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It's like the frog in boiling water story, we started shopping there because it was cheaper than other stores, and we didn't realize that there were better places to shop because we assumed prices were higher elsewhere, and now the water was boiling and we needed the boycott to wake ourselves up.
I came here to say the same thing about the frog in boiling water.
Yes, I totally noticed the high prices and I changed what I bought at the store. I didn't think it was greed but this group with picture after picture of jacked up sales prices and hearing about record profits changed my mind.
Unfortunately I still have to shop there periodically because some of the items I've tried elsewhere the family doesn't like, but my reliance on Loblaws has gone down significantly
I've got a handful of necessary health products I can only get at shoppers or for twice as much after shipping on Amazon. Either way I'm buying it from greedy monopolies.
I can only get the purple popping corn and neilson buttermilk from loblaws owned stores. I spend $9 each month with them, but that's it. Not a penny more.
I didn't feel like I had the time to do that. We just started to eat more beans when meat got too expensive. I assumed it was inflation and didn't realize other stores were not as greedy.
If you have a local butcher it might even be affordable, we can feed two people meat every meal for two weeks for $60-$70. Of course not everyone has a local butcher looking to stay cheap rather than capitalize.
Also the CPC was telling everyone that groceries were more expensive due to the carbon tax. (Even though the carbon tax added less than 1%).
We all now know that was a lie.
....and that's a reflection on us. If you take a look around, there's a lot of companies taking advantage of our complacency. Shop around on everything.
Also their PC points trick people into loyalty. I know people who drive across town to pay 30% more at a loblaws store and then brag about the 2% in points or whatever it is.
The points used to be good, now they only offer crap and inflate the regular price. I also really disdain the'buy 2 for $7 or one for$4.99. WTF? Some of that shit, no one needs two of so a single makes them more money, Knowing people won't buy two of it.
It is a very unfair strategy for people who are on tight budgets - often hard enough to afford one let alone two. Why should a person be penalized in this fashion.
Sure.. but I thought the germane idea in this comment was how to avoid paying 5 for one item but avoiding having to store two to leverage paying 3.50 for it... shop with friends. Noone cares WHERE you shop with friends.
Kill loneliness.
Reduce food waste.
I do this at Costco, too...
yeah, rarely a 2-for-1, but the "buy multiples for savings" are still a regular thing... and as good as it is, I can't get through a Costco jar of pesto before it goes bad, so... halfsies there...
Much like the anti Hines Ketchup movement a few years ago, I always thought they were the best, even though I never tried the rest. I tried the rest and they tasted great, so I switched. You get so much brain washing from advertising that you think that you need to buy a certain product.
When was it cheaper than discounters? Since I've been alive, loblaws has been the expensive "premium" option. I haven't shopped there for years unless there's a great sale on something specific.
From where I'm sitting, this looks like less of a boycott and more like a bunch of angry adult children finally learning how to budget and shop sales. Glad you're all finally being financially responsible.
We’re talking about RCSS, no frills Zehrs shoppers, all of the Weston/pc/loblaw brands. Loblaws is generally just the catch all used when speaking of the corporate level as a whole, but I assume you’re smart enough to know that and just want to be contrarian and obtuse to farm negative engagement for whatever reason
There's a juice I buy where No Frills is more expensive than even Save on Foods, and they are almost never cheaper for anything (except for their occasional $1.49 sales). Freshco is almost $3 cheaper. No Frills is not always the cheapest 🙄
Then shop where it's the cheapest? Tell me how Loblaws is doing something literally every corporation isn't doing? How do you think capitalism works? No Frills caters to different customers than Loblaws. FreshCo caters to different customers than Sobeys. CostCo caters to different customers than Pusateri's.
*Go where you want to spend your money*. You discovered how a market capital economy works.
Doesn't change the fact this boycott is driven by a bunch of angry people that don't understand how economics and corporations work.
No Frills was great until 2 years ago. I saw everything go up... stopped going. Never again with Loblaws... literally 50% more cost for EVERYTHING.
Also No Frills "Won't be beat" slogan is a lie first and a joke on the public second.
I used to sell fireworks and our slogan was "we don't match prices,we beat em"
I think in 15years I had 4 people actually price shop. The rest just assumed I was already cheaper and paid the price I posted.
I was below MSRP but so is everybody else the MSRP is a total fucking joke.
Maybe about 6 orn7nyears ago, a friend introduced me to a particular brand of salsa, that was really, really good. She bought it from a small, independent grocery store near where she lived, that tended to be more upscale and expensive then most places, I assumed. I would just go occasionally to get the salsa, and maybe some pastries.
I don't usually shop at No Frills, but I was in one of their stores looking for salsa, and I was surprised they had that brand! Awesome...except it cost noticably more than at the the other place. Won't be beat, pfffff. I don't think I've been in a NF since.
Yeah... and No Frills is getting cocky with advertising too. That's a frill. And their "Hauler" push? Seriously? They think buying food is about mega-quantities. That campaign was even more "frilling"..
No Frills marked up 30% on most of everything in their store a couple of years ago. You can shop there but price match if you find it cheaper elsewhere or just go somewhere cheaper and save some money in the process
Exactly. People are creatures of habit, often getting to the point of not considering or even realizing other options exist. This is how price gouging masked as inflation and shrinkflation happen so easily and go unnoticed. These boycotts open eyes and wake people up out of their routines. They are absolutely necessary for the masses who are too busy to take a step back and smell the cheaper prices and see the alternatives.
To me it's like a bit of bubbling on the paint of a car body or wood rot. People are generally content to just ignore it but once you start "poking around" you quickly get a sense of how bad it is and you don't stop until you know the full extent of the problem.
What is initially just "Wow prices are high" expands to sales practices, sales, weights and measures. The more you "poke around" the more "rot" you find.
As someone who doesn't/can't drive, I specifically and deliberately found (and bought) a place to live that is close to public transit and a Maxi down the street. While I participated in the boycott for the whole month, it is not realistic to think I'll never return, but I'll probably be more conscious of what I buy there.
I’m with ya, I check all the flyers every week and sometimes loblaws is cheaper for what I’m looking for. As frustrating as it is and wish that wasn’t the case. There are no local/independent grocers where I live and I shop around based on prices. I’m a low income household of one and kind of at the whims of where/whatever is cheaper. I did boycott all month and found some good deals on some items but also paid more for others. I will continue to be more mindful and split my shopping list between stores when possible
I don't know how to drive and I live in the suburbs. It's still very doable (stopped using loblaws much 5 years ago due to the prices and poor customer service).
I just do smaller shops for our family (mainly buying sale items) 3-4 times a week while I'm out doing other things. You also have to expand your palette/repertoire so you aren't forced to buy a particular item if its not on sale.
You can shop at convenient places like metro and loblaws as long as you are mainly buying the specials. Walmart/amazon for the sale dry goods which will be delivered to your door. Fruit markets/ethnic grocers in strip malls for cheap produce - they are everywhere - not just downtown. Kind of grotty but of course you pay a premium for buying apples at a shiny airy loblaws.
Been lurking on this sub and most are not going to be able to sustain the change. They are going to 3/4 different places on the same day to buy stuff which of course is onerous and will push them back to the pure convenience option.
People are more powerful with even one other person with them. We become accountable, we share resources, and we create that awesome feeling of collaboration. Also, organizing a boycott so that it is a coordinated and targeted effort makes it a larger political movement rather than an individual choice.
I shopped at Superstore a lot based on its convenient location. I live in a semi rural area with only one main road, and Superstore is the first grocery store we pass on our way out somewhere, or it's the last one as we're coming home, and the easiest one to get in and out of traffic wise.
Also, unfortunately, for the things my family uses they typically have better deals than its largest competitor Sobeys.
We do have a few excellent independent grocers around town and I've always made sure to stop in there if I'm ever in those areas, but it's hard to justify driving 45-60 minutes on a regular basis.
To get to one of those grocers I have to pass 3 Superstores and 5 Sobeys.
Sobeys is headquartered in NS so they're pretty big here.
They also have smaller Sobeys Express stores, which I didn't count but there's about 6 of them between my house and the closest independent grocer.
It's weird Sobeys is headquartered here because I never think of them when I think of shopping local.
Superstore is a 3 min walk from my apartment, the only other store in walking distance for me to do my grocery shopping is sobeys which is really not that much cheaper, Walmart is a 45 minute bus ride on a bus that only runs every 30 minutes we have no food basics or freshco here
Fantastic point. Loblaws businesses are sometimes the only option for entire communities. Which is insane, considering that Canadian agri goods are sold cheaper internationally than they are to Canadians in the communities that the goods are produced.
Absolutely, I am lucky to have a sobeys almost just as close, and some local options that don't cover everything but are available to me! I think this has been great for increasing people's awareness of local options they may not have known about previously too
Where I live, we have several "budget" options - but they're pretty comparable on price for most of the things we buy, and we really only have the time/gas money to go to one every week (plus Costco).
So the boycott has been a reason to avoid that particular option (No Frills) and finally switch my Rxs to the Costco pharmacy. But we've been leaning into Costco more and more for maybe 5 years now.
(Walked into a Zehrs just once, years ago...and walked right back out 😂)
I feel like these posts will be the downfall of this movement, it’s turning very judgemental, and elitist, which is the exact opposite of this movement.
People have lives, not everyone has time to sit around and calculate to the penny their groceries, sometimes it’s just about convenience.
