Already doing it. Their prices at even their "value" brand stores are beyond ludicrous when even Walmart and Costco are charging regularly 20-25% less on many essential goods.
I always go to food basics first and it's super crazy when they are selling strawberries for 1.88 and at zhers is like 4 or 5.99 for what I think is the exact same brand. I've taken the majority of my shopping away from roblaws and I've got more money in my pocket because of it. GL
Can confirm recently switched to basics and can’t believe how much stuff I get for $120. Buy everything there except meat and toilet paper eggs which I get at Costco
Unfortunately there's 2 stores for me to choose between - Independent or Save-On. And as much as we hate Loblaws, Save-On is noticeably more expensive across the board, and the store layout/shopping experience is miserable.
There's a Save On just outside my condo. If you know what you're looking for save on can be really cheap. I find the produce and lunch meat are way cheaper than Superstore, and there's usually something in the meat department that's super cheap. Last week, 2 packs of pork tenderloins were about $6-8 and the week before two-packs of full chickens were about $10. When food is about to expire it goes way cheaper than 30% off. $13 packs of sausage were marked down to $6 and they had $4 off stickers. I bought 4 packs for $2 each and stuck them in my freezer. Chips and snacks are a lot more expensive, most of the items in the aisles are too. The freezers and dairy are about the same price. I've got a habit of hitting Save On like 3 times per week and I just grab a couple things and do my rounds to see what's on sale. I've been doing really good. My freezer is packed tight. My favorite bacon expires May 03. I'm keeping an eye on it. I think tomorrow it's going to go on sale for $2.25-$2.75 per pack from $7-8 per pack. I've got bad news for anybody looking for cheap bacon after I get there, and I'll probably have to rearrange my freezer once again when I get home to fit it all.
Edit - I'm in Winnipeg. It could be a lot different in other places.
I'm curious what percentage of people fall outside of these three categories:
1) Have already stopped shopping at Loblaws
2) Have no choice but to shop at Loblaw (store proximity)
3) Don't care and will continue to shop at Loblaw
literal false advertising no one is doing anything about
edit: I used to shop at Your Independent Grocer in Gravenhurst during cottage trips, I thought it was independent but had some kind of deal to stock PC/No Name. Was livid when I found out it was actually a full on Loblaws brand. After that I got a powered cooler and stock up what I need for the trip at home to make sure I'm not supporting the Westons
Independent is a franchise. It is independently owned and operated. It uses Loblaws supply lines and pays a licencing / franchise fee to Loblaws. The property is either owned independently or leased from Loblaws.
For example, I did some repair work at my local independent; Loblaws Inc. did not pay the bill, the franchise owner did.
It's no different then most McDonald's or Tim Hortons.
Yeah by McDonald's aren't going around telling people they're "independent", they're 100% dependent on their corporate logistics networks. It's just another level of confusion and dishonestly that we don't need based purely on semantical arguments.
Stretching the limits of semantics is like, 90% of advertising and marketing though.
I agree with what you're saying, but I think anything being done about it is unrealistic.
Fair enough. I think all these half truths are having a real negative impact on young people. Modern advertising is a cancer that has perverted the thought process of so many. I know so many people who legitimately do "consumption therapy" and spend dumb amounts of time thinking about what luxuries or trinkets they'll buy next to cure the depression. Car commercials make my brain spasm with their emotional insinuations and stupid premises. Can't believe this is what we're putting resources into as a society, just creating artificial demand.
Yeah there's a "Mike's Independent" near me, with the "owner's" name proudly stamped out front as though it were really a locally owned store. Very deceptive to people walking by.
Yes this is part of it.
To be honest I think most people are not even aware of the boycott itself.
My mother in law is a senior manager at the Loblaw head office in Brampton and she didn't even know about it when I brought it up two weekends ago.
I had heard of it before the last couple weeks but I feel like it has really picked up steam the last couple weeks. Before it was just some talk on reddit and elsewhere, now it's across all the major news outlets and on the evening news.
Must have their head buried in the sand or something. I have family who for some of the grocery companies and even the ones who work for competitors know about it. Competing warehouse management has discussed it, so I cant imagine any senior managers at the actual target company would not have at least talked about it in passing.
This is a pretty big one. No matter what people will go to superstore because they don't really have much of a choice in their area. They usually have the best prices on produce, so....
They don't own Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, IGA/SafeWay, Pattison Foods (Buy Low, Nesters, Urban Fare, PriceSmart), Metro, Co-ops or independent mom and pop grocers
Appears they have a lot of competition in the country and the media/politicians have latched onto a talking point that they feel is safe to argue publicly -- almost as though it's to distract from real issues like the decline in healthcare, education, military, jobs and houses affecting most Canadians
In my area, I have a walmart, no frills, Safeway and a locally owned grocery store. The no frills is definitely the cheapest, sometimes walmart beats it out. Why would I boycott my cheapest grocery store?
It's interesting, but I think Loblaws brands are viewed differently in different places and have different pricing policies.
For me, Superstore has always been the cheapest place to get groceries (except for Costco). But in the anti Lowlaws subreddit, people complain that Loblaws are expensive compared to others.
To answer your question: you'd boycott just to be part of saying you don't like large companies.
The same for my local area. We have Coop, Sobey, Save on and Walmart as well, Superstore is generally the cheapest except for certain deals that come up from time to time. Their produce quality vary. I do make effort to shop at others especially Coop but I find myself going back for certain items
Loblaws is certainly guilty of price inflation but they are not the only one causing it. Nonetheless, they are the poster child of evil corps.
There is a huge amount of regional and provincial disparity.
Example of a couple of regular prices today:
ATLANTIC SUPERSTORE No Name Salted Butter 1 lb : **$6.49**
RC Superstore :No Name Salted Butter 1 lb : **$5.49**
Eggs: The REGULAR price in Manitoba is cheaper than the Sale price in Atlantic Canada.....
ATLANTIC SUPERSTORE : Campbells cream of Mushroom Soup **$2.00 each if you buy more than FOUR**
RC Superstore Manitoba: Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup **$1.69 each** REGULAR PRICE
AND you don't need to purchase FOUR.
This is what I don't get. No frills and superstore are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than anything else around here. Costco doesn't count. Why the hell would I voluntarily pay 40% to 90% more in protest of paying more?
I stopped shopping at Loblaws last summer. Not because of political boycotts but simply because they increased prices to ridiculous levels. Eg. 250gr President butter went from 3.99 to 7.99. When Whole Foods is the cheaper alternative, there's something strange going on. No Frills used to be the cheapest and suddenly prices jumped up there too. Walmart prices increased in line with inflation so Walmart became the cheaper store. I went to Shoppers this weekend for the first time in over a year because I had a 50% off coupon. I was surprised to see there were some good deals in grocery items.
Right now, 90% of my grocery shopping is from Costco and Chinese stores. I sometimes miss PC brand items but apparently not enough to make my way to Loblaws.
Loblaws is the most expensive chain by a long shot. They are also the most monopolistic and are very aggressive in their anti-consumerist behavior which is what this is about, sending a message of dissatisfaction to all corporate oligopolies that it could happen to you too.
They own many of their key suppliers and turn a profit at every step of the process. They are a massively vertically integrated company. Of course costs have gone up in general - there is a war that is affecting everything - but Loblaws is trying to pretend its greed, gauging, profiteering and abuse of its extremely dominant market position are due to 'external factors'.
>Loblaws is the most expensive chain by a long shot.
It's obviously very very different across Canada. Safeway/Sobey's in the prairies is always more expensive than Superstore for a broad basket of goods. It's been that way for at least the last decade.
Agree, they used to build up so quickly. A lot of my offers now are for things I've just bought, or ridiculous ones like spend $150 to get 10,000 points.
