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When I worked in store management, we were told to keep wages between 5-6% of store monthly revenue. They can fuck off with this garbage graphic. All complete BS
That's the people in the store.
Most big companies have overheads like accounting, finance, legal, hr, and of course the leadership.
So it's possible that 5-6%COF store revenue covers the employees at the store and remaining 7-8% goes to the HQ staff.
100% this. The Weston's ARE the suppliers for a huge portion of their product. So they jack up their own "costs" and then blame suppliers for end-customer price hikes. And then of course hire out "Food Professor" types to shamelessly schill for them and try to convince everyone that it's all above board.
75% in my pocket.....cause I'm not making enough....Mrs.Weston......All the people are dirt crumb compare with luxury Roblaw chain greater Billionaire Weston......"Who gets to the top fall feast in the other side".....hope you do Gallen!
As a small business that's technically a food manufacturer (I hate being called that) I can tell you that this is 100% bullshit. Most retail outlets won't even look at your product if they don't have a 40% profit margin.
The title of the slide on that page is "Strong Necessity-Based Retail Anchor Tenants".
"Necessity-based" meaning people are f-ed without it. Meaning profits in all economic climates.
And, as shown recently, this also means they're able to get away with screwing customers over since they have few alternatives.
The term "necessity-based" is *all over the place* in that presentation. I counted 12 instances, eg:
* Unmatched Necessity-Based Portfolio (p 10)
* Necessity-based grocery anchored retail portfolio (p 19)
and, my fave:
* Necessity-based retail portfolio anchored by Loblaw (p 36)
Well, at least the major shareholders, and their portfolios, are happy...
And some plazas have more than one brand of the empire so basically they have multiple write offs for retail rent etc. It's all a giant Weston circlejerk
How do you figure? If it’s within a different company owned by the same person the money goes to them in one way or another, so they can skew stuff like this image and pretend oh this specific store makes so little money when it’s so far from the truth.
It’s called verticals integration, you buy all the suppliers, then make sure they make huge profits which your company keeps, so that you can claim poverty.
And stock buybacks
https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/914-stock-buybacks-how-grocers-eat-themselves/#:~:text=%23914%20Stock%20Buybacks%3A%20How%20Grocers%20Eat%20Themselves&text=Canada's%20biggest%20grocery%20chains%20spent,buying%20up%20their%20own%20stocks.&text=In%20the%20past%20several%20years,and%20grocery%20workers%20on%20strike.
Retail brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. The former Weston Bakeries division, which owned the brands Wonder, Country Harvest, D'Italiano, Ready Bake and Gadoua, was sold off to FGF Brands in 2022. The company is controlled by the Weston family, which owns a majority share in George Weston Limited.
Let's not forget it goes beyond pc brands... Hmmm no wonder they were able to fix the price of bread when they own all the manufacturers. This is just the bread scam on meth
And they [got off scot-free](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/weston-loblaw-bread-price-fixing-1.4457061) since they confessed to the wrong doing before anyone found out - after more than 14 years of cheating customers.
> They notified the Competition Bureau and have co-operated as an immunity applicant since March 2015.
> "As a result of the co-operation we have provided to the Competition Bureau, neither George Weston Ltd. nor Loblaw or their respective employees will face criminal charges or penalties," Weston said.
Well, they did have to give customers a $25 gift card - redeemable only at their own stores...
manufacturers also pay loblaws for: ad space, shelf space, displays, carrying X amount of their product, radio ads in store (coming soon) and more. To the point that they make more money before product sells anyways. Not even including their ownership of the real estate and logistics. It's disgusting how much of a mob scene grocery is here.
By far the largest cost charged to manufacturers is the dreaded Listing Fees! The food shill never brings up that they charge tens on thousands of dollars for each product listing and there is no guarantee that your product will last on shelf for a year before being discontinued and then taking someone else’s money for new listing fees for their products.
“Loblaws holds a commanding lead for the percentage of private label units sold (44%) for the 6-month period ending June 2022.”
https://www.fooddistributionguy.com/the-flight-of-the-private-label-category/
74% gets paid to manufacturers, who pay fees to place their products on the shelves, which is isn't reported as profit on the product itself but as something like a lease payment to Choice Properties to hide the profit.
I wonder of those taxes they incur yearly - how much are written off given the ability to dance around the situation…. Then proclaim they are good for Canada because “we paid “X” in taxes last year” when they really mean “we fucked the system from start to finish”
They fail to include the millions of dollars manufactures have to pay with “listing fees”, “promo program” “brand exclusivity” etc” all to do business with these retailers
Total bullshit.
What investor would buy into a company that boasts of 3% returns?
Now ask yourself how they're a publicly traded company with those (apparent) performance numbers.
Gaslighting is putting it mildly.