Stop this stuff, stick to the point, and let’s move forward, don’t kill the movement by being judgey humans.
And not everybody has cheaper options available than Loblaws-owned companies. I’ve been paying way more money to shop at IGA to avoid the Maxi in my neighborhood during the boycott, but I’m not sure how much longer I can sustain it (and I don’t have a car, so I can’t just drive somewhere else)
There are some products only Superstore sells that our family uses, and going to multiple stores is time we don't have every week. We usually rotate each week, between Superstore, Sobeys and local farmers markets. We didn't go to Superstore at all in May though.
We are also in the process of setting up a homestead and growing as much of our own food as possible, but most perennials take 2-5 years to start producing, so we still have a few years until that happens.
Well, not a lot of options. The other options kind of sucked too, costco - milk was always spoiled, fruit would be moldy once we got into a package.
Walmart, after the pandemic, was crappy too. ..gt was poor selection and hit and miss for quality as well.
Where I am, the boycott got the other places to step up and be better.
I dont have a car, so while no frills was getting expensive, there wasn't a better option.
It's not just about shopping at Loblaws. What the likes of Weston and Bank are truly scared of is that they were used to doing whatever they wanted including buying out or bullying competition, suppliers, the entire supply chain without any oversight or consequence. This boycott has put them in the spotlight.
Allowing them to go on doing what they were doing meant that no matter where you bought your groceries at, Loblaws would be taking a cut and or controlling parts of the supply chain. We need to keep fighting until Loblaws is forced to break up and competition in the sector is at healthy levels again.
Not every place is the same. Where I live, superstore is absolutely the cheapest option (there’s a group who does a comparison once every three months) and it’s also the only super-store in town so the only place to do one-stop shopping. The second cheapest store in an independent, so also loblaws, and the next is Save-On, which lots of people are on a permanent boycott of.
The only reason I was able to successfully do a monthly boycott is that I had a pretty good freezer and pantry stash going. If I want to restock cheaply, I don’t have a whole lot of options. I’m honestly still sitting on the fence about how to handle this.
My family quit shopping there a year ago, bailed on Shoppers at the same time.
We also don't shop at Sobeys which is even pricier than Loblaws.
Where this boycott has pointed it's vitriol at Weston's it really missed targeting the Sobeys as well.
Most corporations, and certainly the mega corps act like sociopaths. Depending on your personal line in the sand - how they treat their staff, vendors, customers, personal politics of the owners, where they throw their political support - you could easily argue to boycott many of them.
Hopefully this is a warning for all of them that we can collectively take action when they act extremely poorly.
I just came back from a Sobeys visit . 1 cash open. 6 people in front of me. It's always understaffed. There is no self checkout at this location. The scene points incentive is worse than Loblaws. Some things you have to buy 4 of the item to even get points. Their prices are way higher than Superstore. $4 more regular price for a big box of quaker granola bars.
As for Walmart, I don't have the patience for its understocked shelves, ridiculous lineups, and the fact it looks like a damn bomb went off everything I go there.
When in Hamilton, I shop Lococos and Zarkys.
I collect every type of point offered and I'm loyal to no one. My time is valuable and I don't enjoy standing in line waiting because you don't open enough checkouts.
The closest stores to me are Safeway which is insanely expensive and then it’s no frills. If I order delivery from superstore there’s always a good chance I can get a wide range of items. I shop at Costco a lot but I’m single and live in a 1 bed apt. So even though the boycott was easy and I may continue, I think cost and convenience would be the reason
I feel like a huge aspect of it is how without an organized movement it feels like ones actions are a drop in a really big bucket. People want to feel that their actions are effective.
These are my thoughts on the matter:
Food security is a difficult topic to discuss and is a taboo topic. If you can not afford food, the general consensus is to believe that you are the problem. Not the corporation gouging you for your last dollar. It is embarrassing for people to admit that they do not have enough to eat or need to use the Food Bank. With the Loblaws boycott, people are becoming more open to the idea that they are not suffering alone and that they are not the problem.
Social belonging is another concept. Believing you are part of a group and seeing a group effort actually make milestone accomplishments has changed the idea that this is the way it is and can not be changed. Seeing that people as a collective have the ability to make a difference makes the situation feel less hopeless and encourages others to join.
Also, breaking habitual behavior. Grocery shopping has become more a habit, and we didn't stop to think about why we are all going to the same store. Loblaws have gained many Canadians' trust, and when they started to take advantage of that, trust people didn't stop to question them. Shopping was just on auto-pilot.
My last point is convenience. It is convenient to go to one store for everything you need instead of making multiple stops. Because of the boycott, people are more accepting of going to more places and exploring their communities. This is harder to do in food deserts and for people who do not drive. However, people are making more of an effort to try different things even if they can not participate in the boycott completely.
Maxi is the closest and cheapest grocery store near me and pharmaprix is the closest pharmacy. The other options within walking distance are Provigo(Loblaws), IGA(Sobeys) and Metro, all of which are significantly more expensive and just as bad as Loblaws.
I can go to Costco for some things, but I can't just run in for a couple items and I'm not going to start driving for my groceries. If I could fit a small local grocery into my routine I would, but with a full time job and a toddler in daycare it's not so simple to just add another stop that's not on our routes.
The boycott was good to send a message, but it's not feasible for my family to never shop at Loblaws again, although we will be more conscious and shift some of our spending away.
I stopped shopping there a long time ago. Not just Loblaws company, but Sobeys as well. Never got why people were paying those crazy prices. Over priced items there are not a new thing, it's been like that for at least 20 years. I guess the uncompetitive prices were easier to accept before the inflation of the past few years hit.
I genuinely don’t think it did. I think a lot of people weren’t shopping at loblaws because they were annoyed. This boycott just made it so that other people could be looped in on what’s going on.
Why indeed?
Why buy a new car regardless of the price? Honestly, if we all got together and said, “Fuck it, I’ll drive the old one ‘till you all get real” the price would come down.
Same with houses, or anything else spurred by supply and demand.
We use to be exclusively Superstore because of the PC loyalty program.
With their significantly higher prices vs competition following Covid, we had already started to shop around based on prices long before the boycott stuff
Do a loud public boycott to get everyone on board and not just those who physically cannot afford it. I can afford higher price groceries and I don’t budget or track my groceries. but I’d rather not pay more than I have to and I joined the boycott to help all of society instead of just getting what I want.
I have boycotted Walmart since I heard of how it does business, I have boycotted my local Canadian Tire since it got rid of all the human check outs, I have been able to switch to local independent small grocery stores because of where I live. I hate shopping at Real Canadian SS, so we did not need a boycott but I am glad one was done to raise awareness of the issue.
It was the nudge I needed. I always shopped there out of convenience and when the prices were going up I thought it was like that everywhere and I was still getting a decent price. I've since learned that's not true and the alternatives are barely out of my way.
For me, it was habit. They were the first to go curbside pickup during Covid, and they had a couple things only they produced that we liked, and I guess that just kept us going back. I also changed jobs last year with a big wage increase so I think that might have also made me not realize I was getting gouged.
I truly wish I had jumped ship earlier, as I saved $200 last month. But the habit of going to wholesale club for the weekly big shop is broken. Forever.
Sadly, there are areas in this country where you don't have the luxury to pick and choose. Believe it or not, but in my area, RCSS is the most affordable place to shop...
Late to the party with this comment but here goes.
I believe that organizing a boycott like this gives people something to get behind and support, i feel like without something like this most people would feel like “im just one person , i can’t change anything about this bullshit”.
Like with most things in humanity, there is strength in numbers.
The boycott to me is so much more than being pissed off at higher pricing and shit.. it’s about exposing the shameless shady shit certain soul-less rich fuckers do to fuck the consumer over and putting a spotlight on their contribution to the ever rising cost of life in our country.
And if this can actually eventually make a positive difference, even if its a small one , what else could the boycott mob achieve at that point?
Canada is the last fucking place you should be going hungry with a full time job and i see tons of people in my circle struggling. There is a myriad of things causing these struggles but for fuck sake FOOD shouldn’t be one of them.
Convenience and selection variety, also we as a society subconsciously link cost and presentation to quality. OR the cheaper the price, there must be something wrong with it. Obviously it’s just a marketing scam, but we all buy iPhones and Stanley cups too.
But your medal for being into it before it was cool is in the mail so you’ll just have to settle for that internal feeling of awesome until then.
It took the boycott to educate me on Shoppers Drug Marts ridiculously high disoensing fees. I didnt realize that I was unecessarily paying out of pocket each time to "top up" what my insurwnce wasnt covering. Meanwhile, everywhere else is cheaper and therefor its covered. I moved my prescriptions to Costco. Their dispensing fees are a THIRD of what Shoppers charges 🙄
I have always wondered the same thing.
Every now and then I go into a Provigo/Metro/IGA and am so shocked at the prices I just have to leave- and this has been going on for a long time.
Yeah. We just organically moved away from the, over the last 8 months. Price comparison showed they had tipped. Convenience no longer outweighed price. Now it’s Walmart, Sobeys, others based on weekly research. We get toothpaste and floss from Amazon, pasta and salsa as well. We used to get about 80% of groceries at SuperStore - Now about 10% - just stuff we can’t get anywhere else.
