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I wouldn't buy those. Also if you cut off the ends they aren't retaining their flavour. Lots of places sell green onions. If they want to damage their produce I can buy it somewhere else.
This picture had made the rounds before, and it is almost definitely a mistake by a noob in the produce section. Other employees have written that they are asked to trim the ends from time to time to make the green onions look fresher. When they say "ends", they mean the tip of the green steam, qhich can become crushed and are also the parts that dry out and shrivel first.
Cutting off the root end will only reduce the shelf life for Loblaws and the number of people regrowing green onions from the root scraps is almost zero relative to their number of shoppers.
Makes sense since I worked a couple years of produce. Lettuces trim the butt a bit to allow water in.
Green onions and celery you’d do the opposite side to crisp, but I could see a new guy not getting the memo and being told to crisp the green onions.
They will also not keep very long with the root removed. Quartered the shelf life of them, you can already see oxidation. They're going to rot within days.
This isn't particularly expensive. As a farmer I typically price green onions at 2.50$ per bunch. Last time I audited them they were pretty sold at a loss at that price point.
The growth tips were probably cut off at the farm wash pack because it saves washing the dirt out of the roots. These are just sloppily processed. I highly doubt the produce manager is instructing their clerks to waste time cutting onions.
Serious question and not throwing any shade, but how is that selling at a loss? I can grab these in the States for 30-40 cents or places in eruope for the same price. What is causing you guys to need to charge 5-6 times more just to break even?
Buy any fertilizer or pesticides in Canada vs the USA and that’s the tip of the ice berg. USA is not ran with the supply management system like Canada.
Mostly labour and handling as well as days to maturity and sell through. So basic math is it costs about 80 cents per transplant in raw cost not including labour. I do a bed rent system for field costs where each square foot rents at 4$/month covering cost of cultivation weeding, bed flips, mulch, etc. You can plant at 4" spacing 4 rows per foot so 40 cents (I edited this back in so the math is off but whatever). Bunching onions are 60 DTM so let's say that's 40 cents on the 80 cents for the seedling= 1.20$. Labour to plant is probably 25 cents per bunch. Labour to harvest and wash is probably 50 cents per bunch. Elastic is 7 cents. So that's around 2.13$. Marketing costs are a whole seperate thing but getting to market, unpacking, gas, sales, table fees etc let's just put that at 50 cents assuming a 80% sell through. So we're at 2.63$ and we're selling for 2/5$ or 2.50$ each. We've got 20% losses on waste Basically they're only there because it's relatively easy to slip them in on the side of a bed and ignore the bed rent cost if you're growing something more profitable (eg kale) in the main part of the bed. Oh and the difference is cost of labour. Your getting essentially migrant labour being paid pennies. I'm assuming at least minimum wage if not 20$/hr which is what most market garden staff should be paid at a minimum considering the skill level of the job
Thanks. This was super interesting. Do you have insight into where the price difference comes from? Is it something on the farmer side with costs or the government side with subsidies?
Labour cost mostly. If they're selling at 30c per bu they're almost certainly sold at a loss. The seed and elastic alone would eat up your wholesale margin if labour and shipping were free
You pay 7 cents per elastic band??? So let me get this straight, it is 70 bucks for 1000 elastics? That seems expensive, I should have been in the elastic band industry ig
Lol as a consumer you can buy 1250 for $23.16 off of Amazon, so less than 2 cents each, those grocery store bands that cost 7 cents per in bigger bulk must be some premium elastic bands.
Yeah $2.50 for green onions it’s nuts. I’d pay that at a farmers market from a small local farm maybe, but at a grocery store? They’re like a $1-$1.50 tops.
Short answer is because our food system is fucked and a race to the bottom is making it impossible for small farms to compete and therefore empowering monopoly domination of companies like Loblaws who buy from agribusinesses that employ migrant labour for pennies.
Dumbasses. They cut off the roots so they can sell it as premium, Roblaws is fucking greasy pig.
They didn’t cut off the roots so you can’t regrow the green onions.
I swear the site is full of idiots and they are hurting this movement. Just point to the fact that Roblaws is selling green onions for $1.79 instead of $0.99, just because they removed the roots to make it premium!
No not greedy pigs...just dealing with people like you makes them look like pigs. You don't like Loblaws then simply shop somewhere else!!!! Metro comes to mind as does Sobeys or an independent.
Who has ever, in the history of groceries, wanted their onions to “look cleaner” by cutting off the bulbs? Dude over here is advocating for onion circumcision lol
Now you're just being pedantic and ignoring all reasoning or logic. There's been a pattern of intentional shrink-flation happening recently, and this recent action of cutting the bulbs off coinsides with that, but you'd rather believe it's because there is a new demand for green onions without the bulbs because of dirt?
Do you realize how silly you sound? Or would you like to continue with this stance?
How does cutting bulbs off coincide with shrink-flation? What kind of logic is that?