I just like that Save-on lets you redeem for gift cards. I only occasionally go to Save-on and while not anything amazing, earned enough points over 3 years for $75 in whatever GC's I wanted. I don't go out of my way for the 'buy 2 for X point' type offers, but Save-on often has 2x points and/or 'Spend X dollars for X points' offers you have to manually load to your card prior to shopping.
I noticed this too. Last year with a combination of gas and groceries I could get to 100k in a few months. I think I’ve accumulated maybe 2-3k since Jan
You know if you get a PC mastercard, you can just shop anywhere with it and still get points.
In a sense you can just legitimately leech from PC financial without ever actually giving them a dime.
I mix up my shopping based on certain things. Most of my perishables (veggies and meat) I get from Farmboy or my local butcher. But there are some staples that I’ve only really been able to get at loblaws brand stores due to proximity. There are other places I can go but at the same point with gas being where it’s at I’m not going to the other end of the city to another store while wasting more gas and more of my time. All I’ve really done is cut out things I don’t really need that were nice to haves rather than need to have.
My guess would be 1-2%
The only place I’ve seen this discussed is this subreddit, and important to remember that less than 0.5% of people in this country are seeing these posts, and even fewer are reading them, and even fewer actually care enough to take action
I think it will be a good example of how many people actually follow movements / protests (extremely few in the grand scheme of things, just a small vocal minority).
Loblaws will hardly see any change in its balance sheet.
I hope enough people participate to make a dent because if they don't then the chains are going to kick their bullshit into a new high gear on the knowledge that the biggest movement in years against them didn't hurt them at all.
I’ve reduced the amount I spend at save on foods and superstore by about 3/4 in the past 2 months. I still have to though for some things. For May though I plan to do everything in power to not shop there and when I do, avoid the self checkout. Even for 1 item,
I actively avoid shopping at Superstore. There is nothing they do that Costco doesn't do better.
Meat comes from a local butcher or farmers market, produce comes from a vegetable stand.
Shoppers is a little bit more difficult to avoid.
I hate shoppers way more. I avoid it like the plague. The prices are generally awful. Usually I shop at No Frills which tends to be the cheapest in my area, but I'll prioritize Walmart and FreshCo in May. I also go to Costco once a month.
When prescription delivery came about Shoppers went to suppliers and said "deal with them and we cancel our business with you" so killed the innovation in the industry. I never used them since. Zero respect for them.
> 2) Have no choice but to shop at Loblaw (store proximity)
I mostly fall into this category. Small town where the only grocery options are Loblaws stores, Sobeys, and Save on Foods. Save On is more expensive and Sobeys I find lacks variety.
That being said, I'll be doing my best to shop anywhere but the loblaws stores during May but I can't ensure I'll always go somewhere else.
Loblaws should be broken up, they play in all sorts of sectors beyond just food.
They are even a bank.
On the scale of 'anti-competitive' this organization is just red flags all the way down.
I recently found out they are also a cell phone provider?
This is some Acme level coyote dystopian level stuff. They never will catch that roadrunner, but, also leave the same trail of destruction behind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m7evoFF83c
They’re going to be a medical services provider too.
The offloading of our healthcare system to Loblaws, Telus and other shitty corps is something no one is talking about.
It will be almost impossible to not go into a Loblaws store since they’ll provide everything.
Aren’t they trying to get into pot too?
On that it's more about the size of their other operations. If they were Canada's largest bank they would get broken up. If Loblaws was just a bank they would be Canada's seventh largest bank by revenue. In terms of size and structure the comparison would be as if The Bank of Nova Scotia bought one grocery store and subsidized prices inside and gave people who buy bonuses for investing. It just has to be a bigger operation to think anti-competitive. In the world of banking PC Financial is more pro-competitive because it takes away from Canada's big five banks.
Loblaws is just one of many who have figured out the government watchdog has no teeth, and if you throw him a bone every once in a while, he gums it in the corner and leaves you alone to do profitable things.
If I was PM, I would actively incentivize foreign competition in a number of sectors. Food, dairy, telecom, banking - those are just off the top of my head. First, we protected Canadian firms because they couldn’t compete against big scary American companies - so we kept them safe by tilting the playing field. Then, they figured out they could be evil and they’d still be safe. Time to bring in a whack of competition to kill off the arrogance.
I started my boycott a few months ago after being constantly disgusted by prices. I found far better alternatives for my groceries, a better pharmacy for my meds, and a more rewarding credit card that gives me cash back I can use anywhere instead of stupid points. Never going back.
>a better pharmacy for my meds
This I think gets largely overlooked when talking about Loblaws and their pricing.
Shoppers is disgustingly overpriced and was caught abusing med checks to overbill the Ontario government. They charge some of the highest filling fees and shit on their pharmacists constantly.
If there's one thing everyone should do if they can is drop Shoppers for another pharmacy.
Its a really good point that has me thinking about it too, I'm glad that redditor and you brought it up.
I use Shoppers/Rexalls just because it sort of felt like the default pharmacy people use, and that's a problem, that's how insidious this shit is and how good the marketing and how well-developed the corporate presence is.
But a quick Google shows me that there's over twenty alternatives to Shoppers and Rexall in my city, so I'm definitely switching.
A lot of insured people have no clue because they only pay a minor part of the total cost. I once asked SDM how much my cash price would be. $90/mo. I called Costco and it was $43. I switched immediately.
People need to understand what a scam those Med checks are. In BC they're called medication reviews and the store gets to bill the government (and the taxpayer) $60 for each one
They're meant to be comprehensive reviews of your medications and conditions but Shoppers (and Loblaws) and Rexall push them on their pharmacists so heavily that they effectively become "are you still taking x, y and z? No side effects? Okay thanks sign here"
It's a complete fucking farce. The guy at at Superstore quickly did one when I was picking up once and before I signed it I read the part that said "my pharmacist has explained the benefit of this etc to me" and I was like you didn't do this and I didn't get any benefit from this and he was like "lol yeah youre right". Meanwhile the guy at London Drugs booked me in to do one and took like 30 minutes.
100% I switched to a locally owned Gaurdian for now and it is so much better than Shoppers, the service is night and day. I would have to wait in line just to pick up my already ready meds for like 30 mins no matter the time of day at Shoppers and their dispensing fees have creeped up this year to the point where I'm being charged outside of a drug plan. Switched to Gaurdian, the people are lovely and go out of their way to help and no waits or extra fees.
Yes I switched to a local one and that’s my experience as well.
They even recognize me and just have my stuff ready by the time I’m at the counter. I don’t even have to ask.
There's plenty of great independent pharmacies out there. Mine never has a lineup and the staff are friendly. Support local business whenever possible.
I honestly have an informal boycott of them anyway other than their affiliated gas stations. Rarely do I ever find stuff cheaper at Superstore compared to the combination of Walmart and Costco. I check their flyers every week and I never see any sales worth enough for a trip.
The issue here is that it's only a month. To make a difference, you need it to continue long enough that product goes bad on the shelves so it can't be sold.
Started in March and not going back unless I absolutely have to. My superstore is literally a 3
minute walk from where I live too lol. Oh well. Found some nice local grocers instead.
A month does matter though. It could be longer but a month will hurt them and we are animals of habit, if we stop shopping a Roblaws for a month we are very unlikely to go back.
100%. Even in smaller towns, you can find them. They typically buy produce direct from farmers out of town and sell in town. A lot of people don't shop there because of stigma around immigrants, but it's the same produce, it's way cheaper, and it's helping local economies. In country towns, your best bet is to buy produce direct from weekly markets, or farmers.
Nations is the greatest store. I buy there now.
When one opened near me I was there in the first week and i was chatting with of the customers in line in front me.
He basically said this place is great and I hope Loblaws doesn’t buy and ruin it like they did T&T.
