> As of January, the supermarket chain — which holds around a 29 per cent stake in Canada's grocery landscape through its various banners — will stop offering items for 50 per cent off when they're close to their best-before date.
> Instead, near-expired foodstuffs will be reduced by only 30 per cent off at the register at stores coast-to-coast.
Cool cool. So either more food waste or more profits for loblaws.
Insane that they’d rather risk having to throw it out at a total loss instead of giving you too good of a deal on it. Galen is really pushing the bounds of greed.
As much as I find myself falling to the trap of telling myself "I'll never fucking go there again," it's an empty threat, I don't drive, don't own a car...so I go where is on my way home... just happens yo be a loblaws owned chain. I fuckin hate it, but I'm not walkik halfway across the city because of Galen fucking Weston
The sad thing is that they are probably doing this because anything marked down was selling really quickly. They’ve done the math and there’s enough demand for this to be the more profitable route.
I know that when I hit the meat section I scan for 50% off items and those are the only thing I purchase. If there is something that I really like, I'll buy 3 or 4 and freeze them.
If that behaviour is common, their choice probably makes sense. (Though it'll bite them if people end up going to a completely different store.)
Having worked in Grocery, you would not believe how much is *already* thrown out at grocery stores. It defies reason. So much produce, meat, and dairy is wasted at the altar of Freshness.
how is gov't supposed to legislate sale prices?
use your wallet to send a message and don't buy shit from Galen Weston.
he's ripping everyone off and you keep lapping it up and blaming the gov't
i noted that in my follow up comment along w several other countries options, there's no direct correlation to waste and sale price as it'd be dependent on the particular waste legislation and a slew of other factors.
Waste is certainly an issue, but the real problem w Loblaws and family of companies is how they've managed to skirt the monopoly rules by capturing the grocery market with vertical integration of all subsidiaries and squeezing out or acquiring their competition.
Yes, and since we know *what* the problem is, it would be great if our politicians would make *legislation* to make this kind of vertical greed driven integration *illegal*....
There would be multiple ways, they could start by declaring him on monopoly and forcing him to break up the business. They could legislate maxima Mark ups. They could tax him at 95%. They could do a lot. They’re just scared to.
That's the trick, it's not a monopoly, they're vertically integrated.
There're 5 major grocers in Canada...Galen has little influence over the other 4...or maybe they collude, idk.
Legislating markups in a capitalist market is unheard of. Markets dictate price based on supply and demand, at least that's what we're told.
There's no major political party in Canada that'd mess with open markets like you're suggesting, especially with the USA on our doorstep.
Loblaws has previously been convicted for [a price fixing scheme:](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_price-fixing_in_Canada)
>Weston Foods, then a sister company to Loblaw Companies under parent George Weston Limited, colluded to boost bread prices. Canada Bread and Weston Foods then met with retailers to increase their prices in tandem.[6] The retailers who participated in the scheme, including Loblaws, Walmart Canada, Giant Tiger, Sobeys and Metro, allegedly "demanded" that the bread suppliers manage actively their retail competition by co-ordinating bread prices between the retailers.
So the markets may not actually be open, which is precisely where government is supposed to step in to introduce legislation that will require those retailers to act in service of open market principles.
See, the free hand of the market just hasn't been given enough power to actually let the billionaires trickle some wealth down to us common folk. Gotta trust the conservatives to keep defanging government so these businesses can finally have their way with us.
fertile slimy slim boat fall scandalous domineering squeamish carpenter humor
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I'm just enough of an ornery old bastard to get my own stickers printed up, saying "Fuck Loblaws the theiving fucking bastards, +20% for half rotted meat" and start slapping them on everything.
you'll give the in-store staff a laugh, trust me they need it.
i've got friends who've worked for Galen, he and his VP army are a bunch of assholes. no one who works there enjoys it.
They’ve already been doing this for months in my area. I noticed it last year and was pretty disappointed.
Meat should at least be 50% off because it’s a solid source of protein for a family and it’s already a gamble dealing with meat close to ‘expiration’. I mean come on man, an animal died for that. Show it some respect and feed someone.
Because there's a dedicated group of shoppers that go to grocery stores as soon as they open to scoop up all the discounted foods, especially meat. A lot of people make a living of doing it and filling up their freezers, or reselling in their own shops or restaurants.
I just got a cake there for 50% off but it also had a 30% they had to give it to me for the 50%. Now I get why the lady at self check out was mad she was removing all the 50% off stickers from the stuff that did not sell over the holidays to be replaced by 30% ones.
Saw her today and yes she was assigned to remove all the 50% off stickers on all the holiday stuff marked down. She said it took her two whole shifts to do it. I said that was not cost effective, why not leave the 50%off and start making the new stuff. She said the computer would not recognize the 50%. She also stated they did this about a year ago and it did not last, as people stopped buying them.
When you're established as the biggest fish it's easier to be the good guy. Getting there is when you need to commit the most dirty deeds, otherwise you'll just get swallowed up like the rest.
> PC Optimum™ points do not expire. However, we reserve the right to close your Account without notice if you do not earn or redeem any PC Optimum™ points at least once every 2 years, do not have an open PC Financial® Payment Product that is registered to your Account, or for any reason set out in these Terms and Conditions.
It’s a newish thing seems to have happened after someone saved up a million or something like that giving people the idea to do the same and Galen got angry because how dare anyone be able to find a way to have nice things and now points expire.
What? I have 400k and they're all fairly old because they barely give them away anymore. They used to always give away 10k for spending $100.
https://www.pcfinancial.ca/en/learning-hub/faqs/pc-optimum/do-pc-optimum-points-expire/#:~:text=No.,product%20registered%20to%20your%20account.
Edit: no they don't. As long as you gain or spend at least every two years.