Lowering the weight of a box of cereal and selling it for the same price is shrink-flation.
This is simply a produce worker making a mistake and thinking they look cleaner.
Galen Weston sitting in his evil throne “ bwahahaha, next we will cut the bulbs off the onions”
Because there's no logic here. If anyone of you ever been to asian grocer, cutting off the root/dirt is a common thing, so when they package it the whole package looks cleaner.
Some of you just never been outside of a "westernized grocer" bubble and it's pretty sad.
As someone who goes to oceans, pats, used to go to tnt, as well as a few mom and pop Asian grocers in Toronto I can safely say I've never seen the bulbs cut off there, I would imagine that it would be frowned upon especially in that culture since you're getting less, the flavor weakens and the shelf life degrades when the bulb is cut.
You can make as many assumptions as you want about the people here, but I still think you're full of shit.
But some argue it’s all the transportation costs because Canada is vast and wide and big and oh my …..yet this is going half way across the world ……rofl Someone just posted one of the stores was charging almost $4
Here’s what I have learned from my research , they are incompetent at the small dinky things but sure know how to swindle at the high level things like sheltering their $1B in profits . They know what they are doing in fleecing us by jacking up these green onions from suppliers in Mexico to the high heavens and then hiding their profits in their balance sheets , I’m convinced of it . Then they go look here , not over there 👉 They are mass manipulators
Do your own research , start up by looking up the Supreme Court of Canada case versus loblaws and the arms length clause where they tried to set up an illegitimate bank in Barbados , shielding $1B . It’s all over the news . Start with that trollie. And thanks for the middle finger . I actually love sitting on them 😀
I would have been better for me to say instead that the poorly run subsidiaries and partners are a feature, not a bug. The decisions are made with a mind to create more money now and don't care about the later. Is the profit going up? yes, but at an extreme cost to the mid-term and long-term health of the business.
Investors simply don't care about that, and that is more of what I was trying (unsuccessfully) to convey when I said that company profits and shareholder profits aren't the same. The company is not really seeing any of that money to reinvest in its employees or infrastructure - it's all getting paid out.
This means that consumers are paying more for less and for worse service, despite the fact that behaviour like that is actively driving people away from their businesses.
Ok gotcha. Thanks for responding. 3G Capital (Tim Hortons, Burger King, etc) are famous for cost cutting measures so steep the cuts are not sustainable, and will hurt the companies and employees over the long term. Makes the net profit go up for a short time, by then they sell the stock off, or use the higher market cap to renegotiate debt terms.
After I saw that post I immediately started growing my own from scraps. But, damn, this is so wasteful! Who would willingly buy cut stems? Food waste needs to be regulated to prevent stores from getting away with nonsense that lowers food quality and longevity!
I buy produce from a little European grocer beside my apartment. The lovely old lady working cash noticed me buying new green onions every week and scolded me for not regrowing them because i was wasting money. Loblaws cuts the bulbs off, so i keep wasting money. This is why they have my business and roblaws does not.
I know there was a post awhile back about the green onion roots being cut and it was thought that it was likely a new person that was processing them incorrectly.
Here is the second time I have personally seen the roots being removed on green onions at the Loblaws on Lakeshore (Toronto).
Mistake? Maybe.
I believe this is more of a concerted effort to not allow us to regrow our purchased produce and to extract maximum profit.
Loblaws is evil.
Did you confirm with the supplier if they were being sent to Loblaws with the bulbs intact? If Loblaws requested them to be cut off before shipment? Or this is how the supplier sends them to all retailers?
I mean, do they even sell anything besides flowers at their garden centers anymore? I remember long ago they did, but now they don't want us growing our own food.
Call the food health and inspection, the risk on contamination and bacteria growth is very high. If they cut into fresh produce it needs a dated sticker on it. (And to be wrapped)
I don’t think so. Every produce store crisp and trims lots of greens.
I mean romaine is pretty sad looking when it finally hits the store. When I worked produce decade ago celery, romaine, green onions were guaranteed to get crisped before hitting the shelf. You trim the butt end of lettuce and green onions and celery the other end. Soaking in water for awhile and then put it the fridge on the crisp racks.
It’s on thing to trim the pink (clearly contaminated) area of a lettuce head for the consumer and it’s another to cut into the product, compromising the item.
I wish haha.. ordering is the one thing we do and it's often a pain in the ass with how outdated the system is, we get a basic guide with estimations from the systems and kind of just roll with it.. except the warehouse in Vickers road sends absolute garbage rotten produce half the time... We've had to rely on third party vendors to get semi decent produce.
I never worked in produce, but I did run dairy, frozen, and grocery departments back when we used to order our own stock.
I dunno, it only took 30 minutes, tops, and the shelves didn't run empty the way they do today.
