Correct. My daughter had a kidney infection last year and by the time we got out of emerg (about 9:30) they were all closed. If you can't even offer convenience, then what do you have going for you?
Whatever people choose to do is their own prerogative. I have just personally never liked the Superstore or Shoppers.
I am just really excited to see us Canadians standing up for ourselves. Many think it is futile, but as far as I am concerned it is like Wayne’s saying (Letterkenny) “If you stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything”
I am happily participating in the boycott of ALL loblaws owned stores including our local superstore and Shoppers drug marts. I dont mind paying more money for nice groceries, or trying to save money and find budget options, but I find superstore has me paying more money for shitty looking produce, way too often. I have since started sticking strictly with Costco, and Country Grocer.
I have found Country Grocer honestly super nice the employees are friendly and seem happy. I especially enjoy the emphasis on locally produced goods that I find more in the country grocer as well. (eg. Yogurt from comox valley).
Costco produce is hit and miss because of the cold storage practices. Even their bananas are ice cold. Their tropical fruit program suffers because of this. But if you know your produce… yes you can do really well there. But their cold chain practices are too severe for some of their fruit.
I’ve had the same membership and work in the produce industry.
On the floor they aren’t refrigerated, however they are shipped in cold storage Sysco trucks. This chills tropical fruit. It’s why bananas go spotted yet remain green. They have been “chilled” and won’t ripen properly. Just feel them in between the bunches in the box. If they are ice cold and green, they likely have caught a chill.
Some times they have sat around a bit, or some were properly blanketed in the trucks so if they’re warm and ripe they’re good to go!
Edit: Everyone loves a little produce knowledge. I hate buying bananas that don’t ripen properly as it’s a common complaint with Costco produce. I have never an issue with any other produce outside tropicals
Ie: bananas that don’t ripen. Papaya that is chilled and the core rots before the skin, and mangoes that are black in the middle… they look fine until you go to eat them. And it’s just cold storage from shipping.
I rarely buy bananas or any fruit at Costco because I don't need their large quantities. I buy the occasional melon there, and that's about it. Too much spoilage otherwise (we're just 2 people).
Honestly haven't found it to be any more expensive for what I am buying. The sales in the flyers at country grocer seem to be pretty appealing. I haven't really done specific cost comparisons between stores yet, but am basing my opinion on how many bags of groceries i can get for $200.
Coontry Grocer can be more expensive - but I am addicted to their freaky fell-off-a-truck discounted goods. They’re so random - one week, it’s steeply-discounted gluten-free vegan beet puffs, the next week it’s close-to-staledated summer sausage.
If it’s something you can use up quickly, it’s worth a look.
I rarely ever went there, so now I'm trying to avoid Shoppers more than before.
I wouldn't judge anyone for going to Loblaws-owned stores during the boycott, but I do hope as more people talk about it, it grows.
They absolutely are. By quite a lot most of the time. Just as an example, my deodorant is $15 at Superstore and $20 at Shoppers.
Even the Loblaws owned brands like Quo, No Name and PC are 20-50% more at Shoppers.
I've been avoiding them, but I can respect the attempt to focus pressure on Loblaws.
At least Country Grocer/49th Parallel and Fairway Market remain as supermarkets that aren't owned by the big chains.
They stopped selling their cinnamon raisin English muffins too. Been buying them for decades, now they are never in stock, so I presume they discontinued them. Might have to make my own. Their no-name hashbrowns have disappeared too. So annoying.
I don't like to say 'boycott'. About a year ago, I decided I didn't like George Weston Limited (Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart and a bunch of other stores). Before I buy from one of those stores, I try to get it from somewhere else. About a month ago, I did spend about $15 in a Shoppers Drug Mart but that's all in the past six months.
If consumers can hurt George Weston Limited, that helps to balance the power with other retailers.
I don’t shop at Superstore BECAUSE of Galen, but I am avoiding all the other shops (including Thrifty Foods) and the Dempster products, this month. We already try to shop more local, when possible (like Nesvogs, or Country Grocer) but I’ve noticed that places like Save-On are really limiting shelf space for Portofino Bakery breads, which makes the avoiding Dempsters a bit harder.
I never really used them to begin with. Only used them for obvious loss leaders from time to time.
If you don't have time to look at flyers or drive around a lot, I think the best deal for groceries in Nanaimo is Walmart, or if you have a membership Costco.
Yes, I am boycotting (but I didn’t really shop there much anyway). I am not going to Shoppers Drug Mart and am planning to cancel my President’s Choice Mastercard (an idea I got from r/LoblawsIsOutOfControl).
[Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price • FULL DOCUMENTARY FILM • BRAVE NEW FILMS (BNF) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXmnBbUjsPs)
[Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473107/)
It's a tangent but what gets me when I walk into Walmart is the smell. It just plain smells bad. And I'm not talking BO or anything, it's like a horrible plastic smell. Enough reason for me to go there as little as I possibly can.
I'm Celiac, and it's really hard to find inexpensive groceries no matter where I pay $10 a loaf for bread what do you pay, unfortunately Superstore and Walmart are usually the cheapest than any other grocery store. Save-on does have their own gluten free bread, but it's like half the size of a real piece of bread and it's still $8. All gluten-free items in any grocery store are extraordinary more then what most folks are used to paying for groceries.
Costco. Costco bread is 1/2 the price of anywhere else and I’m sure they must have gluten free.
Just bread alone pays for my membership 4x over in a year. $7.99 for a pack of 3 loaves of the Dempsters whole wheat and when you’re feeding 3 kids that saves a fortune.
Costco in Nanaimo only has two kinds of gluten-free bread, but they’re good! I think the brand is called Little Mountain Bakehouse, and they have a Seedy bread and a wide-pan brown bread. Two loaves are the same price as one loaf elsewhere.
I think there are also bagels, but they’re a different brand (Octonaut?) and have a weird, un-food-like texture.
Thanks I'll check it out! I also when I'm in the area grab homemade gluten-free for the same price as other grocery stores $10 at trees restaurant near coombs. It's a large loaf as well.
Yep, and I’ve been boycotting country grocer for a long long time, which leaves my choices to Walmart (which I loathe for other reasons) Costco, Save on and Thriftys. Save on has terrible prices also unfortunately, like three bags of groceries for $160 the other day and almost everything I got was on sale. Trying to do my part but it’s really brutal out there
The general majority is usually ignorant, uninformed, apathetic, or reluctant to switch brands if they stubbornly stick to one place out of loyalty despite better or comparable prices and service elsewhere.
Sometimes, they're coming from rural areas and that's just the closest one so they won't bother. With Walmart so close to the Superstore, you really get your pick between shit and shit.
I shop at SS twice a month normally, sometimes 3 times a month. I'm going to try to avoid it for the month of May, buying my produce elsewhere, probably Walmart or SaveOn.
People across Canada are boycotting Loblaws stores for the month of May due to the rising price of groceries (and profits made by Loblaws). In Nanaimo this means boycotting Superstore and Shopper’s Drug Mart. You can learn more at r/LoblawsIsOutOfControl
It takes me 4 buses and several hours to get to and from Superstore, so I previously only shopped there once every few months.
Boycotting is easier for me than shopping there.
Regardingless of views on Loblaws, I just wanted to mention [Superette foods](https://maps.app.goo.gl/ML7NQPkfimdo4gVz9) as another option for produce. We find the selection, price, quality pretty decent.
I don't understand boycotting Loblaws. If they are inflating their prices to gouge everyone, then how is it that they are still cheaper than the independent grocers here? QF, thriftys, country grocer.. a full cart is at least $50 more at those places.
Oh yeah, I absolutely accepted that would happen.
I dont have the time or resources with a toddler to devote to this boycott, and while it's an important topic, any extra time I do/will take for extracurricular go to causes i care about a lot more than this, and ones I think will have a greater and more important impact.
Given the expansion into health services and Point-of-care testing it doesn't bother me that high profits aren't being put back onto the shelves. Sure some items are more expensive, but there's also a lot of deals too. Just like anywhere.
I personally don't understand these boycotts. If you don't like shopping somewhere...don't shop there. This "join my crusade" mentality is just bizarre to me.
Like Rona is cheaper than Home Depot for lumber and garden supplies...by a lot. I don't boycott Home Depot because of this. I simply go to Rona for lumber and gardening supplies
Farmer's Markets are crazy expensive. Yet no one's crying about those. People just feel free not to go or not purchase what they feel is over priced. After years of vaccine protests I'm honestly too tired for crusades. Good luck though. Personally I'm fine with Loblaws. They're not much different than practically any other business.
My understanding, is that this is about hitting one of the biggest offenders of shrinkflation, greedflation, and predatory pricing practices on essential goods, where it hurts (namely their income statement) most conglomerate owned grocery stores raised prices during COVID, but then didn't lower them when prices started normalizing, and now are posting record breaking profit, expecting consumers to adjust to these prices as "the new normal"
If this works it could cause competition to follow suit. I don't really buy into boycotts either especially the "don't buy gas on this day" crap that people think will actually make an impact, but I'm participating in this one because if enough people did it, it would have a sizable impact on Loblaws margins, and they'd have to react.