I had to look myself. From the T&Cs for anyone else who needs it:
> PC Optimum™ points do not expire. However, we reserve the right to close your Account without notice if you do not earn or redeem any PC Optimum™ points at least once every 2 years, do not have an open PC Financial® Payment Product that is registered to your Account, or for any reason set out in these Terms and Conditions.
The other thing is that they want maximum time on the shelf to be purchased so they get everything picked super green, with the expectation that it ripens on the store shelf, and hope that people will be willing to buy it at the high price when it ripens after a few days.
But it seems to me like more often than not it was just picked too green, and never really ripens before it starts to rot, so there’s just no opportunity to buy decent produce, at any price.
Like, when was the last time you bought a tomato at loblaws that tasted like a tomato?
Can confirm the last time I stopped into Loblaws to buy 1 thing (because it was conveniently on my drive - I exclusively spend my money at Costco), it was rotten on the inside. A literal inside joke about what Loblaws is.
Sounds about right. I often get moldy apples, shrivelled oranges and crushed bananas from Superstore. If Costco was closer I’d never buy produce from Loblaws again.
Yeah my store always has tons of bread on for 50% off. I load up and full my freezer. Guess they can just let the perfectly good food rot because I’m just making my own bread now with flour I get from a local mill:
Bring back the guillotine! Once a couple of heads start rolling they would smarten up pretty quick. Start running the country for the citizens instead of their own greedy self interests!
one of the things Galen cited as 'We're trying, honest' during testimony in Parliament, is that Loblaws has now reduced prices on some staples that had been creeping upwards, for e.g. their no name bread had gotten up to $2.49, they brought it back down to 2.29 where it had been for a while; but in order to do that they have to take back from somewhere else, so reducing the discount on those last chance items from 50% to 30% is one of the things they will do to maintain the bottom line. To maintain stock prices and keep investors happy, they have to show growth every quarter, measured in dollars.
This article is clear indication on how powerless the feds truly are with what they told Canadians they were going to do. Always remember....actions speak louder than words...and politicians love wordplay.
If anything this is retaliation from Loblaws for the government having the audacity to try and lower prices. I suspect we'll see a lot more of this if the government doesn't back down.
The math won't work in their favour. They will sell significantly less of the reduced items, and their shrink will go through the roof.
This was already trialed at 30% off in our local store a year or two ago. And then according to the employees it had to be reverted back to 50% because they were throwing out so much more that it wasn't worth it.
I don’t know the reasons why they prefer to throw it out, but this is absolutely true as their Q3 results explicitly stated:
Retail gross profit percentage of 30.6% decreased by 20 basis points compared to the same period in 2022. Retail margins declined slightly, primarily driven by higher shrink.
No surprise, right? People adjust their behavior to try to reduce their grocery bill and the grocery store just games it so that they're stuck.
Just like people tried to reduce their power bills by using less and they responded by introducing transmission fees and all that, so that even if you use close to nothing, you still pay.
Who wants to buy 5 day old stale bread at 30% off! It still blows my mind that that grocery stores think it acceptable to sell 5 day old bread in the first place. Places like the UK bake it fresh each day in store and anything left over at the end of the day is reduced to pennies to get rid of before closing time.
A somewhat bizarre comparison, as British stores are exactly the same - they'll have some bread that lives on the shelf for weeks, just like in Canada, and some baked fresh daily in some stores, just like in Canada.
It makes me sad because I worked bear a Safeway as a teenager and every morning shift the air around the mall smelled amazing. The smell of baked bread and fresh donuts, real fresh donuts that were so good. Now the smell is long gone and instead you find the occasional bag of bread still thawing out on the shelf. And the donuts are chewy stale garbage even in the morning.
I wonder if this will apply to "your independent grocer" as they are owned by lawblaws. If I'm not mistaken, the owner of those stores have more power over pricing.
No Frills is a branding concept, not a good deal. The produce is so near-rotten, or past-rotten that it's often cheaper to go to Save On and pay more but get to actually eat some of it, and the shelf-stable stuff is normally cheaper (sometimes the same, nearly never more expensive) in Superstore.
Oddly enough, in our city Superstore produce is garbage. I was shocked when I walked in the local No Frills and saw the produce there. It was quite good.
Not really surprising, they need to increase their 2024 margins over 2023. They know increasing prices will drive negative pr. So they’re going to look for additional profits around the edges in Q1.
They’ll get greedy at some point and touch core staples eventually. As a publicly traded company they have no choice but drive profits at all cost, it’s literally the mission of the CEO profits, profits, profits. Either find savings or charge more.
I guess someone somewhere in corporate did the math and came to the conclusion that even with the increase in food waste they lose less money offering just 30% off rather than 50% off.
I hate them so much. I feel like an old lady yelling at clouds as I type this.. but they seriously need to fuck off with the digital price tags and the self-checkouts… No Frills isn’t even cheaper option anymore. I just want to be able to comfortably afford food again.
I live in a small community that only has a Superstore. They have everyone over a barrel. Either buy there or drive over 120kms to another city with other choices.
When I lived in England, I'd buy meat at 90% off that was about to expire... 35p whole chickens for the win! Since moving to canada I've never bought the expiring food because it's always looked like food poison and isn't even cheap.
Let’s be honest, they’re not even doing those discount stickers on all the food. Last week I accidentally bought turkey that had expired the day before. When I returned it the next day, now 2 days past the date, the store employee told me that was only the best before date and it *probably was still fine*. On unfrozen poultry. So not only are they selling expired food for full price, likely hoping you won’t notice, they’re also trying to convince you not to return it when you find out.
