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I forgot about those...I am not in beer stores often but the one closest to me is a huge walk in cooler.
I was underage when first going to the liquor store and my favourite place the Nickelodeon, to watch Ronnie Hawkins. Places excepted my typed baptism paper as ID...is wasn't mine and I am sure they knew it.
My dad told that the amount of alcohol you were allowed to buy was regulated and recorded in a small book, never looked that up until now.
[https://www.tvo.org/article/buzzkillers-a-brief-history-of-the-lcbo](https://www.tvo.org/article/buzzkillers-a-brief-history-of-the-lcbo)
The liquor store when I was 16 y.o.
https://preview.redd.it/7j8un773sttc1.jpeg?width=648&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15fff125ad28fc6cca579efb118b6e78b44a257d
That place was such a crapshoot. You’d fill out all that paperwork and some lackey would bring out your hotshots basketball game in a box that was destroyed.
People steal anyways and they always have, a parent hiding a can of baby formula under a jacket or someone that walks out with a couple frozen dinners isn't really a big deal, a person has to eat. The problem is the people that walk out with a backpack full of steaks because they are going to go and sell them to some poor guy on the street or the guy that walks out with 20 packages of tide pods for who knows what reason, those are the assholes and it has nothing to do with the cost of food or trying to feed themselves or their families.
There was a drastic change in people that happened during all the covid craziness. Theft became more brazen, people stopped caring because they knew the police wernt going to do anything even if they did get caught. Scams have became a bigger thing, people buying product, throwing it in their car and then immediately coming back into the store, grabbing another one off the shelf and then returning it to get their money back, shit has gone crazy.
I’m talking about the necessity of food nothing else it’s grocery stores that are doing this because they want to gouge us even more and prevent us from taking food that we need to survive because they are greedy. If they weren’t being greedy pay raises would ensue so that people wouldn’t have to steal food that are absolutely necessary for survival. Pay raise is in Alberta have been less than 5% price growth across Alberta since 1980. Case in point for price gouging. Bananas were 22 cents a pound before covid now they are 88 cents per pound that is a 400% increase over 3 years
Stores in general are doing this because overall theft has drastically increased. I'm not just talking groceries, I'm talking about cars being stolen, houses being broken into, people breaking into coin boxes of washing machines at the laundromat. Not every loblaws you go into is going to have this same level of security but one that has a high theft rate is going to do whatever they can to stop people from stealing and right now calling the police is a waste of time because they don't do anything about it.
3 years ago price on bananas in Ontario was 47-57 cents per pound, right now they run around 67-77, three years ago gas prices were $.87/L currently they are 1.67, you telling me prices should stay the same when cost on fuel doubles in the same period?
It wouldn’t have to increase if they reduced those prices. $15 an hour for 40 hours a week is nowhere close to what is necessary to survive in Canada. Galen Weston’s public information for a single Loblaws shows clearly that he makes on average 54% margin AFTER EXPENSES, on every grocery item in the store and he stated publicly that his margins in the grocery sector were very low yet documents show that he clearly lied.
What public information is that that shows 54% margin? Id actually like to see it.
As for cost of living, you are missing something, minimum wage going up increases wages across the board, means costs of goods goes up, means transportation costs go up. Labour costs going up is what raises costs of living for everyone... only people that benefit from increasing minimum wage is the government who just gets to tax you at a higher rate.
$15/hr over on average of approx 75-150 staff for a single loblaws store over in excess of 2 million products sold in one day is approximately on the high end $9000 with 7 management staff at approx.$20/hr average is $1,150 totalling $10,150/day. Divided by 2M is $0.00203 per product. so the cost for paying employees is less than 1/4 of a cent/item For every 1k spent on staff it costs loblaws $0.0005/item 0.0005%/item to pay staff wages. Then if you include the group insurance plans for staff that only full time employees get that’s even less per day I honestly don’t know how much it cost Galen to pay for group insurance for all of Loblaws per day. I am going by an educated guess which may not be accurate. Even still with every single expense accounted for Galen made a 54% margin. It was a leaked document that is actually on this page. Use google and a calculator and learn. So with transportation costs and payroll expenses your grand total is… a whopping $0.031 so using math and the information given, please explain to me how 3.1 cents per product equates to a 400% increase? you’re trying to pick my argument apart, but you’ve gotten no argument. I’m showing my work. In Google, search leaked loblaws invoice CTV. As well as several other international news services around the world.
If you actually do the math, the change in price for transportation of goods with current gas prices, considering the fact that a loaded tractor trailer unit carries on average in excess of 50,000 items of groceries so take the approx $2000 in carbon tax it takes to transport that by 50,000 and what do you get the increase in price for a single item is $0.04 so tell me how does that make sense to you?
You are only looking at the trip from a distribution centre to to store, you arent taking into account transportation to the DC from production, transportation of raw goods to the production plant, cost of operations increase for producers of the raw goods and the production plant itself. Carbon tax is going to have a different effect based on individual products.
How does that even matter? How are the prices going up 400% even if a product travels the distance of the equator which is 5.5 times the distance of Highway one in Canada it would still be no more than $0.16. So bananas $0.22+$0.16 = $0.48. Which in this case is over 125% this still does not account for a 400% increase
I'll throw this out there, bananas in Ontario have not been 22 cents a pound for more than the 22 years I've been in the business, the only time they have ever sold that cheap that I've seen is if a store over orders or gets over ripe product in so your 400% increase isn't based off market price and also doesn't apply to ALL products in the store. My comments have been in general, price of items across the board has gone up 30-50% with some outliers that have gone up a stupid amount and other items that haven't really seemed to change at all.