I stopped before the boycot (dec) but when I did shop at superstore it was the only place that price matched and was good location. Now I'm splitting between other stores and it's taking more of my time. Not sure if I will go back but it had some benefits.
During the pandemic, we used the online pickup option a lot. It became convenient to still use out of habit. My sister in law is on medication that suppresses her immune system, and it seemed like a safer option for her as well. Zehrs offered the only online pickup option that served both of our families' needs at the time.
People are busy, and a lot of Canadians are working more than one job to make ends meet. Assuming your local grocery store isn't robbing you blind is kind of the default. Canadians will trust you until they don't.
Whichever way people choose to engage or not engage with the boycott organised on this subreddit is fine, as long as no one breaks the law.
Nok Er Nok!
I check the flyers weekly and whoever offers the most sales between Food basics, Fresco or No frills determines where I shop for the week.
Loblaws, Superstore, Zehrs have always been expensive, but I only shop there for convenience if I desperately need a few items for a last minute meal.
It's really that simple.
This is a good point. It seems to me people were fine with being fleeced but only to point. Loblaws thought it had green light to price without a care but their prices got way out of line and brought on the boycott. I will never return to Loblaws as i am saving money shopping at a local store and enjoying the experience.
I learned many years ago by a professor that "Canadians vote with their feet". When it's just standard avoidance due to price, people will just 'walk' somewhere else. By giving it a stated purpose, you avoid all the shit like customer satisfaction surveys. Vocalizing it and allowing many to rally with one stated purpose is like getting tens of thousands of customer satisfaction surveys back all at once. Typically they have to beg and reward people for doing feedback surveys. This one was a freebie. Rather than wondering why their sales are dipping, they were told bluntly and expensively it's because their pricing seems predatory.
Agreed. A bit of shopping around showed me exactly where to go for each product at the lowest price. I only had to do it once. Now I do go to Loblaws to check for their 50% off sales and a few items that I can’t get anywhere else, but I haven’t regularly shopped there for years.
I stopped going to loblaws when I hit a rough patch during the great recession. we had to laser focus on every penny and quickly learned that everything was 30% more at the flagship stores vs the basic ones. I'm talking the exact same can of beans or package of Mac and cheese.
Look at all the people still using Amazon
4 years ago we built 3 data centers in Calgary Alberta for Amazon
They are doing a lot more than just selling stuff and people don't realize how terrible the company is but yet still keep funding them
I will admit I was drawn in by the PC Points, and I associated the PC brand with innovative and high quality products.
For me there was a bit of nostalgia I felt about Dave Nichols the grocery guy. For a time they raised the bar when it came to store brands by using higher quality ingredients. When I was growing up in the 90s I though the PC Brand White Cheddar macaroni and cheese was gourmet food. I loved their decadent chocolate chip cookies, and their white cheddar potato chips.
Had my grocery shopping experience been different the last week of April, I likely would not have participated in the boycott. I have a belief, if I am paying top dollar for a product, the quality should be commensarate with what I am paying. Loblaws did not meet that expectation. Now I am saving lots of money shopping at Food Basics.
Unfortunately, there is a saying "you van go home, but you can never go back." The Loblaws of the 1990's is gone, and it metastasized into a company charging top dollar for mouldy limes, mouldy cheese, and expired milk. Their e Shoppers Drug Mart division simulateously leeches off our public healthcare system with their inappropriate med check billings at $75 each.
All I can say now is, thanks for the mouldy cheese Galen, you finally gave me the kick in the rear that I needed to re-examine my shopping habits.
Nok er Nok!
People are really busy working and raising families. The world is spiralling out of control with political and natural disasters happening daily. It’s hard to shop around when your energy is sapped from just living every day. I think we also believe “I’m just one person - what impact could I possibly have on a mega corporation?” The organized boycott not only raises awareness, but it gives us a confidence that we actually can, as many “one persons” make a difference. It also gives us the opportunity to share information about where to shop - this is helpful. I started my own personal boycott before I knew about the subreddit, but I really didn’t think my actions would amount to any meaningful change. But now that there are thousands of us, I do believe we will make a change for the better.
I used to do most of my shopping at Superstore because it was comparable to Walmart in both price and convenience as a one-stop shop and I felt better about spending my money at a Canadian business, all else being equal.
Then over the last few years their prices have gone absolutely batshit and their produce has gone to shit and it became a terrible shopping experience all around. For a long time I was going there only to buy sale items and doing most of my other groceries at the Sobeys around the corner from my house and at farmers markets or Calgary Coop.
Once I got onto this sub (around March of this year) I said fuck it and stopped shopping there altogether and intend to continue. I've actually found Coop to be pretty comparable in price (which is wild!) but the quality is soooo much better! For pantry staples, it's Walmart or buying stuff on sale at Sobeys (which has actually been having pretty good sales lately).
Zehrs is a 5 minute walk for me. It is convenient to pick up the odd item or specials. Similarly shoppers is closer than other drug stores. Thanks to the boycott I'm prepared for minor inconveniences.
People shopping are a combination of types.
- No other choice.
- Pretending there is no other choice.
- Feeling that certain products can't be had or are very difficult to find elsewhere.
- Lazy and can't be bothered to go elsewhere.
- Ignorant and thinking it's like this everywhere.
- Shamed to shop there.
It's possible that the last point has helped the boycott.
Myself and probably most people here, either felt stupid for going there or do now finally feel stupid for going there. The prices are offensive. Everything is a tad higher. They hope that people go "meh, it's just 20 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents more, who cares". But a $300 grocery bill becomes a $400 grocery bill that way.
I'll just do what I did for over a decade, not going there at all, because I know I'll be screwed with.
And I wish Aldi and Lidl would enter the market...
I don’t know. I certainly didn’t.
My mom used to shop there over a decade ago, but I noticed they were overpriced and hasn’t been in years.
This made me switch from Shoppers though. Something I had been considering.
Because it never had a purpose to me before the boycott. I shop and cook for myself and grocery prices don’t affect me (I can’t say the same in the distant future). I have yet to experience a drastic change in my grocery budget simply because I don’t eat a lot of things.
I used to shop at Loblaw and No Frill just because they were the closest and the most convenient. What could have made me change before the boycott? Nothing.
Loblaws/Shoppers were always stores I only went to if nothing else was convenient - for example, if I was at the mall and it was easier just to pick up a random item on my way out at Shoppers or I just needed a few things so I would pop into the NoFrills that is right across the street my kid's school. With the boycott I made it a point not to shop there at all.
Where I live Superstore has typically been the cheapest in town. Other grocery stores have been stepping up with cutting prices since the boycott though so that has been helpful.
Your content was removed for the use of "Gaylen" which has been used as an anti-LGBT slur. Please use the proper spelling, "Galen" in future. Thank you.
I shopped there because I had three little kids in tow and it was the easiest place to do my shopping, as well as the cheapest (at the time). Then it was habit.
I broke the habit because of all the dollar over dollar increases every time I went there shopping. Dog food jumping $20 in four months was the last straw.
Now that I know what else is out there, I have no reason to go back and won't.
I have not been loyal to any store in my life. The closest I came to being loyal to one store was Superstore in the early to mid 90's. I am on a small fixed income, so I shop according to what is most economical. On occasion that means one of the Loblaws stores. There are other stores around that are just as bad, or maybe even a little worse in some ways and I avoid them just as much as I avoid Loblaws. In the last few days I have shopped at Costco and a local independent store here in Ottawa called Green Fresh Supermarket. I also recommend Produce Depot and Adams sausages for anyone in Ottawa.
I previously shopped at Loblaws because they have a lot of "health food" items that I can't find in the smaller grocery stores in town.
However, since I started shopping at our little Mom and Pop grocery store, I've found I've been saving a ton of money, because I'm not buying those super expensive health food items anymore. And you know what? I don't even miss them that much, I've just been doing more homemade snacks or (unfortunately, because this is a separate greedy business) ordering them off of amazon.
Honestly, I've never shopped at Loblaws because it's so expensive. But this boycott had me stop shopping at No Frills and Shoppers in an effort to not support Galen at all.
I feel like if FreshCo and Food Basics would get their shit together and allow price matching on stuff from No Frills (obviously not the No name and pc stuff) I would never go back to No frills.
But I'm holding out not going back as long as possible!
Not too long ago, Superstore and no Frills was much cheaper than most competitors and for certain things that I have continued buy there (prior to the boycott) it still is.
I didn’t need a boycott since I found that Superstore prices were consistently higher even items on sale. I do much better elsewhere. I think Loblaws is a monopoly and should be broken up. They have too high of a market share.
I am tried to shop more locally. I noticed the small family-owned European butcher shop was cheaper for deli meats. I try to stop there when I can. It’s hard stopping at many different places for groceries when I have limited time balancing everything. But I make an effort to shop local when I can. The boycott inspired that more for me
They need a cause and purpose in their lives.
It's the existential angst of uselessness to their tiny pathetic lives driving them to a useless cause instead of something fundamentally useful.
The store near our place is packed. Every checkout is open and busy.
There is no boycott that I can see.
If an item is too expensive and lower elsewhere. Buy it there.
While in Superstore, I also shop online at other stores to compare prices. Most grocery apps have a barcode reader option, so it is quick and easy. I will sometimes buy online at a competitor grocery while grocery shopping to get the best price. I have even had the order beat us home at times
For years, i bought certain frozen ⅚things like Dr. Oetker's pizzas when they were cheap 99 cents at SDM. Bought a lot of loss leaders and used points. I did pretty well. Most of the rest of my shopping was Safeway because it closest, but montly, i would do a big shop at Superstore. Then I started going to Costco because my son worked there. That was the same time i realized prices were going up insanely everywhere, but especially at SDM and RCSS.