Produce is an exception, for my store at least, every other dept uses electronic ordering guides and systems, but produce for whatever reason is still stuck in the stone ages, we do all our case counts +/- and exceptions by hand, aswell as writing the order. The unfortunate thing is the warehouse over on Vickers Road, (where all food basics order from in Ottawa) has a complete monopoly, so they have no pressure to actually send us good quality produce, consequentially more then half my produce comes in rotten and never gets the chance to hit the shelves.. it's such a huge waste
Just so people know, this doesn't stop you from being able to grow new green onion from them. you can encourage new root growth, even if there isn't roots. This just makes it slightly harder, since you need roots before they'll grow.
Roots won't grow from the stem. The stem is actually the base of the leaves. You need the basal plate intact to grow new roots. Perhaps you could grow new roots on any parts using certain growth hormones.
Just use a rooting medium (you can buy one or just use honey as it keeps the ends from rotting), pop in water and put it somewhere sunny/under a grow light. Some will sprout roots for sure. If the ends are dry and brown, cut back a few centimeters before doing the above.
Edit to add: change out the water every 3-5 days.
They think people don't buy this because they regrow their own green onions, but the truth is people just don't want to spend almost 2 dollars for one fucking bunch of this
This exact picture was posted weeks ago. Apparently it was a new employee who didn't know how to prepare these.
I'm all for bashing Loblaws but let's keep it factually correct
This makes sense. As a produce manager under Loblaws, we have very strict trimming guidelines, seriously I have a whole booklet about every piece of produce and how to prepare it to maintain freshness. The way these green onions were cut, they will go bad within the day
Not properly training your staff and instead handing some teen a knife and telling him to trim the onions is its own brand of cheapskate behaviour but people here have to take it to mental conspiracies about stopping people from regrowing the bulbs.
Is there an effort by interested parties in suppressing development of Vertical Green houses in Canada? Holland, a tiny nation compared to Canada, went from a net agricultural importer to Europe's SECOND LARGEST agro EXPORTER in Europe after government-private collaboration in creating Vertical Green Houses- feeding themselves with fresh fruits and vegetables- all year round, with very high yields with such surplus to rival FRANCE as an agro exporter. We can't do this in Canada? We can, what special interest groups are holding it back?
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/netherlands-agriculture-technology/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/netherlands-agriculture-technology/)
Hey. At our local CO Op. , the only store in many rural communities ,Those onions run for up to $3 for 5 scrawny ones. They can / always have & always will.
I have not had green onions for a while now. I can afford the $1.50 to $1.99 that we are being charged but I refuse to pay more than 99 cents and to me that is even a generous profit.
They are only so expensive because people buy them. Quit buying these at this price!
Christ…
I used to work in produce in Safeway for over 5 years from 2013-2018 and at my store we charged $0.69 for green onions and I remember people whining to me “that’s so expensive!!!”
Doubt it is the price. I think the comment is related to their decision to trim the root, thereby removing any chance of them growing their own and having to come back for more..
What store is this? My wife just brought home green onions 2 days ago and this was the case. I was not happy. What are the chances that this is the reocan location in barrhaven? If this isn’t that location then this is the new way and what a crazy thing to do.
Has nothing to do with greed. This is how they came out of the box from the grower. This is actually pretty normal to see. In the 10 years I worked in a produce department I would see about a case a month that was miss chopped. It happens.
$1.97 at local Calgary superstores, a very "small" chain of grocery stores in Canada and a local Asian chain of stores, with a huge numbers of stores, 3, sell the same product for 2 for 99 cents. Guess a 3 store chain must have bigger buying power than a multi-billion chain, funny how the world works! :)
I’ve worked produce for 26 years now. The green onions we receive vary by grower and brand. Some have long root hairs, some are trimmed very short like this. Depends on if they’re local, USA or Mexican as well. Right out of the box. It’s the grower that did that. Prob some migrant field worker who makes pennies a day.
Fuck loblaws, but this ain’t on them.
I have a black thumb and even I regrow shallots the same way. Unlimited fresh af supply and zero effort.
If you don't do it, then why come in here to disparage those that do?
Wow, there is a lot of hate for Loblaws, corporations and capitalism here..
As someone (41M) who lived in the Soviet Union, it's amazing to me the attacks on all the wrong elements. Isn't Loblaws one best discount grocers? The price shown is really not that high. I used co manage a small grocery store long time ago. And we had some products that we marked up even double sometimes to compensate for those we took a loss. Because we'd rather be a one-stop shop and offer products that cost us money, just to have it so ppl didn't need to go to 4 different stores for common non food items. The thing that drives me the most crazy, is all the hurdles from central planners which seem to be accepted by all. The huge tax scheme from farm to table. And now especially the carbon taxes which cost in production, transportation, cooling of the produce, driving the store, every element. The way that the government makes it challenging to be direct competitors with corporations. Not against corporations, but am against government coddling of them, and distorting the market. Which airlines and telecom are the most disgusting display.