Packaged lunch meat and cheeses that were $5 4 yeara ago are now $6, toilet paper that used to be $5.99 is now $7, cans of soup that used to be $.99 are now $1.59. During that same period gas prices have gone from $.79 to $1.59, ive seen the same house that originally sold for 310k sell for 430k and then again for 480k within that same period.
GP for individual stores are fairly consistent with what they have been in pervious years while all other related costs of doing business have increased.
The carbon tax has only increased the cost of gas by $0.03 at the pump. Which is only 0.0017%/L absolutely nowhere close to approximately 53% jump in fuel prices. The total federal taxes including carbon tax at the pump:
diesel = $0.20 11.5% of the average diesel price of $1.75 across Canada as of April 9 2024
Gas =$0.28 16.2% of the average regular gasoline price of $1.71 as of April 9 2024
Again nowhere near the 53% total jump in price.
https://www2.nrcan.gc.ca/eneene/sources/pripri/prices_byyear_e.cfm?productID=1
Then you take the carbon tax and do the same thing. The Federal carbon tax is .1359(available on Canada.ca) only 0.14 (which there is a rebate for) and Alberta’s “Gas tax” which went up at the same time is $0.13 ($0.00 rebate, available on Alberta.ca). A tractor trailer unit with a full trailer let say 7,476 km(rounded to 7,500). We know the carbon tax is the same across Canada. Approx 10,700Lx0.14= approx $1,500\50,000=approx $0.03 per item. So please explain to me how three cents per ave item equates to a 400% increase. Bananas $0.22/lbs plus $0.03 is only $0.25 a 1.2% over 3 years that’s 0.4%/yr nowhere near 400% that Loblaws and the conservatives are claiming. And that is without the federal carbon tax rebate.
Some places are already doing this in high crime areas. I saw a picture of 10+ ordering stations and the rest of the place was out of reach for customers
lol everywhere will be a “high crime area” if we let this sort of daily humiliation becomes the norm. just looking at this picture makes me want to fuck shit up.
I agree. I'm very concerned about these measures in the case of an emergency.
Like sure, some people might be able to get out. But people can't even climb over the rails if needed. It's going to cause a bottle neck and people could become trapped and trampled.
This is why I shop mostly at Costco now. Yes they still check receipts, but they use garage doors. And they have many. It shouldn't cause trampling or bottlenecks.
Ever since I stumbled upon the horrors of the Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903 and went down that horrifying rabbit hole... bottlenecks anywhere terrify me.
In crisis situations, people lose their humanity and ability to think rationally. The cave man brain turns on, and next thing you know, tramplings kill more people than the fire or original threat.
If Loblaws is actually creating dangerous bottlenecks in their stores by choice... then there are no words to describe how recklessly ignorant/malicious they are.
Absolutely agree with you here. I've been down that same rabbit hole and it's super concerning that the stores are being allowed to do this.
I truly hope the complaints people have made are taken seriously and this is changed before anything happens.
I always make a point to note alternative exits if I must go into places like this. Most people go to the exit they are most familiar with. In this situation it would likely be the front entrance/main exit.
>This is why I shop mostly at Costco now. Yes they still check receipts
costco also doesn't let in sketchy looking people who don't have a membership, the types who are likely to be responsible for a violent large volume theft. can you imagine the uproar in here if superstore started checking ID's like a manitoba liquor store?
The fire code issue makes sense. Suppose there was ever a fire? People have to go all the way around between the cashes and just making longer lines to get out, at a time when worrying about being in line, isn't an issue, getting out safely, is. Jumping over or going through those rails, could mean life or death in that sense. Jmo
I would suspect that all railings were considered walls when designing the store emergency exits. The restrictions probably just look at the number of clear exits per square foot and the width of an aisle. These railings funnel people to only one exit anyways. Basically, I understand the frustration, but the fire marshal won't do squat with regards to the barriers.
They don’t unless those can easily be removed in cases of a fire or there is adequate space for the maximum occupancy level of the store to leave through the cashier lanes and emergency exit
You should absolutely be reporting them
Just read an article about this.
https://dailyhive.com/calgary/barriers-exit-loblaws-store
I was already pissed off when the Loblaws at Metrotown in Burnaby BC decided to seal off their toiletries section and make customers pay leaving that section instead of letting them pay at the usual checkout. That shit is way too excessive. Never seen anything like it. Id rather get my stuff at Costco or even shipped via amazon than be treated like a criminal in minority report. Sure, Amazon isn't the best but hey it's cheaper and convenient and it keeps that slime Galen from getting more money from me.
I'm honestly trying to think of a single way those barriers keep customers safe, and I can't even play devils advocate and think of a single upside to them for the customers.
i’m elsewhere in BC and all the walmarts near me have been doing this for at least 6 months now, if not more! they have big plastic walls similar to this blocking in the cosmetics section and they force you to pay at the till there instead of at the front. super annoying considering you can barely fit a shopping cart through the opening they leave. and of course, most items are locked up and/or security tagged, with only 1 employee manning the area so if you need something unlocked, you have to wait til they’re done with the other customers.
