Including their brandname chains:
- Atlantic Cash & Carry
- Atlantic Superstore
- Axep
- Bloor Street Market
- Dominion
- Les Entrepôts Presto
- Extra Foods
- Fortinos
- Freshmart
- L’Intermarché
- Loblaws / Loblaw GreatFood / Loblaws CityMarket
- Lucky Dollar Foods
- Maxi / Maxi & Cie
- NG Cash & Carry
- No Frills
- Provigo
- Real Canadian Superstore
- Shop Easy Foods
- Shoppers Drug Mart / Pharmaprix
- SuperValu
- T & T Supermarket
- Valu-mart
- Wholesale Club / Club Entrepôt
- Your Independent Grocer / Independent CityMarket
- Zehrs Markets
Yes there are other big oligopoly chains like metro, Sobeys/Safeway, Pattison, but I think it’s best to start with one major chain to see how much coordinated action can affect them.
Started switching away from all of their stores last month in anticipation. I try to get everything I can from Costco, and use FreshCo for everything else.
Saying farewell to Zehrs will be easy but I could never give up my beloved Costco!
Costco are known for treating their staff unusually well compared to other retailers, so I think that’s fine.
worked at costco for a year. It was great. full of old timers, and lots of respect for the staff.
100%. They’re the only ones making a decent rotisserie chicken these days, and it’s only $8!?
My mom bought a 50% off rotisserie chicken from Zehrs yesterday that looked shrivelled and disgusting…7 dollars after the half off 😳. Managed to convince her to join the boycott at least!
I’d wager it is, or was, a loss leader. Its position at the very end of the store has to be strategic to make you look at everything else on the way.
Boycotts work if you isolate one company or one brand … then they would either be forced to change … or go out of business.
Once one company or brand is severely affected or goes under, then everyone moves on to a new target.
My mental health can’t even take walking into the store that considered us all thieves. I get so pissed off and irrationally angry seeing a Loblaws store let alone walking in…I’ll never go back even if they ‘fix the prices’ (sadly this pun isn’t intended…)
Loblaws has stolen plenty from Canadian farmers, suppliers, store owners, grocery workers and consumers over the years. It’s time to treat the Weston family as the thieves they are.
The unpleasant experience is one of the main reasons I haven’t shopped there in many years.
Literally every wholesaler is owned by one of the big companies, so it’s still coming from there even at an independent grocer. No, I will not be expending effort on this, personally. Downvote me if you need.
I agree that avoiding any of the big companies is nearly impossible, and if we switch for a month from one big company to another it seems pointless, but my hope is that if Loblaws sees a real impact from this boycott it will put a bit of fear into any of them that they could be next. I could be naive, but it seems worth trying (if you can, I understand some cannot).
Most people don’t have a choice. Where I live there’s a food basics next door, and the next closest is a metro that’s like a 20 minute bus ride away+waiting for the bus.
Yeah. My one local store is independant, and as a result it’s super expensive and mostly sells produce already going bad. Y’know, because whichever wholesaler punishes them for not being in the club.
What we actually need is for those new competition laws parliament passed this year to be applied.
I bet your shitty grocer would do that regardless. Sounds like he’s ripping people off
I can’t rule it out. As far as I know he has no control over what lettuce comes off the trucks, though, and I don’t see a motive for making it worse.
If you’re doing grocery shopping once a every two weeks then it’s not too bad.
I got 4 people at home, including one teenager. If I bought food only every other week, I would need like 3 carts and 3 arms to pull them and load em on the bus with lol
This argument comes up a lot. MOST people are suburbanites who drive to a grocery store and in a major urban area. They can probably switch to something else with a slightly further drive. Rural folks and urban folks without a car are definitely going to experience a greater challenge on this.
The only one I visit at all is Shoppers Drug Mart, and that one’s not going to be an issue to cut out. Kinda tweaked that my local post office is operating out of it, though, and directly funneling public dollars into Galen Weston’s pockets.
I don’t drive, I’m too poor to live anywhere well connected, and I’m disabled. So I rely on delivery and need my groceries to be as cheap as possible. That means No Frills. I buy from there or starve, I’m afraid. I’d be more inclined towards a guillotine based solution for Loblaws and Pattison anyway.
Aren’t all the chains and other corporations doing the same price fixing? Or did Loblaws do something extra shady?
This decade and a half long bread price fixing scheme was something that set Loblaws apart
Profits were up 9.8% over last year, and dividends to shareholders just announced to increase 15%.
Earlier this year they were going to lower the “near-spoiled” discount from 50% to 30% but cancelled that after backlash. So none of the increase in sales/profits seem to be going to anyone other than shareholders and the Weston family.
Also Galen Weston has been going on a PR tour past couple of years to say “nothing to see here” “we totally aren’t gouging you on the necessities”.
I go to food basics and it’s worse. I constantly find expired food in the fridges and shelves, items 2-3 weeks past. I went to buy fresh English muffins and found them frozen, when I asked they told me they freeze them and then thaw them out and shelf then when they’re low, so they’re charging me fresh food prices for frozen bread. They also never clean their produce shelves. There are stains on the shelves I’ve been looking at for 2 years.
Absolutely I’m not saying any chain is particularly good (my local save on foods has unionized workers, good bread but stupid prices for things other than grocery staples). Consumers need to force the oligopoly to compete with each other. A co-ordinated monthly rotating boycott would be an excellent way to do that.
Every worker in Canada should have a union and it’s a disgrace to this country that they don’t.
I’m a union worker so I refuse to use the self checkouts. When an employee points me to one I shake my head and refuse. I want to be checked out by a human who is treated well and is paid a fair wage, not by a machine that’s just there so a corporation can cut out a worker.
They are all the same. But that Weston guy is extra unlikeable and visible.
100% on board. First stop is to local grocers, then Costco, and if those fail, then I’ll resort to Sobeys.
I will join!
Grocery Alternatives:
- Costco
Walmart- Save On Foods
Walmart
The human rights violation company.
totally fair, not sure why that escaped me
I’ve edited the original comment👍
There’s a lot of options, including big and small chains and local independents depending on your needs. It may be worth boycotting other chains in some order to keep everyone on their toes, but none have been as blatantly greedy as Loblaws for sure.
In it 100%
They’re greedy AF
My wife and I have been spitefully avoiding loblaws for a while now. We get most of our meat & produce from the weekend market, bread from the local bakery, and anything else from the Asian/Indian supermarket or Metro if it can’t be found elsewhere.
The last straw was the prison gates and the receipt checking. Show some dignity.
Is Metro any better though?
It depends. I’d say on average it’s higher for “convenience” items but the cost of milk, cheese, rice, pantry staples, etc seems to be about the same.
If there was a food basics nearby I’d probably go there, but in my city that means driving another 15 minutes.
The only alternatives in my town are Walmart (the human rights violation company) or Sobeys (the wallet rapists). Maybe I can eat Shin-cup noodles for a month.
I already don’t shop at any of those, and will continue not to.
My wife and I are joining the boycott. Who knows what will come of it, but this might be a good reminder for the big grocery retailers that they don’t have a right to our patronage.
In my part of QC, the only “Loblaws” around me is a Maxi, it’s pretty cheap certainly one of the most affordable groceries here. But I can go to a nearby SuperC just to boycott Galen.
Every bit helps. Even a 3% drop at the Q2 report in a few months will be noteworthy for shareholders.
