Local impact of the Loblaw boycott

Transcona

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This article was published 29/05/2024 (863 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Loblaw Companies Ltd. has come under fire this past month, facing a national boycott call of all its retail grocery locations. In 2018, the retail giant operated over 2,400 stores, and owns Loblaws, Zehrs, Your Independent Grocer, Provigo, Atlantic Superstore, Fortinos, Dominion, Independent City Market, Freshmart, Valu-mart, ARZ Fine Foods, Real Canadian Wholesale Club, T&T Supermarket, Real Canadian Superstore and Liquorstore, No Frills, Maxi, Extra Foods, Pharmaprix and Shoppers Drug Mart. Currently, Loblaw is the largest grocery chain in Canada. In Transcona, Loblaw operates Tyler’s NoFrills on Plessis Road and The Real Canadian Superstore off Regent Avenue.

The boycott emerged from the members of the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol subreddit, created by Emily Johnson in 2023. The organizers’ demands include the establishment of a grocery code of conduct. Retailers such as Costco and IGA have intimated support for such a code. Galen Weston, the fourth-generation owner and chair of Loblaw’s board of directors, initially voiced concerns that this would sooner increase prices, however, the company indicated on May 16 that it would support the grocery code of conduct.

Locally, opinions on the boycott are divided, with many consumers uncertain that a boycott of one major chain will really impact issues like price gouging.

Laurie Tosh, who regularly gets her groceries from NoFrills, spent the month in search of alternatives to major grocery chains. In a message discussing the boycott, Tosh shared that she’s struggled to find local alternatives:

“I tried to get what I needed at Family Foods on Watt Street and their shelves were pretty bare,” Tosh said. “I ended up getting what I couldn’t find there at Walmart because I needed some other non-grocery items.”

Canada’s largest grocers have been under increased scrutiny the past decade, especially after Canada Bread and Weston Foods traded information on their participation, and that of retailers – including Loblaw, Walmart, Giant Tiger, Sobeys and Metro — in a 14-year price fixing scheme to hyper-inflate the cost of bread in exchange for immunity from prosecution. The House of Commons standing committee on agriculture and agri-food began a study of Canadian food pricing in 2022 and it is from this committee that the grocery code of conduct has emerged.

A set of questions and a request to interview the owners of the Transcona locations has been sent to Loblaw’s public relation team, which had not responded at the time of writing.

On May 21, a public statement at r/loblawsisoutofcontrol said “community members… have voted overwhelmingly to extend their boycott indefinitely.”