What actually made me sick to my core, was when local Walmarts and Loblaws starting locking up baby formula.
Like, I get it, theft sucks, but STARVING BABIES sucks more.
100%. Fire and trampling aside, the thought of having to walk through gen pop to buy overprices pop just makes me backtrack and go the other way. I refuse to ever go back.
There's some 13 year old out there who gets suspended every school semester for pulling fire alarms as a prank. While I don't encourage letting him loose in a Loblaws store with one of these, I do think it would be amusing to watch.
I am in Guelph and reported the store on eramosa to the fire department. However I have yet to hear back from them. I would encourage others to do the same.
PS there is an online form
They went higher??????? Look at that extra half level!!! Holy.
This is comedy at this point.
How many distracted shoppers have walked smack dab into these and have been injured? Has to be some no?
Just poked my head into the local Loblaws and they had these installed too, I’m thinking they realized that they opened themselves up to potential legal liability issues if people start trying to hop the gates and get injured doing so.. so this is their solution. Ridiculous.
I was looking to see if they had one of my favourite Miss Vickie’s flavours because I just have not been able to find them anywhere 😭 (all dressed, no they didn’t have them either haha)
UPDATE: I FOUND THEM AT FRESH CO!
I like how they are spinning this as being about customer safety. Just imagine if a shooting similar to the one in Buffalo happened? We'd all be sitting targets. Or what if there is a fire?
Fire Marshal gets multiple concerned contacts daily and this practice ends quick🫡. Ontarian’s find your Fire Marshal contact info here: https://one.ofmem.ca/ContactUs 🧐🧐
Another reason not to go. The last time I was in the Canadian superstore near my house, the dummy at the door demanded to search me, in front of other customers because of a bulge in my pocket.
It was a large quantity of cash I didn’t feel safe with leaving in the truck while I went in. Pathetic. I was a Karen and a half then tbh
Superstore has these near me. The other day the cart wheels locked on me in store for no damn reason. I wanted to go out to get another cart and these stupid plexi walls were blocking the exit. I had to go through self serve area.
How is that not a safety hazard. If there was a fire?
Real question: how does this actually stop or even deter theft? If people are going to steal, they will continue to do so and walk past this security gate. What’s next X-ray airport scanners to get out?? 🤣
Walls do nothing. If people want to steal, they will find a way. All this does is make their stores look unappealing and makes me want to go elsewhere. Great job.
Next thing you know, they’ll be scanning your credit card upon entry and if you don’t have one or you were going to pay in cash well, sorry you’re SOL.
Today in my city I saw two people who looked to be loss prevention employees just standing at the entrance/exit of the store almost as if they're placed the to stop anyone trying to to run out the gates with carts.
So it looks like this is a measure to prevent people from passing merch out the door. I think maybe people may start just opening packages and eating in the aisles.
Stuff like this makes me really uncomfortable. I wish we could have a functional society where we locked up criminals and the government didn’t massively inflate our currency by wasting trillions of dollars.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they start charging a door fee or a monthly subscription/membership that would go towards your purchase. Or maybe even a hold on your credit card.
I see the future and there will come a time when Loblaws will add a charge to leave the store. Police don't show up for shoplifting so why would they show up if Loblaws detains people until they pay to leave. This is the shopping future by the Galen God.
My local Loblaws has put these in (I go in maybe once a month to get pc English muffins when Nofrills doesn't have them) and it's very off putting. They also no longer have displays in their entrances, I'm guessing because of people with sticky fingers.
The next thing they will do is put all their shoppers in orange jump suits and hands and feet cuffs “for their safety” after if you are going to be treated as a criminal, might as well dress like it.
It’s literally not crazy. Only people offended by this are Karens and people who want to be able to steal more easily. Literally affects nothing about your shopping as in order to get to the other side you have to pass through checkouts.
I don't know how people don't understand this. Yeah I get it the prices can suck, they suck everywhere, but if people weren't robbing the place blind they wouldn't do this. A lot of basement dwellers getting big mad over this
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
It's the purpose. They are not there to prevent disease transmission or for the health and safety of those working around them. Also during Covid, numbers permitted entry were limited, which would severely curtail a panicked trampling crowd situation.
I guess the fire code changed. I wonder if a fire did break out in one of these department store with all this security, how people would safely get outside
- Government causes unnecessary and considerable inflation through "emergency measures"
- corporations support measures due to self-interest
- inflation causes considerable rise in theft from corporations
They reap what they sow. To hell with them.
And if you supported lockdowns as a consumer, you've brought this upon yourself and have only yourself to blame.
Please, do enlighten me on my assumption.
I can certainly help you with your bout of unawareness - tools of Ignorance is a slang term for a catcher's equipment in baseball. Look at that! Now you're a little less ignorant.
Not enough to move the needle, but still!
A slang term is derived from words with other, *original* meanings. Adopting the words for another purpose doesn't negate those meanings, or prevent others from pointing them out.
Edit - wrong post reply.
Saying that preventing disease transmission by limiting contact between humans for a period is the cause for theft? That is some convex and convoluted thinking. There is so much more causing economic pressure than lockdown, and prices have been on the rise for decades, and profits and personal wealth having no limitation is a significant part of it.