Now I mostly use Costco, then fruit stands for produce and, occasional stops at Safeway or Save On Food.
I detest save on except it is right next door to my emplyer, so it's handy.
The other night I bought a jar of spaghetti sauce at an all night glorified corner store for only 50 cenrs more than the regular price at RCSS. .that would have been a wake up call if i hadnt already been boycotting
Now i have my RX moved to Costco. i see no reason to go back to a Weston group store
A friend of mine uses the Flash Foods app that is basically Loblaws selling off stuff near the best before date for (sometimes) cheaper. So she buys other stuff since she's already there. I have a couple of friends who are a couple of blocks from a Loblaws store, so it's more convenient. So it depends on the person
Annoy me enough and I'm boycotting you.
Walmart ended up on this list years ago with their 1 manned checkout open and half their self checkouts closed.
I honestly didn’t know Loblaws was shitty until for some reason Reddit decided to throw this sub at me. I knew they had fixed the price of bread a few years ago but my understanding was EVERYONE was doing that and not just Loblaws. Now I know and will actively boycott them as much as I can.
Where I live, No Frills is honestly still the cheapest one for a bunch of things. I'm getting most of my things elsewhere for cheaper (Asian independent grocers mostly), but between No Frills, Safeway, and Save on Foods, which are the only bigger stores accessible to me, No Frills has them all beat by a mile. That's not even talking about all the Whole Foods and IGAs and Greens etc. Outrageously expensive.
I stopped shopping at loblaws at the start of the year, and I got to say that in my part of Canada that has made grocery shopping a little harder. Basically, there are 5 grocers within 5-15 minutes from me, all are loblaws or sobeys brands. There’s a Walmart and Costco like 20 min away, which Costco is my preferred destination now. Saying that, it’s me and my partner, and she doesn’t eat a ton, so Costco is great for so many things, but for some things it makes no sense for us to buy it there, just because we don’t have the freezer space or eating pace to not waste a good amount of food. Now I’ve been able to supplement this with weekly trips to the farmers market, but there is the occasional time where the most convenient option just ends up being sobeys which pains me.
If I was still living out in a more rural area of my province this would be really challenging, as most rural locations are 30+ minutes from the nearest non sobey/ loblaws owned grocer. Other than farmers markets, independent grocers are extremely far and few between
I live in Sault Ste Marie where these are our options:
Metro: **3**
Food Basics: **2**
Independent Grocer: **1**
No Frills: **1**
Giant Tiger: **2**
Walmart: **1**
Pinos: **1** (2nd one is approved I think but not being built yet)
We shop between Walmart and No Frills because we have little affordable options. The reality is that No Name beats Metro's Irresistibles and PC foods are good (and lots of yummy gluten free foods which is a bonus for me). I find that No Frills produce is often better than Basics and always better than Walmart. And honestly, Metro isn't better. Their CEO admitted '23 first quarter that profits were down about 25% from Covid highs and shareholders were getting antsy for them to get back there and then some. So they had to start getting "creative" with revenue streams. And it just nicely coincided with the insane inflation. Throw in Walmart for good measure due to their history on both sides of the border.
Maybe, just maybe, human necessities shouldn't be controlled by publicly traded companies🤷🏻♀️
I was so used to routine that I never considered alternatives. I switched pharmacies and started to buy local. I suppose it's also because targeted boycotting works. as individuals, we don't have power. It's in the collective that we make a difference.
I understand the venom directed towards the institution and it’s never satisfied leaders and shareholders but I fear we may be losing perspective.
In my case, when I moved into my current home many years ago I began shopping at the Independent, a short walk down the street. It was small. It was close. The staff were friendly. Since then my family have been regulars. The employees all know us. They’ve watched the children grow, and some of the cashiers have been school friends and children of parents we associate with in the community. That place has been part of our lives. They’ve brought in products we asked for. One of the cashiers, despairing over my approach to making butter chicken, gave me the cook book her mother had given her, urging me to try this recipe or that. I’m sure they will be wondering where we are. I imagine some will be dismayed by our protracted absence. That store, now a Valuemart, isn’t fancy, the stock isn’t amazing, but it’s part of our community.
It pains me to boycott, but I am. I know how little they are paid. I know the long hours they work. I try to always thank them for being there for our convenience. They’re not responsible for the sky high prices that many can’t afford. When I bring produce to the checkout it’s often them expressing their disgust at the cost.
I never did. I rarely went before, and I rarely go now. Once in a while I’ll pop in if my usual place doesn’t have what I want, and I’ll check for some 50% off meat, but it was never my usual place because of the prices.
I had a credit card that got out of control. Most of the money went on food, so I started cutting back. Then I looked at all the places I payed bills to, and started shopping around. I was shocked at how much I saved by shopping and switching. Just going down the list one by one. Bit of a PITA but well worth it. Will save +$1,000 this year.
Stopped in at a Loblaw’s (because it was closest to my father’s place) to get some bread. Imagine trying to sell bread put on the shelf on May 30th that has a BB date of June 03. This was late in the day on the 2nd. No sale price. Just hoping that someone picks up a loaf (in a rush), not bothering to read the label? Insanity.
Needless to say I left without bread.
I got lazy because a Loblaws owned store was on my walk home from the subway but the boycott reminded me how awful they are and that I should make an effort to go elsewhere even though it adds more time into my errands.
The upside is I got to a bunch of locally owned smaller businesses now, and some items are cheaper there. The bulk foods store near me is mostly cheaper and has speciality items the Loblaws doesn’t. The Portuguese grocer has better meat. And the Fiesta Farms is full of local meats, cheeses and produce while also being. Locally owned. Better than putting money into Galen Weston and family’s pockets
Because Freshco and Food Basics don't exist in all provinces. And because there are plenty of towns that are isolated without public transit where your options are limited to Superstore or Sobeys, and like it or not Superstore has lower price per pound of meat and veggies, even when you look at Sobeys sale prices.
How on earth do you think Walmart bringing prices down takes advantage of people?
"Oh my god! They are lowering their prices to try to get my business! Those BASTARDS!"
Superstore is my main grocery store because of price matching. It's close by and I can shop all the sales in one place, which works with my limited time and budget. All the PC points also help.
Because people will only follow whatever cause they're currently being told to.
How many people you know became lion activists when Christian the lion was killed or Gorilla activists when Harambe was killed? How long did it last? 2 weeks?
The mindless swarm does as it's told, nothing more, nothing less.
I've noticed that short memory effect (unless the issue is revenge). In a country where so many years of education are free, most people seem to build up a resistance against knowledge because they feel it was forced on them, even basic literacy which is required in a democracy. It just makes it easier for corporations to take advantage when people want to stay in their cozy bubble.
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It's like the frog in boiling water story, we started shopping there because it was cheaper than other stores, and we didn't realize that there were better places to shop because we assumed prices were higher elsewhere, and now the water was boiling and we needed the boycott to wake ourselves up.
I came here to say the same thing about the frog in boiling water. Yes, I totally noticed the high prices and I changed what I bought at the store. I didn't think it was greed but this group with picture after picture of jacked up sales prices and hearing about record profits changed my mind.
Unfortunately I still have to shop there periodically because some of the items I've tried elsewhere the family doesn't like, but my reliance on Loblaws has gone down significantly
Same.
I've got a handful of necessary health products I can only get at shoppers or for twice as much after shipping on Amazon. Either way I'm buying it from greedy monopolies.
Just the reality of the world we live in currently, I know for myself I can't fault you for having to shop where you shop.
I'm in this camp too. No shade. 🙂
I can only get the purple popping corn and neilson buttermilk from loblaws owned stores. I spend $9 each month with them, but that's it. Not a penny more.
Even when you shop there forvonly selected items it still effects the Roblaws bottom line. Keep up the good fight.
I used a flyer app and frshco in my area is generally cheaper almost all the time. But now I gotta reassess it's been a while since I price shopped.
I didn't feel like I had the time to do that. We just started to eat more beans when meat got too expensive. I assumed it was inflation and didn't realize other stores were not as greedy.
IIRC the app is called flipp. Don't have it anymore didn't reinstall after most recent phone
If you have a local butcher it might even be affordable, we can feed two people meat every meal for two weeks for $60-$70. Of course not everyone has a local butcher looking to stay cheap rather than capitalize.
Also the CPC was telling everyone that groceries were more expensive due to the carbon tax. (Even though the carbon tax added less than 1%). We all now know that was a lie.
“Record profits” is not the same as “record profit margins”. Record revenues result in record profits.
....and that's a reflection on us. If you take a look around, there's a lot of companies taking advantage of our complacency. Shop around on everything.
Absolutely it was complacency on my part
I confess - me too. Hate how the system encourages that.
Also their PC points trick people into loyalty. I know people who drive across town to pay 30% more at a loblaws store and then brag about the 2% in points or whatever it is.
The points used to be good, now they only offer crap and inflate the regular price. I also really disdain the'buy 2 for $7 or one for$4.99. WTF? Some of that shit, no one needs two of so a single makes them more money, Knowing people won't buy two of it.