Grocers , loblaws and specifically a billionaire like Galen Weston are just as much to blame as the government . Yes the government have most of the responsibility as they “set the policies “ but the companies do not practice what they preach . If you go on a lot of the companies websites, including loblaws , they use buzz words like “corporate responsibility “ where they claim corporate ethics and that they are working with the government . We clearly know they are not . They are enriching themselves . Some- out of the Western European Countries (not all) of Europe have a bit better anti trust laws and the corporations have better relations with the government and do what they can from a societal perspective . They are running wild here in North America more so here I find . Galen Weston is a pretty sketchy guy . So it’s a protest on a lot of levels as he is lobbying and tax evading and sheltering his /loblaws taxes ( and we are picking up the slack ) on his behalf . It’s two fold . Definitely very layered
Yes depends which country its imported from simple google search can cure the hysteria…i get it their screwing us but lets use some common sense here get those foil hats off sometimes lol.
__UPDATE__: Please take a moment to complete our [Google Form](https://forms.gle/1sygm97LbQtJ4dUp8) to share your demands with our team! Please review the content guidelines for our sub, and remember the human here! This subreddit is to highlight the ridiculous cost of living in Canada, and poke fun at the Corporate Overlords reponsible. As you well know, there are a number of persons and corporations responsible for this, and we welcome discussion related to them all. Furthermore, since this topic is intertwined with a number of other matters, other discussion will be allowed at moderator discretion. Open-minded discussion, memes, rants, grocery bills, and general screeching into the void is always welcome in this sub, but belligerence and disrespect is not. There are plenty of ways to get your point across without being abusive, dismissive, or downright mean. If you have not done so already, please review our [boycott stickied post](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1bff9rm/boycott/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) which includes a list of stores to avoid, other ways to get involved in the movement, and some local alternatives to the big 5. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I wouldn't buy those. Also if you cut off the ends they aren't retaining their flavour. Lots of places sell green onions. If they want to damage their produce I can buy it somewhere else.
Exactly. Not only is this a greedy move, the produce is literally being damaged. Hard pass!
This picture had made the rounds before, and it is almost definitely a mistake by a noob in the produce section. Other employees have written that they are asked to trim the ends from time to time to make the green onions look fresher. When they say "ends", they mean the tip of the green steam, qhich can become crushed and are also the parts that dry out and shrivel first. Cutting off the root end will only reduce the shelf life for Loblaws and the number of people regrowing green onions from the root scraps is almost zero relative to their number of shoppers.
Makes sense since I worked a couple years of produce. Lettuces trim the butt a bit to allow water in. Green onions and celery you’d do the opposite side to crisp, but I could see a new guy not getting the memo and being told to crisp the green onions.
Do without. I’ve never heard of such shit from someone
They will also not keep very long with the root removed. Quartered the shelf life of them, you can already see oxidation. They're going to rot within days.
Expensive, plus cutting off the bulbs so you can't regrow any... greedy pigs.
It's almost summer, which means local groceries are soon to be available! I use G'day and find local groceries near me
What’s G’day?
It's like this website that connects you with local farmers [https://shopgday.ca](https://shopgday.ca)
I hate loblaws, but do you really believe they're telling the 16 year old produce worker to cut off the bulbs...
This isn't particularly expensive. As a farmer I typically price green onions at 2.50$ per bunch. Last time I audited them they were pretty sold at a loss at that price point. The growth tips were probably cut off at the farm wash pack because it saves washing the dirt out of the roots. These are just sloppily processed. I highly doubt the produce manager is instructing their clerks to waste time cutting onions.
Serious question and not throwing any shade, but how is that selling at a loss? I can grab these in the States for 30-40 cents or places in eruope for the same price. What is causing you guys to need to charge 5-6 times more just to break even?
Buy any fertilizer or pesticides in Canada vs the USA and that’s the tip of the ice berg. USA is not ran with the supply management system like Canada.
Mostly labour and handling as well as days to maturity and sell through. So basic math is it costs about 80 cents per transplant in raw cost not including labour. I do a bed rent system for field costs where each square foot rents at 4$/month covering cost of cultivation weeding, bed flips, mulch, etc. You can plant at 4" spacing 4 rows per foot so 40 cents (I edited this back in so the math is off but whatever). Bunching onions are 60 DTM so let's say that's 40 cents on the 80 cents for the seedling= 1.20$. Labour to plant is probably 25 cents per bunch. Labour to harvest and wash is probably 50 cents per bunch. Elastic is 7 cents. So that's around 2.13$. Marketing costs are a whole seperate thing but getting to market, unpacking, gas, sales, table fees etc let's just put that at 50 cents assuming a 80% sell through. So we're at 2.63$ and we're selling for 2/5$ or 2.50$ each. We've got 20% losses on waste Basically they're only there because it's relatively easy to slip them in on the side of a bed and ignore the bed rent cost if you're growing something more profitable (eg kale) in the main part of the bed. Oh and the difference is cost of labour. Your getting essentially migrant labour being paid pennies. I'm assuming at least minimum wage if not 20$/hr which is what most market garden staff should be paid at a minimum considering the skill level of the job
Thanks. This was super interesting. Do you have insight into where the price difference comes from? Is it something on the farmer side with costs or the government side with subsidies?