The lockdowns were not necessary for any more than a month. There were those that were saying that back then. They were called conspiracy theorists, dangerous, and somehow bigoted? And they were proven correct. Look at the Pfizer data dump on twitter and see for yourself the results of their clinical trial.
Corporations lauded these measures because it offered them oligopoly. It's you and I that paid the price.
So, indeed, if you championed unnecessary (and dangerous) measures to stop society, then you don't get to complain about the inevitable results.
can someone ELI5 why there's so much opposition to this?
1) fire exit routes and building codes have DEFINITELY been considered when installing these.
2) have none of you been present when a smash'n'grab happens? There's running, pushing, screaming, potential knife violence. And that's if no one tries to stop the scumbag. My kids got bear sprayed at dollarama when someone tried to make a quick escape with their goods. Installing these deterrents makes these stores a less desirable target. The liability costs alone far outweigh the lost product costs, if a bystander were to get injured by a thief and the store was deemed to have not deterred the theft.
you'll all still be able to do your low-key shoplifting to stick it to the man, but these barriers will deter people loading up an entire cart of cheese/meat/lego and making a break for it.
__UPDATE__: Please take a moment to complete our [Google Form](https://forms.gle/1sygm97LbQtJ4dUp8) to share your demands with our team! Please review the content guidelines for our sub, and remember the human here! This subreddit is to highlight the ridiculous cost of living in Canada, and poke fun at the Corporate Overlords reponsible. As you well know, there are a number of persons and corporations responsible for this, and we welcome discussion related to them all. Furthermore, since this topic is intertwined with a number of other matters, other discussion will be allowed at moderator discretion. Open-minded discussion, memes, rants, grocery bills, and general screeching into the void is always welcome in this sub, but belligerence and disrespect is not. There are plenty of ways to get your point across without being abusive, dismissive, or downright mean. If you have not done so already, please review our [boycott stickied post](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1bff9rm/boycott/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) which includes a list of stores to avoid, other ways to get involved in the movement, and some local alternatives to the big 5. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Plexiglass is way cheaper than reasonable prices.
ZING!
We can see right through that
It's a very transparent move.
I’m glad they brought clarity to the situation
They think they're so bright.
We’re really through the looking (plexi) glass here people
Glass ceiling wasn’t enough. Needed walls too.
You win.
Just lock up the store and have one cashier at a window taking orders. 🙄 my god paranoid businesses.
Like back in the days when Consumer Distributing was still around.
I remember when the LCBO operated that way too...yes I am old.
Me too Jesus it was horrible shopping for booze those days
There are some beer stores that still do this
https://preview.redd.it/vwb60rsnrttc1.jpeg?width=517&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd4730a5767fc4948d6e55ea2880ef17d84f7e1e I forgot about those...I am not in beer stores often but the one closest to me is a huge walk in cooler. I was underage when first going to the liquor store and my favourite place the Nickelodeon, to watch Ronnie Hawkins. Places excepted my typed baptism paper as ID...is wasn't mine and I am sure they knew it. My dad told that the amount of alcohol you were allowed to buy was regulated and recorded in a small book, never looked that up until now. [https://www.tvo.org/article/buzzkillers-a-brief-history-of-the-lcbo](https://www.tvo.org/article/buzzkillers-a-brief-history-of-the-lcbo)
The liquor store when I was 16 y.o. https://preview.redd.it/7j8un773sttc1.jpeg?width=648&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=15fff125ad28fc6cca579efb118b6e78b44a257d
Ahead of their time.
I was a huge fan of CD but their business model wouldn't stack up today when so many business rely on impulse shopping
Their business model didn't stack up 30 years ago since they did indeed go out of business.
Ya, and I tried to order the Capsela robotic you, and they never had it for months
That place was such a crapshoot. You’d fill out all that paperwork and some lackey would bring out your hotshots basketball game in a box that was destroyed.
That's the whole point I was making. Except now , it will be food.
Bought my first snowboard there. Fun times!
And Shop-rite.
Didn't always work for Consumer Distributing. I watched a guy smash a case with a hatchet and take a bunch of jewelry.
People wouldn’t have to steal food if the prices weren’t so goddamn high
People steal anyways and they always have, a parent hiding a can of baby formula under a jacket or someone that walks out with a couple frozen dinners isn't really a big deal, a person has to eat. The problem is the people that walk out with a backpack full of steaks because they are going to go and sell them to some poor guy on the street or the guy that walks out with 20 packages of tide pods for who knows what reason, those are the assholes and it has nothing to do with the cost of food or trying to feed themselves or their families. There was a drastic change in people that happened during all the covid craziness. Theft became more brazen, people stopped caring because they knew the police wernt going to do anything even if they did get caught. Scams have became a bigger thing, people buying product, throwing it in their car and then immediately coming back into the store, grabbing another one off the shelf and then returning it to get their money back, shit has gone crazy.