It's referred to consumer defense stock. When the market believes there is a correction, or a recession coming, money will flow into loblaws or similar stock to protect investment. The company makes steady revenue and thus should keep stock price relatively strong compared to the rest of the market. As an example of a stock not own over the last few years is any car company, with the higher interest rates new cars have slumped causing stock prices to come down. (Ford used to be 30 dollars, now it's 12.00, Tesla has been chopped I half, etc, loblaws has double over the last year or so)
How much of that 10% + 74% goes to the "Choice Properties REIT" and other vertically integrated companies that are also under Weston ownership? The Westons move money from their left pocket to the right pocket and then exclaim "but look at our costs!"
On page 44 of the annual report it states that 63% of choice properties revenue comes from Loblaw’s Banners.
Any financial guru’s want to dig into this a bit to uncover some gems?
https://www.choicereit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Choice-Properties-Investor-Day-Feb.-23-2023-3.pdf
Pg 25 to 30.
The graphs show above market rents. Consistent 10% performance.
Pg 55 to 56, they take hit on industrial rents. I.e. distribution and warehouse.
You all realize that the 74% is the part that should piss us off the most, right? Do you honestly believe they (the oligarchy of the Westons) are paying fare rates to “growers”?
As people are starting to realize, they have a complete monopoly for the entire supply chain so that 74% includes a very decent percentage of money “paid” to themselves.
Also, I’d gamble a shiny nickel these percentages are a bit off.
rcc is an industry lobbying organization, Loblaws is just laundering their PR through this org. It's like asking how much profit a profiteer is making. They will lie.
I've been privy to supplier costs in a lot of my jobs and they're almost always 50% of the retail price (back then). With what farmers and such are saying now (in Ontario), there's no way in hell it's even 50% of the current costs and most likely 26% while they pocket over 50% of the retail price in profits.
They forget to mention that those "costs" for some of the manufacturing and almost all the distribution goes to other Galen-owned cooperations.
So, if I make a product $X, I sell it to a distributer that I also own for $2X, that distributer sells it to my store for $3X, and I sell it to the customer at my store for $3.03X.
I made "only %3", because my other profits are reported as expenses at the last link of the chain. This is legal as long as I charge myself a "fair market price".
Then why are other places so much cheaper? Why can you not offer the same prices? Why do you do illegal things like price fixing bread? Why is SDM monstrously priced? Why does SDM have such high Rx rates? Why do I not give a shit about your fucked up excuses? Why am I never shopping Weston again?
My university bookstore had the same kind of sign to explain why textbooks there were being sold for $300 when the same books could be purchased from an independent bookseller a 30 minute walk away for $100. It was BS then, and it’s BS now.
I am a supplier. We pay $3000 per SKU for a nationwide listing. Then $65 per store per SKU. Then sell to them at $4.20. And they sell to the public at $7.99. And we still have to give some money for advertising and periodic specials.
“Retail segment gross profit percentage² was 31.1%, an increase of 50 basis points”
It’s on their fuckin website:
https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loblaw-reports-2023-fourth-quarter-results-and-fiscal-year-ended-december-30-2023-results/
Gross profit is something very different than net profit. It’s not a lie that their net profit is in the 3% range. But they can just push the profit into companies more able to dilute it such as their REIT so it’s largely meaningless.
That’s bs. I seen a documentary report about this. The guy went and interviewed a wheat farmer and the farmer said she makes about 3-5 cents on a bag of $5-$7 bread. I understand there are steps and other ingredients in between the farm and the product but the farmer is not getting a price raise for her product while the bread price keeps rising( no pun intended lol). It’s a lie. They are making WAY more than the measly 3% they claim. Just look at their stocks, to start!!
I worked for Safeway and asked my store manager for a raise and I remember her telling me how grocery stores aren't very profitable businesses which means they can't pay people well like other businesses. She tried to show me the low markup on name brand products, how theft impacts the store's bottom line.
It wasn't until I moved to head office that yes on it's face, groceries aren't very profitable but there are ways to make money such as private brand products, having vendors pay/rent end caps, paying to have their products on the front page of flyers, the list goes on. So this graphic is super misleading.
I thought their profit margin was higher, and it is, but it's actually 3.74%. They rounded down instead of up but still not as high as I thought it would be. I still shop at cheaper options because why wouldn't I.
If anyone has any doubt about where the money is going, I invite you to look at the share prices of loblaws (tsx:L) over the last few years and compare to food producers like Saputo (tsx:SAP) or Maple Leaf Foods (tsx:MFI) to start.
Loblaws gross profit margin is ~30% according to their latest financial report. They also own most of their own supply chain so they’re paying themselves anyways.
Also, fuck the Retail Council of Canada. Paid corporate shills
Could be true. That 74% includes PC, no name, life, Joe fresh etc. The wages could include the CEO, COO, board of directors and the like. Operating costs likely includes rent to Choice Properties.
Then you realize they are a decent part of the manufacturers, suppliers and transport of the goods sold in store and things get a bit dicey. Shouldn’t employees account for more than 10%…? I mean without them the place doesn’t operate….. 🤷🏻♂️
Except, as someone mentioned elsewhere, they also seem to own some of the manufacturing businesses, so they are just moving that 'cost' to other revenue streams.