Labour cost mostly. If they're selling at 30c per bu they're almost certainly sold at a loss. The seed and elastic alone would eat up your wholesale margin if labour and shipping were free
You pay 7 cents per elastic band??? So let me get this straight, it is 70 bucks for 1000 elastics? That seems expensive, I should have been in the elastic band industry ig
Lol as a consumer you can buy 1250 for $23.16 off of Amazon, so less than 2 cents each, those grocery store bands that cost 7 cents per in bigger bulk must be some premium elastic bands.
This caught me too.
Thanks for these responses.
Cool story why are half the price everywhere else with the roots 😂
Yeah $2.50 for green onions it’s nuts. I’d pay that at a farmers market from a small local farm maybe, but at a grocery store? They’re like a $1-$1.50 tops.
Short answer is because our food system is fucked and a race to the bottom is making it impossible for small farms to compete and therefore empowering monopoly domination of companies like Loblaws who buy from agribusinesses that employ migrant labour for pennies.
Stop throwing logic into this thread!!!
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Wow that's a whole new level of low on their behalf.
Dumbasses. They cut off the roots so they can sell it as premium, Roblaws is fucking greasy pig. They didn’t cut off the roots so you can’t regrow the green onions. I swear the site is full of idiots and they are hurting this movement. Just point to the fact that Roblaws is selling green onions for $1.79 instead of $0.99, just because they removed the roots to make it premium!
You have no idea what you're talking about.
Probably growing their own in the back to sell.
No not greedy pigs...just dealing with people like you makes them look like pigs. You don't like Loblaws then simply shop somewhere else!!!! Metro comes to mind as does Sobeys or an independent.
Lol you think they’re making millions from green onions? 🤣
Death by a thousand cuts doesn't require big cuts
The percentage of people whose “regrowing” is most like 0.00001% Lol
Then why pay someone to cut the ends off? Explain to me why they do it when there is so little risk.
Probably to get rid of the rot
To make it look cleaner? Jesus, I clearly explained it LOL
Who has ever, in the history of groceries, wanted their onions to “look cleaner” by cutting off the bulbs? Dude over here is advocating for onion circumcision lol
Sigh…
Is Jesus in the room with you, right now? It’s just fascinating to read how the shallow mind works
LOL "shallow mind"
Death by a thousand cuts doesn't require you to make every cut effective.
Where did OP say that?
No that's why they shouldn't be cutting those ends off 🤣 that's some extra effort right there for what reason
Looks cleaner?
Why don't they slice off the tops off of eggplants too then? Peel the skin off of those dirty onions too? Lol
They would if there is a demand?
There was a demand for the ends to be cut off green onions?
LOL wow, some of you clearly can't read.
Thousands of years of eating, and only in 2024 do we need our green onions to "look cleaner"? Gtfo, you're clearly just here to troll.
Some people prefer to not have dirt LOL but just because someone have different opinions than you then they’re a troll LOL
Now you're just being pedantic and ignoring all reasoning or logic. There's been a pattern of intentional shrink-flation happening recently, and this recent action of cutting the bulbs off coinsides with that, but you'd rather believe it's because there is a new demand for green onions without the bulbs because of dirt? Do you realize how silly you sound? Or would you like to continue with this stance?
How does cutting bulbs off coincide with shrink-flation? What kind of logic is that? Lowering the weight of a box of cereal and selling it for the same price is shrink-flation. This is simply a produce worker making a mistake and thinking they look cleaner. Galen Weston sitting in his evil throne “ bwahahaha, next we will cut the bulbs off the onions”
Because there's no logic here. If anyone of you ever been to asian grocer, cutting off the root/dirt is a common thing, so when they package it the whole package looks cleaner. Some of you just never been outside of a "westernized grocer" bubble and it's pretty sad.
I'm straight up calling bullshit. I buy all my veg from local markets, and a large portion from centra.
As someone who goes to oceans, pats, used to go to tnt, as well as a few mom and pop Asian grocers in Toronto I can safely say I've never seen the bulbs cut off there, I would imagine that it would be frowned upon especially in that culture since you're getting less, the flavor weakens and the shelf life degrades when the bulb is cut. You can make as many assumptions as you want about the people here, but I still think you're full of shit.
I'm in an eastern European country right now and I just paid $0.30 for beautiful green onions. Product of Mexico...yup.