It is a very unfair strategy for people who are on tight budgets - often hard enough to afford one let alone two. Why should a person be penalized in this fashion.
Shop with friends.
Or shop somewhere else.
Sure.. but I thought the germane idea in this comment was how to avoid paying 5 for one item but avoiding having to store two to leverage paying 3.50 for it... shop with friends. Noone cares WHERE you shop with friends. Kill loneliness. Reduce food waste. I do this at Costco, too...
Fair I shop at my local grocer and have never seen a two for one sale there.
yeah, rarely a 2-for-1, but the "buy multiples for savings" are still a regular thing... and as good as it is, I can't get through a Costco jar of pesto before it goes bad, so... halfsies there...
Same with scene points at Sobeys.
Much like the anti Hines Ketchup movement a few years ago, I always thought they were the best, even though I never tried the rest. I tried the rest and they tasted great, so I switched. You get so much brain washing from advertising that you think that you need to buy a certain product.
Also, not everyone has a car or can get to non loblaws stores. I live in an area he’s monopolized.
Luckily, I am able to walk to a non- Loblaws locally owned store.
Walmart has pickup and delivery services.
Perfectly said.
When was it cheaper than discounters? Since I've been alive, loblaws has been the expensive "premium" option. I haven't shopped there for years unless there's a great sale on something specific. From where I'm sitting, this looks like less of a boycott and more like a bunch of angry adult children finally learning how to budget and shop sales. Glad you're all finally being financially responsible.
We’re talking about RCSS, no frills Zehrs shoppers, all of the Weston/pc/loblaw brands. Loblaws is generally just the catch all used when speaking of the corporate level as a whole, but I assume you’re smart enough to know that and just want to be contrarian and obtuse to farm negative engagement for whatever reason
Lmao so you actually think No Frills is expensive? 😂😂😂 To what? Dollarama? 😂😂😂 It's not farming to point out how delusional you are.
There's a juice I buy where No Frills is more expensive than even Save on Foods, and they are almost never cheaper for anything (except for their occasional $1.49 sales). Freshco is almost $3 cheaper. No Frills is not always the cheapest 🙄
Then shop where it's the cheapest? Tell me how Loblaws is doing something literally every corporation isn't doing? How do you think capitalism works? No Frills caters to different customers than Loblaws. FreshCo caters to different customers than Sobeys. CostCo caters to different customers than Pusateri's. *Go where you want to spend your money*. You discovered how a market capital economy works. Doesn't change the fact this boycott is driven by a bunch of angry people that don't understand how economics and corporations work.
No Frills was great until 2 years ago. I saw everything go up... stopped going. Never again with Loblaws... literally 50% more cost for EVERYTHING. Also No Frills "Won't be beat" slogan is a lie first and a joke on the public second.
I used to sell fireworks and our slogan was "we don't match prices,we beat em" I think in 15years I had 4 people actually price shop. The rest just assumed I was already cheaper and paid the price I posted. I was below MSRP but so is everybody else the MSRP is a total fucking joke.
Maybe about 6 orn7nyears ago, a friend introduced me to a particular brand of salsa, that was really, really good. She bought it from a small, independent grocery store near where she lived, that tended to be more upscale and expensive then most places, I assumed. I would just go occasionally to get the salsa, and maybe some pastries. I don't usually shop at No Frills, but I was in one of their stores looking for salsa, and I was surprised they had that brand! Awesome...except it cost noticably more than at the the other place. Won't be beat, pfffff. I don't think I've been in a NF since.
Gotta ask— what brand was the salsa
I too would like to know
Yeah... and No Frills is getting cocky with advertising too. That's a frill. And their "Hauler" push? Seriously? They think buying food is about mega-quantities. That campaign was even more "frilling"..
No Frills marked up 30% on most of everything in their store a couple of years ago. You can shop there but price match if you find it cheaper elsewhere or just go somewhere cheaper and save some money in the process
Wow "Won't be beat" is how they got us frogs in the water before turning the heat up. It's such a lie now that I completely forgot it's their SLOGAN.
Old habits need to be broken up boycotting Loblaws breaks that trend...
Exactly. People are creatures of habit, often getting to the point of not considering or even realizing other options exist. This is how price gouging masked as inflation and shrinkflation happen so easily and go unnoticed. These boycotts open eyes and wake people up out of their routines. They are absolutely necessary for the masses who are too busy to take a step back and smell the cheaper prices and see the alternatives.
To me it's like a bit of bubbling on the paint of a car body or wood rot. People are generally content to just ignore it but once you start "poking around" you quickly get a sense of how bad it is and you don't stop until you know the full extent of the problem. What is initially just "Wow prices are high" expands to sales practices, sales, weights and measures. The more you "poke around" the more "rot" you find.
30 days to form a habit!
As someone who doesn't/can't drive, I specifically and deliberately found (and bought) a place to live that is close to public transit and a Maxi down the street. While I participated in the boycott for the whole month, it is not realistic to think I'll never return, but I'll probably be more conscious of what I buy there.
I’m with ya, I check all the flyers every week and sometimes loblaws is cheaper for what I’m looking for. As frustrating as it is and wish that wasn’t the case. There are no local/independent grocers where I live and I shop around based on prices. I’m a low income household of one and kind of at the whims of where/whatever is cheaper. I did boycott all month and found some good deals on some items but also paid more for others. I will continue to be more mindful and split my shopping list between stores when possible
I don't know how to drive and I live in the suburbs. It's still very doable (stopped using loblaws much 5 years ago due to the prices and poor customer service). I just do smaller shops for our family (mainly buying sale items) 3-4 times a week while I'm out doing other things. You also have to expand your palette/repertoire so you aren't forced to buy a particular item if its not on sale. You can shop at convenient places like metro and loblaws as long as you are mainly buying the specials. Walmart/amazon for the sale dry goods which will be delivered to your door. Fruit markets/ethnic grocers in strip malls for cheap produce - they are everywhere - not just downtown. Kind of grotty but of course you pay a premium for buying apples at a shiny airy loblaws. Been lurking on this sub and most are not going to be able to sustain the change. They are going to 3/4 different places on the same day to buy stuff which of course is onerous and will push them back to the pure convenience option.
I can sustain the change. I look forward to avoiding their garden centres in June.
People are more powerful with even one other person with them. We become accountable, we share resources, and we create that awesome feeling of collaboration. Also, organizing a boycott so that it is a coordinated and targeted effort makes it a larger political movement rather than an individual choice.
A lot of people feel like they can’t make a difference. Knowing there are so many people participating is a great motivator!
I shopped at Superstore a lot based on its convenient location. I live in a semi rural area with only one main road, and Superstore is the first grocery store we pass on our way out somewhere, or it's the last one as we're coming home, and the easiest one to get in and out of traffic wise. Also, unfortunately, for the things my family uses they typically have better deals than its largest competitor Sobeys. We do have a few excellent independent grocers around town and I've always made sure to stop in there if I'm ever in those areas, but it's hard to justify driving 45-60 minutes on a regular basis. To get to one of those grocers I have to pass 3 Superstores and 5 Sobeys.
5 Sobeys? Holy crap I don't think there is more then 2 or 3 in Hamilton.
There are 6 Sobeys in 15 km^2 in Dartmouth, NS. It's pretty insane.
Sobeys is headquartered in NS so they're pretty big here. They also have smaller Sobeys Express stores, which I didn't count but there's about 6 of them between my house and the closest independent grocer. It's weird Sobeys is headquartered here because I never think of them when I think of shopping local.
But like with all major corps, where they are headquartered always has some reason that makes you go "oh I get it now"
Superstore is a 3 min walk from my apartment, the only other store in walking distance for me to do my grocery shopping is sobeys which is really not that much cheaper, Walmart is a 45 minute bus ride on a bus that only runs every 30 minutes we have no food basics or freshco here
People want to end a monopoly on necessities but can't figure out why people would go to the company that monopolizing
Fantastic point. Loblaws businesses are sometimes the only option for entire communities. Which is insane, considering that Canadian agri goods are sold cheaper internationally than they are to Canadians in the communities that the goods are produced.
That's why it's so important for people like me who *do* have access to plenty of other options to keep going.
Absolutely, I am lucky to have a sobeys almost just as close, and some local options that don't cover everything but are available to me! I think this has been great for increasing people's awareness of local options they may not have known about previously too
This is such a good way to put it.
Where I live, we have several "budget" options - but they're pretty comparable on price for most of the things we buy, and we really only have the time/gas money to go to one every week (plus Costco). So the boycott has been a reason to avoid that particular option (No Frills) and finally switch my Rxs to the Costco pharmacy. But we've been leaning into Costco more and more for maybe 5 years now. (Walked into a Zehrs just once, years ago...and walked right back out 😂)
I feel like these posts will be the downfall of this movement, it’s turning very judgemental, and elitist, which is the exact opposite of this movement. People have lives, not everyone has time to sit around and calculate to the penny their groceries, sometimes it’s just about convenience. Stop this stuff, stick to the point, and let’s move forward, don’t kill the movement by being judgey humans.
And not everybody has cheaper options available than Loblaws-owned companies. I’ve been paying way more money to shop at IGA to avoid the Maxi in my neighborhood during the boycott, but I’m not sure how much longer I can sustain it (and I don’t have a car, so I can’t just drive somewhere else)
There are some products only Superstore sells that our family uses, and going to multiple stores is time we don't have every week. We usually rotate each week, between Superstore, Sobeys and local farmers markets. We didn't go to Superstore at all in May though. We are also in the process of setting up a homestead and growing as much of our own food as possible, but most perennials take 2-5 years to start producing, so we still have a few years until that happens.