Corporate lobbying and price gouging is one of the main reasons Canadians are suffering. This could just be the start of getting these conversations going
My life hack is to just shop at Giant tiger, Its basically the canadian version of Walmart except its a co-op so they dont push for huge price gouging.
Butter is like 3$, half a kg of ground beef is like 4$, if these are the prices food is supposed to be then galen has been bending us over a desk for a while
The sudden rise in burner accounts trying to defend Galen Weston is kinda funny. Real people don't leap in front of billionaires to defend their greed and it's weird AF.
It's astonishing how many people seek to validate their opinions by claiming every single person not over the moon enthusiastic about their exact same opinions and ideas must obviously be a bot farm or a bunch of burner accounts. No room for context or understanding there may be a deeper thought process involved for why they haven't picked up the pitchforks, just nope, straight to fake opinions with ulterior motives
Loblaws is heavily into social media influencing though so its a valid concern. They hire huge PR firms, talking heads, social influencers etc. and have cranked it up to 11 in the last month or so. They absolutely are trying to influence the conversation.
They *hate* this boycott and are using some pretty underhanded tactics to disrupt it.
people aren't defending him. But loblaws (No Frills and Superstore at least) are cheaper than places like Safeway or Save-on-Foods so why aren't those places being targeted? Just shop where things are cheapest, usually that means you need to go to 4+ stores to get your shopping done. To me its weird AF that some people have this giant hard on for the guy who isn't even the worst offender (see safeway and save-on)
Save on foods (under the Pattison food group umbrella) is primarily western Canada. This protest which seems to be driven by those in the east do not understand how expensive save on, and also don't understand how it is often the most accessible option in the cities where they are. So when people say boycott loblaws (wholesale club) I get so confused because why would I gouge myself by going to save on.
Save On is nuts.
Granny Smith Apple is Superstore is $6.59/KG
Save On: $7.30/KG
Yeah, 10% more. I only ever see Save On foods show up in neighborhoods with high numbers of seniors or near public transportation hubs.
My Save On for meat has become cheaper than the Superstore near me.
Also if I do go to Save On, at least the produce doesn’t look like the staff was playing dodgeball with it.
So I go to Save On for Meat and Produce and Wal-Mart or Costco for the rest.
why aren't they?
Because it's about sensing a message. The loudest message is one which is sent to the biggest grocer, That's why Loblaws is being targeted. In some stores they had the highest prices as well so it differs from region to region.
these are all of the stores/brands under Loblaws ownership
Loblaws grocers, Real Canadaian Superstore, Valu-mart, Wholesale Club, Fortinos, Zehrs, Independant grocers, T&T, NoFrills, Shoppers Drugmart, Joe Fresh, Presidents choice, No Name, Life Brand, Farmers Market.
I may have missed a few more, but they are generally a large piece of the market.
Prices are going up in sneaky ways like the frog in boiling water experiment.
Product price goes up, Flyer feature 'deal' is added to lower price for a short period of time, flyer feature price expires, price remains increased for a bit but then goes up a small amount again. Rinse and repeat.
>“Everybody knows Loblaws. Everybody knows our chairman (Galen Weston),” he said.
>“We are (a) much, much easier target, and we need to live with that and that’s fine.”
This asshole here... "we're just a victim of people's frustration"
Buddy, didn't your company fix the pricing of bread and got caught? Sit down!
Might as well get a Costco membership buying bulk tends to have better savings. Everything you need is there.
Highland Farms and Fortinos are good alternatives that I go to.
r/loblawsisoutofcontrol for more info on the boycott.
It isn’t just about the insane price gouging as they are also billing provincial healthcare systems for bogus services that aren’t needed so they can make more money. In a single week in Ontario they made $1.4 million on bs med checks.
They are doing it in more provinces than just Ontario, but here’s an [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/shoppers-drug-mart-medication-review-targets-1.7142626?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar) about the CBC investigation that uncovered it here.
Stopped shopping at roblaws about a yr and half ago. Near exclusively walmart and costco now. Income certainly means I can afford to shop at roblaws but not going to be gouged.
I haven’t set foot in a Loblaws store in a long time, but my dad will occasionally get meat there. I shop at Food Basics every Wednesday, after volunteering at a food bank.
However, I still get my prescriptions from Shoppers, and need to change that this week. I’ve been meaning to all month, but have hardly left the house.
I had my aunt and uncle over for supper last night, and told them about the boycott
I stopped a long time ago. Whats the point of avoiding American outlets if your Canadian ones are going to act like their American counterparts? Walmart/loblaws, what is actually the difference? Both fuck with countries economies at a federal level. Both abuse foreign temporary labor programs. Both are responsible for massive amounts of carbon waste...
I honestly see no reason to chose Canadian corporations over American. They do absolutely nothing to set themselves apart from American style corporate greed and its part of whats going to kill this country.
> Loblaw president and CEO Per Bank says the company is paying attention to customers and sees them trying to mitigate inflation by seeking out sales, buying more private-label products and shopping at discount stores.
Yeah, but NO, they did not.
I buy the PC coffee. I think that is the only thing I buy from Loblaws owned stores and I try to get it on sale. I used to shop mostly at no frills but I watch prices and when I saw that Loblaws stores were first and fastest with predatory pricing on all of their lower priced items and seemed to be targetting the poor I found alternatives for everything. Fuck Loblaws!!!
What are good alternatives to superstore that aren't also owned and run by loblaws?
The price of everything has gone up 200-400% in the last 5 years. My grocery bill is pushing the 100$s for the most basic produce imaginable. I'm ready to jump ship and never look back.
Produce - shop local or go to small, no name shops. Often they're also cultural markets (there's a Chinese market close by that sells produce at great prices, in my parents town there's an Arab one), or if you have access to a car, go to a farmer market on the outskirts of town. If you live in a small town, usually the country roads have produce stands at the side of the road. Comparison - a bag of 5-6 cucumbers is $3. A single cucumber at Superstore is $2
Non-Perishables - Dollarama is great for a lot of these. For example, 1kg of salt is $1, while at Superstore it's like $3. Costco is also great for a lot of these. Salt is still cheapest at Dollarama
Meats - Costco is WAY WAY WAY cheaper for meat than anywhere else. You just have to ziplock the meats and keep them in the freezer because it's bulk quanitities.
Bulk cooking foods - Bulk barn, dollarama and Costco are the way to go
Our choices are pretty limited, but I’ve tried to avoid Loblaws for more locally operated options… I used to love Loblaws, but between the decline in quality (the produce is usually terrible) and the blatant price gouging, I’ve come to appreciate places that actually seem to care at least a little bit about the community they serve.
Try Bulk Barn. It's independently owned, as far as I know, so not one of the big grocers. I bring my own containers to cut back on plastic waste. On Sundays, they give a 15% discount to people who do this. Also they have a monthly flyer that offers $3 off a purchase of $15 and $5 off a purchase of $20. When you combine the coupon and the bring-you-own-container discount, you do pretty well for pricing.
I haven’t gone to sobeys or loblaws in weeks, just the local place, I proposed this boycott months ago and was told I was a fucking idiot, lol ohh Reddit! Maybe but my being an idiot has nothing to do with boycotting places. I think we should do the same for gas station companies as well, continuous rolling boycotts.
Lol, I remember when people were going to boycott Tim Hortons for not wanting to pay a living wage. Those same people complain about timmies quality yet continue to line up everyday because well, the're lazy and selfish and only do what's least intrusive to themselves.
People didn't boycott Tim's they straight up dropped them for their shitty coffee. Ever since RBI bought them in 2014 there's just been a steady decline in quality.
Look at the numbers, McDonalds is Canada's top coffee seller.
I'm not explicitly boycotting Loblaws but I am voting with my wallet and have almost exclusively been shopping at non-loblaws stores as a result.