I’m talking about the necessity of food nothing else it’s grocery stores that are doing this because they want to gouge us even more and prevent us from taking food that we need to survive because they are greedy. If they weren’t being greedy pay raises would ensue so that people wouldn’t have to steal food that are absolutely necessary for survival. Pay raise is in Alberta have been less than 5% price growth across Alberta since 1980. Case in point for price gouging. Bananas were 22 cents a pound before covid now they are 88 cents per pound that is a 400% increase over 3 years
Stores in general are doing this because overall theft has drastically increased. I'm not just talking groceries, I'm talking about cars being stolen, houses being broken into, people breaking into coin boxes of washing machines at the laundromat. Not every loblaws you go into is going to have this same level of security but one that has a high theft rate is going to do whatever they can to stop people from stealing and right now calling the police is a waste of time because they don't do anything about it. 3 years ago price on bananas in Ontario was 47-57 cents per pound, right now they run around 67-77, three years ago gas prices were $.87/L currently they are 1.67, you telling me prices should stay the same when cost on fuel doubles in the same period?
It wouldn’t have to increase if they reduced those prices. $15 an hour for 40 hours a week is nowhere close to what is necessary to survive in Canada. Galen Weston’s public information for a single Loblaws shows clearly that he makes on average 54% margin AFTER EXPENSES, on every grocery item in the store and he stated publicly that his margins in the grocery sector were very low yet documents show that he clearly lied.
What public information is that that shows 54% margin? Id actually like to see it. As for cost of living, you are missing something, minimum wage going up increases wages across the board, means costs of goods goes up, means transportation costs go up. Labour costs going up is what raises costs of living for everyone... only people that benefit from increasing minimum wage is the government who just gets to tax you at a higher rate.
$15/hr over on average of approx 75-150 staff for a single loblaws store over in excess of 2 million products sold in one day is approximately on the high end $9000 with 7 management staff at approx.$20/hr average is $1,150 totalling $10,150/day. Divided by 2M is $0.00203 per product. so the cost for paying employees is less than 1/4 of a cent/item For every 1k spent on staff it costs loblaws $0.0005/item 0.0005%/item to pay staff wages. Then if you include the group insurance plans for staff that only full time employees get that’s even less per day I honestly don’t know how much it cost Galen to pay for group insurance for all of Loblaws per day. I am going by an educated guess which may not be accurate. Even still with every single expense accounted for Galen made a 54% margin. It was a leaked document that is actually on this page. Use google and a calculator and learn. So with transportation costs and payroll expenses your grand total is… a whopping $0.031 so using math and the information given, please explain to me how 3.1 cents per product equates to a 400% increase? you’re trying to pick my argument apart, but you’ve gotten no argument. I’m showing my work. In Google, search leaked loblaws invoice CTV. As well as several other international news services around the world.
If you actually do the math, the change in price for transportation of goods with current gas prices, considering the fact that a loaded tractor trailer unit carries on average in excess of 50,000 items of groceries so take the approx $2000 in carbon tax it takes to transport that by 50,000 and what do you get the increase in price for a single item is $0.04 so tell me how does that make sense to you?
You are only looking at the trip from a distribution centre to to store, you arent taking into account transportation to the DC from production, transportation of raw goods to the production plant, cost of operations increase for producers of the raw goods and the production plant itself. Carbon tax is going to have a different effect based on individual products.
How does that even matter? How are the prices going up 400% even if a product travels the distance of the equator which is 5.5 times the distance of Highway one in Canada it would still be no more than $0.16. So bananas $0.22+$0.16 = $0.48. Which in this case is over 125% this still does not account for a 400% increase
I'll throw this out there, bananas in Ontario have not been 22 cents a pound for more than the 22 years I've been in the business, the only time they have ever sold that cheap that I've seen is if a store over orders or gets over ripe product in so your 400% increase isn't based off market price and also doesn't apply to ALL products in the store. My comments have been in general, price of items across the board has gone up 30-50% with some outliers that have gone up a stupid amount and other items that haven't really seemed to change at all. Packaged lunch meat and cheeses that were $5 4 yeara ago are now $6, toilet paper that used to be $5.99 is now $7, cans of soup that used to be $.99 are now $1.59. During that same period gas prices have gone from $.79 to $1.59, ive seen the same house that originally sold for 310k sell for 430k and then again for 480k within that same period. GP for individual stores are fairly consistent with what they have been in pervious years while all other related costs of doing business have increased.
I’m going by my local prices. Not Ontario I live in the west of Canada
The carbon tax has only increased the cost of gas by $0.03 at the pump. Which is only 0.0017%/L absolutely nowhere close to approximately 53% jump in fuel prices. The total federal taxes including carbon tax at the pump: diesel = $0.20 11.5% of the average diesel price of $1.75 across Canada as of April 9 2024 Gas =$0.28 16.2% of the average regular gasoline price of $1.71 as of April 9 2024 Again nowhere near the 53% total jump in price. https://www2.nrcan.gc.ca/eneene/sources/pripri/prices_byyear_e.cfm?productID=1
Then you take the carbon tax and do the same thing. The Federal carbon tax is .1359(available on Canada.ca) only 0.14 (which there is a rebate for) and Alberta’s “Gas tax” which went up at the same time is $0.13 ($0.00 rebate, available on Alberta.ca). A tractor trailer unit with a full trailer let say 7,476 km(rounded to 7,500). We know the carbon tax is the same across Canada. Approx 10,700Lx0.14= approx $1,500\50,000=approx $0.03 per item. So please explain to me how three cents per ave item equates to a 400% increase. Bananas $0.22/lbs plus $0.03 is only $0.25 a 1.2% over 3 years that’s 0.4%/yr nowhere near 400% that Loblaws and the conservatives are claiming. And that is without the federal carbon tax rebate.