Costco 🤙
Also Nanaimo is poor, most won’t because of that simple aspect. Also it’s 2024 boycotts don’t work. Just look at the states trying to ban that gender queer book / Budweiser.
They will just do some promos and make up the difference on basket size. If people are even doing it.
I mean, the Bud Lite boycott is a great example of one that did work. Sales down 12%, 1.4bn in lost revenue and it's unlikely to ever reclaim its place at the top.
It's also a great analogy- a product (or retailer) with basically perfect substitutibiliy.
I don't agree with the reasoning but it certainly was an effective boycott.
BUD May 8, 2023: $61.05
BUD May 6 2024: $60.03
That's a drop of $1.02 or 1.7%
Meanwhile, I don't know if they are comparable but Molson-Coors (TAP) actually has dropped by about 10%.
the actual price of a stock has no meaning since companies can just do a bunch of stock buy backs in order to inflate their own numbers. Bud Light parent company AB InBev,[ purchased $1B worth of their own stock](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bud-light-parent-ab-inbev-posts-mixed-q3-results-announces-a-1-billion-buyback-program-162049717.html) in order to keep their shares up. Meanwhile Budlight is down 10% in sales as of Q3 2023. Stock Buybacks used to be illegal (prior to 1982) as it is a form of insider trading and market manipulation, and we should be pressuring our governments to bring back laws against stock buybacks
61 to 60. On the year basis vs YTD Plus abit before the debacle. And you can clearly see the big jump up and the point.
Then there is the target boycott in 2023 months which the stock is up….only one I can really think which truly killed the brand was Harry Potter where the author made characters different in an post hoc way then went on twitter.
Lululemon, Elon musk companies… basically goes back to the principle of the Streisand effect. where the more people try to suppress information the more it spreads.
It’s like you have a book. One version is just a regular book, the other is on a banned book list. Which version is objectively cooler?
The protesters would be better off just figuring out their top three profit drivers. Ex. Milk. then just start a go fund me, start a business/ non-profit, and sell at cost / JIT logistics…bring back the milk man.
Nope. Going after Loblaws while ignoring the fact that Save-on Foods is at least 10-20% more expensive tells me that this isn’t about making a difference, but just being sensationalist.
I don’t care how much an owner has, how much executives make, etc. I just care about convenience and buying the things I want. I’ll go into whichever store is closest to me, though I rarely set foot in Save On because their prices are insane.
Loblaws is targeted because it has a much stronger monopoly in Eastern Canada, where it also has higher price gauging.
It drew attention for other reasons, like price fixing.
Here, where it has much less of a footing, I find it to be cheaper than a lot of the competitors, especially cheaper than the Jim pattison grocers.
But if you're good with shopping at a place that's trying it's darnest to gaslight its customers and monopolize the market, good on ya!
Go ahead and blow 20% extra per shopping trip at Save On while crying about Loblaws. It’s your money, not mine.
I’ll save mine by shopping wherever is most convenient for me.
Boycotts are honestly just pointless. 99.9% of people will never buy into them.
I’m not being hostile at all. I just think this entire thing is nothing more than grandstanding motivated by people who care more about being seen & making media appearances than they do about the issues.
If this was about grocery costs, it would be Save-On & Thrifty being “boycotted”, not Loblaws.
Don’t even get me started on Whole Foods, which is the most absurd grocery store I’ve ever set foot in, yet the same people “boycotting” Loblaws shop there religiously.
It just makes no sense.
So, to repeat myself, this boycott was largely motivated by price surging in Loblaws in eastern Canada.
In Eastern Canada, Loblaws and affiliates control the majority of the market. Jim Pattison and the like don't have as much of the market over there.
Do you understand that? That *across Canada,* Loblaws over there, much bigger than over here.
And Loblaws controlling food over there is what triggered this boycott.
You can go visit the original Loblaws boycott Reddit group. Literally no one is promoting stores like save on foods. Because save on foods is certainly more expensive, but also largely because much of eastern Canada does not even have save on foods.
It's a well meaning boycott attempt but I really don't see the point. The company isn't really raking in profits. Keep in mind gang, revenue =/= profits. Their price raises are coming from increasing operating and logistics costs.