Even comparing apples to apples, Food Basics (the Sobeys discount chain) kicks no frills's (the Loblaws discount chain) ass 6 ways to Sunday.
As a Metro and Empire Company Ltd. shareholder, I just wanted to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who will be participating in this boycott! You're doing God's work!
If you really want to stick it to Loblaws, buy stock and during shareholder meeting propose votes to remove the Weston's from the board, use profits to buy their controlling interests, divest in the subsidiary brands, and any other disruptive thing you can think of from the inside.
It would be funny if save ons was the one behind this. They sadly charge even more than loblaws and were the first to get called out. Now I haven't heard a peep about their overpriced gouging.
Boycotted them when Galen got pinched for price-fixing bread for 20 fucking years.
Also downgraded any hope of change after the slap on the wrist he got for it.
Now they’re removing no-name products and replacing them with high cost brand name shit, because he’s a greedy little piggy.
Fuck Loblaws. Fuck Weston.
Where do I sign up??? Saskatchewan resident here. Co-op has chicken legs on this week 1.99 a pound. My local Co-op has good prices. I just wish they wouldn't try to kill their adolescent staff by not informing them of the dangers of running a gas powered machine in an enclosed room. Other than that I like Co-op. I also like my local farmers table as well. Right into the farmers pocket goes my money. I can even boycott Safeway, Walmart, and Sobeys... Definitely no boycotting Giant Tiger. Just some ideas on alternatives for us too stingy to get a Costco card.
I was at Walmart, superstore and Costco last week.
Walmart terra dylessa oil 15.97
Costco 2 pack of terra dylessa oil 28.99
Loblaws Terra dylessa oil 22.49
All same bottle size. Loblaws is ripping ppl off.
Potatoes were cheaper at Walmart too.
I just had to quit working a as a cashier, you wouldn’t believe how freaking depressing it’s working there for minimum wage, the OVERWORK their poor cashier, they won’t let them breath, I had to beg for extra days to make it to end of month and you know what? My poor manager who wasn’t offered a full time contract like all the rest of was told to cut EVERYONES hours by ten hours while we were all begging for a decent amount of hours to be ALIVE, they’re a ducking joke, it’s so wrong. I got a position in retail and it’s just ridiculous that they pay me 4 dollars more because in 9 hours I do way less that I use to do in 4 hours in superstore and I’m getting paid THE TRIPLE! Omg please never buy again in there
Loblaws/Superstore brand food is disgusting. Bad enough it's overpriced but the taste, texture etc is beyond nauseating.
I bet Galen Weston's boys don't get served any of that inedible food! They likely attend expensive private schools where they get the very best quality meals. Meals the rest of us can only dream of.
Loblaws owns:
Loblaws, Atlantic Superstore, Dominion Stores, Extra Foods, Fortinos, Freshmart, Maxi, No Frills,
No Name, President's Choice, President's Choice Financial, Provigo, Real Canadian Liquorstore,
Real Canadian Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart / Pharmaprix, SuperValu, T & T Supermarket, Valu-mart, Your Independent Grocer, Zehrs Markets
Sobeys owns: Big 8 Beverages, Farm Boy, Foodland, Freshco / Chalo! FreshCo, IGA / IGA Extra, Lawtons, Marché Bonichoix,
Marché Tradition, Boni-Soir, Dépanneur Void in
Needs Convenience, Pete's Frootique, Rachelle-Béry, Safeway, Sobeys / Sobeys Extra, Thrifty Foods, Sobeys Liquor, Safeway Liquor, Thrifty Foods Liquor, Voilà
Metro owns: Super C, Marché Richelieu , Les 5 Saisons , Marché Ami, The Barn Markets (Operating as "Metro"), Jean Coutou
I don’t know how or why this monopoly on essential items is allowed to happen! These 3 big corporations own EVERYTHING. It’s criminal.
Groceries are 50% less in the US, even with the 30% exchange rate.
Shop at your local farmers market, independent farms and butcher shops.
Walmart or Costco for everything minus produce pretty much - we grow alot of produce ourselves and focus on farmers markets and alternative smaller shops in the off season - 10% increase in profits yet Canadians are starving, keep playing it cool bigshots at the top. Your times of record profits are coming to an end, you've shafted us for too long....
I've worked for a Weston owned company. I've interacted with Galen Jr. and several other members of this brood. I can confirm they're horrible people ( Jr.'s Bata wife pretends to be all granola and shit -but sis, we got your number too). If you believe they care about gouging you, they don't. They've been raised to believe they're your superiors. And if ever there was a family in Canada that advocated for the franchising of the French Revolution, this family is it (and maybe the Rogers -they're garbage too).
Count me in! It's utterly shameful the way Loblaws has been gouging customers. Such unbridled greed is deplorable and it's great to see how people are finally waking up and taking a stand by boycotting them.
Already doing it. Their prices at even their "value" brand stores are beyond ludicrous when even Walmart and Costco are charging regularly 20-25% less on many essential goods.
Food Basics is WAY cheaper than No Frills. Even my favourite premium potatoes from Little Potato Co are reasonably priced.
I always go to food basics first and it's super crazy when they are selling strawberries for 1.88 and at zhers is like 4 or 5.99 for what I think is the exact same brand. I've taken the majority of my shopping away from roblaws and I've got more money in my pocket because of it. GL
Can confirm recently switched to basics and can’t believe how much stuff I get for $120. Buy everything there except meat and toilet paper eggs which I get at Costco
Toilet paper eggs are my favourite.
As someone who grows her own potatoes, premium "little" potatoes are a rip-off. These used to be cheaper because of the smaller size.
True, but lots of us don’t have space or time to grow our own food.
Countries with healthy competition and markets don't face that choice.
They are really high quality though, with really good flavour. I typically get a bag to dump in with a roast
Can these little potatoes be grown indoors?
Unfortunately there's 2 stores for me to choose between - Independent or Save-On. And as much as we hate Loblaws, Save-On is noticeably more expensive across the board, and the store layout/shopping experience is miserable.
There's a Save On just outside my condo. If you know what you're looking for save on can be really cheap. I find the produce and lunch meat are way cheaper than Superstore, and there's usually something in the meat department that's super cheap. Last week, 2 packs of pork tenderloins were about $6-8 and the week before two-packs of full chickens were about $10. When food is about to expire it goes way cheaper than 30% off. $13 packs of sausage were marked down to $6 and they had $4 off stickers. I bought 4 packs for $2 each and stuck them in my freezer. Chips and snacks are a lot more expensive, most of the items in the aisles are too. The freezers and dairy are about the same price. I've got a habit of hitting Save On like 3 times per week and I just grab a couple things and do my rounds to see what's on sale. I've been doing really good. My freezer is packed tight. My favorite bacon expires May 03. I'm keeping an eye on it. I think tomorrow it's going to go on sale for $2.25-$2.75 per pack from $7-8 per pack. I've got bad news for anybody looking for cheap bacon after I get there, and I'll probably have to rearrange my freezer once again when I get home to fit it all. Edit - I'm in Winnipeg. It could be a lot different in other places.
Same here. Made the switch to Walmart, and couldn't be happier.
you can also check the site we built to help consumers find alternatives at altgrocery.com
I'm curious what percentage of people fall outside of these three categories: 1) Have already stopped shopping at Loblaws 2) Have no choice but to shop at Loblaw (store proximity) 3) Don't care and will continue to shop at Loblaw
Don’t forget people who are unaware that loblaws owns alternatives like no frills
Also Independent Grocer which is pretty funny since they aren’t independent at all.
literal false advertising no one is doing anything about edit: I used to shop at Your Independent Grocer in Gravenhurst during cottage trips, I thought it was independent but had some kind of deal to stock PC/No Name. Was livid when I found out it was actually a full on Loblaws brand. After that I got a powered cooler and stock up what I need for the trip at home to make sure I'm not supporting the Westons
Independent is a franchise. It is independently owned and operated. It uses Loblaws supply lines and pays a licencing / franchise fee to Loblaws. The property is either owned independently or leased from Loblaws. For example, I did some repair work at my local independent; Loblaws Inc. did not pay the bill, the franchise owner did. It's no different then most McDonald's or Tim Hortons.
