People are fed up with Loblaw stores’ rising prices. Would a boycott accomplish anything?

It may very well have started with a tweet about a $37 package of chicken breasts. Or it could have been the $10 birch sticks.

The $9 butter didn’t help, or $30 for Feta cheese — allegedly twice the price a competitor was charging for the same product.

Whatever may have been the social media tipping point, a lot of people are angry about high prices in grocery stores, Loblaw brands in particular. Throw in shrinkflation, skimpflation and greedflation, and now a growing group of people online is calling for a boycott.

“I think a lot of people have very little faith in our political leaders to actually hold corporations accountable for the positions they are putting Canadians in,” said Emily Johnson, a mental health and addictions worker in Milton, Ont., who runs a quickly growing Reddit community called “Loblaws is out of control.”

“People feel voting with their dollar is the best way of showing companies that they’ve had enough,” Johnson told CBC News.

In a post last month, she and the other moderators of the subreddit encouraged its 45,000 members to start boycotting Loblaw and Loblaw-owned stores, such as Superstore and No Frills, in May. The movement has gained traction on other social media platforms like X, formerly Twitter, and TikTok.

“Canadians are facing a cost-of-living crisis, and grocers are a major contributor to this. Vulnerable populations such as seniors, persons with disabilities, and those on fixed incomes are left further behind,” the post reads: https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1bff9rm/boycott/

For those looking to participate in the sub boycott:

We are boycotting Loblaw and Loblaw owned stores for the entire month of May 2024 (obviously you can boycott past this point in time)

*  We are asking for a reduction in prices by 15%

* We are asking Loblaw remove "member only pricing" where customers are forced to sign up for a PC optimum card in order to receive sale prices

* If shopping is taking place at Loblaw stores, we are focusing on purchasing loss leaders

Loblaw is a massive company, extending into groceries — where it has nearly a third of national sales — as well as pharmacy, health and beauty, apparel, general merchandise, financial services and wireless mobile products and services.

In terms of grocery stores, there’s Loblaws, Atlantic Superstore, Dominion, Maxi, No Frills, Provigo Le Marché, Valu-Mart, Real Canadian Superstore, Wholesale Club, Your Independent Grocer, T&T and Zehrs.

|Read more https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/loblaws-boycott-canada-1.7164506| cbc.ca/news/business/loblaws-b…

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