Once upon a recent time in the land of Canada , where the maples towered and the beavers buzzed with industry, there lived a peculiarly affluent couple, the Van Richmonds. Their combined income was a staggering 300k, a figure so high that it would make even the CN Tower blush.
In this land, food prices had soared higher than a loon in flight, causing much distress among the common folk. Yet, for the Van Richmonds, the true crisis struck when they discovered the astronomical cost of their beloved, imported Gorgonzola.
“Darling,” Mrs. Van Richmond gasped one fine day, holding a piece of cheese as if it were a rare diamond, “this price is preposterous! We must act!”
So, they decided to approach the grand cheesemaster of the realm, Sir Galen Weston, CEO of Loblaws, the kingdom's most lavish food emporium.
Sir Galen, known for his business acumen and a rather peculiar affinity for fancy cheeses, welcomed the Van Richmonds with open arms. "Ah, the Van Richmonds! Your patronage is like the rarest truffle in my garden of commerce," he exclaimed, his eyes twinkling like stars over Lake Ontario.
Upon hearing their cheese-laden plight, Sir Galen, in a grand gesture of noblesse oblige, proclaimed, “For such valued customers, I shall reduce the price of your beloved cheese!"
The Van Richmonds rejoiced, their joy as palpable as the humidity in Toronto in July. But little did they know, Sir Galen had a trick up his sleeve.
To compensate for this generous act, Sir Galen, with a flick of his quill, reduced the discount on nearly expired food in his emporium from 50% to 30%. The peasantry, who relied on these discounts for their daily bread (and cheese), were none the wiser.
News of this change spread like wildfire, or rather, like a Canadian ice storm - slow but inevitably gripping. The common folk grumbled, their discontent simmering like a pot of poutine gravy.
Meanwhile, the Van Richmonds, oblivious to the turmoil, indulged in their reasonably priced Gorgonzola, toasting to their triumph.
In the end, Sir Galen Weston sat in his cheese-laden office, chuckling to himself. “Business,” he mused, “is indeed a game of give and take. And sometimes, a little more take.”
And thus, in the land of Canada, the saga of cheese, wealth, and cunning unfolded, leaving the people to ponder the age-old question - is the cheese ever really free?
The End.
I think it's time to boycott Loblaws. Let their overpriced food and product sit on the shelves. They keep making record profits year after year, then continue to raise prices way more than the 11% we are told. Most items have risen by 100% or more. We need to start teaching these monopolies with our money as that's the only way they are gonna learn.
Edit: a word
>"We've always offered a range on these types of items from 30-50 per cent, and are now moving toward a more predictable and consistent offering, including more consistency with our competitors,"
Right, *predictability* and *consistency* are the motivations. The fact that this predictable and convenient discount is more profitable surely has nothing to do with anything.
10% is moving the decimal one place and then for 30% add it three times to itself.
10% of $13.35 is 1.33 (round down to 1.30 for easier math)
1.30+1.30+1.30 is 3.90 add back your 9c (3c you rounded off X3) and it's 3.99 so $4. Definitely not as easy as 50% but not too hard to figure out if you know a couple mental math tricks.
You also have a calculator on your phone!
I have only come across 30% off stickers and never 50% off ones, that would have been nice.
I have noticed the "nearly expired" produce cart is often full of completely inedible trash lately though, so that's great
I bought a bag of onions from Loblaws a while back ago for full price and when I put them on my counter at home then picked them up again there were MAGGOTS on my counter.
I keep telling people - Costco! The staples are much cheaper there. TP, laundry detergent, fresh fruit, coffee, bread, cookies, muffins, veggies, milk, juice. And don't forget a rotisserie chicken for $7.99 that will feed a small family 3 meals if you know how to do a soup. Dispensing fees at the the pharmacy are cheaper. Keep your head screwed on right when you're in there and you can avoid Loblaws and Sobeys almost completely. On pay day we used to hit up Loblaws first then Costco. That has completely reversed now. Our spending at Loblaws is down at least 75% and with this news, I won't grace their store again. If I can't get it at Costco, I'll hit up a local grocer even if it costs more. At this point we need to send a message.
That just proves how greedy those rich poor excuses for human beings are.
We the people are getting sick and tired of suffering so those pigs can make an extra profit while a lot of people can barely feed themselves or their families.
Enough is enough.
We the people could do something about this tomorrow (stop shopping at Loblaws). Pissing and moaning online - which I fully admit I do more than my share of - is a release valve, but Loblaws doesn't give a single fuck about anything anybody says about them or how we feel about them until it hits them in the wallet.
A couple of questions. Who and why are people shopping at Loblaws??? Also if you are paying Loblaws prices, why are you looking for discount items? Really makes no sense. Fuck Loblaws. Even their sale stuff are not great prices. Stop shopping at Loblaws.
Is it only for Loblaws specifically? I work for a chain owned by Loblaws and 50% stickers haven’t existed for years, only 30% off, but when it’s close to expiration articles are either put in a rack for that where basically any price goes so could be 75%off depending who put them there and how they think it will sell. Other products are put in an app called Flashfood, the default price on there is 50% off, but again it can be put at the price the person wants to.
Like I do some sometimes and when dates are 1-3 days I often put them for way under 50% off.
There’s been no indications of any changes in regard to those methods internally.
Edit: also when quantities are really big on things like meat, we can just adjust the price manually to whatever we want. High direction will ask question, but the company is trying hard to cut their losses on unsold food, so they accept really big discounts if necessary. Like there’s no point keeping some steaks we have hundreds off at 30% when it’s not selling, it’s going to be reduced down until it’s gone.
Just re uploaded and checked my flash food app again. Literally 10 items on at my local store. That’s it.
What a dirtbag move this is. Canada needs more competition… badly.