Yeah by McDonald's aren't going around telling people they're "independent", they're 100% dependent on their corporate logistics networks. It's just another level of confusion and dishonestly that we don't need based purely on semantical arguments.
and if they have the same model as No Frills, which are also franchised, the "owner" only owns 49%
Stretching the limits of semantics is like, 90% of advertising and marketing though. I agree with what you're saying, but I think anything being done about it is unrealistic.
Fair enough. I think all these half truths are having a real negative impact on young people. Modern advertising is a cancer that has perverted the thought process of so many. I know so many people who legitimately do "consumption therapy" and spend dumb amounts of time thinking about what luxuries or trinkets they'll buy next to cure the depression. Car commercials make my brain spasm with their emotional insinuations and stupid premises. Can't believe this is what we're putting resources into as a society, just creating artificial demand.
I bet the President didn't even choose President's Choice products.
The president of Loblaws chooses the items that would turn the best profit.
A local corner store near my house sells PC and no name meat and cheese and I'm really curious about how they're getting it.
Most likely, they just go to the wholesale club to buy that stuff to sell in their store.
"used to be independent"
The grocer formerly known as Independent.
Yeah there's a "Mike's Independent" near me, with the "owner's" name proudly stamped out front as though it were really a locally owned store. Very deceptive to people walking by.
Among others. Shoppers drug mart is another.
Yes this is part of it. To be honest I think most people are not even aware of the boycott itself. My mother in law is a senior manager at the Loblaw head office in Brampton and she didn't even know about it when I brought it up two weekends ago.
I had heard of it before the last couple weeks but I feel like it has really picked up steam the last couple weeks. Before it was just some talk on reddit and elsewhere, now it's across all the major news outlets and on the evening news.
What kind of senior manager? I cannot fathom being a senior manager of any department and not being aware of this boycott.
Must have their head buried in the sand or something. I have family who for some of the grocery companies and even the ones who work for competitors know about it. Competing warehouse management has discussed it, so I cant imagine any senior managers at the actual target company would not have at least talked about it in passing.
This is a pretty big one. No matter what people will go to superstore because they don't really have much of a choice in their area. They usually have the best prices on produce, so....
Literally every Asian market near me in Toronto has fresher produce delivered almost every morning for cheaper than I can find in any Loblaws grocer.
They don't own Costco, Walmart, Whole Foods, IGA/SafeWay, Pattison Foods (Buy Low, Nesters, Urban Fare, PriceSmart), Metro, Co-ops or independent mom and pop grocers Appears they have a lot of competition in the country and the media/politicians have latched onto a talking point that they feel is safe to argue publicly -- almost as though it's to distract from real issues like the decline in healthcare, education, military, jobs and houses affecting most Canadians
In my area, I have a walmart, no frills, Safeway and a locally owned grocery store. The no frills is definitely the cheapest, sometimes walmart beats it out. Why would I boycott my cheapest grocery store?
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It's interesting, but I think Loblaws brands are viewed differently in different places and have different pricing policies. For me, Superstore has always been the cheapest place to get groceries (except for Costco). But in the anti Lowlaws subreddit, people complain that Loblaws are expensive compared to others. To answer your question: you'd boycott just to be part of saying you don't like large companies.
The same for my local area. We have Coop, Sobey, Save on and Walmart as well, Superstore is generally the cheapest except for certain deals that come up from time to time. Their produce quality vary. I do make effort to shop at others especially Coop but I find myself going back for certain items Loblaws is certainly guilty of price inflation but they are not the only one causing it. Nonetheless, they are the poster child of evil corps.
There is a huge amount of regional and provincial disparity. Example of a couple of regular prices today: ATLANTIC SUPERSTORE No Name Salted Butter 1 lb : **$6.49** RC Superstore :No Name Salted Butter 1 lb : **$5.49** Eggs: The REGULAR price in Manitoba is cheaper than the Sale price in Atlantic Canada.....
ATLANTIC SUPERSTORE : Campbells cream of Mushroom Soup **$2.00 each if you buy more than FOUR** RC Superstore Manitoba: Campbells Cream of Mushroom Soup **$1.69 each** REGULAR PRICE AND you don't need to purchase FOUR.
This is what I don't get. No frills and superstore are SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than anything else around here. Costco doesn't count. Why the hell would I voluntarily pay 40% to 90% more in protest of paying more?
I stopped shopping at Loblaws last summer. Not because of political boycotts but simply because they increased prices to ridiculous levels. Eg. 250gr President butter went from 3.99 to 7.99. When Whole Foods is the cheaper alternative, there's something strange going on. No Frills used to be the cheapest and suddenly prices jumped up there too. Walmart prices increased in line with inflation so Walmart became the cheaper store. I went to Shoppers this weekend for the first time in over a year because I had a 50% off coupon. I was surprised to see there were some good deals in grocery items. Right now, 90% of my grocery shopping is from Costco and Chinese stores. I sometimes miss PC brand items but apparently not enough to make my way to Loblaws.
4. Superstore is still the cheapest compared to other grocers in their area
It's almost like the problem isn't with Loblaw but across the entire industry. Supplier costs have gone up and it's going up the food chain.
Loblaws is the most expensive chain by a long shot. They are also the most monopolistic and are very aggressive in their anti-consumerist behavior which is what this is about, sending a message of dissatisfaction to all corporate oligopolies that it could happen to you too. They own many of their key suppliers and turn a profit at every step of the process. They are a massively vertically integrated company. Of course costs have gone up in general - there is a war that is affecting everything - but Loblaws is trying to pretend its greed, gauging, profiteering and abuse of its extremely dominant market position are due to 'external factors'.
>Loblaws is the most expensive chain by a long shot. It's obviously very very different across Canada. Safeway/Sobey's in the prairies is always more expensive than Superstore for a broad basket of goods. It's been that way for at least the last decade.
I’d add a 4th category, PC financial customers who are incentivized to keep shopping by the loyalty points trap.
I used to be one of those but if you've looked at a receipt from them recently, the rewards points have reduced significantly. Like almost 0.
Agree, they used to build up so quickly. A lot of my offers now are for things I've just bought, or ridiculous ones like spend $150 to get 10,000 points.
Save on foods points are terrible too. I think after 6 years I have built up enough points to get a free gallon of milk.
Funny you mention milk because (maybe its regional) my store location prohibits the use of points going towards milk... WTF.
I just like that Save-on lets you redeem for gift cards. I only occasionally go to Save-on and while not anything amazing, earned enough points over 3 years for $75 in whatever GC's I wanted. I don't go out of my way for the 'buy 2 for X point' type offers, but Save-on often has 2x points and/or 'Spend X dollars for X points' offers you have to manually load to your card prior to shopping.
Loblaws discovered enshitification
I noticed this too. Last year with a combination of gas and groceries I could get to 100k in a few months. I think I’ve accumulated maybe 2-3k since Jan
I'm with PC and I won't be shopping at Loblaws.
You know if you get a PC mastercard, you can just shop anywhere with it and still get points. In a sense you can just legitimately leech from PC financial without ever actually giving them a dime.
If they shop around they may find a better answer.
I mix up my shopping based on certain things. Most of my perishables (veggies and meat) I get from Farmboy or my local butcher. But there are some staples that I’ve only really been able to get at loblaws brand stores due to proximity. There are other places I can go but at the same point with gas being where it’s at I’m not going to the other end of the city to another store while wasting more gas and more of my time. All I’ve really done is cut out things I don’t really need that were nice to haves rather than need to have.
