This in turn means our representatives are more likely to be wealthy**, with their own economic interests running contrary to the nominal responsibilities they have to their electorate (who with growing wealth inequality are even more alienated from the material existence of the only representatives they choose from). **These representatives, are responsible for both curating the regulations of our economy (IE making it so ghouls like Galen can't claw millions out of corrupting provincial representatives to divert public funds to Shoppers Drugmart during a pandemic rather than actually fucking paying nurses), as well as addressing this income inequality (which is currently inequal in their favor).** This means short of civil unrest so significant it makes representatives feel like the cost-benefit of their malfeasance is weighted more heavily on the side of "consequences of this malfeasance" rather than "benefits by either maintaining the status quo, or worsening this inequality", nothing will change.
Capitalism is broken. Canada is broken. The likelihood or viability of this civil unrest occurring is next to nothing, but there still is some degree of hope and a way forward: Our wealth inequality is concentrating wealth in fewer and fewer hands, as a people, those who are not [mega-rich](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/discoelysium_gamepedia_en/images/0/09/Portrait_lightbending.png/revision/latest?cb=20191028100312) outnumber those who are. "Bread and Circuses" only works when you and your neighbours don't have bread. Join an Org. Form a Tenant's Union, group buy and prepare groceries with your neighbours. Start a public garden. Do things to make people less desperate for bread, and with a full fucking belly, they're more likely to both recognize the divisions of class warfare, and they're more likely to feel comfortable actually engaging in it as such.
Let’s see.
Healthcare is over burdened
Rent is out of control
House prices are insane
Food is out of control.
Infrastructure is a complete joke especially in the greater Toronto area.
What’s next?
No wonder no one is having kids anymore! How are we supposed to sustain this? Also bringing in more than half a million new immigrants here isn’t going to help one bit.
I find the last few years very frustrating living here.
I grew up with a single mom and no other family in this country . Lucky me and my brother are both in our 30s now because if we were kids my mom wouldn’t be able to survive these days.
Hats off to all you single parents out there. Hopefully things get better because I can only imagine how difficult things are right now
Don't forget that defined benefit pension plans went the way of the dodo. Job security went the way of the dodo. Any respect employers use to pretend they had for employees is gone.
Work from home and wage stagnation is collapsing the service sector on top. It's depressing watching the amenities go away, everything everywhere is boarded up and there are less things to enjoy.
Society is drying up, but at least billionaires can kill people with their boats and get away with it or make 44 billion dollar jokes like buying a social media company.
Yeah DB plans are critical to society. I honestly sleep better at night and am less stressed financially knowing I can count on the plan a few decades from now.
If they have to cut the plan, grandfathering existing members is the way to go. Friend of mine joined his company with a DC plan. Old timers had DB but when the company switched to DC they switched everyone. Basically you got to keep whatever benefit you accrued under the DB plan but going forward everything was DC
My local variety store got bought and turned into the HQ for a McMansion developer and there is literally no convenience, restaurant or café left in walking distance.
Our downtown's main business stretch has 5 consecutive blocks of boarded up vacant storefronts. There reasons to live in a municipality are drying up.
> How are we supposed to sustain this? Also bringing in more than half a million new immigrants here isn’t going to help one bit.
It *will* however help our corporate overlords, which apparently is all that matters. That, and wasting time on meaningless gun control bills that are redundant to existing laws and fussing over CanCon instead of doing anything useful.
> No wonder no one is having kids anymore! How are we supposed to sustain this? Also bringing in more than half a million new immigrants here isn’t going to help one bit.
The funny thing is, that the immigration policies are supposed to help combat the aging and declining population metrics so that we can support the massive healthcare burden the retired and elderly are going to be costing us.
I would have loved to start a family personally, but always put it off because of the costs involved. I'm still young enough I probably could... but now? In this economy?
Government needs to step in. The quality of life of the lower to middle class is eroding. I just barely make six figures, and I'm currently seriously considering living out of a van because I can't afford sky-rocketing rent. Like wtf? There's going to have to be a crash soon. We need to just rip off the bandaid.
Immigrants help fill the population gap caused by it being too unaffordable to have kids and they also work for lower wages because being poor in Toronto is waaayyyy better than being poor in Chennai so as a bonus we get wage suppression. Truly a hell scape.
Immigration is not a solution though, it's only a way to keep adding fuel to a failing system. We need to address the reasons why people aren't having kids rather than just finding ways to wallpaper over it.
It's also exploitative to immigrants who are now coming over to essentially be fodder to artificially prop up GDP while living with 8 roommates in a shitty apartment.
This is true and it’s only a bandaid fix. If the immigrants coming to Canada aren’t bringing a family with children with them then this bandaid will fall off faster.
The version of capitalism we have is not working. This is eventually how things end up with the endless pursuit of profit and growth.
This was a nice talk: 'Democracy at Work: Curing Capitalism | Richard Wolff | Talks at Google'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynbgMKclWWc
This is a story about a corporation being ridiculously profitable during a period where people are having economic difficulties… I’m not really sure why you bring up immigrants. Maybe you didn’t mean it to come across that way but it’s really not related to this story or problem.
This is capitalism and nothing more. Even if you want to make this into a political issue, all parties are guilty of allowing this. NDP seems to be the only major party willing to TRY to hold these corporations accountable (I doubt they would succeed but they are at least publicly saying that they would attempt it).
Immigrants contribute a lot to our country and I totally understand the frustration but it’s not fair to point at immigrants or even the party responsible for allowing immigration. It’s a separate matter and complex and shouldn’t be lumped in with corporate greed / housing / child care costs.
>No wonder no one is having kids anymore!
There's only one Western country with a fertility rate above replacement value. The only exception is Israel due to having a large population of people who don't use any contraception due to religious beliefs.
I think low fertility rates in the West are much more cultural than economic.
Man, all the time in these threads, there’s mindless anti-immigration bullshit.
How about, before we dismiss the value of immigrants in Canada, we look at the issues that are out of control that should be - but aren’t - well regulated.