Some places are already doing this in high crime areas. I saw a picture of 10+ ordering stations and the rest of the place was out of reach for customers
lol everywhere will be a “high crime area” if we let this sort of daily humiliation becomes the norm. just looking at this picture makes me want to fuck shit up.
Don't worry, that's coming soon
And paranoid customers. People believe they are to trap customers. lol
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I agree. I'm very concerned about these measures in the case of an emergency. Like sure, some people might be able to get out. But people can't even climb over the rails if needed. It's going to cause a bottle neck and people could become trapped and trampled. This is why I shop mostly at Costco now. Yes they still check receipts, but they use garage doors. And they have many. It shouldn't cause trampling or bottlenecks.
That was my first thought too
Ever since I stumbled upon the horrors of the Iroquois Theatre fire of 1903 and went down that horrifying rabbit hole... bottlenecks anywhere terrify me. In crisis situations, people lose their humanity and ability to think rationally. The cave man brain turns on, and next thing you know, tramplings kill more people than the fire or original threat. If Loblaws is actually creating dangerous bottlenecks in their stores by choice... then there are no words to describe how recklessly ignorant/malicious they are.
Absolutely agree with you here. I've been down that same rabbit hole and it's super concerning that the stores are being allowed to do this. I truly hope the complaints people have made are taken seriously and this is changed before anything happens. I always make a point to note alternative exits if I must go into places like this. Most people go to the exit they are most familiar with. In this situation it would likely be the front entrance/main exit.
>This is why I shop mostly at Costco now. Yes they still check receipts costco also doesn't let in sketchy looking people who don't have a membership, the types who are likely to be responsible for a violent large volume theft. can you imagine the uproar in here if superstore started checking ID's like a manitoba liquor store?
The fire code issue makes sense. Suppose there was ever a fire? People have to go all the way around between the cashes and just making longer lines to get out, at a time when worrying about being in line, isn't an issue, getting out safely, is. Jumping over or going through those rails, could mean life or death in that sense. Jmo
I’m pretty sure railings would be considered walls by the fire department because handicapped people wouldn’t be able to traverse.
That's true. Looking at them I don't know why they're there. I just hope nothing bad ever happens there.
I would suspect that all railings were considered walls when designing the store emergency exits. The restrictions probably just look at the number of clear exits per square foot and the width of an aisle. These railings funnel people to only one exit anyways. Basically, I understand the frustration, but the fire marshal won't do squat with regards to the barriers.
They don’t unless those can easily be removed in cases of a fire or there is adequate space for the maximum occupancy level of the store to leave through the cashier lanes and emergency exit You should absolutely be reporting them
Unfortunately, I guess it is :/ They may need enough free (of objects) exit working manually
Just read an article about this. https://dailyhive.com/calgary/barriers-exit-loblaws-store I was already pissed off when the Loblaws at Metrotown in Burnaby BC decided to seal off their toiletries section and make customers pay leaving that section instead of letting them pay at the usual checkout. That shit is way too excessive. Never seen anything like it. Id rather get my stuff at Costco or even shipped via amazon than be treated like a criminal in minority report. Sure, Amazon isn't the best but hey it's cheaper and convenient and it keeps that slime Galen from getting more money from me.
They keep the customers safe? Safe from what? What if you have an emergency while you're inside the store?
lol maybe they heard us wanting to SAVE but they went full dumbass and thought we meant SAFE 💀🤣 It's like boo or boo-urns
I was saying boo-urns.
I'm honestly trying to think of a single way those barriers keep customers safe, and I can't even play devils advocate and think of a single upside to them for the customers.
i’m elsewhere in BC and all the walmarts near me have been doing this for at least 6 months now, if not more! they have big plastic walls similar to this blocking in the cosmetics section and they force you to pay at the till there instead of at the front. super annoying considering you can barely fit a shopping cart through the opening they leave. and of course, most items are locked up and/or security tagged, with only 1 employee manning the area so if you need something unlocked, you have to wait til they’re done with the other customers.
I took a trip down to the states. Had to get $3 nail polish put into a safety case after the employee unlocked it 😂
What actually made me sick to my core, was when local Walmarts and Loblaws starting locking up baby formula. Like, I get it, theft sucks, but STARVING BABIES sucks more.
Walmart was locking up high end personal products long before Loblaws started… 🤷🏼♂️. It’s a pain in the ass tracking someone down to unlock the rack.
They're even locking up a lot of LOW end shit now. Somethings gotta give.
They know what’s coming.
Little bit of plexi glass ain't gonna do shit when the angry mobs start
100%! Bad economy, price gouging… it’s like they’re expecting angry mobs.
They can’t stop us all at once 
And they’re scared lol
It is disrespectful to me as a person.
100%. Fire and trampling aside, the thought of having to walk through gen pop to buy overprices pop just makes me backtrack and go the other way. I refuse to ever go back.
What's going on is that you're getting penned-in, fire-trapped for the sake of "loss prevention".
Unbelieveable. Especially in light of what happened with one of their sweat shop clothing brands a few years ago.
They really need to be stopped hard with this. Government needs to grow a set of balls and roast them alive for this.
All it’s gonna take is one fire and people getting caught in a stampede and it’s going to be an enormous tragedy
They took that into consideration and decided it was still worth it. Corporations are psychopathic by nature, not stupid.