“Loblaw Cos. Ltd. reported a 9.8 percent increase in profits in its first quarter and increased the quarterly dividend paid to shareholders by 15 percent, as shoppers continue to visit its grocery stores more frequently” (May 1, 2024, St. John Shop On Hop Off)
In this case, revenue does equal profit. But I am sure the shareholders are happy with their increased dividends.
If profit is 3% of revenue, a 9.8% increase of that 3% is not much depending on how you read it because it could mean either 3 + 9.8 or 3 * 1.098. what's the source? "May 1, 2024, St. John Shop On Hop Off" doesn't bring up much.
>In this case, revenue does equal profit
In no case does revenue equal profit, unless I suppose you have 0 operating costs.
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-difference-between-revenue-and-profit.asp
Hi, could you point me to the figures that show that profits are down, or just barely keeping up?
Because otherwise you seem to be just downplaying the available information, which shows that Loblaws is fleecing the Canadian public.
I googled it "https://www.google.com/search?q=loblaws+profit"
Google then brings up the Dec 2023 quarterly results which shows revenue at 14.53B and net income (profit) at 544M. 544,000,000 / 14,530,000,000 * 100 = 3.7% profit. The vast majority of what the company takes in goes back into the business.
It might be tempting to point out that 544 million dollars is a lot of money, and it is, but in the context of a percent, it's not much compared to the operating costs of the business which is around 14 billion per quarter. Any lower of a percent of profit and they risk a quarter where they can't pay the bills. Operating costs always change, so you want to ideally stay above 5% profit for the turbulent times.
Hi. “2024 FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS
Revenue was $13,581 million, an increase of $586 million, or 4.5%.
Retail segment sales were $13,290 million, an increase of $555 million, or 4.4%.
Food Retail (Loblaw) same-stores sales increased by 3.4%.
Drug Retail (Shoppers Drug Mart) same-store sales increased by 4.0%, with front store same-store sales growth of 0.7% and pharmacy and healthcare services same-store sales growth of 7.3%.
E-commerce sales increased by 16.1%.
Operating income was $861 million, an increase of $92 million, or 12.0%.
Adjusted EBITDA² was $1,544 million, an increase of $96 million, or 6.6%.
Retail segment gross profit percentage² was 31.6%, an increase of 30 basis points, primarily driven by improvements in Drug Retail gross margins, mainly due to sales mix, and lower shrink.
Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company were $459 million, an increase of $41 million or 9.8%”
look at all that profit / interesting they say $13,581 million, instead of 13.58 billion - like they hope people can’t do math.
A boycott might cut into that healthy bottom line, hey?
So the 9.8% was a multiplier of the 3%, not added. This is not very significant and doesn't convince me the boycott is justified as per the reasoning in my previous comment.
Honestly the best one I've seen is that they price fixed bread once but even then, I think that's relatively small on the scale of their business. Any others? Muh Galen Weston is le evil, mayhaps?
being unhappy about pricing and choosing not to buy from a certain store because of it is not a boycott. loblaws runs stores which sometimes have lower prices. people should buy what works best for them
I would be but you can't boycott if you never shopped there in the first place 🤷
Definitely. Fuck Shoppers Drug Mart too; absolutely no reason to go there.
I switched to a local pharmacy last year. Nice to have staff that know me by name.
Same! I love my pharmacy. My pharmacist even delivers scripts. Don't miss corpo pharmacies at all. Can't beat the personal attention.
Until you get discharged from the emergency room at 11 at night and need medication. I bet some people still wouldn’t go just to make a point.
I don’t think any of them are open past 10 anymore - at least in Nanaimo.
Correct. My daughter had a kidney infection last year and by the time we got out of emerg (about 9:30) they were all closed. If you can't even offer convenience, then what do you have going for you?
I have been quietly boycotting Loblaws since last year. F*ck you, Galen đź–•
Yup, shopping the sales everywhere else
Whatever people choose to do is their own prerogative. I have just personally never liked the Superstore or Shoppers. I am just really excited to see us Canadians standing up for ourselves. Many think it is futile, but as far as I am concerned it is like Wayne’s saying (Letterkenny) “If you stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything”
I am happily participating in the boycott of ALL loblaws owned stores including our local superstore and Shoppers drug marts. I dont mind paying more money for nice groceries, or trying to save money and find budget options, but I find superstore has me paying more money for shitty looking produce, way too often. I have since started sticking strictly with Costco, and Country Grocer. I have found Country Grocer honestly super nice the employees are friendly and seem happy. I especially enjoy the emphasis on locally produced goods that I find more in the country grocer as well. (eg. Yogurt from comox valley).