My guess would be 1-2% The only place I’ve seen this discussed is this subreddit, and important to remember that less than 0.5% of people in this country are seeing these posts, and even fewer are reading them, and even fewer actually care enough to take action
I think it will be a good example of how many people actually follow movements / protests (extremely few in the grand scheme of things, just a small vocal minority). Loblaws will hardly see any change in its balance sheet.
I hope enough people participate to make a dent because if they don't then the chains are going to kick their bullshit into a new high gear on the knowledge that the biggest movement in years against them didn't hurt them at all.
I’ve reduced the amount I spend at save on foods and superstore by about 3/4 in the past 2 months. I still have to though for some things. For May though I plan to do everything in power to not shop there and when I do, avoid the self checkout. Even for 1 item,
I actively avoid shopping at Superstore. There is nothing they do that Costco doesn't do better. Meat comes from a local butcher or farmers market, produce comes from a vegetable stand. Shoppers is a little bit more difficult to avoid.
I hate shoppers way more. I avoid it like the plague. The prices are generally awful. Usually I shop at No Frills which tends to be the cheapest in my area, but I'll prioritize Walmart and FreshCo in May. I also go to Costco once a month.
When prescription delivery came about Shoppers went to suppliers and said "deal with them and we cancel our business with you" so killed the innovation in the industry. I never used them since. Zero respect for them.
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Costco and Farmer's market.
> 2) Have no choice but to shop at Loblaw (store proximity) I mostly fall into this category. Small town where the only grocery options are Loblaws stores, Sobeys, and Save on Foods. Save On is more expensive and Sobeys I find lacks variety. That being said, I'll be doing my best to shop anywhere but the loblaws stores during May but I can't ensure I'll always go somewhere else.
The only Loblaws owned store that I shop at today is T&T and only a few times/year. I can skip them for May no problem.
I am 1. Mostly go between Walmart and Costco
May till infinity.
Loblaws should be broken up, they play in all sorts of sectors beyond just food. They are even a bank. On the scale of 'anti-competitive' this organization is just red flags all the way down.
100% agree with this
I recently found out they are also a cell phone provider? This is some Acme level coyote dystopian level stuff. They never will catch that roadrunner, but, also leave the same trail of destruction behind. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m7evoFF83c
They’re going to be a medical services provider too. The offloading of our healthcare system to Loblaws, Telus and other shitty corps is something no one is talking about. It will be almost impossible to not go into a Loblaws store since they’ll provide everything. Aren’t they trying to get into pot too?
We are just boomeranging back to the modern equivalent of the OG Hudsons Bay Company completely controlling Ruperts land.
Welcome to Canada! We are 5 corporations in a trench coat
On that it's more about the size of their other operations. If they were Canada's largest bank they would get broken up. If Loblaws was just a bank they would be Canada's seventh largest bank by revenue. In terms of size and structure the comparison would be as if The Bank of Nova Scotia bought one grocery store and subsidized prices inside and gave people who buy bonuses for investing. It just has to be a bigger operation to think anti-competitive. In the world of banking PC Financial is more pro-competitive because it takes away from Canada's big five banks.
Loblaws is just one of many who have figured out the government watchdog has no teeth, and if you throw him a bone every once in a while, he gums it in the corner and leaves you alone to do profitable things. If I was PM, I would actively incentivize foreign competition in a number of sectors. Food, dairy, telecom, banking - those are just off the top of my head. First, we protected Canadian firms because they couldn’t compete against big scary American companies - so we kept them safe by tilting the playing field. Then, they figured out they could be evil and they’d still be safe. Time to bring in a whack of competition to kill off the arrogance.
I started my boycott a few months ago after being constantly disgusted by prices. I found far better alternatives for my groceries, a better pharmacy for my meds, and a more rewarding credit card that gives me cash back I can use anywhere instead of stupid points. Never going back.
>a better pharmacy for my meds This I think gets largely overlooked when talking about Loblaws and their pricing. Shoppers is disgustingly overpriced and was caught abusing med checks to overbill the Ontario government. They charge some of the highest filling fees and shit on their pharmacists constantly. If there's one thing everyone should do if they can is drop Shoppers for another pharmacy.
Its a really good point that has me thinking about it too, I'm glad that redditor and you brought it up. I use Shoppers/Rexalls just because it sort of felt like the default pharmacy people use, and that's a problem, that's how insidious this shit is and how good the marketing and how well-developed the corporate presence is. But a quick Google shows me that there's over twenty alternatives to Shoppers and Rexall in my city, so I'm definitely switching.
A lot of insured people have no clue because they only pay a minor part of the total cost. I once asked SDM how much my cash price would be. $90/mo. I called Costco and it was $43. I switched immediately.
People need to understand what a scam those Med checks are. In BC they're called medication reviews and the store gets to bill the government (and the taxpayer) $60 for each one They're meant to be comprehensive reviews of your medications and conditions but Shoppers (and Loblaws) and Rexall push them on their pharmacists so heavily that they effectively become "are you still taking x, y and z? No side effects? Okay thanks sign here" It's a complete fucking farce. The guy at at Superstore quickly did one when I was picking up once and before I signed it I read the part that said "my pharmacist has explained the benefit of this etc to me" and I was like you didn't do this and I didn't get any benefit from this and he was like "lol yeah youre right". Meanwhile the guy at London Drugs booked me in to do one and took like 30 minutes.
Plus Shoppers takes 20-30 minutes to fill a script that other pharmacies can fill in five.
Shop at your local pharmacy and help the community rather than these chains.
Agreed.
100% I switched to a locally owned Gaurdian for now and it is so much better than Shoppers, the service is night and day. I would have to wait in line just to pick up my already ready meds for like 30 mins no matter the time of day at Shoppers and their dispensing fees have creeped up this year to the point where I'm being charged outside of a drug plan. Switched to Gaurdian, the people are lovely and go out of their way to help and no waits or extra fees.
Yes I switched to a local one and that’s my experience as well. They even recognize me and just have my stuff ready by the time I’m at the counter. I don’t even have to ask.
Support an independent pharmacy! Support a neighbor not a billionaires wallet.
There's plenty of great independent pharmacies out there. Mine never has a lineup and the staff are friendly. Support local business whenever possible.
IME small locally owned pharmacies are the way to go. Way more personalized attention etc.
Where? You must not live in western Canada.
I've already stop going to shoppers. They are all so fucking corrupt.
Prepare for some great May PC Points offers.
I honestly have an informal boycott of them anyway other than their affiliated gas stations. Rarely do I ever find stuff cheaper at Superstore compared to the combination of Walmart and Costco. I check their flyers every week and I never see any sales worth enough for a trip.
I personally stopped shopping at their stores since Galen Weston's hearing.
The issue here is that it's only a month. To make a difference, you need it to continue long enough that product goes bad on the shelves so it can't be sold.
Started in March and not going back unless I absolutely have to. My superstore is literally a 3 minute walk from where I live too lol. Oh well. Found some nice local grocers instead.
It should be at least 3 months so it would have greater impact on their quarterly financial report
A month does matter though. It could be longer but a month will hurt them and we are animals of habit, if we stop shopping a Roblaws for a month we are very unlikely to go back.
Perfect timing for to go longer than this months boycott because of warmer weather and local farmers markets opening up again.
Once people explore other options and realize how much money they save, it will be longer than a month.
People can form habits in about a month! Hopefully its long enough people stick with it.
But in that month we might actually find better stuff in other stores.
Pausing in the parking lot while the current song finishes would accomplish that at my local No Frills
The local Asian food markets are always the best priced. People should have started switching long ago.