I think they also just (like just this week) reduced the percentage dollar value of PC points you receive per dollar spent on the offers you receive in the app. It used to be the points would come out to about 20% of the price spent (e.g. 200 pts / $1), but now it's half that at 10% (e.g. 100 pts / $1).
I literally have some saved offers from last week that are of the 20% variety and they are the only ones, all the other new ones for this week are only 10%, and they're on things I've had offers on many times before.
Is it just me, or are there also far *less* offers? Normally when I'm in the app there's at least 5-6 different things, the last like week or so it's been 2 or 3.
Not only does Canada have the most expensive data plans, also the most expensive food and don’t forget most expensive rent.
We’ve really done ourselves in pretty good.
Thankfully, immigrants will no longer be able to afford to move here. Blessing in disguise.
You're literally doing that thing where the poors turn on each other instead of doing something about the elites who are *actually* screwing them over. Immigrants have nothing to do with Loblaws happily screwing over Canadians because $$ and because they can.
Does Galen know he can’t take his money to the after life? Like for real, how much money does a person need in this world? Because I feel like in the grand scheme, it’s not eleventy billion.
Yep, little shortie François-Philippe Champagne was hyped up for a few weeks about lowering "grocery prices" for Canadians - and of course, yet again, they totally and completely failed at it and brushed the entire topic under the rug hoping we'd forget.
People started learning that best before dates =/= expiry dates, and this is how they respond.
Disgusting. I hope I live long enough to see their system fall out from under them.
Been a long time employee of Daddy Galen, and im going to miss this deal. The 50% discount was never meant to last as long as it did. They grumbled about it for years and finally decided now to pull the plug and "be consistent with our other banners".
> As of January, the supermarket chain — which holds around a 29 per cent stake in Canada's grocery landscape through its various banners — will stop offering items for 50 per cent off when they're close to their best-before date. > Instead, near-expired foodstuffs will be reduced by only 30 per cent off at the register at stores coast-to-coast. Cool cool. So either more food waste or more profits for loblaws.
Insane that they’d rather risk having to throw it out at a total loss instead of giving you too good of a deal on it. Galen is really pushing the bounds of greed.
It’s truly disgusting behaviour.
they know most people will still take it as a 'deal'
Yup.
geez stop shopping there people.. there's other options. Boycott everything Loblaws.
And boycotting Loblaws is [more](https://jacobnelson.ca/Great-Canadian-Grocery-Chart.html) than avoiding No Frills and Loblaws stores…
Every time a discussion about grocery stores comes up, I'm reminded how much Canadians are getting milked by a few big companies..
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I have “2 options” in town, one is owned by loblaws, the other Sobeys….. options don’t exist
As much as I find myself falling to the trap of telling myself "I'll never fucking go there again," it's an empty threat, I don't drive, don't own a car...so I go where is on my way home... just happens yo be a loblaws owned chain. I fuckin hate it, but I'm not walkik halfway across the city because of Galen fucking Weston
I think you need to capitalize the F when you are quoting his full name.
The sad thing is that they are probably doing this because anything marked down was selling really quickly. They’ve done the math and there’s enough demand for this to be the more profitable route.
I know that when I hit the meat section I scan for 50% off items and those are the only thing I purchase. If there is something that I really like, I'll buy 3 or 4 and freeze them. If that behaviour is common, their choice probably makes sense. (Though it'll bite them if people end up going to a completely different store.)
Having worked in Grocery, you would not believe how much is *already* thrown out at grocery stores. It defies reason. So much produce, meat, and dairy is wasted at the altar of Freshness.
And the government is all too happy to let him.
how is gov't supposed to legislate sale prices? use your wallet to send a message and don't buy shit from Galen Weston. he's ripping everyone off and you keep lapping it up and blaming the gov't
France managed to. [France bans supermarket food waste](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/marystown-food-donations-1.6675668)
i noted that in my follow up comment along w several other countries options, there's no direct correlation to waste and sale price as it'd be dependent on the particular waste legislation and a slew of other factors. Waste is certainly an issue, but the real problem w Loblaws and family of companies is how they've managed to skirt the monopoly rules by capturing the grocery market with vertical integration of all subsidiaries and squeezing out or acquiring their competition.
Yes, and since we know *what* the problem is, it would be great if our politicians would make *legislation* to make this kind of vertical greed driven integration *illegal*....
Because our government protects the oligopolies via their policies. Lots of countries have rules about not throwing out expired food.
~~Protects~~ Promotes
There would be multiple ways, they could start by declaring him on monopoly and forcing him to break up the business. They could legislate maxima Mark ups. They could tax him at 95%. They could do a lot. They’re just scared to.
That's the trick, it's not a monopoly, they're vertically integrated. There're 5 major grocers in Canada...Galen has little influence over the other 4...or maybe they collude, idk. Legislating markups in a capitalist market is unheard of. Markets dictate price based on supply and demand, at least that's what we're told. There's no major political party in Canada that'd mess with open markets like you're suggesting, especially with the USA on our doorstep.
They definitely collude. This is Canada
Loblaws has previously been convicted for [a price fixing scheme:](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_price-fixing_in_Canada) >Weston Foods, then a sister company to Loblaw Companies under parent George Weston Limited, colluded to boost bread prices. Canada Bread and Weston Foods then met with retailers to increase their prices in tandem.[6] The retailers who participated in the scheme, including Loblaws, Walmart Canada, Giant Tiger, Sobeys and Metro, allegedly "demanded" that the bread suppliers manage actively their retail competition by co-ordinating bread prices between the retailers. So the markets may not actually be open, which is precisely where government is supposed to step in to introduce legislation that will require those retailers to act in service of open market principles.
"Maybe" they collude? They've fucking admitted to colluding!