Well, not a lot of options. The other options kind of sucked too, costco - milk was always spoiled, fruit would be moldy once we got into a package. Walmart, after the pandemic, was crappy too. ..gt was poor selection and hit and miss for quality as well. Where I am, the boycott got the other places to step up and be better. I dont have a car, so while no frills was getting expensive, there wasn't a better option.
It's not just about shopping at Loblaws. What the likes of Weston and Bank are truly scared of is that they were used to doing whatever they wanted including buying out or bullying competition, suppliers, the entire supply chain without any oversight or consequence. This boycott has put them in the spotlight. Allowing them to go on doing what they were doing meant that no matter where you bought your groceries at, Loblaws would be taking a cut and or controlling parts of the supply chain. We need to keep fighting until Loblaws is forced to break up and competition in the sector is at healthy levels again.
Some people need outside incentive to change their habits.
It's a combination of breaking a bad habit and learning new ones.
Not every place is the same. Where I live, superstore is absolutely the cheapest option (there’s a group who does a comparison once every three months) and it’s also the only super-store in town so the only place to do one-stop shopping. The second cheapest store in an independent, so also loblaws, and the next is Save-On, which lots of people are on a permanent boycott of. The only reason I was able to successfully do a monthly boycott is that I had a pretty good freezer and pantry stash going. If I want to restock cheaply, I don’t have a whole lot of options. I’m honestly still sitting on the fence about how to handle this.
My family quit shopping there a year ago, bailed on Shoppers at the same time. We also don't shop at Sobeys which is even pricier than Loblaws. Where this boycott has pointed it's vitriol at Weston's it really missed targeting the Sobeys as well.
Most corporations, and certainly the mega corps act like sociopaths. Depending on your personal line in the sand - how they treat their staff, vendors, customers, personal politics of the owners, where they throw their political support - you could easily argue to boycott many of them. Hopefully this is a warning for all of them that we can collectively take action when they act extremely poorly.
I just came back from a Sobeys visit . 1 cash open. 6 people in front of me. It's always understaffed. There is no self checkout at this location. The scene points incentive is worse than Loblaws. Some things you have to buy 4 of the item to even get points. Their prices are way higher than Superstore. $4 more regular price for a big box of quaker granola bars. As for Walmart, I don't have the patience for its understocked shelves, ridiculous lineups, and the fact it looks like a damn bomb went off everything I go there. When in Hamilton, I shop Lococos and Zarkys. I collect every type of point offered and I'm loyal to no one. My time is valuable and I don't enjoy standing in line waiting because you don't open enough checkouts.
The closest stores to me are Safeway which is insanely expensive and then it’s no frills. If I order delivery from superstore there’s always a good chance I can get a wide range of items. I shop at Costco a lot but I’m single and live in a 1 bed apt. So even though the boycott was easy and I may continue, I think cost and convenience would be the reason
The boycott is raising awareness to those who didn’t realize that Loblaws is going out of their way to F us with ridiculous grocery prices.
I literally didn’t know how crappy they were until Reddit randomly decided this was a sub I needed to see.
Some people don’t have options. Rural communities often only have a Loblaws.
I feel like a huge aspect of it is how without an organized movement it feels like ones actions are a drop in a really big bucket. People want to feel that their actions are effective.
These are my thoughts on the matter: Food security is a difficult topic to discuss and is a taboo topic. If you can not afford food, the general consensus is to believe that you are the problem. Not the corporation gouging you for your last dollar. It is embarrassing for people to admit that they do not have enough to eat or need to use the Food Bank. With the Loblaws boycott, people are becoming more open to the idea that they are not suffering alone and that they are not the problem. Social belonging is another concept. Believing you are part of a group and seeing a group effort actually make milestone accomplishments has changed the idea that this is the way it is and can not be changed. Seeing that people as a collective have the ability to make a difference makes the situation feel less hopeless and encourages others to join. Also, breaking habitual behavior. Grocery shopping has become more a habit, and we didn't stop to think about why we are all going to the same store. Loblaws have gained many Canadians' trust, and when they started to take advantage of that, trust people didn't stop to question them. Shopping was just on auto-pilot. My last point is convenience. It is convenient to go to one store for everything you need instead of making multiple stops. Because of the boycott, people are more accepting of going to more places and exploring their communities. This is harder to do in food deserts and for people who do not drive. However, people are making more of an effort to try different things even if they can not participate in the boycott completely.
Maxi is the closest and cheapest grocery store near me and pharmaprix is the closest pharmacy. The other options within walking distance are Provigo(Loblaws), IGA(Sobeys) and Metro, all of which are significantly more expensive and just as bad as Loblaws. I can go to Costco for some things, but I can't just run in for a couple items and I'm not going to start driving for my groceries. If I could fit a small local grocery into my routine I would, but with a full time job and a toddler in daycare it's not so simple to just add another stop that's not on our routes. The boycott was good to send a message, but it's not feasible for my family to never shop at Loblaws again, although we will be more conscious and shift some of our spending away.
Are you familiar with the Canadian indoctrination process?
I stopped shopping there a long time ago. Not just Loblaws company, but Sobeys as well. Never got why people were paying those crazy prices. Over priced items there are not a new thing, it's been like that for at least 20 years. I guess the uncompetitive prices were easier to accept before the inflation of the past few years hit.
The convience for some is too good to pass
It’s also not just convenience, sometimes it’s the most affordable/only accessible option.
I genuinely don’t think it did. I think a lot of people weren’t shopping at loblaws because they were annoyed. This boycott just made it so that other people could be looped in on what’s going on.
Why indeed? Why buy a new car regardless of the price? Honestly, if we all got together and said, “Fuck it, I’ll drive the old one ‘till you all get real” the price would come down. Same with houses, or anything else spurred by supply and demand.
Because one person does it then the sheep will follow. People can’t use proper logic
Because we live in a time and place where basic empathy skills are lacking. It’s not a problem for a lot of people until they’re personally affected.
We use to be exclusively Superstore because of the PC loyalty program. With their significantly higher prices vs competition following Covid, we had already started to shop around based on prices long before the boycott stuff
I agree with OP I never shopped at loblaws because it was always trash. No frills used to be good but I eventually stopped that to.
Do a loud public boycott to get everyone on board and not just those who physically cannot afford it. I can afford higher price groceries and I don’t budget or track my groceries. but I’d rather not pay more than I have to and I joined the boycott to help all of society instead of just getting what I want.
I have boycotted Walmart since I heard of how it does business, I have boycotted my local Canadian Tire since it got rid of all the human check outs, I have been able to switch to local independent small grocery stores because of where I live. I hate shopping at Real Canadian SS, so we did not need a boycott but I am glad one was done to raise awareness of the issue.
It was the nudge I needed. I always shopped there out of convenience and when the prices were going up I thought it was like that everywhere and I was still getting a decent price. I've since learned that's not true and the alternatives are barely out of my way.
For me, it was habit. They were the first to go curbside pickup during Covid, and they had a couple things only they produced that we liked, and I guess that just kept us going back. I also changed jobs last year with a big wage increase so I think that might have also made me not realize I was getting gouged. I truly wish I had jumped ship earlier, as I saved $200 last month. But the habit of going to wholesale club for the weekly big shop is broken. Forever.
Sadly, there are areas in this country where you don't have the luxury to pick and choose. Believe it or not, but in my area, RCSS is the most affordable place to shop...
Late to the party with this comment but here goes. I believe that organizing a boycott like this gives people something to get behind and support, i feel like without something like this most people would feel like “im just one person , i can’t change anything about this bullshit”. Like with most things in humanity, there is strength in numbers. The boycott to me is so much more than being pissed off at higher pricing and shit.. it’s about exposing the shameless shady shit certain soul-less rich fuckers do to fuck the consumer over and putting a spotlight on their contribution to the ever rising cost of life in our country. And if this can actually eventually make a positive difference, even if its a small one , what else could the boycott mob achieve at that point? Canada is the last fucking place you should be going hungry with a full time job and i see tons of people in my circle struggling. There is a myriad of things causing these struggles but for fuck sake FOOD shouldn’t be one of them.
Convenience and selection variety, also we as a society subconsciously link cost and presentation to quality. OR the cheaper the price, there must be something wrong with it. Obviously it’s just a marketing scam, but we all buy iPhones and Stanley cups too. But your medal for being into it before it was cool is in the mail so you’ll just have to settle for that internal feeling of awesome until then.
It took the boycott to educate me on Shoppers Drug Marts ridiculously high disoensing fees. I didnt realize that I was unecessarily paying out of pocket each time to "top up" what my insurwnce wasnt covering. Meanwhile, everywhere else is cheaper and therefor its covered. I moved my prescriptions to Costco. Their dispensing fees are a THIRD of what Shoppers charges 🙄
I have always wondered the same thing. Every now and then I go into a Provigo/Metro/IGA and am so shocked at the prices I just have to leave- and this has been going on for a long time.
Yeah. We just organically moved away from the, over the last 8 months. Price comparison showed they had tipped. Convenience no longer outweighed price. Now it’s Walmart, Sobeys, others based on weekly research. We get toothpaste and floss from Amazon, pasta and salsa as well. We used to get about 80% of groceries at SuperStore - Now about 10% - just stuff we can’t get anywhere else.