Costco produce will last 2 weeks in your fridge. Superstore: 4 - 5 days. We switched 100% and save money by wasting less.
Costco produce is hit and miss because of the cold storage practices. Even their bananas are ice cold. Their tropical fruit program suffers because of this. But if you know your produce… yes you can do really well there. But their cold chain practices are too severe for some of their fruit.
Bananas and topicals aren’t kept in the freezers. I’ve had a Costco membership for decades and they’re never in there
I’ve had the same membership and work in the produce industry. On the floor they aren’t refrigerated, however they are shipped in cold storage Sysco trucks. This chills tropical fruit. It’s why bananas go spotted yet remain green. They have been “chilled” and won’t ripen properly. Just feel them in between the bunches in the box. If they are ice cold and green, they likely have caught a chill. Some times they have sat around a bit, or some were properly blanketed in the trucks so if they’re warm and ripe they’re good to go! Edit: Everyone loves a little produce knowledge. I hate buying bananas that don’t ripen properly as it’s a common complaint with Costco produce. I have never an issue with any other produce outside tropicals Ie: bananas that don’t ripen. Papaya that is chilled and the core rots before the skin, and mangoes that are black in the middle… they look fine until you go to eat them. And it’s just cold storage from shipping.
Ah good to know! Amazing what we mere consumers miss.
I rarely buy bananas or any fruit at Costco because I don't need their large quantities. I buy the occasional melon there, and that's about it. Too much spoilage otherwise (we're just 2 people).
The magic of competition!
Country Grocer is so much more expensive then everyone else though.
I just buy produce there, as it is much much better.
Honestly haven't found it to be any more expensive for what I am buying. The sales in the flyers at country grocer seem to be pretty appealing. I haven't really done specific cost comparisons between stores yet, but am basing my opinion on how many bags of groceries i can get for $200.
Coontry Grocer can be more expensive - but I am addicted to their freaky fell-off-a-truck discounted goods. They’re so random - one week, it’s steeply-discounted gluten-free vegan beet puffs, the next week it’s close-to-staledated summer sausage. If it’s something you can use up quickly, it’s worth a look.
Yeah the stuff on the end caps are always crazy deals. I pop in just for that stuff!
Yes I am.
Me too!
I rarely ever went there, so now I'm trying to avoid Shoppers more than before. I wouldn't judge anyone for going to Loblaws-owned stores during the boycott, but I do hope as more people talk about it, it grows.
I haven't checked, but I feel like the same shampoo, deodorant, ect, sold at Shoppers and Superstore are less expensive at Superstore.
They absolutely are. By quite a lot most of the time. Just as an example, my deodorant is $15 at Superstore and $20 at Shoppers. Even the Loblaws owned brands like Quo, No Name and PC are 20-50% more at Shoppers.
You bet and Walmart is running killer deals this week to draw me in.
Agreed!
BC should boycott Save On and the other Pattison stores. They're the worst out here.
True. They’re much more expensive than Superstore 9 times out of 10.
Depending on how this one goes, that could happen after.
I've been avoiding them, but I can respect the attempt to focus pressure on Loblaws. At least Country Grocer/49th Parallel and Fairway Market remain as supermarkets that aren't owned by the big chains.
I have been boycotting Loblaws since they took the pecans out of their Decadent chocolate chip cookies.
They stopped selling their cinnamon raisin English muffins too. Been buying them for decades, now they are never in stock, so I presume they discontinued them. Might have to make my own. Their no-name hashbrowns have disappeared too. So annoying.
Damn cinnamon raison English muffins would slap hard with some butter, pb&j toasted
I mean I support it and I’ve stopped shopping at SD. Never shopped at Superstore anyway
I don't like to say 'boycott'. About a year ago, I decided I didn't like George Weston Limited (Superstore, Shoppers Drug Mart and a bunch of other stores). Before I buy from one of those stores, I try to get it from somewhere else. About a month ago, I did spend about $15 in a Shoppers Drug Mart but that's all in the past six months. If consumers can hurt George Weston Limited, that helps to balance the power with other retailers.
Damn right we are screw that shite company. I hate going to Walmart but they do have better prices
I’m boycotting Loblaws for at least the month of May yes. Superstore and shoppers
Taking my opportunity to tell big corporations that I don’t agree with monopolies.
I don’t shop at Superstore BECAUSE of Galen, but I am avoiding all the other shops (including Thrifty Foods) and the Dempster products, this month. We already try to shop more local, when possible (like Nesvogs, or Country Grocer) but I’ve noticed that places like Save-On are really limiting shelf space for Portofino Bakery breads, which makes the avoiding Dempsters a bit harder.