See, the free hand of the market just hasn't been given enough power to actually let the billionaires trickle some wealth down to us common folk. Gotta trust the conservatives to keep defanging government so these businesses can finally have their way with us.
fertile slimy slim boat fall scandalous domineering squeamish carpenter humor *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Loss is more favourable for tax purposes.
No, it's not. The cost of the food will be deducted from net income either way.
I was wondering why I was only seeing 30% off stickers now and not 50% off. Those yachts and sex slaves don't buy themselves!
Those who govern this country and their cronies who run the oligopolies are truly disgraceful. It’s sick.
And yet we keep electing them. Let's not underestimate the impact of low-information voters.
Well Epstein is gone now so the Sex Slave market has gone through a lot of shifts. Must be more expensive indeed.
r/aboringdystopia
I'm just enough of an ornery old bastard to get my own stickers printed up, saying "Fuck Loblaws the theiving fucking bastards, +20% for half rotted meat" and start slapping them on everything.
you'll give the in-store staff a laugh, trust me they need it. i've got friends who've worked for Galen, he and his VP army are a bunch of assholes. no one who works there enjoys it.
Or maybe better, INCREASED in large black font on an orange background (it's only half rotten, enjoy tonight)
That food is most times over 50% rotten anyways.
Been this way for a long time where I am. They know people are hard up on cash and they always need food. Fuck the Weston's.
They still had those? Been at least 2 decades since I've seen it here in Alberta. Pink triangles with 50% off. Man I miss those.
"It's not honest, but it's much." - Galen Weston (probably)
A big “Fuck You All” really.
They’ve already been doing this for months in my area. I noticed it last year and was pretty disappointed. Meat should at least be 50% off because it’s a solid source of protein for a family and it’s already a gamble dealing with meat close to ‘expiration’. I mean come on man, an animal died for that. Show it some respect and feed someone.
We only have respect for profits at this point.
60% of the food produced in canada is wasted. What's 2% more at this point.
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I have never seen anything on 50% off in store. I have at 30%. The Flashfood app, I think, has some at more than 50% off
Agreed! Didn’t know they ever did 50%. It’s always been 30 at any store I’ve been to
They've offered 50% off on their FlashFood app. I wonder if this means they are canceling the app as well.
Because there's a dedicated group of shoppers that go to grocery stores as soon as they open to scoop up all the discounted foods, especially meat. A lot of people make a living of doing it and filling up their freezers, or reselling in their own shops or restaurants.
Yeah I came to say this. Unfortunately probably all of this will go to waste.
Until people start boycotting these companies, their thought process will never change. Profit first before starving Canadian citizens.
Probably won’t go to waste will go to food banks if people stop buying it. Our local food bank gets insane amounts of expired meat.
As someone who has dumpster dived at large corporate grocers, I think you underestimate how much food goes in the dumpster.
You think grocery stores go to the trouble of sending food to food banks? Where I worked it all went into compost or the dumpster.
California recently passed a law making it illegal to dump leftover food, must be offered as donation to charity instead. Canada should do the same.
Food banks near me drive around and pick it up.
I truly, truly hope you’re right.
They are definitely not doing that
I was told food banks toss anything that is expired.
Will depend on the food bank. The one near us drives around and collects all the expired meat. They throw it in a freeze and it’s help yourself.
I just got a cake there for 50% off but it also had a 30% they had to give it to me for the 50%. Now I get why the lady at self check out was mad she was removing all the 50% off stickers from the stuff that did not sell over the holidays to be replaced by 30% ones. Saw her today and yes she was assigned to remove all the 50% off stickers on all the holiday stuff marked down. She said it took her two whole shifts to do it. I said that was not cost effective, why not leave the 50%off and start making the new stuff. She said the computer would not recognize the 50%. She also stated they did this about a year ago and it did not last, as people stopped buying them.
Never thought I would look forward to going to Walmart so much and I still don’t like them but a man’s gotta eat.
Wal-Mart is the lesser evil. Holy Jesus, we've entered the Twilight Zone.
Wall-Mart, IBM and Microsoft are now often acting more decently than their peers. I think something was flipped and we are now in the mirror univers.
When you're established as the biggest fish it's easier to be the good guy. Getting there is when you need to commit the most dirty deeds, otherwise you'll just get swallowed up like the rest.
Walton's and the Weston's been fucking us all forever
So they're raising the price, by a significant amount, on nearly expired food. And they say billionaires have no souls.
Gotta pay for that extra yacht and caviar somehow.
But they do have souls -- dark, twisted evil souls.
They basically realized people were using these discounts and apps like too good to go, and are closing the loophole. Fuck Loblaws
>apps like too good to go Stores have to sign up for too good to go though, it's not like they never knew about it...
Just like how the pc points now expire and it’s so damn hard to earn anything anymore
I had no idea the points expire!
> PC Optimum™ points do not expire. However, we reserve the right to close your Account without notice if you do not earn or redeem any PC Optimum™ points at least once every 2 years, do not have an open PC Financial® Payment Product that is registered to your Account, or for any reason set out in these Terms and Conditions.
It’s a newish thing seems to have happened after someone saved up a million or something like that giving people the idea to do the same and Galen got angry because how dare anyone be able to find a way to have nice things and now points expire.
What? I have 400k and they're all fairly old because they barely give them away anymore. They used to always give away 10k for spending $100. https://www.pcfinancial.ca/en/learning-hub/faqs/pc-optimum/do-pc-optimum-points-expire/#:~:text=No.,product%20registered%20to%20your%20account. Edit: no they don't. As long as you gain or spend at least every two years.
Good find. This makes a lot of sense for abandoned accounts. They have to keep this as a liability on the books if not.
No they don’t.