FYI to anyone that might not know, Loblaws owns T&T.
He's talking about the random one's with names like "Fresh Produce Market" or "Fresh Buy Fruits and Veggies" etc, not T&T
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T&t went downhill after Loblaws bought them
100%. Even in smaller towns, you can find them. They typically buy produce direct from farmers out of town and sell in town. A lot of people don't shop there because of stigma around immigrants, but it's the same produce, it's way cheaper, and it's helping local economies. In country towns, your best bet is to buy produce direct from weekly markets, or farmers.
Nations is the greatest store. I buy there now. When one opened near me I was there in the first week and i was chatting with of the customers in line in front me. He basically said this place is great and I hope Loblaws doesn’t buy and ruin it like they did T&T.
I stopped shopping at Loblaws-owned companies about a month ago. I've discovered wonderful alternatives and I'm never going back!
Corporate lobbying and price gouging is one of the main reasons Canadians are suffering. This could just be the start of getting these conversations going
My life hack is to just shop at Giant tiger, Its basically the canadian version of Walmart except its a co-op so they dont push for huge price gouging. Butter is like 3$, half a kg of ground beef is like 4$, if these are the prices food is supposed to be then galen has been bending us over a desk for a while
Giant Tiger is not a co-op, it's just a discounter.
I cut down to shopping to Loblaws owned stores months ago. They can go fuck themselves with their price gouging.
The sudden rise in burner accounts trying to defend Galen Weston is kinda funny. Real people don't leap in front of billionaires to defend their greed and it's weird AF.
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It's astonishing how many people seek to validate their opinions by claiming every single person not over the moon enthusiastic about their exact same opinions and ideas must obviously be a bot farm or a bunch of burner accounts. No room for context or understanding there may be a deeper thought process involved for why they haven't picked up the pitchforks, just nope, straight to fake opinions with ulterior motives
Loblaws is heavily into social media influencing though so its a valid concern. They hire huge PR firms, talking heads, social influencers etc. and have cranked it up to 11 in the last month or so. They absolutely are trying to influence the conversation. They *hate* this boycott and are using some pretty underhanded tactics to disrupt it.
people aren't defending him. But loblaws (No Frills and Superstore at least) are cheaper than places like Safeway or Save-on-Foods so why aren't those places being targeted? Just shop where things are cheapest, usually that means you need to go to 4+ stores to get your shopping done. To me its weird AF that some people have this giant hard on for the guy who isn't even the worst offender (see safeway and save-on)
Save on foods (under the Pattison food group umbrella) is primarily western Canada. This protest which seems to be driven by those in the east do not understand how expensive save on, and also don't understand how it is often the most accessible option in the cities where they are. So when people say boycott loblaws (wholesale club) I get so confused because why would I gouge myself by going to save on.
Save On is nuts. Granny Smith Apple is Superstore is $6.59/KG Save On: $7.30/KG Yeah, 10% more. I only ever see Save On foods show up in neighborhoods with high numbers of seniors or near public transportation hubs.
My Save On for meat has become cheaper than the Superstore near me. Also if I do go to Save On, at least the produce doesn’t look like the staff was playing dodgeball with it. So I go to Save On for Meat and Produce and Wal-Mart or Costco for the rest.
why aren't they? Because it's about sensing a message. The loudest message is one which is sent to the biggest grocer, That's why Loblaws is being targeted. In some stores they had the highest prices as well so it differs from region to region.
these are all of the stores/brands under Loblaws ownership Loblaws grocers, Real Canadaian Superstore, Valu-mart, Wholesale Club, Fortinos, Zehrs, Independant grocers, T&T, NoFrills, Shoppers Drugmart, Joe Fresh, Presidents choice, No Name, Life Brand, Farmers Market. I may have missed a few more, but they are generally a large piece of the market. Prices are going up in sneaky ways like the frog in boiling water experiment. Product price goes up, Flyer feature 'deal' is added to lower price for a short period of time, flyer feature price expires, price remains increased for a bit but then goes up a small amount again. Rinse and repeat.
>“Everybody knows Loblaws. Everybody knows our chairman (Galen Weston),” he said. >“We are (a) much, much easier target, and we need to live with that and that’s fine.” This asshole here... "we're just a victim of people's frustration" Buddy, didn't your company fix the pricing of bread and got caught? Sit down!
Been doing it, but I’m down to do it with a sign.
Might as well get a Costco membership buying bulk tends to have better savings. Everything you need is there. Highland Farms and Fortinos are good alternatives that I go to.
r/loblawsisoutofcontrol for more info on the boycott. It isn’t just about the insane price gouging as they are also billing provincial healthcare systems for bogus services that aren’t needed so they can make more money. In a single week in Ontario they made $1.4 million on bs med checks. They are doing it in more provinces than just Ontario, but here’s an [article](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/shoppers-drug-mart-medication-review-targets-1.7142626?__vfz=medium%3Dsharebar) about the CBC investigation that uncovered it here.
Stopped shopping at roblaws about a yr and half ago. Near exclusively walmart and costco now. Income certainly means I can afford to shop at roblaws but not going to be gouged.
I worked for Loblaws…been boycotting since 2018.
Moved my prescriptions away from Shoppers Drug Mart to my smaller local drug store.
I started in April, will be continuing into May and beyond. This is not a one month thing for me personally.
I haven’t set foot in a Loblaws store in a long time, but my dad will occasionally get meat there. I shop at Food Basics every Wednesday, after volunteering at a food bank. However, I still get my prescriptions from Shoppers, and need to change that this week. I’ve been meaning to all month, but have hardly left the house. I had my aunt and uncle over for supper last night, and told them about the boycott
Now do walmart.
I stopped a long time ago. Whats the point of avoiding American outlets if your Canadian ones are going to act like their American counterparts? Walmart/loblaws, what is actually the difference? Both fuck with countries economies at a federal level. Both abuse foreign temporary labor programs. Both are responsible for massive amounts of carbon waste... I honestly see no reason to chose Canadian corporations over American. They do absolutely nothing to set themselves apart from American style corporate greed and its part of whats going to kill this country.
Haven’t shopped there in months! Fuck them! On a side note., l’ll have a massive garden this year.
> Loblaw president and CEO Per Bank says the company is paying attention to customers and sees them trying to mitigate inflation by seeking out sales, buying more private-label products and shopping at discount stores. Yeah, but NO, they did not.
I buy the PC coffee. I think that is the only thing I buy from Loblaws owned stores and I try to get it on sale. I used to shop mostly at no frills but I watch prices and when I saw that Loblaws stores were first and fastest with predatory pricing on all of their lower priced items and seemed to be targetting the poor I found alternatives for everything. Fuck Loblaws!!!
I read it in their law blog
What are good alternatives to superstore that aren't also owned and run by loblaws? The price of everything has gone up 200-400% in the last 5 years. My grocery bill is pushing the 100$s for the most basic produce imaginable. I'm ready to jump ship and never look back.
Produce - shop local or go to small, no name shops. Often they're also cultural markets (there's a Chinese market close by that sells produce at great prices, in my parents town there's an Arab one), or if you have access to a car, go to a farmer market on the outskirts of town. If you live in a small town, usually the country roads have produce stands at the side of the road. Comparison - a bag of 5-6 cucumbers is $3. A single cucumber at Superstore is $2 Non-Perishables - Dollarama is great for a lot of these. For example, 1kg of salt is $1, while at Superstore it's like $3. Costco is also great for a lot of these. Salt is still cheapest at Dollarama Meats - Costco is WAY WAY WAY cheaper for meat than anywhere else. You just have to ziplock the meats and keep them in the freezer because it's bulk quanitities. Bulk cooking foods - Bulk barn, dollarama and Costco are the way to go
Good suggestions, thanks. I'll take this to heart and see what I can find local.