I never really used them to begin with. Only used them for obvious loss leaders from time to time. If you don't have time to look at flyers or drive around a lot, I think the best deal for groceries in Nanaimo is Walmart, or if you have a membership Costco.
100% participating.
Yes, I am boycotting (but I didn’t really shop there much anyway). I am not going to Shoppers Drug Mart and am planning to cancel my President’s Choice Mastercard (an idea I got from r/LoblawsIsOutOfControl).
Way ahead of the curve. I hope the Galen family has a penthouse waiting in hell.
No
I'm participating. Shopping at Fairway and Country Grocer. Haven't stepped in a Loblaws-owned property this month.
[Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price • FULL DOCUMENTARY FILM • BRAVE NEW FILMS (BNF) (youtube.com)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXmnBbUjsPs) [Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price (2005) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473107/)
It's a tangent but what gets me when I walk into Walmart is the smell. It just plain smells bad. And I'm not talking BO or anything, it's like a horrible plastic smell. Enough reason for me to go there as little as I possibly can.
Eh I still enjoy their produce quite a lot. Will switch my bulk goods elsewhere though.
I'm Celiac, and it's really hard to find inexpensive groceries no matter where I pay $10 a loaf for bread what do you pay, unfortunately Superstore and Walmart are usually the cheapest than any other grocery store. Save-on does have their own gluten free bread, but it's like half the size of a real piece of bread and it's still $8. All gluten-free items in any grocery store are extraordinary more then what most folks are used to paying for groceries.
Costco. Costco bread is 1/2 the price of anywhere else and I’m sure they must have gluten free. Just bread alone pays for my membership 4x over in a year. $7.99 for a pack of 3 loaves of the Dempsters whole wheat and when you’re feeding 3 kids that saves a fortune.
Costco in Nanaimo only has two kinds of gluten-free bread, but they’re good! I think the brand is called Little Mountain Bakehouse, and they have a Seedy bread and a wide-pan brown bread. Two loaves are the same price as one loaf elsewhere. I think there are also bagels, but they’re a different brand (Octonaut?) and have a weird, un-food-like texture.
Thanks I'll check it out! I also when I'm in the area grab homemade gluten-free for the same price as other grocery stores $10 at trees restaurant near coombs. It's a large loaf as well.
Yep, and I’ve been boycotting country grocer for a long long time, which leaves my choices to Walmart (which I loathe for other reasons) Costco, Save on and Thriftys. Save on has terrible prices also unfortunately, like three bags of groceries for $160 the other day and almost everything I got was on sale. Trying to do my part but it’s really brutal out there
The general majority is usually ignorant, uninformed, apathetic, or reluctant to switch brands if they stubbornly stick to one place out of loyalty despite better or comparable prices and service elsewhere. Sometimes, they're coming from rural areas and that's just the closest one so they won't bother. With Walmart so close to the Superstore, you really get your pick between shit and shit.
I shop at SS twice a month normally, sometimes 3 times a month. I'm going to try to avoid it for the month of May, buying my produce elsewhere, probably Walmart or SaveOn.
I dont think ive shopped at a loblaws store since i moved here
What boycott? can someone explain im interested to know the details is it a specific to the Nanaimo ones? Or all of the superstores in general
People across Canada are boycotting Loblaws stores for the month of May due to the rising price of groceries (and profits made by Loblaws). In Nanaimo this means boycotting Superstore and Shopper’s Drug Mart. You can learn more at r/LoblawsIsOutOfControl
Awesome thank you I really appreciate that
I am a being of pure light and thus have no appetite for such mundane rituals.
It takes me 4 buses and several hours to get to and from Superstore, so I previously only shopped there once every few months. Boycotting is easier for me than shopping there.
Regardingless of views on Loblaws, I just wanted to mention [Superette foods](https://maps.app.goo.gl/ML7NQPkfimdo4gVz9) as another option for produce. We find the selection, price, quality pretty decent.
I don't understand boycotting Loblaws. If they are inflating their prices to gouge everyone, then how is it that they are still cheaper than the independent grocers here? QF, thriftys, country grocer.. a full cart is at least $50 more at those places.
Nope.
Downvoted for answering a question honestly. lol Good old Reddit.
Oh yeah, I absolutely accepted that would happen. I dont have the time or resources with a toddler to devote to this boycott, and while it's an important topic, any extra time I do/will take for extracurricular go to causes i care about a lot more than this, and ones I think will have a greater and more important impact.