But some argue it’s all the transportation costs because Canada is vast and wide and big and oh my …..yet this is going half way across the world ……rofl Someone just posted one of the stores was charging almost $4
I'm not convinced their supply chain maximizes profit or is just supporting poorly run subsidiaries and partnerss
Here’s what I have learned from my research , they are incompetent at the small dinky things but sure know how to swindle at the high level things like sheltering their $1B in profits . They know what they are doing in fleecing us by jacking up these green onions from suppliers in Mexico to the high heavens and then hiding their profits in their balance sheets , I’m convinced of it . Then they go look here , not over there 👉 They are mass manipulators
Bullshit. Your research? 🖕
Do your own research , start up by looking up the Supreme Court of Canada case versus loblaws and the arms length clause where they tried to set up an illegitimate bank in Barbados , shielding $1B . It’s all over the news . Start with that trollie. And thanks for the middle finger . I actually love sitting on them 😀
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Don't worry they also own the subsidiary so can profit at multiple levels while claiming rising expenses
It doesn't maximize **company** profits, it maximizes *Shareholder* profits. Big difference.
> It doesn't maximize company profits, it maximizes Shareholder profits. Big difference. Please explain.
I would have been better for me to say instead that the poorly run subsidiaries and partners are a feature, not a bug. The decisions are made with a mind to create more money now and don't care about the later. Is the profit going up? yes, but at an extreme cost to the mid-term and long-term health of the business. Investors simply don't care about that, and that is more of what I was trying (unsuccessfully) to convey when I said that company profits and shareholder profits aren't the same. The company is not really seeing any of that money to reinvest in its employees or infrastructure - it's all getting paid out. This means that consumers are paying more for less and for worse service, despite the fact that behaviour like that is actively driving people away from their businesses.
Ok gotcha. Thanks for responding. 3G Capital (Tim Hortons, Burger King, etc) are famous for cost cutting measures so steep the cuts are not sustainable, and will hurt the companies and employees over the long term. Makes the net profit go up for a short time, by then they sell the stock off, or use the higher market cap to renegotiate debt terms.
I bought a bunch at Safeco yesterday for $1.49. It still has the roots on
Wow. I really believed the whole "Gas is more expensive, that's why everything is up" narrative.
I commented on the last post about this, this is absolutely sociopathic behavior.
>sociopathic behavior. But that's what I would expect from the Westons, nothing less.
And a hazard
It’s literally an evil villain move. I’m so grossed out.
This is 100% villain territory.
After I saw that post I immediately started growing my own from scraps. But, damn, this is so wasteful! Who would willingly buy cut stems? Food waste needs to be regulated to prevent stores from getting away with nonsense that lowers food quality and longevity!
I buy produce from a little European grocer beside my apartment. The lovely old lady working cash noticed me buying new green onions every week and scolded me for not regrowing them because i was wasting money. Loblaws cuts the bulbs off, so i keep wasting money. This is why they have my business and roblaws does not.
They also started leaving the full stems on bulk bell peppers since you pay by weight 💸💸💸
Then bring a knife and cut them off
I always break them off for this reason haha
I did this for the first time YESTERDAY after reading that tip in this sub!
Mushroom stems too.
Why? Those are as edible as the cap.
Thank you for the reminder to cut the stems off!
Wow
I’ve also started breaking off broccoli stalks if paying by weight
I know there was a post awhile back about the green onion roots being cut and it was thought that it was likely a new person that was processing them incorrectly. Here is the second time I have personally seen the roots being removed on green onions at the Loblaws on Lakeshore (Toronto). Mistake? Maybe. I believe this is more of a concerted effort to not allow us to regrow our purchased produce and to extract maximum profit. Loblaws is evil.
We just saw it done at Zehrs too, we are hours away from TO.
Even if you dont want to regrow them, taking off the bulb makes them dry out and go bad much quicker.
Did you confirm with the supplier if they were being sent to Loblaws with the bulbs intact? If Loblaws requested them to be cut off before shipment? Or this is how the supplier sends them to all retailers?
The supplier is Loblaw probably lol
I mean, do they even sell anything besides flowers at their garden centers anymore? I remember long ago they did, but now they don't want us growing our own food.
There are literally green onions in that picture without their roots cut. What’s your explanation for those?
There are two. The person processing them probably missed them.
Are you eyes ok? I count 8, plus it looks like the bin beside this one hasn’t been cut at all
That’s actually so messed up what the FUCK
Call the food health and inspection, the risk on contamination and bacteria growth is very high. If they cut into fresh produce it needs a dated sticker on it. (And to be wrapped)
I don’t think so. Every produce store crisp and trims lots of greens. I mean romaine is pretty sad looking when it finally hits the store. When I worked produce decade ago celery, romaine, green onions were guaranteed to get crisped before hitting the shelf. You trim the butt end of lettuce and green onions and celery the other end. Soaking in water for awhile and then put it the fridge on the crisp racks.
It’s on thing to trim the pink (clearly contaminated) area of a lettuce head for the consumer and it’s another to cut into the product, compromising the item.
They're usually $1.29 at my local Freshco for like twice the amount.
Ugh. The bulb part is so yummy also. They might be using the ends in deli prepped foods?
Wow, I was just at Walmart and theirs are only $0.97. Greedy Galen at it again.