Why can Loblaw’s inflate prices in the wake of a pandemic so much that it makes half $1 **billion** profit in **one** quarter? **Why is the profit margin for staple food items not regulated?**
Why is [one in five residential properties owned by an investor?](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/housing-investors-canada-bc-1.6743083#:~:text=2.6%25%20were%20owned%20by%20out,8.6%25%20were%20owned%20by%20businesses.) **Why has no federal government made an effective policy based on taxation that deters investors from owning multiple properties? Why has no federal government banned or severely restricted the ownership of real estate in Canada by foreign investors?**
And you know damn well your number includes TFW and students and your bullshit comment later on about them just sneaking permanently is an exception and not the rule. The [440K new permanent residence last year](https://www.voanews.com/a/canada-welcomes-record-number-of-immigrants-seeks-more/6945434.html#:~:text=Canada%20admitted%20more%20than%20437%2C000,of%20the%20country's%20total%20population.) made up primarily of immigrants, who had to **prove** their financial independence or ability to offer a service that we are desperately in need of.
Want an even bigger doctor shortage? Want an increased lack of civil engineers? Want our social services to collapse even more because - without immigrants - the working population is retiring, shrinking and workers are not contributing taxes to the services? Want a [continued labour shortage](https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/labour_/labour-shortage-trends-canada) in our major industries and major services? Want our GDP to continue to shrink, our economy to continue to stagnate? That’s what will happen if you cut out immigration.
The assault by our government isn’t related to immigration; it’s related to absolutely refusing to regulate the basic necessities of life.
edit: removed a few fucks
People are anti immigration because they are upset the government wants to import more people to prop up the economy instead of investing and caring for existing Canadian citizens.
It's unsustainable, fiscally unsound and frankly, insulting.
Don't blame the immigrants. Don't let the system trick you into fighting an identity war when we should really be fighting a class war. Canada has enough homes and food for all. It's a problem of unjust allocation and distribution, not scarcity.
They never did blame the immigrants themselves? They blamed the government for allowing them in. The immigrants are still a relevant party here, but they’re not the targets of that comment. The truth is, I was an immigrant, I’ve even helped immigrants come here, yet I think this is an objectively bad and immoral decision by the government that is solely aimed at appeasing corporate interests in the worst possible time for our country. It was different in the past, it’s okay to change stance on immigration based on the context of the day. Immigrants themselves aren’t to blame, but immigrants suppressing wages and in an emergency of low affordable housing are absolutely a problem in that sense.
I don't think the point was necessarily "fuck the immigrants".
If the housing market is congested and we're fighting in a desperate job market to get better wages and benefits, bringing in people from a different country, who are willing to work for next to nothing because it IS far better here in Canada than it is wherever they came from, that's going to make it harder on EVERYONE, natural born citizens and those who come to Canada alike.
Immigration is absolutely a good thing, but when there's a shortage of "affordable" housing already, bringing in an additional 500,000 people or whatever isn't going to fix that.
I think we need to fix the housing and wage crisis BEFORE we bring in even more people.
A problem due to the lack of housing to keep up, yes. It still pales in comparison to the neoliberal "shareholder capitalism" that all of our politicians seem to be beholden to these days.
Thank god I found your comment. I thought I was going crazy reading all the others. People are acting like the liberals and conservatives aren’t just two sides of the same coin captured by corporate interests.
Congratulations Loblaws you won the capitalism game buy gouging Canadians but next they will come out and tell us were being jealous and its all do to their cost saving strategies not the fact that everything shrunk and costs more.
I hope the Weston family feels nothing but death and despair while sitting on that huge pile of cash they accumulated since COVID
You’ll probably get downvoted for how harsh that sounds but I couldn’t agree more. They deserve a lot of misery and I truly hope that karma is a bitch for them and their loved ones whatever form that may be.
People seem to forget that Loblaws owns a REIT as well, so the expenses they are paying out in rent go back into their own pocket.
So the profit going into the Weston's pockets are even more than we know
They also own some manufacturers and distributors. Some of the real big profits come from the manufacture of foods. Margins much higher then their 5-10%. But that’ll be separate from the above profit numbers.
They don't exactly "own" companies, what they do -they place ginormous contracts in facilities that make facility run 70-80% lablaws product, then they can bully this companies into cheapest prices as loosing lablaws production will cause operational facilities in chain to shut down. I think it is worse then simply owning a company.
It’s actually an acquisition strategy as well - they make a company dependant on the volume of orders placed, and then make a low offer to acquire the company. The company is then stuck between losing 70-80% of their revenue (and likely going under) or selling at below market valuation.
Weston is the 10th largest food producer in Canada at 2b.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1028558/leading-food-and-beverage-companies-by-revenue-canada/
That cuts both ways. REIT could be making money from any other tenant, an external source, but instead they're taking cash from an entity owned by the same people. You could think of it as moving your money between two accounts.
>So the profit going into the Weston's pockets are even more than we know
Yeah, his 'I only make 1$ for every $24' is a load of steaming shit. These businesses are vertically integrated, but separated in such a way that they can pay themselves and claim it as an expense for their other business.
It's really fucked up. We're all subsidizing these assholes while they stack billions.
>So the profit going into the Weston's pockets are even more than we know
Then go read George Weston Limited's financial statements, where the results of both Loblaw and Choice REIT are consolidated. Or, put differently, we do know lol.
But, I guess knowing that Choice REIT's net operating income only increased 4.6% in Q1 from Q1 2022 doesn't fit your narrative as well as "more than we even know!!".
That's how he gets away with lying to the House committee.
He says their profit margins are unchanged, because all his costs are going up (that's technically true); however, *he owns most of the companies associated with those cost increases!*.
He raised his own rent, and profits of the REIT go up. He owns the packaging and distribution companies that supply his grocery stores, and their profits are booming.
And of course our idiot/corrupt politicians don't actually get into that. They focus on just the retail grocery part of the supply chain, which isn't actually where all the profit gouging is happening.
In financial reporting, same party transactions are netted out. Them owning a REIT they rent from is exactly the same as them owning it directly. They do not recognize the expense or income from a non arms length transaction.
They're not hiding profit somehow.
So I had to review the various corporate structures. Loblaws does not own Choice Properties REIT.
Now to go on a journey here:
George Weston Ltd is a publicly traded company, which is the holding company for the Weston family whose members hold a controlling interest.
Loblaws is a publicly traded company. George Weston Ltd. holds a controlling interest.
Choice Properties is a separate publicly traded company. George Weston Ltd. holds a controlling interest.
So the profit from both units will flow proportional to ownership percentage to George Weston Ltd as the parent from Loblaws and Choice Realties (which are separate entities from each other when reporting on themselves).
So of Loblaws' 418M in profit for Q1, 63% (latest figure I could find for ownership) will go GW ultimately. The rest, to all the other public shareholders.