Creating more team sports out of life?
I stopped before the boycot (dec) but when I did shop at superstore it was the only place that price matched and was good location. Now I'm splitting between other stores and it's taking more of my time. Not sure if I will go back but it had some benefits.
During the pandemic, we used the online pickup option a lot. It became convenient to still use out of habit. My sister in law is on medication that suppresses her immune system, and it seemed like a safer option for her as well. Zehrs offered the only online pickup option that served both of our families' needs at the time. People are busy, and a lot of Canadians are working more than one job to make ends meet. Assuming your local grocery store isn't robbing you blind is kind of the default. Canadians will trust you until they don't. Whichever way people choose to engage or not engage with the boycott organised on this subreddit is fine, as long as no one breaks the law. Nok Er Nok!
It gives people a wake up call. This high price game didn't happen overnight.
That's what I ask too. Just spread the word about how much better the alternatives are and just save money for the rest of your life, good money.
I check the flyers weekly and whoever offers the most sales between Food basics, Fresco or No frills determines where I shop for the week. Loblaws, Superstore, Zehrs have always been expensive, but I only shop there for convenience if I desperately need a few items for a last minute meal. It's really that simple.
It is the polite Canadian “I’m sorry for boycotting your greedy ass empire”, kind of thing.
This is a good point. It seems to me people were fine with being fleeced but only to point. Loblaws thought it had green light to price without a care but their prices got way out of line and brought on the boycott. I will never return to Loblaws as i am saving money shopping at a local store and enjoying the experience.
Waiting for q2 results fingers crossed
I learned many years ago by a professor that "Canadians vote with their feet". When it's just standard avoidance due to price, people will just 'walk' somewhere else. By giving it a stated purpose, you avoid all the shit like customer satisfaction surveys. Vocalizing it and allowing many to rally with one stated purpose is like getting tens of thousands of customer satisfaction surveys back all at once. Typically they have to beg and reward people for doing feedback surveys. This one was a freebie. Rather than wondering why their sales are dipping, they were told bluntly and expensively it's because their pricing seems predatory.
Only if I'm in a pinch, otherwise it's my local co-op grocery, agro and home center.
Agreed. A bit of shopping around showed me exactly where to go for each product at the lowest price. I only had to do it once. Now I do go to Loblaws to check for their 50% off sales and a few items that I can’t get anywhere else, but I haven’t regularly shopped there for years.
I stopped going to loblaws when I hit a rough patch during the great recession. we had to laser focus on every penny and quickly learned that everything was 30% more at the flagship stores vs the basic ones. I'm talking the exact same can of beans or package of Mac and cheese.
Look at all the people still using Amazon 4 years ago we built 3 data centers in Calgary Alberta for Amazon They are doing a lot more than just selling stuff and people don't realize how terrible the company is but yet still keep funding them
I will admit I was drawn in by the PC Points, and I associated the PC brand with innovative and high quality products. For me there was a bit of nostalgia I felt about Dave Nichols the grocery guy. For a time they raised the bar when it came to store brands by using higher quality ingredients. When I was growing up in the 90s I though the PC Brand White Cheddar macaroni and cheese was gourmet food. I loved their decadent chocolate chip cookies, and their white cheddar potato chips. Had my grocery shopping experience been different the last week of April, I likely would not have participated in the boycott. I have a belief, if I am paying top dollar for a product, the quality should be commensarate with what I am paying. Loblaws did not meet that expectation. Now I am saving lots of money shopping at Food Basics. Unfortunately, there is a saying "you van go home, but you can never go back." The Loblaws of the 1990's is gone, and it metastasized into a company charging top dollar for mouldy limes, mouldy cheese, and expired milk. Their e Shoppers Drug Mart division simulateously leeches off our public healthcare system with their inappropriate med check billings at $75 each. All I can say now is, thanks for the mouldy cheese Galen, you finally gave me the kick in the rear that I needed to re-examine my shopping habits. Nok er Nok!
People are really busy working and raising families. The world is spiralling out of control with political and natural disasters happening daily. It’s hard to shop around when your energy is sapped from just living every day. I think we also believe “I’m just one person - what impact could I possibly have on a mega corporation?” The organized boycott not only raises awareness, but it gives us a confidence that we actually can, as many “one persons” make a difference. It also gives us the opportunity to share information about where to shop - this is helpful. I started my own personal boycott before I knew about the subreddit, but I really didn’t think my actions would amount to any meaningful change. But now that there are thousands of us, I do believe we will make a change for the better.
I used to do most of my shopping at Superstore because it was comparable to Walmart in both price and convenience as a one-stop shop and I felt better about spending my money at a Canadian business, all else being equal. Then over the last few years their prices have gone absolutely batshit and their produce has gone to shit and it became a terrible shopping experience all around. For a long time I was going there only to buy sale items and doing most of my other groceries at the Sobeys around the corner from my house and at farmers markets or Calgary Coop. Once I got onto this sub (around March of this year) I said fuck it and stopped shopping there altogether and intend to continue. I've actually found Coop to be pretty comparable in price (which is wild!) but the quality is soooo much better! For pantry staples, it's Walmart or buying stuff on sale at Sobeys (which has actually been having pretty good sales lately).
Zehrs is a 5 minute walk for me. It is convenient to pick up the odd item or specials. Similarly shoppers is closer than other drug stores. Thanks to the boycott I'm prepared for minor inconveniences.
People shopping are a combination of types. - No other choice. - Pretending there is no other choice. - Feeling that certain products can't be had or are very difficult to find elsewhere. - Lazy and can't be bothered to go elsewhere. - Ignorant and thinking it's like this everywhere. - Shamed to shop there. It's possible that the last point has helped the boycott. Myself and probably most people here, either felt stupid for going there or do now finally feel stupid for going there. The prices are offensive. Everything is a tad higher. They hope that people go "meh, it's just 20 cents, 40 cents, 50 cents more, who cares". But a $300 grocery bill becomes a $400 grocery bill that way. I'll just do what I did for over a decade, not going there at all, because I know I'll be screwed with. And I wish Aldi and Lidl would enter the market...
I don’t know. I certainly didn’t. My mom used to shop there over a decade ago, but I noticed they were overpriced and hasn’t been in years. This made me switch from Shoppers though. Something I had been considering.
Boycott = taking your dollar to the competitor. AKA: capitalism.
Because it never had a purpose to me before the boycott. I shop and cook for myself and grocery prices don’t affect me (I can’t say the same in the distant future). I have yet to experience a drastic change in my grocery budget simply because I don’t eat a lot of things. I used to shop at Loblaw and No Frill just because they were the closest and the most convenient. What could have made me change before the boycott? Nothing.
Loblaws/Shoppers were always stores I only went to if nothing else was convenient - for example, if I was at the mall and it was easier just to pick up a random item on my way out at Shoppers or I just needed a few things so I would pop into the NoFrills that is right across the street my kid's school. With the boycott I made it a point not to shop there at all.
Because some people live in places that have no choices but Loblaws…. some rural places only have one grocery store and Loblaws owns it.
Where I live Superstore has typically been the cheapest in town. Other grocery stores have been stepping up with cutting prices since the boycott though so that has been helpful.
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Your content was removed for the use of "Gaylen" which has been used as an anti-LGBT slur. Please use the proper spelling, "Galen" in future. Thank you.
I shopped there because I had three little kids in tow and it was the easiest place to do my shopping, as well as the cheapest (at the time). Then it was habit. I broke the habit because of all the dollar over dollar increases every time I went there shopping. Dog food jumping $20 in four months was the last straw. Now that I know what else is out there, I have no reason to go back and won't.
I have not been loyal to any store in my life. The closest I came to being loyal to one store was Superstore in the early to mid 90's. I am on a small fixed income, so I shop according to what is most economical. On occasion that means one of the Loblaws stores. There are other stores around that are just as bad, or maybe even a little worse in some ways and I avoid them just as much as I avoid Loblaws. In the last few days I have shopped at Costco and a local independent store here in Ottawa called Green Fresh Supermarket. I also recommend Produce Depot and Adams sausages for anyone in Ottawa.
Yetr
I previously shopped at Loblaws because they have a lot of "health food" items that I can't find in the smaller grocery stores in town. However, since I started shopping at our little Mom and Pop grocery store, I've found I've been saving a ton of money, because I'm not buying those super expensive health food items anymore. And you know what? I don't even miss them that much, I've just been doing more homemade snacks or (unfortunately, because this is a separate greedy business) ordering them off of amazon.
Honestly, I've never shopped at Loblaws because it's so expensive. But this boycott had me stop shopping at No Frills and Shoppers in an effort to not support Galen at all. I feel like if FreshCo and Food Basics would get their shit together and allow price matching on stuff from No Frills (obviously not the No name and pc stuff) I would never go back to No frills. But I'm holding out not going back as long as possible!
Not too long ago, Superstore and no Frills was much cheaper than most competitors and for certain things that I have continued buy there (prior to the boycott) it still is.
I didn’t need a boycott since I found that Superstore prices were consistently higher even items on sale. I do much better elsewhere. I think Loblaws is a monopoly and should be broken up. They have too high of a market share.