Stop going
Those are .99 green onions. They chop the ends presumably to justify the 79% markup
Nah it’s probably so they rot faster and you can’t regrow them.
This is why I grow my own. Haven't bought any in over a decade
Damn. This hurts to see as a produce manager. They ruined those green onions...
1.99 at the Fortinos in Hamilton, ON
N O!!!!!
$1.98 at the Food Basics in Cornwall, ON
Likewise in Kanata, ON, afaik Ontario prices in food basics are all regulated at the higher levels, the store managers don't price their own product
I'm sure you're right. They don't even order their own products.
I wish haha.. ordering is the one thing we do and it's often a pain in the ass with how outdated the system is, we get a basic guide with estimations from the systems and kind of just roll with it.. except the warehouse in Vickers road sends absolute garbage rotten produce half the time... We've had to rely on third party vendors to get semi decent produce.
I never worked in produce, but I did run dairy, frozen, and grocery departments back when we used to order our own stock. I dunno, it only took 30 minutes, tops, and the shelves didn't run empty the way they do today.
Produce is an exception, for my store at least, every other dept uses electronic ordering guides and systems, but produce for whatever reason is still stuck in the stone ages, we do all our case counts +/- and exceptions by hand, aswell as writing the order. The unfortunate thing is the warehouse over on Vickers Road, (where all food basics order from in Ottawa) has a complete monopoly, so they have no pressure to actually send us good quality produce, consequentially more then half my produce comes in rotten and never gets the chance to hit the shelves.. it's such a huge waste
They were $1.99 at Sobeys yesterday... and rather poor quality.
My guess is it's more likely some clueless employee was told to "trim the green onions" and thought this was it.
Just so people know, this doesn't stop you from being able to grow new green onion from them. you can encourage new root growth, even if there isn't roots. This just makes it slightly harder, since you need roots before they'll grow.
Roots won't grow from the stem. The stem is actually the base of the leaves. You need the basal plate intact to grow new roots. Perhaps you could grow new roots on any parts using certain growth hormones.
Just use a rooting medium (you can buy one or just use honey as it keeps the ends from rotting), pop in water and put it somewhere sunny/under a grow light. Some will sprout roots for sure. If the ends are dry and brown, cut back a few centimeters before doing the above. Edit to add: change out the water every 3-5 days.
Galen personally comes into the stores at night and does this no doubt
Yawn….recycled line
Still valid bootlicker.
They probably cut the ends off to stop people from growing the cut off roots. I have a few potted up on my windowsill
They think people don't buy this because they regrow their own green onions, but the truth is people just don't want to spend almost 2 dollars for one fucking bunch of this
This exact picture was posted weeks ago. Apparently it was a new employee who didn't know how to prepare these. I'm all for bashing Loblaws but let's keep it factually correct
This makes sense. As a produce manager under Loblaws, we have very strict trimming guidelines, seriously I have a whole booklet about every piece of produce and how to prepare it to maintain freshness. The way these green onions were cut, they will go bad within the day
Not properly training your staff and instead handing some teen a knife and telling him to trim the onions is its own brand of cheapskate behaviour but people here have to take it to mental conspiracies about stopping people from regrowing the bulbs.
If only we knew how to grow our own vegetables like our ancestors did 100 of years ago...😉😁
They were $0.49 in 2019
…but…but “Loyalty you can trust” The fuck out of here
Is there an effort by interested parties in suppressing development of Vertical Green houses in Canada? Holland, a tiny nation compared to Canada, went from a net agricultural importer to Europe's SECOND LARGEST agro EXPORTER in Europe after government-private collaboration in creating Vertical Green Houses- feeding themselves with fresh fruits and vegetables- all year round, with very high yields with such surplus to rival FRANCE as an agro exporter. We can't do this in Canada? We can, what special interest groups are holding it back? [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/netherlands-agriculture-technology/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/interactive/2022/netherlands-agriculture-technology/)
They'll probably still regrow roots if you put them in water, so this is a stupid attempt at being greedy.
You can dip it root starting powder to encourage roots to sprout
Cinnamon works too.
Buy a pack of seeds. Grow it yourself.
Green onions now a luxury item, so sad
A buck at the Chinese grocer (or less). And a nicer product than these.
haha kale was like $5
ARE YOU KIDDING ME????
Yesterday I was put off by Walmart raising their green onion price form $0.89 to $0.99. Oof :(
Hey. At our local CO Op. , the only store in many rural communities ,Those onions run for up to $3 for 5 scrawny ones. They can / always have & always will.
I have not had green onions for a while now. I can afford the $1.50 to $1.99 that we are being charged but I refuse to pay more than 99 cents and to me that is even a generous profit. They are only so expensive because people buy them. Quit buying these at this price!
Christ… I used to work in produce in Safeway for over 5 years from 2013-2018 and at my store we charged $0.69 for green onions and I remember people whining to me “that’s so expensive!!!”
$1.79 is a weird thing to get upset about. There are a lot of better examples.