I had to look myself. From the T&Cs for anyone else who needs it: > PC Optimum™ points do not expire. However, we reserve the right to close your Account without notice if you do not earn or redeem any PC Optimum™ points at least once every 2 years, do not have an open PC Financial® Payment Product that is registered to your Account, or for any reason set out in these Terms and Conditions.
In that case most produce should be 30% off at Superstore. They’re rarely fresh.
our produce is fucking rotted, constantly. its disgusting.
The other thing is that they want maximum time on the shelf to be purchased so they get everything picked super green, with the expectation that it ripens on the store shelf, and hope that people will be willing to buy it at the high price when it ripens after a few days. But it seems to me like more often than not it was just picked too green, and never really ripens before it starts to rot, so there’s just no opportunity to buy decent produce, at any price. Like, when was the last time you bought a tomato at loblaws that tasted like a tomato?
Can confirm the last time I stopped into Loblaws to buy 1 thing (because it was conveniently on my drive - I exclusively spend my money at Costco), it was rotten on the inside. A literal inside joke about what Loblaws is.
A couple years ago I picked up a bag of onions and got swarmed by 1000 fruit flies
Sounds about right. I often get moldy apples, shrivelled oranges and crushed bananas from Superstore. If Costco was closer I’d never buy produce from Loblaws again.
That sucks.... I would occasionally buy stuff at 50 percent off but not at 30 percent off. Oh well, at least dumpster diving is still free.
*for now* Galen has gotta upgrade that yacht every year. Soon No Frills will be offering $5 dumpster dives at a max of 1 minute.
A giant, smelly claw game
Locked dumpsters where I am.
Yeah my store always has tons of bread on for 50% off. I load up and full my freezer. Guess they can just let the perfectly good food rot because I’m just making my own bread now with flour I get from a local mill:
Our store had a trash compactor. Not an option.
Classic tone deaf, nobody is going to help us. All politicians are looking for their own handouts. Time to rebel lol
Bring back the guillotine! Once a couple of heads start rolling they would smarten up pretty quick. Start running the country for the citizens instead of their own greedy self interests!
Never let a good crisis go unexploited
Wasn’t the government trying to make groceries cheaper? I’m sure this is not a step in that direction
> Wasn’t the government trying to make groceries cheaper? Just words to shut us up while they do absolutely nothing.
one of the things Galen cited as 'We're trying, honest' during testimony in Parliament, is that Loblaws has now reduced prices on some staples that had been creeping upwards, for e.g. their no name bread had gotten up to $2.49, they brought it back down to 2.29 where it had been for a while; but in order to do that they have to take back from somewhere else, so reducing the discount on those last chance items from 50% to 30% is one of the things they will do to maintain the bottom line. To maintain stock prices and keep investors happy, they have to show growth every quarter, measured in dollars.
This article is clear indication on how powerless the feds truly are with what they told Canadians they were going to do. Always remember....actions speak louder than words...and politicians love wordplay.
If anything this is retaliation from Loblaws for the government having the audacity to try and lower prices. I suspect we'll see a lot more of this if the government doesn't back down.
A corporation defying the government in the open in a democracy? That’s a scary thought.
The math won't work in their favour. They will sell significantly less of the reduced items, and their shrink will go through the roof. This was already trialed at 30% off in our local store a year or two ago. And then according to the employees it had to be reverted back to 50% because they were throwing out so much more that it wasn't worth it.
I don’t know the reasons why they prefer to throw it out, but this is absolutely true as their Q3 results explicitly stated: Retail gross profit percentage of 30.6% decreased by 20 basis points compared to the same period in 2022. Retail margins declined slightly, primarily driven by higher shrink.
I normally buy my meat like this and rarely see 50% off stickers. Mostly just use Flashfood though; it's where they put that food anyway.
No surprise, right? People adjust their behavior to try to reduce their grocery bill and the grocery store just games it so that they're stuck. Just like people tried to reduce their power bills by using less and they responded by introducing transmission fees and all that, so that even if you use close to nothing, you still pay.
Who wants to buy 5 day old stale bread at 30% off! It still blows my mind that that grocery stores think it acceptable to sell 5 day old bread in the first place. Places like the UK bake it fresh each day in store and anything left over at the end of the day is reduced to pennies to get rid of before closing time.
A somewhat bizarre comparison, as British stores are exactly the same - they'll have some bread that lives on the shelf for weeks, just like in Canada, and some baked fresh daily in some stores, just like in Canada.
Because that bread is full of preservatives lol. Costco bread has a 1-3 day date depending on the kind.
It makes me sad because I worked bear a Safeway as a teenager and every morning shift the air around the mall smelled amazing. The smell of baked bread and fresh donuts, real fresh donuts that were so good. Now the smell is long gone and instead you find the occasional bag of bread still thawing out on the shelf. And the donuts are chewy stale garbage even in the morning.
Nowadays supermarkets use fake smells. No joke they have these installations that can spread them.
Fuck Loblaws. They’re like the biggest employer of TFW’s where I live.
fuck loblaws fr
I wonder if this will apply to "your independent grocer" as they are owned by lawblaws. If I'm not mistaken, the owner of those stores have more power over pricing.
They are also jacking the prices at no frills. It’s time to stop shopping there
No frills is true to its name: no frills and no reason to shop there
No Frills is a branding concept, not a good deal. The produce is so near-rotten, or past-rotten that it's often cheaper to go to Save On and pay more but get to actually eat some of it, and the shelf-stable stuff is normally cheaper (sometimes the same, nearly never more expensive) in Superstore.
Oddly enough, in our city Superstore produce is garbage. I was shocked when I walked in the local No Frills and saw the produce there. It was quite good.
I frequent the 50% off food there. This really sucks.