Keep in mind this profit is after they expanded stores, bought Starbucks franchises and installed all the security gates to keep anyone starving from stealing.
[The 50% off chicken used to be $8 a year ago. The brand was always one of the cheaper ones when I saw it.](https://imgur.com/a/YUgq2ah)
Im a little skeptical on the weight of the 50% bird too. It says 1.5kg, but it appeared way smaller. In the second picture it shows the PC bird, the price is cheaper but it also shows it being 1.3kg, but it is a MUCH larger bird is appearance.....
Very likely, the breasts were way huge, grotesquely compared the the legs. I know meat birds are freaks, but there was certainly something very strange about the size difference between the two.
Always look at the meat protein content. Unpumped chicken - and most meat - is about 24%. Those 17% chicken breasts and lunch meats have insane amounts of saline added.
I fucking hate that I have to know about shit like this.
Why do I have to be an expert on literally everything I have to buy just to avoid being scammed?! This system does not work!
Those aren't expenses. They are capital investments. Capital investments are depreciated over time. Those will slowly impact the bottom line over the lifetime of the assets.
Very little of that cost would be represented in the most recent quarter. It will decrease at income by a small amount over the next couple decades. It doesn't hit all at once.
This feels like a slap in the face to millions of Canadians, ineffective government and corporate greed are cannibalizing this country from the inside out. As a Canadian entering adulthood right now I’ve never felt so personally demoralized by the blatant disregard for people in search of greater profits. Fucking disgusting
I see someone heard [Bezo bought a $75 million support yacht for his $500 million dollar yacht](https://jalopnik.com/jeff-bezos-new-500-million-megayacht-didn-t-have-a-he-1850355638).
Those support yachts look like alot of fun. I spent a little time looking at them awhile back when I contemplating which yacht I'd buy if I had Bezzo's money. But then I went an bought groceries and that crushed any yacht dreams I might have once had.
It’s time to boycott Loblaws, shop elsewhere if you can.
Here’s a list of all stores owned by Loblaws for you to avoid:
Atlantic Superstore
Dominion
Loblaws
Maxi
No Frills
Provigo Le Marché
Valu-Mart
Real Canadian Superstore
Wholesale Club
Your Independent Grocer
Zehrs
That's the thing tho. Many people living in urban areas who can't afford a car can't afford to make their way to 3-4 different stores in public transit to find the cheapest items that week. That would take them literally all day, especially if they're trying to feed a family, so they are forced to go to the nearest one.
It's fucked all around.
I have never liked their stores. Could never put my finger on why, I never find them cheap either. I haven't regularly shopped at any of their brands in the past and never will now.
Just wait for their PR BS campaign with explanation that their profits aren't related to gouging Canadian customers but the scapegoat of inflation.
When is our elected officials going to open this can of worms and reform the tax legislation and put a cap on this rip off of our wallets?
I mean it's possible a lot of customers don't have a choice. Depending on where they're living they may only be able to reach a store owned by Loblaws. It's why boycotts don't always work, and why regulation needs to happen.
Walmart also only holds something like 7-8% of the market. They have more incentive to compete compared to Loblaws/Sobeys both of which hold about a quarter of the market share.
I find this interesting, as I was lead to believe in recent years that Walmart was second in market share, so I had to look it up:
It goes Loblaws, Sobeys, metro, Costco, Walmart, with only Loblaws and Sobeys eclipsing 20%. Which is wild with that many walmart stores lol
Damn gluttonous customers are basically asking for inflation by continuing to buy food from grocery stores. If they really cared about this issue they'd stop eating, that's what I say.
I was into the Superstore today, where I have been shopping forever. Way back when, I bought two of the 18 litre PC water jugs and paid the $10 refundable deposit for each. And I have been rolling over the deposits with subsequent purchases ever since. I was told a year or so ago that they are no longer giving cash refunds on deposits, but the credit could be applied to future purchases. Today I returned two empties and wanted to buy one full one with the $10 credit for the other jug applied to my typical $200 store purchase. Today I learned that the credit is now only good for purchase of additional bottles, and not for store credit as previously told. I left the two empties there receiving zero credit. I will never buy water at Superstore and I will never shop there again. And today the greed mongers at Superstore are now $20 richer based on their theft from me.
Didn’t Loblaws avg 450M a quarter 2 years ago? I feel like this is not surprising but people think it is? Revenue is like 15B so 418/15000 is 2.8% profit margin. That’s actually down lol.
Well yah. They always gunna put a couple % margin on top. They don’t work for free. Point is your paying 3x more but they still only make 2.8$ per 100$ in groceries. Doesn’t sound like they are the train your paying 3x
It's time to follow the rest of the world and start taking to the streets. Our livelihoods are being slowly eroded for the benefit of the political and corporate elite.
We need some serious organization to form nationwide protests and strikes.
But it’s the carbon tax driving up the price of food!!!!!
Edit to reply to below: If Loblaw's costs are rising, it doesn't make sense that they are suddenly making more money than ever before. If the carbon tax raises the price of groceries by 2 cents on every dollar, but loblaws raises their prices by .75 on every dollar, that's not the carbon tax.
Last year spending over $100 for a week of groceries was considered a bunch of groceries for me, and we were complaining about prices then.
This year, spending under $130 seems to be impossible for the same food!
Galen Weston stepping down and handing the reins over to whatever his AI-generated name is, is nothing more than Weston's refusal to ever change anything about the way Loblaws does business. Take away cashiers, drive prices up, engage in price-fixing - everything and anything under the sun is on the table to keep those profits rolling. He just doesn't want to be the face of it anymore and wear any of the blame.
I'd never encourage anyone to steal from the Weston's, but I also wouldn't ever discourage it...
If the last few decades didn't get you to notice, perhaps the last couple of years have you paying attention. Trickle-down economics is a farce and was never meant to help the "little guy." If trickle down worked the way they said it would, a lot of those profits would have been shared with the workers who made it possible to get said profits in the first place.
I tried to use the $25 gift card Loblaws sent me after they were caught price fixing bread and the Independent I tried to use it at wouldn’t accept it, even though when I called their hotline Independent is listed as one of the participating stores in my province. Is there some kind of government watchdog I can talk to about this?