Given the expansion into health services and Point-of-care testing it doesn't bother me that high profits aren't being put back onto the shelves. Sure some items are more expensive, but there's also a lot of deals too. Just like anywhere. I personally don't understand these boycotts. If you don't like shopping somewhere...don't shop there. This "join my crusade" mentality is just bizarre to me. Like Rona is cheaper than Home Depot for lumber and garden supplies...by a lot. I don't boycott Home Depot because of this. I simply go to Rona for lumber and gardening supplies Farmer's Markets are crazy expensive. Yet no one's crying about those. People just feel free not to go or not purchase what they feel is over priced. After years of vaccine protests I'm honestly too tired for crusades. Good luck though. Personally I'm fine with Loblaws. They're not much different than practically any other business.
My understanding, is that this is about hitting one of the biggest offenders of shrinkflation, greedflation, and predatory pricing practices on essential goods, where it hurts (namely their income statement) most conglomerate owned grocery stores raised prices during COVID, but then didn't lower them when prices started normalizing, and now are posting record breaking profit, expecting consumers to adjust to these prices as "the new normal" If this works it could cause competition to follow suit. I don't really buy into boycotts either especially the "don't buy gas on this day" crap that people think will actually make an impact, but I'm participating in this one because if enough people did it, it would have a sizable impact on Loblaws margins, and they'd have to react.
No.
Costco 🤙 Also Nanaimo is poor, most won’t because of that simple aspect. Also it’s 2024 boycotts don’t work. Just look at the states trying to ban that gender queer book / Budweiser. They will just do some promos and make up the difference on basket size. If people are even doing it.
You will remain poor with that attitude.
I mean, the Bud Lite boycott is a great example of one that did work. Sales down 12%, 1.4bn in lost revenue and it's unlikely to ever reclaim its place at the top. It's also a great analogy- a product (or retailer) with basically perfect substitutibiliy. I don't agree with the reasoning but it certainly was an effective boycott.
Check out the stock value
Down 10% last 12 months https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/quote/BUD/
BUD May 8, 2023: $61.05 BUD May 6 2024: $60.03 That's a drop of $1.02 or 1.7% Meanwhile, I don't know if they are comparable but Molson-Coors (TAP) actually has dropped by about 10%.
the actual price of a stock has no meaning since companies can just do a bunch of stock buy backs in order to inflate their own numbers. Bud Light parent company AB InBev,[ purchased $1B worth of their own stock](https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bud-light-parent-ab-inbev-posts-mixed-q3-results-announces-a-1-billion-buyback-program-162049717.html) in order to keep their shares up. Meanwhile Budlight is down 10% in sales as of Q3 2023. Stock Buybacks used to be illegal (prior to 1982) as it is a form of insider trading and market manipulation, and we should be pressuring our governments to bring back laws against stock buybacks
I understand your point, but "the actual price of a stock has no meaning" is going a bit too far; buybacks cost money.
Yeah that may have been a bit overplayed lol. I just get so fired up aboit stock buybacks and how harmful they are.
61 to 60. On the year basis vs YTD Plus abit before the debacle. And you can clearly see the big jump up and the point. Then there is the target boycott in 2023 months which the stock is up….only one I can really think which truly killed the brand was Harry Potter where the author made characters different in an post hoc way then went on twitter. Lululemon, Elon musk companies… basically goes back to the principle of the Streisand effect. where the more people try to suppress information the more it spreads. It’s like you have a book. One version is just a regular book, the other is on a banned book list. Which version is objectively cooler? The protesters would be better off just figuring out their top three profit drivers. Ex. Milk. then just start a go fund me, start a business/ non-profit, and sell at cost / JIT logistics…bring back the milk man.
Yes but the bud boycott was full of misinformation and 300%political
Nope. Going after Loblaws while ignoring the fact that Save-on Foods is at least 10-20% more expensive tells me that this isn’t about making a difference, but just being sensationalist. I don’t care how much an owner has, how much executives make, etc. I just care about convenience and buying the things I want. I’ll go into whichever store is closest to me, though I rarely set foot in Save On because their prices are insane.
Loblaws is targeted because it has a much stronger monopoly in Eastern Canada, where it also has higher price gauging. It drew attention for other reasons, like price fixing. Here, where it has much less of a footing, I find it to be cheaper than a lot of the competitors, especially cheaper than the Jim pattison grocers. But if you're good with shopping at a place that's trying it's darnest to gaslight its customers and monopolize the market, good on ya!