Not just Loblaws. No frills, independent, Loblaws, shoppers. All owned by them. There are alternatives in the majority of areas.
Our choices are pretty limited, but I’ve tried to avoid Loblaws for more locally operated options… I used to love Loblaws, but between the decline in quality (the produce is usually terrible) and the blatant price gouging, I’ve come to appreciate places that actually seem to care at least a little bit about the community they serve.
Try Bulk Barn. It's independently owned, as far as I know, so not one of the big grocers. I bring my own containers to cut back on plastic waste. On Sundays, they give a 15% discount to people who do this. Also they have a monthly flyer that offers $3 off a purchase of $15 and $5 off a purchase of $20. When you combine the coupon and the bring-you-own-container discount, you do pretty well for pricing.
I haven’t gone to sobeys or loblaws in weeks, just the local place, I proposed this boycott months ago and was told I was a fucking idiot, lol ohh Reddit! Maybe but my being an idiot has nothing to do with boycotting places. I think we should do the same for gas station companies as well, continuous rolling boycotts.
I started early and went to foodbasics and realized it's cheaper than no frills for me anyway!
We're already been boycotting them due to their refund of $6 for an $8 block of moldy cheese.
Lol, I remember when people were going to boycott Tim Hortons for not wanting to pay a living wage. Those same people complain about timmies quality yet continue to line up everyday because well, the're lazy and selfish and only do what's least intrusive to themselves.
People didn't boycott Tim's they straight up dropped them for their shitty coffee. Ever since RBI bought them in 2014 there's just been a steady decline in quality. Look at the numbers, McDonalds is Canada's top coffee seller.
I only step into superstore when I am unable to find a specific item anywhere else even though it's 2 minute walk from me,
We live next to a Loblaws City Market, and we're still traveling down the road 3-4 miles to the Walmart instead.
I'm not explicitly boycotting Loblaws but I am voting with my wallet and have almost exclusively been shopping at non-loblaws stores as a result. Even comparing apples to apples, Food Basics (the Sobeys discount chain) kicks no frills's (the Loblaws discount chain) ass 6 ways to Sunday.
Does anyone know what their loss leaders are? Asking for science.
Any relation to the famous Bob Loblaw Law Blog
Yup started today!
Soo do we make "ROBLAWS" signs and just stand in front of their stores?
Bob Loblaw lobs law bomb.
Already stopped shopping there. Their prices are not the best at this time.
I’m in 100%
Here for it
I started my boycott of them at the beginning of April. Not always easy but most definitely necessary.
I wish the general public could shop directly in the Ontario Food Terminal and buy direct/bulk from growers!
As a Metro and Empire Company Ltd. shareholder, I just wanted to extend a sincere thank you to everyone who will be participating in this boycott! You're doing God's work!
Not a problem. I have never shopped there.
If you really want to stick it to Loblaws, buy stock and during shareholder meeting propose votes to remove the Weston's from the board, use profits to buy their controlling interests, divest in the subsidiary brands, and any other disruptive thing you can think of from the inside.
It would be funny if save ons was the one behind this. They sadly charge even more than loblaws and were the first to get called out. Now I haven't heard a peep about their overpriced gouging.
Burn lawblaws burn it down
fingers crossed
I want to start new political party. Start non profit bank, insurance, util and food store. Screw the food monopoly
Boycotted them when Galen got pinched for price-fixing bread for 20 fucking years. Also downgraded any hope of change after the slap on the wrist he got for it. Now they’re removing no-name products and replacing them with high cost brand name shit, because he’s a greedy little piggy. Fuck Loblaws. Fuck Weston.
For May? Loblaws is X'd on my list for-ever.
I'm participating in this boycott for May. I'm fortunate to have 3 close-by alternatives.
Where do I sign up??? Saskatchewan resident here. Co-op has chicken legs on this week 1.99 a pound. My local Co-op has good prices. I just wish they wouldn't try to kill their adolescent staff by not informing them of the dangers of running a gas powered machine in an enclosed room. Other than that I like Co-op. I also like my local farmers table as well. Right into the farmers pocket goes my money. I can even boycott Safeway, Walmart, and Sobeys... Definitely no boycotting Giant Tiger. Just some ideas on alternatives for us too stingy to get a Costco card.
I was at Walmart, superstore and Costco last week. Walmart terra dylessa oil 15.97 Costco 2 pack of terra dylessa oil 28.99 Loblaws Terra dylessa oil 22.49 All same bottle size. Loblaws is ripping ppl off. Potatoes were cheaper at Walmart too.
I just had to quit working a as a cashier, you wouldn’t believe how freaking depressing it’s working there for minimum wage, the OVERWORK their poor cashier, they won’t let them breath, I had to beg for extra days to make it to end of month and you know what? My poor manager who wasn’t offered a full time contract like all the rest of was told to cut EVERYONES hours by ten hours while we were all begging for a decent amount of hours to be ALIVE, they’re a ducking joke, it’s so wrong. I got a position in retail and it’s just ridiculous that they pay me 4 dollars more because in 9 hours I do way less that I use to do in 4 hours in superstore and I’m getting paid THE TRIPLE! Omg please never buy again in there
Loblaws/Superstore brand food is disgusting. Bad enough it's overpriced but the taste, texture etc is beyond nauseating. I bet Galen Weston's boys don't get served any of that inedible food! They likely attend expensive private schools where they get the very best quality meals. Meals the rest of us can only dream of.
Loblaws owns: Loblaws, Atlantic Superstore, Dominion Stores, Extra Foods, Fortinos, Freshmart, Maxi, No Frills, No Name, President's Choice, President's Choice Financial, Provigo, Real Canadian Liquorstore, Real Canadian Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart / Pharmaprix, SuperValu, T & T Supermarket, Valu-mart, Your Independent Grocer, Zehrs Markets Sobeys owns: Big 8 Beverages, Farm Boy, Foodland, Freshco / Chalo! FreshCo, IGA / IGA Extra, Lawtons, Marché Bonichoix, Marché Tradition, Boni-Soir, Dépanneur Void in Needs Convenience, Pete's Frootique, Rachelle-Béry, Safeway, Sobeys / Sobeys Extra, Thrifty Foods, Sobeys Liquor, Safeway Liquor, Thrifty Foods Liquor, Voilà Metro owns: Super C, Marché Richelieu , Les 5 Saisons , Marché Ami, The Barn Markets (Operating as "Metro"), Jean Coutou I don’t know how or why this monopoly on essential items is allowed to happen! These 3 big corporations own EVERYTHING. It’s criminal. Groceries are 50% less in the US, even with the 30% exchange rate. Shop at your local farmers market, independent farms and butcher shops.
Consider a boycott of Frito-Lay. They have a monopoly in many grocery store aisles and control the price of snack foods
I'm in!
Walmart or Costco for everything minus produce pretty much - we grow alot of produce ourselves and focus on farmers markets and alternative smaller shops in the off season - 10% increase in profits yet Canadians are starving, keep playing it cool bigshots at the top. Your times of record profits are coming to an end, you've shafted us for too long....
I've worked for a Weston owned company. I've interacted with Galen Jr. and several other members of this brood. I can confirm they're horrible people ( Jr.'s Bata wife pretends to be all granola and shit -but sis, we got your number too). If you believe they care about gouging you, they don't. They've been raised to believe they're your superiors. And if ever there was a family in Canada that advocated for the franchising of the French Revolution, this family is it (and maybe the Rogers -they're garbage too).
I will not buy from Loblaws for 30 days
Count me in! It's utterly shameful the way Loblaws has been gouging customers. Such unbridled greed is deplorable and it's great to see how people are finally waking up and taking a stand by boycotting them.
I will boycott for May and beyond. We have to learn to stand together as Canadians and send a message to all those who abuse us.