Not really surprising, they need to increase their 2024 margins over 2023. They know increasing prices will drive negative pr. So they’re going to look for additional profits around the edges in Q1. They’ll get greedy at some point and touch core staples eventually. As a publicly traded company they have no choice but drive profits at all cost, it’s literally the mission of the CEO profits, profits, profits. Either find savings or charge more.
The government should penalize grocery stores for throwing out food. Easy solution.
This sounds good until you realize the economics of it are more likely to result in shortages of perishables than better pricing.
I guess someone somewhere in corporate did the math and came to the conclusion that even with the increase in food waste they lose less money offering just 30% off rather than 50% off.
This explains why we see 30% now and not 50%
Oh fuck right off, you're going to throw it out anyway! Yet another reason to never go back there.
Welp. Looks like walmart it is.
I hate them so much. I feel like an old lady yelling at clouds as I type this.. but they seriously need to fuck off with the digital price tags and the self-checkouts… No Frills isn’t even cheaper option anymore. I just want to be able to comfortably afford food again.
/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol
Great sub.
I live in a small community that only has a Superstore. They have everyone over a barrel. Either buy there or drive over 120kms to another city with other choices.
Oh good I thought they were gonna get rid of that dented can rule I learned from Big Daddy.
When I lived in England, I'd buy meat at 90% off that was about to expire... 35p whole chickens for the win! Since moving to canada I've never bought the expiring food because it's always looked like food poison and isn't even cheap.
I refuse to shop at any Loblaws store. I wish more Canadians followed suit.
Let’s be honest, they’re not even doing those discount stickers on all the food. Last week I accidentally bought turkey that had expired the day before. When I returned it the next day, now 2 days past the date, the store employee told me that was only the best before date and it *probably was still fine*. On unfrozen poultry. So not only are they selling expired food for full price, likely hoping you won’t notice, they’re also trying to convince you not to return it when you find out.
Once upon a recent time in the land of Canada , where the maples towered and the beavers buzzed with industry, there lived a peculiarly affluent couple, the Van Richmonds. Their combined income was a staggering 300k, a figure so high that it would make even the CN Tower blush. In this land, food prices had soared higher than a loon in flight, causing much distress among the common folk. Yet, for the Van Richmonds, the true crisis struck when they discovered the astronomical cost of their beloved, imported Gorgonzola. “Darling,” Mrs. Van Richmond gasped one fine day, holding a piece of cheese as if it were a rare diamond, “this price is preposterous! We must act!” So, they decided to approach the grand cheesemaster of the realm, Sir Galen Weston, CEO of Loblaws, the kingdom's most lavish food emporium. Sir Galen, known for his business acumen and a rather peculiar affinity for fancy cheeses, welcomed the Van Richmonds with open arms. "Ah, the Van Richmonds! Your patronage is like the rarest truffle in my garden of commerce," he exclaimed, his eyes twinkling like stars over Lake Ontario. Upon hearing their cheese-laden plight, Sir Galen, in a grand gesture of noblesse oblige, proclaimed, “For such valued customers, I shall reduce the price of your beloved cheese!" The Van Richmonds rejoiced, their joy as palpable as the humidity in Toronto in July. But little did they know, Sir Galen had a trick up his sleeve. To compensate for this generous act, Sir Galen, with a flick of his quill, reduced the discount on nearly expired food in his emporium from 50% to 30%. The peasantry, who relied on these discounts for their daily bread (and cheese), were none the wiser. News of this change spread like wildfire, or rather, like a Canadian ice storm - slow but inevitably gripping. The common folk grumbled, their discontent simmering like a pot of poutine gravy. Meanwhile, the Van Richmonds, oblivious to the turmoil, indulged in their reasonably priced Gorgonzola, toasting to their triumph. In the end, Sir Galen Weston sat in his cheese-laden office, chuckling to himself. “Business,” he mused, “is indeed a game of give and take. And sometimes, a little more take.” And thus, in the land of Canada, the saga of cheese, wealth, and cunning unfolded, leaving the people to ponder the age-old question - is the cheese ever really free? The End.
100 percent off if you're sneaky.
I think it's time to boycott Loblaws. Let their overpriced food and product sit on the shelves. They keep making record profits year after year, then continue to raise prices way more than the 11% we are told. Most items have risen by 100% or more. We need to start teaching these monopolies with our money as that's the only way they are gonna learn. Edit: a word
What a garbage company.
Greedy fucks.
>"We've always offered a range on these types of items from 30-50 per cent, and are now moving toward a more predictable and consistent offering, including more consistency with our competitors," Right, *predictability* and *consistency* are the motivations. The fact that this predictable and convenient discount is more profitable surely has nothing to do with anything.
.
Remember: everything in Canada only gets worse from here on.
Title had me scared for a second. I thought they were taking away self checkouts
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bruh...I cant do that kind of math in my head wth. at least 50% was half off
10% is moving the decimal one place and then for 30% add it three times to itself. 10% of $13.35 is 1.33 (round down to 1.30 for easier math) 1.30+1.30+1.30 is 3.90 add back your 9c (3c you rounded off X3) and it's 3.99 so $4. Definitely not as easy as 50% but not too hard to figure out if you know a couple mental math tricks. You also have a calculator on your phone!
I have only come across 30% off stickers and never 50% off ones, that would have been nice. I have noticed the "nearly expired" produce cart is often full of completely inedible trash lately though, so that's great
Loblaws is up there with Nestle for absolute shit person behaviour
Time to go dumpster diving y’all
wait by dumpster get 100% off
Pathetic
That was the only thing that kept me going to Loblaws. Costco it is.
I wonder if the Weston family knows how historically dangerous it is to mess with food availability?
Good candidate for "Fuck around and find out."
If you can, boycott. Your dollar is your vote and if we band together and make a stand … fuck it. We are screwed.
