Are Loblaws’ Days Numbered?

May 22, 2024
Times are tough these days. It’s getting harder and harder to make ends meet. Rent, mortgage, and gas are increasing, outpacing real wages and salaries for the average Canadian. Most noticeable to Canadians coast to coast is the price of food. It’s harder and harder to stretch your dollar when feeding your family these days after stepping foot in a supermarket. Politicians like Pierre Poilievre like to espouse that it is taxation that has caused the increase in prices. Justin Trudeau on the other hand is saying he’s keeping an eye on grocery stores about the increase in prices. So where does that leave the average Canadian? For a subreddit community, it’s forced them to take action on their own. To send a message to the corporate conglomerates that own the food retail business in this country, using the only tool available to them…their hard-earned money. The subreddit community, LoblawsIsOutOfControl is organizing a nationwide boycott of the country’s largest supermarket conglomerate. What started as a small protest against the rising cost of groceries, has turned into a national movement of ordinary Canadians trying to send a message to the corporations that control food in this country. Canadians aren’t going to take it anymore. However, does this movement have legs? Especially in the 905? If this boycott can make an impact on the ledger of Loblaws it will be here in the 905. So to that end, we reached out to the organizers of the boycott, Emily Johnson. Emily is a single mother, who lives here in the 905 and is taking on Canada’s richest grocer, Galen Weston. We spoke with her to talk about the origins of this boycott, how it’s going, and what victory looks like to them. It takes money and time to do this podcast. We love doing what we do, but please consider supporting us if you can so we can keep improving, and keep paying the bills. You can become a monthly or yearly patron on our website at 905er.ca. We didn’t like sharing your generosity with that other ‘patron’ website, so we created our patron system. Become a patron, get member benefits and our eternal gratitude, and know that you’re not mainly funding some crummy web company in the US. Win-win! Or, why not buy us a coffee? Nicholas Paul: sound editing. The Quadrafonics: fantastic opening and closing tunes!

Joel MacLeod

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