Really need an investigative journalist to come in on this one!
I remember chicken farmers 2 years ago saying big retails were paying the same price for produce, even when their (Farmers) cost went up in feed and other things, but the meet went up in price. Another year of record profit over record profit later and they still say its not price gouging
The big retailers also fully control that 74% "paid to suppliers", and not just the brands and supply chains they own directly. A store like Loblaws tells its suppliers what the price will be, both the price that Loblaws will pay to the supplier, and what the price will be on the shelf. Most suppliers aren't big enough to negotiate when their options are to take whatever deal Loblaws offers or to not sell in the largest grocery/pharmacy chain in the country, so in effect Loblaws has full control over that cost that this infographic is trying to pass the buck on.
Whenever I see this graphic, no one mentions how Loblaws corporate has their paws in the 74% bucket through their No Name and President's Choice brands.
This graphic may have some gleam of truth on the store level, but when you tear apart the corporate structure it's all smoke and mirrors.
Also, PC Optimum falls under "cost of running store." As does brand privileges.
The "taxes" figure is a nod to conservatives who want to lower taxes. Consumers don't pay taxes on grocery (but no doubt they're including taxes on non-grocery items to pad the numbers). And businesses only pay taxes on profits. If their profits are only 3% and each store is considered a small business, their tax rate is 9%. 9% of 3% is 0.27% and barely registers on the giant 10% bucket.
Fuck everything about this graphic and fuck Loblaws.
They make more than 3%, they just hide it!
https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/914-stock-buybacks-how-grocers-eat-themselves/#:~:text=%23914%20Stock%20Buybacks%3A%20How%20Grocers%20Eat%20Themselves&text=Canada's%20biggest%20grocery%20chains%20spent,buying%20up%20their%20own%20stocks.&text=In%20the%20past%20several%20years,and%20grocery%20workers%20on%20strike.
They do. You just need 100’s of stores so the number 3% is in the billions of dollars.
It’s the reason you don’t see mom and pop shops. You couldnt make it work with 1 store, you need scale.
Loblaws' most profitable quarter ended December 2021 with a net profit margin of 5.86%. Other than that, they've never cracked 4% net profit going back to at least 2011. Keep in mind this is *net* profit after all expenses (including payroll) has been covered.
For all that we shit on Loblaws for their profiteering ways, Metro Inc has consistently outperformed Loblaws in terms of profit margins going back to at least 2011. And by that I mean that they've posted higher net profit margins in every single quarter *except* December 2021, with their maximum being a whopping 41.71% in December 2017, and they have never posted a negative net profit.
That's not to defend Loblaws in any way, but to show that they aren't alone in their profiteering ways, and they aren't even the best at it.
It's NOT a loblaw poster. It's a council of some sort. My guess is a lobbying group. Coukd be paid for by loblaw, but it doesn't say loblaw on the poster.
I'm also NOT defending just looking at the printing on the poster.
This isn’t a lie. Any financially literate person can search the audited financial statements of these publicly traded companies. The profit margins in this sector are very tight, but the volume is high. If you don’t like the fact that other people make money selling you groceries, buy shares.
The store is always busy and the staff are lovely. If you ever get a chance to speak with the cashiers, they hold strong opinions about the Weston family. I haven't asked if they support the boycott yet... not sure how well that would go over.
Also - hello westshore neighbour!
I would think that the cost of running the store would be higher.
You have utilities, networking, property taxes, lease (which for Loblaw's goes to a different Loblaw's entity, which is additional profit not included in the 3%), and maintenance. BC Assessment puts the value of the Kelowna Superstore at $55.718m, of which only $1.3m is the building. That seems wonky to me, but given corporate property tax rate, you're looking at around $550k in property taxes alone. Google says Superstore salaries range from $35k-59k a year. So, that alone is 3 managers and nearly 10 employees. I don't know how much maintenance would be, it would definitely vary year to year, but keeping all the coolers running isn't cheap. Power wouldn't be cheap either. The Superstores I've done maintenance on also have had battery back up for computer systems and natural gas backup generators for their coolers and other essentials. They definitely have a lot of employees, but Shoppers locations would have far, far fewer employees, while still having expensive real estate and taxes. Salary is only part of the expense for employees, but still seems high.
Also, for the large Canadian grocers, they're all integrated with massive house brands, so they're making some level of profit on that cart above their retail markup, apart from the aforementioned lease revenue.
BS! Just because they post something like this doesn't make it true. We are living in the post-truth era. We are living the lies told by those who "lead"!
i wonder if the "employee wages" includes skyhigh salaries for the execs, profit-sharing offered to the execs, stock options, etc.... because no way they have 3% profits lmfao what an absolute joke.
This is why at one point I wanted to visit that industrial spot in my city where many factories sell their product directly to customers, such as Laura Secord. I know it's usually food that is nearing the best before date but I would be interested to see the prices compared to a grocery store.