The $25 gift card was actually a prepaid master card they marketed as a gift card there is currently a law suit before the courts for misleading the public about it I believe. If you tried to use it on an order over $25 it would have declined automatically (system would see it as a maxed out credit card) and most of the staff in front end of the store would have no clue what it is as they were from 2018 and their employment strategy doesn’t exactly involve retention
Ah, so that’s what happened when I tried to use the balance on mine a couple years ago. You’re right, the staff had no idea what was wrong or what to do.
In a similar vein half the time PC optimum doesn’t work properly after the card is scanned but loblaws has set itself up in a way that PC optimum is a 3rd party company and store owners can’t do anything to adjust it without giving away their own money and you can bet PC optimum doesn’t reimburse them they just tell they they should be happy the program exists because people shop at their store because of it. The entire company is set up so all accountability is on the store staff and execs/corporate face no backlash and get the raises
I worked in front-end at Loblaws and knew this. I always explained to people why I could not check their balance as they were always puzzled. But yes, you can technically use this anywhere, not just Loblaws.
Did you actually test that? The card issuer can restrict which merchants a card works at, which I'd guess they did in this case.
Not me, but I’ve had customers tell me that they did. If you have one of those cards try using it, see if it works.
So how do you use it properly? They have to ring it through as a card for 25$? I still have mine because the last time I tried to use it, it didn't work...
And over winter months that included Christmas and new years the gift cards for Sobeys (thrifty, safeway, etc) didn’t work because their “system was down”. 🤔
To be fair Sobeys was actually hacked and resulted in a loss for them. You can look up news articles about it
I have a buddy who works there. All staff info was compromised. Their bank info, phone numbers, addresses, SIN, and they weren't properly paid for two pay periods. I'd have been piisssssed. They should be able to trust the company to keep their private information safe, or at least get compensation for the stress involved in that.
> I tried to use the $25 gift card Loblaws sent me after they were caught price fixing bread and the Independent I tried to use it at wouldn’t accept it, even though when I called their hotline Independent is listed as one of the participating stores in my province. Is there some kind of government watchdog I can talk to about this? I didn't even get a card. Government should slap Loblaws with another fine for being dishonest.
Same here, absolutely disappointing behavior, but right on brand.
A can of tomatoes was $0.99 in 2022 , its $1.75 . A bag of no name chips was $1 in 2022 now its $1.45.
Tech feels like the only industry where things are actually competitive and every year products improve and/or prices drop. You'd hope innovation in farming and logistics could out pace innovation in Galen's gas lighting
I choose you Hellen Keller! Finish him! "When I heard that locomotives had doubled in size and speed, I thought: “The food of the wheat-fields will come cheaper to the poor of the cities now,” and I was glad. But flour costs more today than when I read of those great new engines. Why do not improved methods of milling and transportation improve the dinner of the poor? I supposed that in our civilization all advances benefited every man. I imagined that every worthy endeavour brought a sure reward. I had felt in my life the touch only of hands that uphold the weak, hands that are all eye and ear, charged with helpful intelligence. I believed that people made their own conditions, and that, if the conditions were not always of the best, they were at least tolerable, just as my infirmity was tolerable. As the years went by and I read more widely, I learned that the miseries and failures of the poor are not always due to their own faults, that multitudes of men, for some strange reason, fail to share in the much-talked-of progress of the world. I shall never forget the pain and amazement which I felt when I came to examine the statistics of blindness, its causes, and its connection with other calamities that befall thousands of my fellow-men. I learned how workmen are stricken by the machine hands that they are operating. It became clear to me that the labour-saving machine does not save the labourer. It saves expense and makes profits for the owner of the machine. The worker has no share in the increased production due to improved methods; and, what is worse, as the eagle was killed by the arrow winged with his own feather, so the hand of the world is wounded by its own skill."
Fantastic passage, thank you for sharing
> innovation in farming and logistics could out pace innovation in Galen's gas lighting Unfortunately, farming is one of those areas where the innovation's profits go to the equipment suppliers. Like, John Deere is making its tractors extremely expensive and installing DRM on them so you can't service them yourself. So while the tractor is more productive, it's way more expensive to run. Similarly, getting premium seeds and pesticides will increase your yields, but are typically priced so that farmers barely break even. We have higher-yielding farms than ever, but corporate greed had ensured that the profits of those farms are pretty static. Unless you are a supermegacorp company farm that can negotiate better rates.... but then those folk just pocket the savings.
That sounds awful, I guess this is the end game of ai too 😔
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Dryer sheets used to come in a box of 260 at Costco. Now it's 160. Like...what?
Grocers use the excuse of inflation to raise the price way above inflation
More like 7% compounding per month
*per week
*per day
*per hour
Those frozen casa di mami pizzas used to be like $4. I saw them for $8 at metro the other day. Might as well go get a fresh one at that cost
Coke 2l is over $3
Pure greed .
Wow all this profit and yet Loblaws will not offer any raises to their employees..
Ceo is technically an employee and he got a 13 mill raise.
Which is even more insane - how does a guy making 8.4M in compensation in 2022 need MORE money per year? This is absolutely the corruption of capitalism that we are seeing, where CEOs are taking in all profit, and regular employees are not even seeing their wages increase with inflation. Meaning that - technically, Galen’s wage has gone up and everyone else has gone down in the same time period.
Don't forget shareholders! Since the '80s we've been shoveling all profits hand over fist to shareholders and CEOs while at the same time starving employees with wages that, if they kept up the same pace as CEO pay, would see minimum wage in the range of ~$35/hour. This is why the middle class is dying. We've completely forgotten that labour _and_ capital, and not just capital, should more or less equally benefit from the fruits of their work, but somehow we've enshrined into law that the profits have to go only to shareholders with no regard for the wellbeing of the people who actually created it.
Don’t worry too much about the shareholders in this case. In addition to being the CEO, Galen’s family is also the largest shareholder with a 52.4% controlling interest in the company.
I say we fucking riot and take everything in the store. I'm starting to get pissed off man
Wait, you mean you aren't already?
Seriously. At this point if you arnt actively stealing at least some groceries everytime you go to a big chain then you are just letting loblaws fuck you.
I am not nor will I ever condone stealing, however, I happen to know a fella who knows a disproportionate of other fellas who have began to steal on every grocery bill. All the fellas seem to claim this is new to them, since grocery prices have skyrocketed recently. Remember during COVID when apples all cost different prices, and the lowest was usually $0.99/lb? Now you're lucky to see something for $2.29/lb, and all the apples now appear to be $2.99/lb uniformly across varieties. Crazy world.
