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.
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.
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.
100% on board. First stop is to local grocers, then Costco, and if those fail, then I’ll resort to Sobeys.
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.
I will join!
100% committed to the boycott. Haven’t shopped there since it was first suggested. We scan everything to avoid supporting genocide in Gaza as well. I’m old and cranky and just not having it.
In it 100%
They’re greedy AF
I already don’t shop at any of those, and will continue not to.
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.
My wife and I agreed not to. We live in a small community, but have the following:
A small, independent market Your Independent Grocer (owned by loblaws) IGA (mostly independent)
Definitly options even in a community of only 10k people.
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.
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.
Great list. In my area, I only need to avoid Maxi and Provigo.
There are so many small “dépanneurs” and specialty grocery stores.
They all have amaizing deals on their niche products:
- rice, lentils, dehydrated beans, spices, chili, bitter gourd >>>> indian store
- rice, sauces, noodles, mushroom, fish/seafood, daikon >>>> asian store
- beans, spices, coconut, plantain, okra, eddo leaf >>>> jamaican store
- arabic, latin american, senegalese, etc. grocery stores in addition to bakeries, fish mongers, butcher shops, etc.
Every speciaty store has their own fresh produces from typical fruits and vegetables we see everywhere to uniques ones found nowhere else.