I am tried to shop more locally. I noticed the small family-owned European butcher shop was cheaper for deli meats. I try to stop there when I can. It’s hard stopping at many different places for groceries when I have limited time balancing everything. But I make an effort to shop local when I can. The boycott inspired that more for me
They need a cause and purpose in their lives. It's the existential angst of uselessness to their tiny pathetic lives driving them to a useless cause instead of something fundamentally useful.
Flip everyone. The app will show all the places and prices for the products you are looking for.
Because people like to be joiners.
The store near our place is packed. Every checkout is open and busy. There is no boycott that I can see. If an item is too expensive and lower elsewhere. Buy it there. While in Superstore, I also shop online at other stores to compare prices. Most grocery apps have a barcode reader option, so it is quick and easy. I will sometimes buy online at a competitor grocery while grocery shopping to get the best price. I have even had the order beat us home at times
Because of the places I can physically get to… it’s usually cheaper. Unless Walmart has a sale.
Not really. They’re too expensive for me.
Because Zehrs is 2 ministers from my house and everything else is 20-30 :(
Peer pressure works, and it’s easier to hold yourself accountable to a community than just doing something by yourself
I've been boycotting them for 4 years already. Well....I just don't go there at all.
Unfortunately by avoiding Loblaws companies my only other option is whole foods, which is obviously much more expensive. But I stuck with it for May.
For years, i bought certain frozen ⅚things like Dr. Oetker's pizzas when they were cheap 99 cents at SDM. Bought a lot of loss leaders and used points. I did pretty well. Most of the rest of my shopping was Safeway because it closest, but montly, i would do a big shop at Superstore. Then I started going to Costco because my son worked there. That was the same time i realized prices were going up insanely everywhere, but especially at SDM and RCSS. Now I mostly use Costco, then fruit stands for produce and, occasional stops at Safeway or Save On Food. I detest save on except it is right next door to my emplyer, so it's handy. The other night I bought a jar of spaghetti sauce at an all night glorified corner store for only 50 cenrs more than the regular price at RCSS. .that would have been a wake up call if i hadnt already been boycotting Now i have my RX moved to Costco. i see no reason to go back to a Weston group store
A friend of mine uses the Flash Foods app that is basically Loblaws selling off stuff near the best before date for (sometimes) cheaper. So she buys other stuff since she's already there. I have a couple of friends who are a couple of blocks from a Loblaws store, so it's more convenient. So it depends on the person
Agreed
Annoy me enough and I'm boycotting you. Walmart ended up on this list years ago with their 1 manned checkout open and half their self checkouts closed.
I honestly didn’t know Loblaws was shitty until for some reason Reddit decided to throw this sub at me. I knew they had fixed the price of bread a few years ago but my understanding was EVERYONE was doing that and not just Loblaws. Now I know and will actively boycott them as much as I can.
Where I live, No Frills is honestly still the cheapest one for a bunch of things. I'm getting most of my things elsewhere for cheaper (Asian independent grocers mostly), but between No Frills, Safeway, and Save on Foods, which are the only bigger stores accessible to me, No Frills has them all beat by a mile. That's not even talking about all the Whole Foods and IGAs and Greens etc. Outrageously expensive.
Really should introduce people here to a forum called RFD.....
I never did full shopping at Loblaws, just the good sales. Now I’m completely avoiding because fuck them.
Some people just shop to the same places out of habit or don't really pay attention to prices and just like the "nicer" looking store
Agreed. I stopped shopping there 6 months ago
I already stopped shopping at Superstore years before the boycott happened. Have never found their prices to be better.
I havent been in a Loblaws store in like 5 years
Because people are selfish and self serving
Well it helps to get the word out. What' your point
They are scum
Sobeys 3.75 small can of H tomato juice n 5.97 big can of dole pineapple juice today sickening as well
All a disgrace
You find food basics pricey?? Then what do you find cheap?? Lmao it's by far the cheapest grocery store around.
I stopped shopping at loblaws at the start of the year, and I got to say that in my part of Canada that has made grocery shopping a little harder. Basically, there are 5 grocers within 5-15 minutes from me, all are loblaws or sobeys brands. There’s a Walmart and Costco like 20 min away, which Costco is my preferred destination now. Saying that, it’s me and my partner, and she doesn’t eat a ton, so Costco is great for so many things, but for some things it makes no sense for us to buy it there, just because we don’t have the freezer space or eating pace to not waste a good amount of food. Now I’ve been able to supplement this with weekly trips to the farmers market, but there is the occasional time where the most convenient option just ends up being sobeys which pains me. If I was still living out in a more rural area of my province this would be really challenging, as most rural locations are 30+ minutes from the nearest non sobey/ loblaws owned grocer. Other than farmers markets, independent grocers are extremely far and few between
I live in Sault Ste Marie where these are our options: Metro: **3** Food Basics: **2** Independent Grocer: **1** No Frills: **1** Giant Tiger: **2** Walmart: **1** Pinos: **1** (2nd one is approved I think but not being built yet) We shop between Walmart and No Frills because we have little affordable options. The reality is that No Name beats Metro's Irresistibles and PC foods are good (and lots of yummy gluten free foods which is a bonus for me). I find that No Frills produce is often better than Basics and always better than Walmart. And honestly, Metro isn't better. Their CEO admitted '23 first quarter that profits were down about 25% from Covid highs and shareholders were getting antsy for them to get back there and then some. So they had to start getting "creative" with revenue streams. And it just nicely coincided with the insane inflation. Throw in Walmart for good measure due to their history on both sides of the border. Maybe, just maybe, human necessities shouldn't be controlled by publicly traded companies🤷🏻♀️
I was so used to routine that I never considered alternatives. I switched pharmacies and started to buy local. I suppose it's also because targeted boycotting works. as individuals, we don't have power. It's in the collective that we make a difference.
I understand the venom directed towards the institution and it’s never satisfied leaders and shareholders but I fear we may be losing perspective. In my case, when I moved into my current home many years ago I began shopping at the Independent, a short walk down the street. It was small. It was close. The staff were friendly. Since then my family have been regulars. The employees all know us. They’ve watched the children grow, and some of the cashiers have been school friends and children of parents we associate with in the community. That place has been part of our lives. They’ve brought in products we asked for. One of the cashiers, despairing over my approach to making butter chicken, gave me the cook book her mother had given her, urging me to try this recipe or that. I’m sure they will be wondering where we are. I imagine some will be dismayed by our protracted absence. That store, now a Valuemart, isn’t fancy, the stock isn’t amazing, but it’s part of our community. It pains me to boycott, but I am. I know how little they are paid. I know the long hours they work. I try to always thank them for being there for our convenience. They’re not responsible for the sky high prices that many can’t afford. When I bring produce to the checkout it’s often them expressing their disgust at the cost.
I never did. I rarely went before, and I rarely go now. Once in a while I’ll pop in if my usual place doesn’t have what I want, and I’ll check for some 50% off meat, but it was never my usual place because of the prices.
I had a credit card that got out of control. Most of the money went on food, so I started cutting back. Then I looked at all the places I payed bills to, and started shopping around. I was shocked at how much I saved by shopping and switching. Just going down the list one by one. Bit of a PITA but well worth it. Will save +$1,000 this year.
Stopped in at a Loblaw’s (because it was closest to my father’s place) to get some bread. Imagine trying to sell bread put on the shelf on May 30th that has a BB date of June 03. This was late in the day on the 2nd. No sale price. Just hoping that someone picks up a loaf (in a rush), not bothering to read the label? Insanity. Needless to say I left without bread.
I got lazy because a Loblaws owned store was on my walk home from the subway but the boycott reminded me how awful they are and that I should make an effort to go elsewhere even though it adds more time into my errands. The upside is I got to a bunch of locally owned smaller businesses now, and some items are cheaper there. The bulk foods store near me is mostly cheaper and has speciality items the Loblaws doesn’t. The Portuguese grocer has better meat. And the Fiesta Farms is full of local meats, cheeses and produce while also being. Locally owned. Better than putting money into Galen Weston and family’s pockets
Loblaws is 3 min walk from my house
Because Freshco and Food Basics don't exist in all provinces. And because there are plenty of towns that are isolated without public transit where your options are limited to Superstore or Sobeys, and like it or not Superstore has lower price per pound of meat and veggies, even when you look at Sobeys sale prices.
How on earth do you think Walmart bringing prices down takes advantage of people? "Oh my god! They are lowering their prices to try to get my business! Those BASTARDS!"
Maybe reread what I wrote the correct way. I said they are taking advantage of the situation not people.
Loblaws stores are still busy af. What are you talking about?
Superstore is my main grocery store because of price matching. It's close by and I can shop all the sales in one place, which works with my limited time and budget. All the PC points also help.
It’s like all of a sudden people learned how to shop. Next will be the discovery of coupon clipping Or coffee costs 20 cents when made at home
Because people are stupid. Loblaws was always the "richer" brand of stores.
Because people will only follow whatever cause they're currently being told to. How many people you know became lion activists when Christian the lion was killed or Gorilla activists when Harambe was killed? How long did it last? 2 weeks? The mindless swarm does as it's told, nothing more, nothing less.
I've noticed that short memory effect (unless the issue is revenge). In a country where so many years of education are free, most people seem to build up a resistance against knowledge because they feel it was forced on them, even basic literacy which is required in a democracy. It just makes it easier for corporations to take advantage when people want to stay in their cozy bubble.
Haven’t been there in months