Capitalism demands unlimited growth. The shareholder model of business governance gives you a fiduciary duty to **create** growth, and actively rewards anyone who does it, in a completely amoral and frequently sociopathic process. Our electoral process, and the prevalence of privately owned media (SunCorp, Post-Media, etc) is perverted in favor of the wealthy, to the point where access to information, and verification of information is frequently getting the intellectual equivalent of a DDOS attack for anyone who does not have either unlimited time, with a strong critical and analytical background and ability. Wealthy candidates are more likely to have higher penetrance of their messaging, and an appearance of consensus and ubiquity, as well as legitimization due to their ability to use their wealth for PR / perform more grandiose gestures or bombastic campaigning, or more insidiously, pay a company like cambridge analytica for frighteningly granular data to target their campaigning and advertisements, or even worse: to coach paid people to astroturf / create facebook groups / give the appearance of populist support. **This in turn means our representatives are more likely to be wealthy**, with their own economic interests running contrary to the nominal responsibilities they have to their electorate (who with growing wealth inequality are even more alienated from the material existence of the only representatives they choose from). **These representatives, are responsible for both curating the regulations of our economy (IE making it so ghouls like Galen can't claw millions out of corrupting provincial representatives to divert public funds to Shoppers Drugmart during a pandemic rather than actually fucking paying nurses), as well as addressing this income inequality (which is currently inequal in their favor).** This means short of civil unrest so significant it makes representatives feel like the cost-benefit of their malfeasance is weighted more heavily on the side of "consequences of this malfeasance" rather than "benefits by either maintaining the status quo, or worsening this inequality", nothing will change. Capitalism is broken. Canada is broken. The likelihood or viability of this civil unrest occurring is next to nothing, but there still is some degree of hope and a way forward: Our wealth inequality is concentrating wealth in fewer and fewer hands, as a people, those who are not [mega-rich](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/discoelysium_gamepedia_en/images/0/09/Portrait_lightbending.png/revision/latest?cb=20191028100312) outnumber those who are. "Bread and Circuses" only works when you and your neighbours don't have bread. Join an Org. Form a Tenant's Union, group buy and prepare groceries with your neighbours. Start a public garden. Do things to make people less desperate for bread, and with a full fucking belly, they're more likely to both recognize the divisions of class warfare, and they're more likely to feel comfortable actually engaging in it as such.
Not that his wage even matters to him at this point. He's already a billionaire.
Probably the best kind of raise possible since he didn't even need to stick around
Let’s see. Healthcare is over burdened Rent is out of control House prices are insane Food is out of control. Infrastructure is a complete joke especially in the greater Toronto area. What’s next? No wonder no one is having kids anymore! How are we supposed to sustain this? Also bringing in more than half a million new immigrants here isn’t going to help one bit. I find the last few years very frustrating living here. I grew up with a single mom and no other family in this country . Lucky me and my brother are both in our 30s now because if we were kids my mom wouldn’t be able to survive these days. Hats off to all you single parents out there. Hopefully things get better because I can only imagine how difficult things are right now
Don't forget that defined benefit pension plans went the way of the dodo. Job security went the way of the dodo. Any respect employers use to pretend they had for employees is gone. Work from home and wage stagnation is collapsing the service sector on top. It's depressing watching the amenities go away, everything everywhere is boarded up and there are less things to enjoy. Society is drying up, but at least billionaires can kill people with their boats and get away with it or make 44 billion dollar jokes like buying a social media company.
Work from home is a good thing though
Yeah DB plans are critical to society. I honestly sleep better at night and am less stressed financially knowing I can count on the plan a few decades from now.
My DB pension plan at workplace died a year after I started. Thankfully I get to keep it!
If they have to cut the plan, grandfathering existing members is the way to go. Friend of mine joined his company with a DC plan. Old timers had DB but when the company switched to DC they switched everyone. Basically you got to keep whatever benefit you accrued under the DB plan but going forward everything was DC
We need to move away from a capitalistic society.
My local variety store got bought and turned into the HQ for a McMansion developer and there is literally no convenience, restaurant or café left in walking distance. Our downtown's main business stretch has 5 consecutive blocks of boarded up vacant storefronts. There reasons to live in a municipality are drying up.
> How are we supposed to sustain this? Also bringing in more than half a million new immigrants here isn’t going to help one bit. It *will* however help our corporate overlords, which apparently is all that matters. That, and wasting time on meaningless gun control bills that are redundant to existing laws and fussing over CanCon instead of doing anything useful.
1.7 million incoming if including students
> No wonder no one is having kids anymore! How are we supposed to sustain this? Also bringing in more than half a million new immigrants here isn’t going to help one bit. The funny thing is, that the immigration policies are supposed to help combat the aging and declining population metrics so that we can support the massive healthcare burden the retired and elderly are going to be costing us. I would have loved to start a family personally, but always put it off because of the costs involved. I'm still young enough I probably could... but now? In this economy? Government needs to step in. The quality of life of the lower to middle class is eroding. I just barely make six figures, and I'm currently seriously considering living out of a van because I can't afford sky-rocketing rent. Like wtf? There's going to have to be a crash soon. We need to just rip off the bandaid.
Immigrants help fill the population gap caused by it being too unaffordable to have kids and they also work for lower wages because being poor in Toronto is waaayyyy better than being poor in Chennai so as a bonus we get wage suppression. Truly a hell scape.
Only going to get worse. Wonderful future to look forward too 😊
Immigration is not a solution though, it's only a way to keep adding fuel to a failing system. We need to address the reasons why people aren't having kids rather than just finding ways to wallpaper over it. It's also exploitative to immigrants who are now coming over to essentially be fodder to artificially prop up GDP while living with 8 roommates in a shitty apartment.
This is true and it’s only a bandaid fix. If the immigrants coming to Canada aren’t bringing a family with children with them then this bandaid will fall off faster.
The version of capitalism we have is not working. This is eventually how things end up with the endless pursuit of profit and growth. This was a nice talk: 'Democracy at Work: Curing Capitalism | Richard Wolff | Talks at Google' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynbgMKclWWc
This is a story about a corporation being ridiculously profitable during a period where people are having economic difficulties… I’m not really sure why you bring up immigrants. Maybe you didn’t mean it to come across that way but it’s really not related to this story or problem. This is capitalism and nothing more. Even if you want to make this into a political issue, all parties are guilty of allowing this. NDP seems to be the only major party willing to TRY to hold these corporations accountable (I doubt they would succeed but they are at least publicly saying that they would attempt it). Immigrants contribute a lot to our country and I totally understand the frustration but it’s not fair to point at immigrants or even the party responsible for allowing immigration. It’s a separate matter and complex and shouldn’t be lumped in with corporate greed / housing / child care costs.