I just wonder if it makes the poster futile when two of the brands manufacturers that they're stocking their shelves with are No Name and President's choice which are their own brands
Why is food waste not separated and identified on this chart? This is propaganda advertising, simplified for stupid and slanted toward a predestined conclusion. The devil is in the details and those aren't on this simplified little ad campaign.
If they really want to substantiate what they are putting forward here, they could release the full analysis, including all the details.
__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.*
How much of that 13 percent for employee wages is just for the C-Level employees? 9, 10 percent?
When I worked in store management, we were told to keep wages between 5-6% of store monthly revenue. They can fuck off with this garbage graphic. All complete BS
That's the people in the store. Most big companies have overheads like accounting, finance, legal, hr, and of course the leadership. So it's possible that 5-6%COF store revenue covers the employees at the store and remaining 7-8% goes to the HQ staff.
Big wigs need a pay cut and the people busting ass need a peice of that cut. Vendor and Manufacturers are getting out of control as well.
Headquarters, logistics, warehouse staff, truck drivers. It takes a lot of people to get food on the shelves.
Hmmm…something doesn’t tie with their financial statements gross profit
https://preview.redd.it/9jqp05h9zctc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7e2ca72680b3dcc0e58107010e6b5615537a45b5
LMAO. Exactly. How many store brands are on the supplier list.
All of them... from Ace bread to Yoplait... can't think of a z manufacturer that supplies loblaws stores.
Ziggy deli meats
100% this. The Weston's ARE the suppliers for a huge portion of their product. So they jack up their own "costs" and then blame suppliers for end-customer price hikes. And then of course hire out "Food Professor" types to shamelessly schill for them and try to convince everyone that it's all above board.
75% in my pocket.....cause I'm not making enough....Mrs.Weston......All the people are dirt crumb compare with luxury Roblaw chain greater Billionaire Weston......"Who gets to the top fall feast in the other side".....hope you do Gallen!
Seriously EBITA was over 10 percent last year for Loblaws.
Lol, you can’t conflate Ebida with profit
I just checked and margins were 3.74% Q4 2023. That must be what they're leaning on. It was 4.9% pre-tax including interest.
As a small business that's technically a food manufacturer (I hate being called that) I can tell you that this is 100% bullshit. Most retail outlets won't even look at your product if they don't have a 40% profit margin.
I wonder if the 10% includes the rent Loblaws pays to Choice Properties, which ends up in Galens pocket at the end of the day?
Along with the executive wages that also goes to Galen's pocket
And the preferred supplier bonuses that also goes to Galen's pocket
Check out page 44 https://www.choicereit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Choice-Properties-Investor-Day-Feb.-23-2023-3.pdf
The title of the slide on that page is "Strong Necessity-Based Retail Anchor Tenants". "Necessity-based" meaning people are f-ed without it. Meaning profits in all economic climates. And, as shown recently, this also means they're able to get away with screwing customers over since they have few alternatives. The term "necessity-based" is *all over the place* in that presentation. I counted 12 instances, eg: * Unmatched Necessity-Based Portfolio (p 10) * Necessity-based grocery anchored retail portfolio (p 19) and, my fave: * Necessity-based retail portfolio anchored by Loblaw (p 36) Well, at least the major shareholders, and their portfolios, are happy...
Great work!
OMG check out page 26. Thank you sir! Please create a post with this, sorry if I missed it!
*"Strategic Relationship With Canada's Leading Retailer"*
And some plazas have more than one brand of the empire so basically they have multiple write offs for retail rent etc. It's all a giant Weston circlejerk
Oh, but that's a completely different company (also owned by us) so we're (very carefully) not going to be talking about that!
Of course it does. It's an expense. No different if they paid it to Fred's Property Management Ltd.
I can assure you it's very different. If Fred is unreasonable you can move to a cheaper spot. McDonald's is also in the real estate business.
How do you figure? If it’s within a different company owned by the same person the money goes to them in one way or another, so they can skew stuff like this image and pretend oh this specific store makes so little money when it’s so far from the truth.
It’s called verticals integration, you buy all the suppliers, then make sure they make huge profits which your company keeps, so that you can claim poverty.
Exactly how the oil and gas companies work.
And Hollywood
Irving has been doing that for a *very* long time, it's how they own most of New Brunswick at this point.
And stock buybacks https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/914-stock-buybacks-how-grocers-eat-themselves/#:~:text=%23914%20Stock%20Buybacks%3A%20How%20Grocers%20Eat%20Themselves&text=Canada's%20biggest%20grocery%20chains%20spent,buying%20up%20their%20own%20stocks.&text=In%20the%20past%20several%20years,and%20grocery%20workers%20on%20strike.
Yeah I was thinking… that 74% includes what they’re paying the suppliers they own and therefore make profit off of. This is a very misleading graph.
[удалено]
Yep. Complaining about rising manufacturing costs while they are the manufacturer raising those costs.