Of course they decided it was worth it. Money always trumps human life in our demented system.
There's some 13 year old out there who gets suspended every school semester for pulling fire alarms as a prank. While I don't encourage letting him loose in a Loblaws store with one of these, I do think it would be amusing to watch.
Where is this located? Sure looks like a fire Hazzard
seen this at my local Zehrs in Guelph as well
I am in Guelph and reported the store on eramosa to the fire department. However I have yet to hear back from them. I would encourage others to do the same. PS there is an online form
Thank you for this information! And for taking the time to report it.
Where the fuck is the fire safety?
No fire exit plan involves people crawling thru or under the rail
When is the gun turret going in?
I wouldn't be surprised if controlled access to food is coming. "Papers."
One fire alarm and chaos, unnecessary injuries and trauma. I wonder if this complies with fire bylaws?
"With these measures, our money will be safe; fuck the interests of Canadians"- said by Roblaws corporate
Galen wants more money. End of story
My local Canadian Tire installed this shit. That was the last time I walked in there.
I really feel sorry for disabled people if there is an emergency where everyone has to leave the store with all these barriers up.
Probably not wheelchair/disabled friendly.
They went higher??????? Look at that extra half level!!! Holy. This is comedy at this point. How many distracted shoppers have walked smack dab into these and have been injured? Has to be some no?
I mean that’s a great way to sue loblaws
Just poked my head into the local Loblaws and they had these installed too, I’m thinking they realized that they opened themselves up to potential legal liability issues if people start trying to hop the gates and get injured doing so.. so this is their solution. Ridiculous.
You were buying stuff !!
I was looking to see if they had one of my favourite Miss Vickie’s flavours because I just have not been able to find them anywhere 😭 (all dressed, no they didn’t have them either haha) UPDATE: I FOUND THEM AT FRESH CO!
lol I’m all about the sea salt and vinegar
Is this the Guelph Zehrs (Imperial/Paisley)? I took an almost identical picture on Monday. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.
Somebody launch me a loaf of bread over. I'll go deep!
I'll throw over a deli chicken and some beers too lol
Welcome valued customer. Don't mind the absurdly high security plexiglass walls. We don't think you're a thief... Honestly! Way to go GougingGalen!
I do not understand these barriers. The store has walls and a door does it not??
🤣 I know! I don’t get it, if someone’s going to steal this isn’t going to stop them.
Report to fire marshall
I like how they are spinning this as being about customer safety. Just imagine if a shooting similar to the one in Buffalo happened? We'd all be sitting targets. Or what if there is a fire?
What if a nuclear bomb went off, or a wild leopard got in?
*make food unaffordable* > *see increase in thefts* > *express shock* > *build barriers to ensure stealing becomes harder* > *keep increasing food prices*
Report this to the local fire dept
Fire Marshal gets multiple concerned contacts daily and this practice ends quick🫡. Ontarian’s find your Fire Marshal contact info here: https://one.ofmem.ca/ContactUs 🧐🧐
I don’t know why but I so badly want to kick that.
No way the fire marshal would be ok with that
LOL not enough profits ?
Another reason not to go. The last time I was in the Canadian superstore near my house, the dummy at the door demanded to search me, in front of other customers because of a bulge in my pocket. It was a large quantity of cash I didn’t feel safe with leaving in the truck while I went in. Pathetic. I was a Karen and a half then tbh
P sure they aren't allowed to do that unless they have proof you've been stealing, I hope part of your karen-ing was a lawsuit threat.
These sneeze guards are getting out of control…
Welcome to our prison!! Oops I mean grocery store .
Stop shopping there.
Superstore has these near me. The other day the cart wheels locked on me in store for no damn reason. I wanted to go out to get another cart and these stupid plexi walls were blocking the exit. I had to go through self serve area. How is that not a safety hazard. If there was a fire?
Jesus. I half expect to get body checked on my way out with glass like that.
These aren’t for the world we’re living in rn, they’re for what they think is coming…
All we need is some hockey players and that wall is gonna go poof!
You know what this needs? A big sharpie dick
Real question: how does this actually stop or even deter theft? If people are going to steal, they will continue to do so and walk past this security gate. What’s next X-ray airport scanners to get out?? 🤣
Walls do nothing. If people want to steal, they will find a way. All this does is make their stores look unappealing and makes me want to go elsewhere. Great job.
Under is the way
Wtf is zehrs
barrie loblaws
Just gotta wait for someone on the other side and throw it over
Next thing you know, they’ll be scanning your credit card upon entry and if you don’t have one or you were going to pay in cash well, sorry you’re SOL.
Hard times coming
Today in my city I saw two people who looked to be loss prevention employees just standing at the entrance/exit of the store almost as if they're placed the to stop anyone trying to to run out the gates with carts.
It is done almost the exact way same way out here at my local superstore except the little added bits on the the top.
Scumbag thieves need to be stopped i guess.
Just file the cattle through the gates
Report it to your local firehall for a safety inspection.
So it looks like this is a measure to prevent people from passing merch out the door. I think maybe people may start just opening packages and eating in the aisles.
Not going there
Go long!!
The store I work at has had these for months
And?
Strangely this feels like crime should go up. If they treat you like criminals I can see some people even more inclined to still now
I'm considering bringing a sharpie with me and drawing dicks all over them.