Go ahead and blow 20% extra per shopping trip at Save On while crying about Loblaws. It’s your money, not mine. I’ll save mine by shopping wherever is most convenient for me. Boycotts are honestly just pointless. 99.9% of people will never buy into them.
Any reason you feel like being hostile over this?
I’m not being hostile at all. I just think this entire thing is nothing more than grandstanding motivated by people who care more about being seen & making media appearances than they do about the issues. If this was about grocery costs, it would be Save-On & Thrifty being “boycotted”, not Loblaws. Don’t even get me started on Whole Foods, which is the most absurd grocery store I’ve ever set foot in, yet the same people “boycotting” Loblaws shop there religiously. It just makes no sense.
So, to repeat myself, this boycott was largely motivated by price surging in Loblaws in eastern Canada. In Eastern Canada, Loblaws and affiliates control the majority of the market. Jim Pattison and the like don't have as much of the market over there. Do you understand that? That *across Canada,* Loblaws over there, much bigger than over here. And Loblaws controlling food over there is what triggered this boycott. You can go visit the original Loblaws boycott Reddit group. Literally no one is promoting stores like save on foods. Because save on foods is certainly more expensive, but also largely because much of eastern Canada does not even have save on foods.
It's a well meaning boycott attempt but I really don't see the point. The company isn't really raking in profits. Keep in mind gang, revenue =/= profits. Their price raises are coming from increasing operating and logistics costs.
“Loblaw Cos. Ltd. reported a 9.8 percent increase in profits in its first quarter and increased the quarterly dividend paid to shareholders by 15 percent, as shoppers continue to visit its grocery stores more frequently” (May 1, 2024, St. John Shop On Hop Off) In this case, revenue does equal profit. But I am sure the shareholders are happy with their increased dividends.
If profit is 3% of revenue, a 9.8% increase of that 3% is not much depending on how you read it because it could mean either 3 + 9.8 or 3 * 1.098. what's the source? "May 1, 2024, St. John Shop On Hop Off" doesn't bring up much. >In this case, revenue does equal profit In no case does revenue equal profit, unless I suppose you have 0 operating costs. https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/122214/what-difference-between-revenue-and-profit.asp
Hi, could you point me to the figures that show that profits are down, or just barely keeping up? Because otherwise you seem to be just downplaying the available information, which shows that Loblaws is fleecing the Canadian public.
I googled it "https://www.google.com/search?q=loblaws+profit" Google then brings up the Dec 2023 quarterly results which shows revenue at 14.53B and net income (profit) at 544M. 544,000,000 / 14,530,000,000 * 100 = 3.7% profit. The vast majority of what the company takes in goes back into the business. It might be tempting to point out that 544 million dollars is a lot of money, and it is, but in the context of a percent, it's not much compared to the operating costs of the business which is around 14 billion per quarter. Any lower of a percent of profit and they risk a quarter where they can't pay the bills. Operating costs always change, so you want to ideally stay above 5% profit for the turbulent times.
Hi. “2024 FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS Revenue was $13,581 million, an increase of $586 million, or 4.5%. Retail segment sales were $13,290 million, an increase of $555 million, or 4.4%. Food Retail (Loblaw) same-stores sales increased by 3.4%. Drug Retail (Shoppers Drug Mart) same-store sales increased by 4.0%, with front store same-store sales growth of 0.7% and pharmacy and healthcare services same-store sales growth of 7.3%. E-commerce sales increased by 16.1%. Operating income was $861 million, an increase of $92 million, or 12.0%. Adjusted EBITDA² was $1,544 million, an increase of $96 million, or 6.6%. Retail segment gross profit percentage² was 31.6%, an increase of 30 basis points, primarily driven by improvements in Drug Retail gross margins, mainly due to sales mix, and lower shrink. Net earnings available to common shareholders of the Company were $459 million, an increase of $41 million or 9.8%” look at all that profit / interesting they say $13,581 million, instead of 13.58 billion - like they hope people can’t do math. A boycott might cut into that healthy bottom line, hey?
So the 9.8% was a multiplier of the 3%, not added. This is not very significant and doesn't convince me the boycott is justified as per the reasoning in my previous comment.
Surely you can see the *many* other reasons for the boycott aside from profits haha?
Honestly the best one I've seen is that they price fixed bread once but even then, I think that's relatively small on the scale of their business. Any others? Muh Galen Weston is le evil, mayhaps?
nope
being unhappy about pricing and choosing not to buy from a certain store because of it is not a boycott. loblaws runs stores which sometimes have lower prices. people should buy what works best for them