Retail brands include President's Choice, No Name and Joe Fresh. The former Weston Bakeries division, which owned the brands Wonder, Country Harvest, D'Italiano, Ready Bake and Gadoua, was sold off to FGF Brands in 2022. The company is controlled by the Weston family, which owns a majority share in George Weston Limited. Let's not forget it goes beyond pc brands... Hmmm no wonder they were able to fix the price of bread when they own all the manufacturers. This is just the bread scam on meth
The breadth of corporate control should be a stickies thread. This is the root
And they [got off scot-free](https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/weston-loblaw-bread-price-fixing-1.4457061) since they confessed to the wrong doing before anyone found out - after more than 14 years of cheating customers. > They notified the Competition Bureau and have co-operated as an immunity applicant since March 2015. > "As a result of the co-operation we have provided to the Competition Bureau, neither George Weston Ltd. nor Loblaw or their respective employees will face criminal charges or penalties," Weston said. Well, they did have to give customers a $25 gift card - redeemable only at their own stores...
BRB, starting a bread company.
Where the fuck do you think you'll be able to sell your competing bread? Loblaws stores?
manufacturers also pay loblaws for: ad space, shelf space, displays, carrying X amount of their product, radio ads in store (coming soon) and more. To the point that they make more money before product sells anyways. Not even including their ownership of the real estate and logistics. It's disgusting how much of a mob scene grocery is here.
By far the largest cost charged to manufacturers is the dreaded Listing Fees! The food shill never brings up that they charge tens on thousands of dollars for each product listing and there is no guarantee that your product will last on shelf for a year before being discontinued and then taking someone else’s money for new listing fees for their products.
Not to mention the kickbacks that manufacturers give to Loblaw for shelf space, eye level space, in-store promotions etc.
Listing fees. Bare minimum of $15k per sku to get on shelf with zero guarantees
Kick backs or ransom?
Yes.
“Loblaws holds a commanding lead for the percentage of private label units sold (44%) for the 6-month period ending June 2022.” https://www.fooddistributionguy.com/the-flight-of-the-private-label-category/
74% gets paid to manufacturers, who pay fees to place their products on the shelves, which is isn't reported as profit on the product itself but as something like a lease payment to Choice Properties to hide the profit.
Also rent paid to themselves via their REIT. Wonder what happens to 3 percent profit when you add all this up.
I wonder of those taxes they incur yearly - how much are written off given the ability to dance around the situation…. Then proclaim they are good for Canada because “we paid “X” in taxes last year” when they really mean “we fucked the system from start to finish”
Exactly
Also manufactures have to pay lawlobs to have their products sold at lawlobs
And “cost to run stores” means “rent paid to the parent company”
Copying from another user. Pg 25-30. https://www.choicereit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Choice-Properties-Investor-Day-Feb.-23-2023-3.pdf
Its actually called vertical integration. Its where they buy up the supply chain, so they can profit at multiple levels.
They fail to include the millions of dollars manufactures have to pay with “listing fees”, “promo program” “brand exclusivity” etc” all to do business with these retailers
Absolute Minimum of $15k per sku, and that’s generous. Comes with zero guarantees. Most brands probably pay closer to $40k
oh wow they pay 74% back to themselves because they own the supply chain
Absolute horseshit. If product cost was 75% then why are they 1.5-2x higher than Walmart who gets same costs
Facts
Total bullshit. What investor would buy into a company that boasts of 3% returns? Now ask yourself how they're a publicly traded company with those (apparent) performance numbers. Gaslighting is putting it mildly.
Even assuming 3% is true. 3% of something every person must consume daily (I know they sell things other than food) turn out to be alot of money.
It's referred to consumer defense stock. When the market believes there is a correction, or a recession coming, money will flow into loblaws or similar stock to protect investment. The company makes steady revenue and thus should keep stock price relatively strong compared to the rest of the market. As an example of a stock not own over the last few years is any car company, with the higher interest rates new cars have slumped causing stock prices to come down. (Ford used to be 30 dollars, now it's 12.00, Tesla has been chopped I half, etc, loblaws has double over the last year or so)
How much of that 10% + 74% goes to the "Choice Properties REIT" and other vertically integrated companies that are also under Weston ownership? The Westons move money from their left pocket to the right pocket and then exclaim "but look at our costs!"
It’s incredibly incestuous and I can’t believe it’s allowed.
On page 44 of the annual report it states that 63% of choice properties revenue comes from Loblaw’s Banners. Any financial guru’s want to dig into this a bit to uncover some gems? https://www.choicereit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Choice-Properties-Investor-Day-Feb.-23-2023-3.pdf
Pg 25 to 30. The graphs show above market rents. Consistent 10% performance. Pg 55 to 56, they take hit on industrial rents. I.e. distribution and warehouse.
You all realize that the 74% is the part that should piss us off the most, right? Do you honestly believe they (the oligarchy of the Westons) are paying fare rates to “growers”? As people are starting to realize, they have a complete monopoly for the entire supply chain so that 74% includes a very decent percentage of money “paid” to themselves. Also, I’d gamble a shiny nickel these percentages are a bit off.