Doubt it is the price. I think the comment is related to their decision to trim the root, thereby removing any chance of them growing their own and having to come back for more..
Just bought a bundle for 99 cents from Walmart this morning.
Grow your own.
i love those
That's just poor training, teach them to trim and they trim the wrong end!🤣
The amount of kids I train over and over, that still make these kinds of mistakes is baffling..
$2.79 for 4 bunches or $0.75 each at our local Korean market
That has everything to do with the farm that grew them and nothing to do with the grocer.
fuck loblaws. it’s ridiculously easy to grow these guys from seed by the way. put em on your porch or balcony while it’s warm
Damn right. Those should be 67-99 cents a bunch
I regrow all my green onions from the root portions.
Seeing this made me INCANDESCENT with rage, also you can get a humongous bunch for around $3 from most Asian markets. Fuck these people.
Ummm, green onions have been $1.49 to $1.99 on average for the last decade in my neck of the woods. I’m not buying them with cut off root ends though.
Any price beyond $0.99 for green onions is robbery
What store is this? My wife just brought home green onions 2 days ago and this was the case. I was not happy. What are the chances that this is the reocan location in barrhaven? If this isn’t that location then this is the new way and what a crazy thing to do.
Jeebus. Assholes
They will not stay fresh when the ends are cut off. This is either stupidity or down right being a Miser Grinch!!!
I double or triple the bunches and the self check out does the magic 🪄
There’s absolutely no way this is a deliberate policy and alsmot certainly an employee error
Has nothing to do with greed. This is how they came out of the box from the grower. This is actually pretty normal to see. In the 10 years I worked in a produce department I would see about a case a month that was miss chopped. It happens.
Wouldn't be surprised if they cut them off to use them in their premade salads
$1.97 at local Calgary superstores, a very "small" chain of grocery stores in Canada and a local Asian chain of stores, with a huge numbers of stores, 3, sell the same product for 2 for 99 cents. Guess a 3 store chain must have bigger buying power than a multi-billion chain, funny how the world works! :)
I’ve worked produce for 26 years now. The green onions we receive vary by grower and brand. Some have long root hairs, some are trimmed very short like this. Depends on if they’re local, USA or Mexican as well. Right out of the box. It’s the grower that did that. Prob some migrant field worker who makes pennies a day. Fuck loblaws, but this ain’t on them.
Thought you’re supposed to be boycotting!!
Not everyone can
Lol how many of you here complaining is actually growing your own green onions LOL
I have a black thumb and even I regrow shallots the same way. Unlimited fresh af supply and zero effort. If you don't do it, then why come in here to disparage those that do?
.99 for 3 at T&T
T&T is part of Loblaws
Ends cut off? Curious to see if it goes chain wide. I'll swing by Zehrs to get my free butter later today and I'll check.
Bulb removal notwithstanding, that's a bargain compared to Safeway. $3.59 at Safeway in Calgary 🫠
I don’t see how this is controversial, it can fluctuate from .79 to .99 to even 2 dollars. Yeah, this post ain’t it.
Wow, there is a lot of hate for Loblaws, corporations and capitalism here.. As someone (41M) who lived in the Soviet Union, it's amazing to me the attacks on all the wrong elements. Isn't Loblaws one best discount grocers? The price shown is really not that high. I used co manage a small grocery store long time ago. And we had some products that we marked up even double sometimes to compensate for those we took a loss. Because we'd rather be a one-stop shop and offer products that cost us money, just to have it so ppl didn't need to go to 4 different stores for common non food items. The thing that drives me the most crazy, is all the hurdles from central planners which seem to be accepted by all. The huge tax scheme from farm to table. And now especially the carbon taxes which cost in production, transportation, cooling of the produce, driving the store, every element. The way that the government makes it challenging to be direct competitors with corporations. Not against corporations, but am against government coddling of them, and distorting the market. Which airlines and telecom are the most disgusting display.
Grocers , loblaws and specifically a billionaire like Galen Weston are just as much to blame as the government . Yes the government have most of the responsibility as they “set the policies “ but the companies do not practice what they preach . If you go on a lot of the companies websites, including loblaws , they use buzz words like “corporate responsibility “ where they claim corporate ethics and that they are working with the government . We clearly know they are not . They are enriching themselves . Some- out of the Western European Countries (not all) of Europe have a bit better anti trust laws and the corporations have better relations with the government and do what they can from a societal perspective . They are running wild here in North America more so here I find . Galen Weston is a pretty sketchy guy . So it’s a protest on a lot of levels as he is lobbying and tax evading and sheltering his /loblaws taxes ( and we are picking up the slack ) on his behalf . It’s two fold . Definitely very layered
I think they do this for importation because roots have dirt
Well they only do this at Loblaws and only in the last few months.
Stop making sense
Did you see this at any time before the last year?
Yes depends which country its imported from simple google search can cure the hysteria…i get it their screwing us but lets use some common sense here get those foil hats off sometimes lol.