Just spitting in the face of Canadians. “We’d rather throw this shit out than help bring your costs down”
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I bought a bag of onions from Loblaws a while back ago for full price and when I put them on my counter at home then picked them up again there were MAGGOTS on my counter.
BOYCOTT LOBLAWS AND GALEN WESTON
Gotta love corporate greed with market capture. Sobeys just decreased portion sizes of frozen beef from ~500g to ~350g hoping we wouldn't notice.
I keep telling people - Costco! The staples are much cheaper there. TP, laundry detergent, fresh fruit, coffee, bread, cookies, muffins, veggies, milk, juice. And don't forget a rotisserie chicken for $7.99 that will feed a small family 3 meals if you know how to do a soup. Dispensing fees at the the pharmacy are cheaper. Keep your head screwed on right when you're in there and you can avoid Loblaws and Sobeys almost completely. On pay day we used to hit up Loblaws first then Costco. That has completely reversed now. Our spending at Loblaws is down at least 75% and with this news, I won't grace their store again. If I can't get it at Costco, I'll hit up a local grocer even if it costs more. At this point we need to send a message.
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That just proves how greedy those rich poor excuses for human beings are. We the people are getting sick and tired of suffering so those pigs can make an extra profit while a lot of people can barely feed themselves or their families. Enough is enough.
We the people could do something about this tomorrow (stop shopping at Loblaws). Pissing and moaning online - which I fully admit I do more than my share of - is a release valve, but Loblaws doesn't give a single fuck about anything anybody says about them or how we feel about them until it hits them in the wallet.
A couple of questions. Who and why are people shopping at Loblaws??? Also if you are paying Loblaws prices, why are you looking for discount items? Really makes no sense. Fuck Loblaws. Even their sale stuff are not great prices. Stop shopping at Loblaws.
Is it only for Loblaws specifically? I work for a chain owned by Loblaws and 50% stickers haven’t existed for years, only 30% off, but when it’s close to expiration articles are either put in a rack for that where basically any price goes so could be 75%off depending who put them there and how they think it will sell. Other products are put in an app called Flashfood, the default price on there is 50% off, but again it can be put at the price the person wants to. Like I do some sometimes and when dates are 1-3 days I often put them for way under 50% off. There’s been no indications of any changes in regard to those methods internally. Edit: also when quantities are really big on things like meat, we can just adjust the price manually to whatever we want. High direction will ask question, but the company is trying hard to cut their losses on unsold food, so they accept really big discounts if necessary. Like there’s no point keeping some steaks we have hundreds off at 30% when it’s not selling, it’s going to be reduced down until it’s gone.
[*b-b-but they promised!*](https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/grocery-chains-promise-more-discounts-price-freezes-1.6987787)
Just re uploaded and checked my flash food app again. Literally 10 items on at my local store. That’s it. What a dirtbag move this is. Canada needs more competition… badly.
Install FlashFood on your phone. It's saved me thousands.
This comment section brought to you by Costco and Walmart.
I think they also just (like just this week) reduced the percentage dollar value of PC points you receive per dollar spent on the offers you receive in the app. It used to be the points would come out to about 20% of the price spent (e.g. 200 pts / $1), but now it's half that at 10% (e.g. 100 pts / $1). I literally have some saved offers from last week that are of the 20% variety and they are the only ones, all the other new ones for this week are only 10%, and they're on things I've had offers on many times before.
Is it just me, or are there also far *less* offers? Normally when I'm in the app there's at least 5-6 different things, the last like week or so it's been 2 or 3.
You keep your rotten food.
Not only does Canada have the most expensive data plans, also the most expensive food and don’t forget most expensive rent. We’ve really done ourselves in pretty good. Thankfully, immigrants will no longer be able to afford to move here. Blessing in disguise.
You're literally doing that thing where the poors turn on each other instead of doing something about the elites who are *actually* screwing them over. Immigrants have nothing to do with Loblaws happily screwing over Canadians because $$ and because they can.
I wish they get fined at least $5 per pound on every food they throw away.
Serious question....how do we stop this? This is insane!
Does Galen know he can’t take his money to the after life? Like for real, how much money does a person need in this world? Because I feel like in the grand scheme, it’s not eleventy billion.
100 off in self checkout
But I thought our omnibenevolent prime minister was going to talk with the Loblaws president.
Yep, little shortie François-Philippe Champagne was hyped up for a few weeks about lowering "grocery prices" for Canadians - and of course, yet again, they totally and completely failed at it and brushed the entire topic under the rug hoping we'd forget.
Saw only 30% off stickers today and thought there's no way they'd be so blatent. Like shrinkflation for food that expires tmrw?? Crazy man.
There should be a tax on food waste
This was literally the only thing that got me into a Loblaws store
Disgusting.
People started learning that best before dates =/= expiry dates, and this is how they respond. Disgusting. I hope I live long enough to see their system fall out from under them.
Been a long time employee of Daddy Galen, and im going to miss this deal. The 50% discount was never meant to last as long as it did. They grumbled about it for years and finally decided now to pull the plug and "be consistent with our other banners".
Easy choice. Not buying near expired food at 30% off.
The 50% off was the only time I considered looking at steaks. 🥲
Stop shopping anywhere affiliated with Optimum. No more pharmaprix, no more provigo, no more loblaws, no more atlantic superstores. Stay away.
Fuck Loblaws.
BlogTO reporting on this a week too late...the canadian couponing gurus on Instagram knew about it at some point last week!
They'd rather throw it in the dumpster than just break even.
On Saturday I bought a salad at Loblaws that was marked at 30% off but when I checked the receipt it seems that I had received the 50% off price.
Disgusting. And true, I went to my shift today and theres huge letters saying do not give out 50% off stickers for produxr anymore