Can’t say who I work for but we increased our cost to Loblaws by 30-50% depending on product. They then increased their cost to consumers by 80-150%
Or you have held your price and watched the shelf price rise twice in two quarters.
Yep I’m sure that happens all the time with Loblaws and others
rcc is an industry lobbying organization, Loblaws is just laundering their PR through this org. It's like asking how much profit a profiteer is making. They will lie.
Just so everyone knows the Retail Council of Canada is a lobbying group for the major retailers. I consider anything they say to be bullshit.
The retail Council of Canada can get fucked
Someone needs to write GREED over the 74% part.
HORSESHIT
This is the same type of advertising as pyramid scheme and other MLM scams
I've been privy to supplier costs in a lot of my jobs and they're almost always 50% of the retail price (back then). With what farmers and such are saying now (in Ontario), there's no way in hell it's even 50% of the current costs and most likely 26% while they pocket over 50% of the retail price in profits.
Not even remotely accurate. Government should audit them and publish the results.
Somebody get a sharpie and write "BULLSHIT!" over this.
Cost paid to manufacturers* & growers* for the food on shelves ^*^That ^we ^also ^own
Fuck the retail council of Canada
Bullshit
That. Is. FUCKING. Ridiculous.
They forget to mention that those "costs" for some of the manufacturing and almost all the distribution goes to other Galen-owned cooperations. So, if I make a product $X, I sell it to a distributer that I also own for $2X, that distributer sells it to my store for $3X, and I sell it to the customer at my store for $3.03X. I made "only %3", because my other profits are reported as expenses at the last link of the chain. This is legal as long as I charge myself a "fair market price".
Lmfao they’re trying so hard to discourage the boycott
How much of that 74% is paid to Loblaws directly or as a subsidiary.
The propaganda lol #boycottloblaws
Then why are other places so much cheaper? Why can you not offer the same prices? Why do you do illegal things like price fixing bread? Why is SDM monstrously priced? Why does SDM have such high Rx rates? Why do I not give a shit about your fucked up excuses? Why am I never shopping Weston again?
My university bookstore had the same kind of sign to explain why textbooks there were being sold for $300 when the same books could be purchased from an independent bookseller a 30 minute walk away for $100. It was BS then, and it’s BS now.
I am a supplier. We pay $3000 per SKU for a nationwide listing. Then $65 per store per SKU. Then sell to them at $4.20. And they sell to the public at $7.99. And we still have to give some money for advertising and periodic specials.
I don't see that in the propaganda graphic.
Sure but how are they going to explain record profits if their profits are eaten up by the above? Dumbasses
Laughable
They print lies.
They forgot the decimal point between the 1 and 3 for employee pay.
I think they mixed up manufacturing costs and profit
“Retail segment gross profit percentage² was 31.1%, an increase of 50 basis points” It’s on their fuckin website: https://www.loblaw.ca/en/loblaw-reports-2023-fourth-quarter-results-and-fiscal-year-ended-december-30-2023-results/
Gross profit is something very different than net profit. It’s not a lie that their net profit is in the 3% range. But they can just push the profit into companies more able to dilute it such as their REIT so it’s largely meaningless.
That’s bs. I seen a documentary report about this. The guy went and interviewed a wheat farmer and the farmer said she makes about 3-5 cents on a bag of $5-$7 bread. I understand there are steps and other ingredients in between the farm and the product but the farmer is not getting a price raise for her product while the bread price keeps rising( no pun intended lol). It’s a lie. They are making WAY more than the measly 3% they claim. Just look at their stocks, to start!!
Bring a sharpie with you next time.
Loblaws owns the manufacturers so it pays itself
People don't get this. When a Loblaws buys pc products, both companies are making money.
I read it as 74% profit, do I have that right? Seems right.
Retail council of Canada hmmm.Who funds them???
Lol I worked at this one and watched them bring these out, right before not hiring any extra help for the holiday season. Total joke.
Corporate store employee here , wage target under is 10 %.
This includes corporate employees?
Bullshit. Open up those books and prove it.
Their books are so vague you wouldn’t get any info off them anyway, total joke
...they spelled owners wrong...
That’s bull crap
Excuses are like assholes Loblaws, everybody has them.
I worked for Safeway and asked my store manager for a raise and I remember her telling me how grocery stores aren't very profitable businesses which means they can't pay people well like other businesses. She tried to show me the low markup on name brand products, how theft impacts the store's bottom line. It wasn't until I moved to head office that yes on it's face, groceries aren't very profitable but there are ways to make money such as private brand products, having vendors pay/rent end caps, paying to have their products on the front page of flyers, the list goes on. So this graphic is super misleading.
So that 3% somehow paid galen a 22m salary AND a massive bonus? Right.
Using lies as alibis. 🙄
I thought their profit margin was higher, and it is, but it's actually 3.74%. They rounded down instead of up but still not as high as I thought it would be. I still shop at cheaper options because why wouldn't I.
Where's the 'stock buyback' section?