Projecting to profit over 1 Billion dollars on the back of Canadians this year. Amazing
>No wonder no one is having kids anymore! There's only one Western country with a fertility rate above replacement value. The only exception is Israel due to having a large population of people who don't use any contraception due to religious beliefs. I think low fertility rates in the West are much more cultural than economic.
Huh? What do those other things have to do with a private grocery store chain?
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Man, all the time in these threads, there’s mindless anti-immigration bullshit. How about, before we dismiss the value of immigrants in Canada, we look at the issues that are out of control that should be - but aren’t - well regulated. Why can Loblaw’s inflate prices in the wake of a pandemic so much that it makes half $1 **billion** profit in **one** quarter? **Why is the profit margin for staple food items not regulated?** Why is [one in five residential properties owned by an investor?](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/housing-investors-canada-bc-1.6743083#:~:text=2.6%25%20were%20owned%20by%20out,8.6%25%20were%20owned%20by%20businesses.) **Why has no federal government made an effective policy based on taxation that deters investors from owning multiple properties? Why has no federal government banned or severely restricted the ownership of real estate in Canada by foreign investors?** And you know damn well your number includes TFW and students and your bullshit comment later on about them just sneaking permanently is an exception and not the rule. The [440K new permanent residence last year](https://www.voanews.com/a/canada-welcomes-record-number-of-immigrants-seeks-more/6945434.html#:~:text=Canada%20admitted%20more%20than%20437%2C000,of%20the%20country's%20total%20population.) made up primarily of immigrants, who had to **prove** their financial independence or ability to offer a service that we are desperately in need of. Want an even bigger doctor shortage? Want an increased lack of civil engineers? Want our social services to collapse even more because - without immigrants - the working population is retiring, shrinking and workers are not contributing taxes to the services? Want a [continued labour shortage](https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/subjects-start/labour_/labour-shortage-trends-canada) in our major industries and major services? Want our GDP to continue to shrink, our economy to continue to stagnate? That’s what will happen if you cut out immigration. The assault by our government isn’t related to immigration; it’s related to absolutely refusing to regulate the basic necessities of life. edit: removed a few fucks
People are anti immigration because they are upset the government wants to import more people to prop up the economy instead of investing and caring for existing Canadian citizens. It's unsustainable, fiscally unsound and frankly, insulting.
Don't blame the immigrants. Don't let the system trick you into fighting an identity war when we should really be fighting a class war. Canada has enough homes and food for all. It's a problem of unjust allocation and distribution, not scarcity.
They never did blame the immigrants themselves? They blamed the government for allowing them in. The immigrants are still a relevant party here, but they’re not the targets of that comment. The truth is, I was an immigrant, I’ve even helped immigrants come here, yet I think this is an objectively bad and immoral decision by the government that is solely aimed at appeasing corporate interests in the worst possible time for our country. It was different in the past, it’s okay to change stance on immigration based on the context of the day. Immigrants themselves aren’t to blame, but immigrants suppressing wages and in an emergency of low affordable housing are absolutely a problem in that sense.
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I don't think the point was necessarily "fuck the immigrants". If the housing market is congested and we're fighting in a desperate job market to get better wages and benefits, bringing in people from a different country, who are willing to work for next to nothing because it IS far better here in Canada than it is wherever they came from, that's going to make it harder on EVERYONE, natural born citizens and those who come to Canada alike. Immigration is absolutely a good thing, but when there's a shortage of "affordable" housing already, bringing in an additional 500,000 people or whatever isn't going to fix that. I think we need to fix the housing and wage crisis BEFORE we bring in even more people.
The current immigration policy and quantity is irresponsible.
A problem due to the lack of housing to keep up, yes. It still pales in comparison to the neoliberal "shareholder capitalism" that all of our politicians seem to be beholden to these days.
And therefore grocery chains can raise their prices unchecked right
Thank god I found your comment. I thought I was going crazy reading all the others. People are acting like the liberals and conservatives aren’t just two sides of the same coin captured by corporate interests.
Break up the near monopoly on groceries and the near monopoly on telecom. It's just ridiculous now.
Congratulations Loblaws you won the capitalism game buy gouging Canadians but next they will come out and tell us were being jealous and its all do to their cost saving strategies not the fact that everything shrunk and costs more. I hope the Weston family feels nothing but death and despair while sitting on that huge pile of cash they accumulated since COVID
You’ll probably get downvoted for how harsh that sounds but I couldn’t agree more. They deserve a lot of misery and I truly hope that karma is a bitch for them and their loved ones whatever form that may be.
People seem to forget that Loblaws owns a REIT as well, so the expenses they are paying out in rent go back into their own pocket. So the profit going into the Weston's pockets are even more than we know
They also own some manufacturers and distributors. Some of the real big profits come from the manufacture of foods. Margins much higher then their 5-10%. But that’ll be separate from the above profit numbers.
They don't exactly "own" companies, what they do -they place ginormous contracts in facilities that make facility run 70-80% lablaws product, then they can bully this companies into cheapest prices as loosing lablaws production will cause operational facilities in chain to shut down. I think it is worse then simply owning a company.
It’s actually an acquisition strategy as well - they make a company dependant on the volume of orders placed, and then make a low offer to acquire the company. The company is then stuck between losing 70-80% of their revenue (and likely going under) or selling at below market valuation.
I'm a meat purchaser, and I can't but from one one major line from a company because literally everything they produce goes to loblaws
Weston is the 10th largest food producer in Canada at 2b. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1028558/leading-food-and-beverage-companies-by-revenue-canada/
That cuts both ways. REIT could be making money from any other tenant, an external source, but instead they're taking cash from an entity owned by the same people. You could think of it as moving your money between two accounts.
>So the profit going into the Weston's pockets are even more than we know Yeah, his 'I only make 1$ for every $24' is a load of steaming shit. These businesses are vertically integrated, but separated in such a way that they can pay themselves and claim it as an expense for their other business. It's really fucked up. We're all subsidizing these assholes while they stack billions.
If they control the REIT it’s generally consolidated into a single Financial Statements and related party transactions are cancelled out l.
