Loblaw says it’s making “efforts to lower food prices” as thousands gear up for a boycott
Thousands of Canadians are planning a massive Loblaw boycott, and just 40 days before it begins, the grocery giant has shared that it’s “making efforts to lower food prices.”
On Thursday morning, Loblaw’s chief financial officer, Richard Dufresne, commented on food inflation.
Dufresne began his published statement by noting that inflation in Canada had declined to 2.8% in February and that inflation for food bought at stores was now “the lowest it has been since July 2021,” at 2.4%.
He also highlighted that Loblaw’s internal inflation rate in February was “materially lower” than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) food inflation due to continued efforts to do so.
“After four decades when the average grocery inflation rate was about 3%, in the past two years grocery inflation has averaged nearly 9% — levels unheard of in a generation,” the statement continues.
This concern over food prices might sound disingenuous to Canadians who are fed up with Loblaw’s high grocery prices. Some want to teach the company a lesson by boycotting Loblaw-owned stores for May.
What exactly is Loblaw doing?
Loblaw says that its purpose as a company is to “help Canadians live life well, and making good food more affordable and accessible is one of the most important ways we can do that.”
“We’re turning over every stone in our efforts – lowering prices, increasing points offers and making meaningful changes to our business to help customers save money in our stores.”
In Loblaw’s own words, its efforts to lower food prices include:
- Optimizing the company’s store network to include more discount locations, opening 31 new Maxi and No Frills stores in the past year, and planning to open at least 40 more in 2024. These stores save customers approximately 15% compared to conventional grocery stores and will reach 1.8 million more Canadians;
- Introducing new promotions, including the innovative Hit of the Month campaign, which brings aggressive prices on key products across the company’s entire store network;
- And providing deeper discounts on 35 everyday items, ensuring that products that matter the most to Canadians are available at an average of approximately 30% off regular prices.
But will this be enough?
An impending Loblaw boycott
Emily Johnson, a mental health and addictions worker based in Milton, Ontario, created the Reddit community “Loblaws Is Out Of Control” in November 2023 as a “therapeutic outlet for people to complain about prices and have some fun, spreading some memes.”
“Seeing groceries — an essential that nobody can avoid paying for — rise beyond the rate of inflation is really upsetting a lot of people,” she told Daily Hive. “Because Loblaw is one of the most prolific grocers in the country, many people have placed most of that frustration onto Loblaws, especially Galen Weston Jr. himself.”
People joined the subreddit in hordes to express their frustrations. On January 22, it had some 7,500 members; now, it has nearly 31,000. New members dramatically spiked after Loblaw flip-flopped on its 50% discount on almost-expired items.
After tons of posts about grocery comparisons, price hikes, and suspicious sales, they felt it was time to take real-life action. Johnson and seven members of her Reddit moderation team decided to organize a boycott.
The idea has been met with overwhelming enthusiasm.
The boycott’s demands
Loblaw is being asked to reduce its prices by 15% and remove “member-only pricing,” where customers are forced to sign up for a PC Optimum card to access deals and sales.
“The biggest goal outside of ‘hey, don’t charge us exorbitant prices’ is that the consumers really do have the power, we do want to be taken seriously… we don’t want to tolerate monopolies in Canada anymore,” explained Johnson.
“We are boycotting Loblaw and Loblaw-owned stores for the entire month of May 2024 (obviously, you can boycott past this point in time),” a pinned post on the subreddit reads.
There’s a list of Loblaw-owned stories and its subsidiaries to avoid and province-specific alternatives to shop at if you are boycotting.
Those who cannot boycott but are willing to take a stand are asked to take other helpful actions, like writing letters to their MPs, emailing Loblaw customer service, focusing on purchasing loss leaders when shopping at Loblaw stores, and simply spreading the word, among other things.
Loblaw has not responded to Daily Hive’s requests for comment.
With files from Daily Hive’s Isabelle Docto
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