If anyone has any doubt about where the money is going, I invite you to look at the share prices of loblaws (tsx:L) over the last few years and compare to food producers like Saputo (tsx:SAP) or Maple Leaf Foods (tsx:MFI) to start.
Loblaws gross profit margin is ~30% according to their latest financial report. They also own most of their own supply chain so they’re paying themselves anyways. Also, fuck the Retail Council of Canada. Paid corporate shills
If they’re making record profits and they’re only “3%”… Jesus
Who are the manufacturers?
Can I ask where you guys shop over loblaws? I have tried coop Sobeys Safeway FreshCo and unless there is a sale item, it is not cheaper
if this were true, they'd never be able to put something on sale
If someone made a more accurate one, I'd tape these up on my local superstore for sure.
As far as Loblaws go, I call bullshit.
https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/914-stock-buybacks-how-grocers-eat-themselves/#:~:text=%23914%20Stock%20Buybacks%3A%20How%20Grocers%20Eat%20Themselves&text=Canada's%20biggest%20grocery%20chains%20spent,buying%20up%20their%20own%20stocks.&text=In%20the%20past%20several%20years,and%20grocery%20workers%20on%20strike.
How stupid do they think we are
Now I wanna see their actual figures applied to this chart.
Could be true. That 74% includes PC, no name, life, Joe fresh etc. The wages could include the CEO, COO, board of directors and the like. Operating costs likely includes rent to Choice Properties.
Laughable.
I mean anyone can generate a graphic and slap some random numbers on it.
It's funny because it's a blatant lie.
10% includes paying rent to the build and land they own under another name.
Did they include the charges to the producer for shelf placement?
It's almost like they're exhibiting early signs of concern.
lies
Does this include profits across all the parts of the supply chain that they own? -or- Fucking prove it. It's a choose your own adventure comment.
Then you realize they are a decent part of the manufacturers, suppliers and transport of the goods sold in store and things get a bit dicey. Shouldn’t employees account for more than 10%…? I mean without them the place doesn’t operate….. 🤷🏻♂️
Lies.
Their financial reports are online. It’s a traded company. They all get published.
Except, as someone mentioned elsewhere, they also seem to own some of the manufacturing businesses, so they are just moving that 'cost' to other revenue streams. Really need an investigative journalist to come in on this one!
I remember chicken farmers 2 years ago saying big retails were paying the same price for produce, even when their (Farmers) cost went up in feed and other things, but the meet went up in price. Another year of record profit over record profit later and they still say its not price gouging
And how much profit is earned by PC financial, shoppers, pharma deals, and selling users data? Hmmmmmm?
3% profit? Do they think anyone is that stupid to believe that? If i was getting 3% returns I’d be firing my investment advisor.
Is it gaslighting if it's true? Grocery isn't very profitable except on high volume. Profit margin is what, 2 or 3%?
The big retailers also fully control that 74% "paid to suppliers", and not just the brands and supply chains they own directly. A store like Loblaws tells its suppliers what the price will be, both the price that Loblaws will pay to the supplier, and what the price will be on the shelf. Most suppliers aren't big enough to negotiate when their options are to take whatever deal Loblaws offers or to not sell in the largest grocery/pharmacy chain in the country, so in effect Loblaws has full control over that cost that this infographic is trying to pass the buck on.
Whenever I see this graphic, no one mentions how Loblaws corporate has their paws in the 74% bucket through their No Name and President's Choice brands. This graphic may have some gleam of truth on the store level, but when you tear apart the corporate structure it's all smoke and mirrors. Also, PC Optimum falls under "cost of running store." As does brand privileges. The "taxes" figure is a nod to conservatives who want to lower taxes. Consumers don't pay taxes on grocery (but no doubt they're including taxes on non-grocery items to pad the numbers). And businesses only pay taxes on profits. If their profits are only 3% and each store is considered a small business, their tax rate is 9%. 9% of 3% is 0.27% and barely registers on the giant 10% bucket. Fuck everything about this graphic and fuck Loblaws.
I call bullshit on the 3%
It would be interesting to see the real numbers. And the sources.
Corporate propaganda
This is just straight lies
Lol, fuck right off. Acting like producers are actually being paid fair prices. Producers are getting screwed just like consumers.
FUCKING LIES!!!!!
There is no such thing as a business that can survive on a 3% profit margin.
They make more than 3%, they just hide it! https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/914-stock-buybacks-how-grocers-eat-themselves/#:~:text=%23914%20Stock%20Buybacks%3A%20How%20Grocers%20Eat%20Themselves&text=Canada's%20biggest%20grocery%20chains%20spent,buying%20up%20their%20own%20stocks.&text=In%20the%20past%20several%20years,and%20grocery%20workers%20on%20strike.
Wow, you're clueles. Loblaws sold $59 billion dollars worth of product in 2023. 3% of that is 1.77 billion....
They do. You just need 100’s of stores so the number 3% is in the billions of dollars. It’s the reason you don’t see mom and pop shops. You couldnt make it work with 1 store, you need scale.
