SHOPPERS have added another demand to their list of changes they want Loblaws to institute before a planned boycott of the national chain next month.
Customers began organizing a boycott at Loblaws a few months ago to stand up to high prices and increased security measures at the supermarket company with thousands of stores across Canada.
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The rumbles started when a customer posted a Reddit thread outlining their complaints about the supermarket entitled “Loblaws is out of control but why is everyone still shopping at Loblaws?”
As more and more disgruntled shoppers left comments, people soon began calling for a total boycott of Loblaws for the month of May.
Protestors wanted the store to lower food prices by an average of 15% and get rid of members-only pricing.
“It’s getting ridiculous just to be able to live,” Kelsey Holland, a long-time Loblaws shopper from Ontario told the Canadian national broadcaster CTV News.
Read more about inflation
A 2022 report by the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University found evidence supporting some of the petitioners’ claims about Loblaws’ profitability.
The grocer’s gross profit in the first half of 2022 surpassed its previous record by $180 million, earning the equivalent of an extra $1 million per day, according to Forbes.
Another shopper named Noreen Campbell also complained about Loblaws’ prices and was pessimistic about things getting better.
“I think the government has to do something about it,” she said.
“I don’t know how people are feeding their children or themselves. I mean, I got a small bag today, that’s all I can afford.”
A NEW PROBLEM
Now unhappy Loblaws customers are taking demands a step further by asking that Loblaws stop using receipt checkers at its stores.
Over 6,000 people have already signed a new petition by shoppers calling for the store to immediately change its receipt checking policy.
“New scanners preventing shoppers from exiting unless they scan a receipt, are creating confusion, bottlenecks, and an unjustified sense of embarrassment for Loblaws customers,” the petition said.
The petition goes on to say that the policy is particularly offensive given the increased profit margins of Loblaws executives in recent years.
“Loblaw executives have more than doubled their profits since the pandemic – while increasing grocery prices by 22.5% since 2020,” petitioners wrote.
“Instead of increasing surveillance on customers, Loblaws executives are the ones who deserve to be in the hot seat.”
Protestors wrote that getting to their goal of at least 9,000 on the petition will put the needed pressure on store leadership to change their policies.
“But if thousands of us flood his inbox, we can turn the pressure up to repeal the receipt check policy and send a message that Canadians expect Loblaw to deliver on a greater priority: affordable food prices,” they wrote.
Latest self-checkout changes
Retailers are evolving their self-checkout strategy in an effort to speed up checkout times and reduce theft.
Walmart shoppers were shocked when self-checkout lanes at various locations were made available only for Walmart+ members.
Other customers reported that self-checkout was closed during specific hours, and more cashiers were offered instead.
While shoppers feared that shoplifting fueled the updates, a Walmart spokesperson revealed that store managers are simply experimenting with ways to improve checkout performance.
One bizarre experiment included an RFID-powered self-checkout kiosk that would stop the fiercely contested receipt checks.
However, that test run has been phased out.
At Target, items are being limited at self-checkout.
Last fall, the brand surveyed new express self-checkout lanes across 200 stores with 10 items or less for more convenience.
As of March 2024, this policy has been expanded across 2,000 stores in the US.
UNAFFORDABLE FOOD PRICING
Although economic inflation has been cooling in the US, the overall cost of food compared to pre-COVID-19 levels in 2020 or earlier shows a stark contrast.
The wholesale cost of food went up by 22% between January 2020 and January 2024, according to the government’s Producer Price Index for commodity foods.
Even worse, the cost of restaurant food has shot up by 26% in the same period.
Fast food specifically has been hit badly: its average prices have soared by 30%.
In Canada, food cost inflation has also been a serious problem since the pandemic and recently the subject of congressional hearings with market leaders.
The president of Loblaw, Galen Weston Jr., refuted accusations of profit-mongering at the company in a recent parliamentary hearing and claimed that the grocer’s profit margins remain small at about 4%.
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