Is Shoppers Drug Mart "scamming" customers? Here's what we know

If you live in Canada, chances are you’ve bought something at Shoppers Drug Mart multiple times in your life.

The trusted drug store chain has more than 1,300 locations throughout the country, and thousands of customers pick up their prescriptions, food, toiletries, and even electronics there daily. There’s a new PC Optimum sale almost every day of the week to take advantage of.

But the trust people have in Shoppers Drug Mart seems to be wavering. A TikTok posted on November 20 has sparked a conversation about whether SDM’s “price freeze” sales are really sales.

A TikToker named Adnan uploaded a video — the only video on their page — showing an item being discounted from $4.99 to $4.39 under a price freeze. But when you lift the price freeze tag, the old price tag reads $4.39.

@gahtdamnadnan Shoppers Drug Mart are SCAMMERS #shopping #canada #toronto #scam #cryforhelp #imbetterthanyou ♬ original sound – Adnan

“Shoppers Drug Mart are SCAMMERS,” wrote Adnan in their caption. The video has amassed a flood of clashing comments, with people saying they’ve had the same experience and others saying this is common industry practice.

Some people claim to be former Loblaw employees under the video, too. Loblaw is SDM’s parent company and operates several other chains around Canada, including PharmaPrix, CityMarket, No Frills, and Real Canadian Superstore.

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“That’s their way of trying to trick you,” wrote one commenter under Adnan’s video. “I do the same, I always check.”

“Why is this a thing? The sticker is a call out to let you know it’s on sale,” countered another. “The sale price is under it because those stickers get taken off easily.”

“Not scammers. Someone just forgot to do price changes when they came down. It happens people!!!!” someone else echoed.

Daily Hive reached out to Loblaw for clarification.

“As you know, prices can fluctuate. The regular price of this product is now $4.99, however we have committed to freezing the price at $4.49 until December 2 (as mentioned on the tag),” wrote a spokesperson from the Loblaw PR team.

“The tag underneath is an old tag and should have been removed,” they admitted. “We’ll be in touch with the store to address this.”

We now know that the practice shown in the video is not in accordance with store policy, and may have been a staff error.

According to the comments on Adnan’s video, this is a common occurrence at a variety of stores, and many shoppers suspect it is not erroneous, but a tactic.

Has this ever happened to you? Let us know in the comments.