Oh, so the plan is to jack up prices and then treat us like we're the thieves? If a receipt check isn't stipulated as a condition of membership a la Costco, I'm not cooperating.
Why do people keep shopping at Loblaws? Ethnic grocers are so much cheaper. If you're in Vancouver, go to some of the Asian grocery stores in Richmond and save literally half your grocery bill.
I wish that were the case everywhere. Unfortunately, I've found it to be the other way around here in Winnipeg. Superstore and No Frills are among the cheapest places to shop here, and the ethnic grocers tend to be among the most expensive.
Because that's only an option if you live in a City. I'm barely outside of Toronto and once you get into the country roads, you're looking at Foodland or bust for the most part.
I miss Vancouver for this. I've yet to find anything that compares to Superstore/ big box pricing in Calgary. There are smaller stores, but they're few and far between with higher pricing.
In Montréal I find it depends what you're shopping for. I've found its cheaper to go to the Asian market for fruits and veggies, for anything else it's best to go to the franchise supermarkets.
I literally only shop there when the in app deals are better than the advertised sales at Shoppers Drug Mart, which tend to equal or best sales elsewhere like Food Basics, plus I get points at shoppers for every penny spent but not at Loblaws. It's not a hard decision where and when to shop. No Frills used to be good but their sales tend to be on par with Loblaws these days
If they are checking receipts because an increase in theft I am ok with it. Any financial loss to my local store will have to be collected in prices of their goods to keep the business open. I wish they didn't have to.
Despite the rise in theft, Loblaws saw 6% revenue growth last quarter compared to 3% in Q1 2022.
Loblaws is price gouging. They deliver essential product at luxury prices on a monopolistic scale in many neighbourhoods. They do this by design; they know that people have no other reasonable choices, and they know that people will need to buy food eventually.
In October it was reported that 20% of Canadians are skipping meals to cut down on food costs. Meanwhile Galen Weston has received 136% increase in direct wages over the last two years.
Meanwhile, I don't know about other warehouses, but next year Loblaws will be shutting down their Cambridge, ON Warehouse to open a new, fully automated one closer to Toronto. All those warehouse workers are going to lose their jobs for the sake of automation.
In summary: Loblaws is making more. Their executive staff is making more. Yet they're raising their prices along with it. People need to eat, and if you cannot afford to eat, you should steal. Food is not optional and I will die before telling someone else to die because they're too poor to eat. Loblaws is celebrating their victory over our wallets as we merely try to survive.