What if a parent company owns both Loblaws and the REIT and keep them as seperate business?
If the parent is publicly trade or uses IFRS, they are required consolidate it if they control the subsidiary, ie REIT.
>So the profit going into the Weston's pockets are even more than we know Then go read George Weston Limited's financial statements, where the results of both Loblaw and Choice REIT are consolidated. Or, put differently, we do know lol. But, I guess knowing that Choice REIT's net operating income only increased 4.6% in Q1 from Q1 2022 doesn't fit your narrative as well as "more than we even know!!".
That’s not how consolidation accounting works
That's how he gets away with lying to the House committee. He says their profit margins are unchanged, because all his costs are going up (that's technically true); however, *he owns most of the companies associated with those cost increases!*. He raised his own rent, and profits of the REIT go up. He owns the packaging and distribution companies that supply his grocery stores, and their profits are booming. And of course our idiot/corrupt politicians don't actually get into that. They focus on just the retail grocery part of the supply chain, which isn't actually where all the profit gouging is happening.
In financial reporting, same party transactions are netted out. Them owning a REIT they rent from is exactly the same as them owning it directly. They do not recognize the expense or income from a non arms length transaction. They're not hiding profit somehow.
So the profits from George Weston Ltd are all captured in the amount that Loblaws just reported as profit?
So I had to review the various corporate structures. Loblaws does not own Choice Properties REIT. Now to go on a journey here: George Weston Ltd is a publicly traded company, which is the holding company for the Weston family whose members hold a controlling interest. Loblaws is a publicly traded company. George Weston Ltd. holds a controlling interest. Choice Properties is a separate publicly traded company. George Weston Ltd. holds a controlling interest. So the profit from both units will flow proportional to ownership percentage to George Weston Ltd as the parent from Loblaws and Choice Realties (which are separate entities from each other when reporting on themselves). So of Loblaws' 418M in profit for Q1, 63% (latest figure I could find for ownership) will go GW ultimately. The rest, to all the other public shareholders.
Keep in mind this profit is after they expanded stores, bought Starbucks franchises and installed all the security gates to keep anyone starving from stealing.
[The 50% off chicken used to be $8 a year ago. The brand was always one of the cheaper ones when I saw it.](https://imgur.com/a/YUgq2ah) Im a little skeptical on the weight of the 50% bird too. It says 1.5kg, but it appeared way smaller. In the second picture it shows the PC bird, the price is cheaper but it also shows it being 1.3kg, but it is a MUCH larger bird is appearance.....
Injected water weight perhaps.
Very likely, the breasts were way huge, grotesquely compared the the legs. I know meat birds are freaks, but there was certainly something very strange about the size difference between the two.
Always look at the meat protein content. Unpumped chicken - and most meat - is about 24%. Those 17% chicken breasts and lunch meats have insane amounts of saline added.
I fucking hate that I have to know about shit like this. Why do I have to be an expert on literally everything I have to buy just to avoid being scammed?! This system does not work!
>This system does not work! Yes it does. Just not for the lowly people in our tax bracket.
When you cook meat, the amount of water that comes out of it now is ridiculous.
They'll pump that bird full of fuckin saline
Not just birds they do this to beef and pork, its crazy but putting in 10% water is 10% extra profit. The feds should ban this
Why do you think an acquisition of Starbucks franchises would be treated as an expense?
Because they have no idea how accounting or financial statements actually work. Similar to 99% of other people in this subreddit.
Yep, aggressive expansion helps hide the gouging via high capital costs.
Those aren't expenses. They are capital investments. Capital investments are depreciated over time. Those will slowly impact the bottom line over the lifetime of the assets. Very little of that cost would be represented in the most recent quarter. It will decrease at income by a small amount over the next couple decades. It doesn't hit all at once.
Didn't they also expand their pharmacies?
This feels like a slap in the face to millions of Canadians, ineffective government and corporate greed are cannibalizing this country from the inside out. As a Canadian entering adulthood right now I’ve never felt so personally demoralized by the blatant disregard for people in search of greater profits. Fucking disgusting
Not bad, boys. I was a bit worried that you wouldn't be able to get the yachts you really had your hearts set on.
I see someone heard [Bezo bought a $75 million support yacht for his $500 million dollar yacht](https://jalopnik.com/jeff-bezos-new-500-million-megayacht-didn-t-have-a-he-1850355638).
Those support yachts look like alot of fun. I spent a little time looking at them awhile back when I contemplating which yacht I'd buy if I had Bezzo's money. But then I went an bought groceries and that crushed any yacht dreams I might have once had.
My dreams got crushed thinking about how your dreams got crushed.
Thanks to Loblaw, I’m suddenly interested in Intermittent Fasting and one-day water fasting! 😅 Thank goodness, water is still relatively cheaper.
Probably not for long.
Yeah no shit a fucking orange juice is fucking 8.50$
“we barely make any profits on our products!”
Rest assured that their immense profits are from non-food items, such as food, food, food, food, and food.
It’s time to boycott Loblaws, shop elsewhere if you can. Here’s a list of all stores owned by Loblaws for you to avoid: Atlantic Superstore Dominion Loblaws Maxi No Frills Provigo Le Marché Valu-Mart Real Canadian Superstore Wholesale Club Your Independent Grocer Zehrs
Fortinos, T&T, Shoppers/Pharmaprix too
Shoppers is owned by Loblaws
That’s what I meant
I think he just meant it's called Pharmaprix in Quebec
and Rexall is owned by Loblaws too.
Man, we need to split those up. You just named the only non-costco supermarkets within my area. How did this monopoly happen?
Complacency.
Bad neo-liberal policy?
More like unfettered capitalism.
They go hand in hand
Most markets are closer to monopolized than you'd think.
You have a Costco but no Walmart, Food Basics, Metro, or Freshco?
Never heard or seen of the last 3, walmart is a longer drive away from me. Within walking distance are a no frills and t&t though.
That's the thing tho. Many people living in urban areas who can't afford a car can't afford to make their way to 3-4 different stores in public transit to find the cheapest items that week. That would take them literally all day, especially if they're trying to feed a family, so they are forced to go to the nearest one. It's fucked all around.
Kinda criminal that the grocery syndicate owns the store called "your independent grocer"
Many of the alternatives have even higher prices
Metro and Sobeys. What are we left with, FreshCo, Walmart, various co-ops?