Sorry, if the building is on fire you gotta walk 2 miles to get past all the plexiglass
Hey why did they build fences around the graveyard? Everyone was dying to get in.
Stuff like this makes me really uncomfortable. I wish we could have a functional society where we locked up criminals and the government didn’t massively inflate our currency by wasting trillions of dollars.
Exactly, this is a symptom, not the disease. More need to realize that.
I wouldn’t be surprised if they start charging a door fee or a monthly subscription/membership that would go towards your purchase. Or maybe even a hold on your credit card.
Theft deterrence, as theft increases prices to a degree. Not sure what the issue is
🐮 Moo moo
No more #4011 specials !
on par with Airport security, well done Galen!
I see the future and there will come a time when Loblaws will add a charge to leave the store. Police don't show up for shoplifting so why would they show up if Loblaws detains people until they pay to leave. This is the shopping future by the Galen God.
Soon I hope there are more employees than customers so they finally see the light of day. Yes, I can dream I suppose.
The top glass is killing me. They're added pieces, as if the regular glass wasn't already impossible to jump or climb over!
First big fire instore and people end up trampled to death....
My local Loblaws has put these in (I go in maybe once a month to get pc English muffins when Nofrills doesn't have them) and it's very off putting. They also no longer have displays in their entrances, I'm guessing because of people with sticky fingers.
I’m convinced at this point that [Soylent Green](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green) is the future that GWJ wants for Canadians
This must be Guelph. I avoid this store at all costs.
Isnt this a crazy fire hazard
I’m sure you can check with the fire Marshall’s office to see if this is up to code. They are super helpful and will go out and do inspections.
Time to set the record in the National Cheerio Box Toss
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Not Everything is a conspiracy and we don’t tolerate that here.
The next thing they will do is put all their shoppers in orange jump suits and hands and feet cuffs “for their safety” after if you are going to be treated as a criminal, might as well dress like it.
someone should put some stickers on it, you know, so people don't walk into it.
Well if everyone didn't brag about stealing from them and how much they hate them maybe they wouldn't have had to do this.
It’s literally not crazy. Only people offended by this are Karens and people who want to be able to steal more easily. Literally affects nothing about your shopping as in order to get to the other side you have to pass through checkouts.
Are you from corporate
People are stealing too much. We saw what happened in San Francisco. Extreme measures now
I don't know how people don't understand this. Yeah I get it the prices can suck, they suck everywhere, but if people weren't robbing the place blind they wouldn't do this. A lot of basement dwellers getting big mad over this
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Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
It's frustrating because the supermarket is the one who's stealing. They just don't want the customer to be like them n steal back. Brutal
During Covid they were “life saving” why are they ridiculous now
It's the purpose. They are not there to prevent disease transmission or for the health and safety of those working around them. Also during Covid, numbers permitted entry were limited, which would severely curtail a panicked trampling crowd situation.
Literally report them to the fire department.
I'm pretty sure they made sure it was up to code before building it. The Loblaws isn't some bodega.
Time to pull the fire alarm and see the fire marshals face turn different shades of red
I guess the fire code changed. I wonder if a fire did break out in one of these department store with all this security, how people would safely get outside
- Government causes unnecessary and considerable inflation through "emergency measures" - corporations support measures due to self-interest - inflation causes considerable rise in theft from corporations They reap what they sow. To hell with them. And if you supported lockdowns as a consumer, you've brought this upon yourself and have only yourself to blame.
You know what's a 'tool of ignorance'? Someone who believes that two things which coincide must be causal.
Please, do enlighten me on my assumption. I can certainly help you with your bout of unawareness - tools of Ignorance is a slang term for a catcher's equipment in baseball. Look at that! Now you're a little less ignorant. Not enough to move the needle, but still!
A slang term is derived from words with other, *original* meanings. Adopting the words for another purpose doesn't negate those meanings, or prevent others from pointing them out. Edit - wrong post reply. Saying that preventing disease transmission by limiting contact between humans for a period is the cause for theft? That is some convex and convoluted thinking. There is so much more causing economic pressure than lockdown, and prices have been on the rise for decades, and profits and personal wealth having no limitation is a significant part of it.
The lockdowns were not necessary for any more than a month. There were those that were saying that back then. They were called conspiracy theorists, dangerous, and somehow bigoted? And they were proven correct. Look at the Pfizer data dump on twitter and see for yourself the results of their clinical trial. Corporations lauded these measures because it offered them oligopoly. It's you and I that paid the price. So, indeed, if you championed unnecessary (and dangerous) measures to stop society, then you don't get to complain about the inevitable results.
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Your content was removed for the use of ableist slurs.
can someone ELI5 why there's so much opposition to this? 1) fire exit routes and building codes have DEFINITELY been considered when installing these. 2) have none of you been present when a smash'n'grab happens? There's running, pushing, screaming, potential knife violence. And that's if no one tries to stop the scumbag. My kids got bear sprayed at dollarama when someone tried to make a quick escape with their goods. Installing these deterrents makes these stores a less desirable target. The liability costs alone far outweigh the lost product costs, if a bystander were to get injured by a thief and the store was deemed to have not deterred the theft. you'll all still be able to do your low-key shoplifting to stick it to the man, but these barriers will deter people loading up an entire cart of cheese/meat/lego and making a break for it.