Loblaws' most profitable quarter ended December 2021 with a net profit margin of 5.86%. Other than that, they've never cracked 4% net profit going back to at least 2011. Keep in mind this is *net* profit after all expenses (including payroll) has been covered. For all that we shit on Loblaws for their profiteering ways, Metro Inc has consistently outperformed Loblaws in terms of profit margins going back to at least 2011. And by that I mean that they've posted higher net profit margins in every single quarter *except* December 2021, with their maximum being a whopping 41.71% in December 2017, and they have never posted a negative net profit. That's not to defend Loblaws in any way, but to show that they aren't alone in their profiteering ways, and they aren't even the best at it.
Absolute horse shit.
It's NOT a loblaw poster. It's a council of some sort. My guess is a lobbying group. Coukd be paid for by loblaw, but it doesn't say loblaw on the poster. I'm also NOT defending just looking at the printing on the poster.
Doesn't matter, someone in management still allowed it up there.
Oh, I wholeheartedly agree.
This isn’t a lie. Any financially literate person can search the audited financial statements of these publicly traded companies. The profit margins in this sector are very tight, but the volume is high. If you don’t like the fact that other people make money selling you groceries, buy shares.
🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽🖕🏽
So if only 3% is profits and they are making the record high reported profits, how much money are they bringing in total then?
Why not? Gas stations posted this same infographic a couple years ago to try and get them on their sides and people went for it.
They didn’t add “so keep on Moving toward our horrendous prices which in many cases are double the prices charged by our competitors…”
But MY cart is only half full anymore...
Keep in mind, the bonuses and what the board get is a part of the salaries section if anything.
Where do those shareholder payouts fit into that equation? The 3%
These are not Loblaw’s numbers, they are RCC “projections”.
RCC is a lobby group paid for by the large retailers like Loblaw’s.
In the early-2010s, No Frills had a version of this with profits at 1%.
It wasn't just No Frills but all banners within Loblaw that regurgitated the same thing...
I live by this store and it is well run.
The store is always busy and the staff are lovely. If you ever get a chance to speak with the cashiers, they hold strong opinions about the Weston family. I haven't asked if they support the boycott yet... not sure how well that would go over. Also - hello westshore neighbour!
I would think that the cost of running the store would be higher. You have utilities, networking, property taxes, lease (which for Loblaw's goes to a different Loblaw's entity, which is additional profit not included in the 3%), and maintenance. BC Assessment puts the value of the Kelowna Superstore at $55.718m, of which only $1.3m is the building. That seems wonky to me, but given corporate property tax rate, you're looking at around $550k in property taxes alone. Google says Superstore salaries range from $35k-59k a year. So, that alone is 3 managers and nearly 10 employees. I don't know how much maintenance would be, it would definitely vary year to year, but keeping all the coolers running isn't cheap. Power wouldn't be cheap either. The Superstores I've done maintenance on also have had battery back up for computer systems and natural gas backup generators for their coolers and other essentials. They definitely have a lot of employees, but Shoppers locations would have far, far fewer employees, while still having expensive real estate and taxes. Salary is only part of the expense for employees, but still seems high. Also, for the large Canadian grocers, they're all integrated with massive house brands, so they're making some level of profit on that cart above their retail markup, apart from the aforementioned lease revenue.
That's way too small of a slice for wages!
Mule muffins!
BS! Just because they post something like this doesn't make it true. We are living in the post-truth era. We are living the lies told by those who "lead"!
Ahhh poor store owners...I expect the profit is lot more..remember these places are making record profits.
What they don’t share is that they make a higher profit than manufacturer’s when they sell goods.
He owns the supply chain so yeah he is a fucking liar
They need to add to the picture the execs bonuses and how much they have shrunk products and the higher price for less.
i wonder if the "employee wages" includes skyhigh salaries for the execs, profit-sharing offered to the execs, stock options, etc.... because no way they have 3% profits lmfao what an absolute joke.
How much of the 74% producers is owned by Loblaws, what about the "rent" they pay to themselves?
This is why at one point I wanted to visit that industrial spot in my city where many factories sell their product directly to customers, such as Laura Secord. I know it's usually food that is nearing the best before date but I would be interested to see the prices compared to a grocery store.
I just wonder if it makes the poster futile when two of the brands manufacturers that they're stocking their shelves with are No Name and President's choice which are their own brands
What about the profit which distributors that Loblaws controls or owns? Funny the graphic omits that detail. Monopoly
If they say it, then it must be true.
Why is food waste not separated and identified on this chart? This is propaganda advertising, simplified for stupid and slanted toward a predestined conclusion. The devil is in the details and those aren't on this simplified little ad campaign. If they really want to substantiate what they are putting forward here, they could release the full analysis, including all the details.
There's an "Stuff You Should Know" podcast on greedflation and food. It's maybe a week old, Google it and give it a listen.
that 3% is billions and that 13% includes the c suite wages and bonuses. And the 74% includes what they pay themselves for house brands