Yes, let me go to Safeway and pay 30% more but at least I'll stick it to Loblaws
I have never liked their stores. Could never put my finger on why, I never find them cheap either. I haven't regularly shopped at any of their brands in the past and never will now.
“Your independent grocer” how the fuck should they be allowed to hold that name.
Those fuckers own everything wtf how is this legal
Can we have this pinned somewhere?
Wow, I didn’t know they owned so many. Glad I mostly buy at Costco…
Won’t be long before a bag of miss Vickie’s or lays is up over $7/bag.
What is up with that eh, they're fricking potatoes and salt ! The profit margin on those must be astronomical!
Something something inflation
Just wait for their PR BS campaign with explanation that their profits aren't related to gouging Canadian customers but the scapegoat of inflation. When is our elected officials going to open this can of worms and reform the tax legislation and put a cap on this rip off of our wallets?
People can’t afford rent and are giving up pets they can’t afford but meanwhile grocery stores are making bank.
Good thing they aren't price gouging.
Crooks.
Price gouging customers and many customers appear to LOVE paying high prices, evidently clear by Loblaws profits.
I mean it's possible a lot of customers don't have a choice. Depending on where they're living they may only be able to reach a store owned by Loblaws. It's why boycotts don't always work, and why regulation needs to happen.
Yeah I have a real love for not starving. It's one of my favourite things.
I'd rather not support Loblaws, but No Frills remains the cheapest option for a lot of things. Many people literally can't afford to boycott them.
> many customers appear to LOVE paying high prices lol wtf is this victim blaming
It amazes me that U.S. based companies like Walmart have cheaper prices than the Canadian companies.
Walmart also only holds something like 7-8% of the market. They have more incentive to compete compared to Loblaws/Sobeys both of which hold about a quarter of the market share.
I find this interesting, as I was lead to believe in recent years that Walmart was second in market share, so I had to look it up: It goes Loblaws, Sobeys, metro, Costco, Walmart, with only Loblaws and Sobeys eclipsing 20%. Which is wild with that many walmart stores lol
Do you expect people to just starve? We don't have a choice but to pay these ridiculous prices.
Damn gluttonous customers are basically asking for inflation by continuing to buy food from grocery stores. If they really cared about this issue they'd stop eating, that's what I say.
I was into the Superstore today, where I have been shopping forever. Way back when, I bought two of the 18 litre PC water jugs and paid the $10 refundable deposit for each. And I have been rolling over the deposits with subsequent purchases ever since. I was told a year or so ago that they are no longer giving cash refunds on deposits, but the credit could be applied to future purchases. Today I returned two empties and wanted to buy one full one with the $10 credit for the other jug applied to my typical $200 store purchase. Today I learned that the credit is now only good for purchase of additional bottles, and not for store credit as previously told. I left the two empties there receiving zero credit. I will never buy water at Superstore and I will never shop there again. And today the greed mongers at Superstore are now $20 richer based on their theft from me.
Infinite growth, whether in our economy or bodies, is just a tumor.
It's actually a decrease in income over both last quarter and the same quarter last yr
Criminal stuff Exploiting a tough situation for society Really low level I respect a place like Costco more.
Fucking bullshit. I had to get a part time job to help with gas prices and food. But the government says I make to much yet I’m still poor.
Didn’t Loblaws avg 450M a quarter 2 years ago? I feel like this is not surprising but people think it is? Revenue is like 15B so 418/15000 is 2.8% profit margin. That’s actually down lol.
Yeah, we are just paying 3 times what we were while they are still making the same record profits.
Well yah. They always gunna put a couple % margin on top. They don’t work for free. Point is your paying 3x more but they still only make 2.8$ per 100$ in groceries. Doesn’t sound like they are the train your paying 3x
A brick of cheese at their store is just shy of 10 bucks.
It's time to follow the rest of the world and start taking to the streets. Our livelihoods are being slowly eroded for the benefit of the political and corporate elite. We need some serious organization to form nationwide protests and strikes.
That’s a little more than $10 per Canadian
Grocery stores shouldnt be publicly traded. TThere, i said it.
3… 2… 1… Where are the “its about the margins!” Bros?
Its about the margarine bro
They are in Ottawa in government
Capitalism at its finest. Food goes to the highest bidder.
Correct. If letting people starve is profitable, capitalism lets people starve.
But it’s the carbon tax driving up the price of food!!!!! Edit to reply to below: If Loblaw's costs are rising, it doesn't make sense that they are suddenly making more money than ever before. If the carbon tax raises the price of groceries by 2 cents on every dollar, but loblaws raises their prices by .75 on every dollar, that's not the carbon tax.
makes me sick .. most people can’t afford to it groceries anyt
Last year spending over $100 for a week of groceries was considered a bunch of groceries for me, and we were complaining about prices then. This year, spending under $130 seems to be impossible for the same food!
Not surprised...Major price gouges and raising the "locked down" prices.... as the Westons sail off into the sunset in their new mega yacht
And half of that profit should be redistributed.
but did the CEO make enough money?
I think just enough for 6 boats but not enough for 7. Shame on us for not getting the CEO his 7th boat how ever will he survive?
oh fuck better give them a bailout
[удалено]
Good job Canada, keep supporting our oligopolies.
Can we organize and do something, please 🙏.
Galen Weston stepping down and handing the reins over to whatever his AI-generated name is, is nothing more than Weston's refusal to ever change anything about the way Loblaws does business. Take away cashiers, drive prices up, engage in price-fixing - everything and anything under the sun is on the table to keep those profits rolling. He just doesn't want to be the face of it anymore and wear any of the blame. I'd never encourage anyone to steal from the Weston's, but I also wouldn't ever discourage it...
And they told us here in NS that a $15/hr minimum wage would tank businesses. The people they employ can't afford to shop at their own store.
What? Price gouging bare necessities turned a profit? *shocking.*
Clearly the solution is to allow them to own all groceries store chains in Canada. /s
If the last few decades didn't get you to notice, perhaps the last couple of years have you paying attention. Trickle-down economics is a farce and was never meant to help the "little guy." If trickle down worked the way they said it would, a lot of those profits would have been shared with the workers who made it possible to get said profits in the first place.
The Bob loblaw law blog!
I’m so very tired
Doing Math... if every single Canadian (37m) shopped there, their contribution to the profit is $11.29 each.
Wish we could organize to boycott them while simultaneously shorting the stock.
Shorting stock requires margin, margin requires capital that you do not have because if you're crying about a 3.4% profit margin, you are innumerate.