The Loblaw’s boycott has been declared a victory. But it lives on, with an extension. And the anger of the organizing group’s 85,000 members persists unabated. And a parliamentary committee has called for federal government action…
Loblaw’s – the alpha dog of the big-supermarket pack – is fronting
the brunt of consumer discontent over high food prices…
The boycott
A grassroots group on reddit, r/loblawsisoutofcontrol, started small but quickly gained support from angry, hungry food shoppers across the country. As of the end of the first phase of the boycott, the group had more than 85,000 members, and was still growing.
And the boycott’s organizing executive has now officially extended the boycott indefinitely.
“In a decisive move, the community members of the movement to boycott Loblaw and its subsidiaries have voted overwhelmingly to extend their boycott indefinitely.” the official announcement opened. “Following a recent poll, a majority of the community expressed their support for continuing the boycott against Loblaw, citing ongoing dissatisfaction with the skyrocketing cost of groceries.”
But the group won’t just be sitting back, watching. “Over the coming months, the boycott organizers will focus on empowering consumers through education on key topics and engaging in advocacy efforts to garner political attention and raise awareness via social media challenges.
“Additionally, we will be working to educate our members and help them better understand the regulatory regimes which allow Loblaw to operate in this manner.”
Loblaw’s signs Code of Conduct
Amid the month-long May boycott, Loblaw’s gave protesters one of the things they wanted. The alpha dog of the big supermarket pack finally signed on to the long awaited Grocer’s Code of Conduct. But that agreement, among supermarket mega-chains, does nothing to help consumes who are still staggering under persistent high food prices.
The Code should, however, result in ‘greater transparency’ between retailers and food-chain players. That might bring some food price reductions. But nothing, industry observers say, like the 15 percent the Loblaw’s boycotters are demanding.
Food prices down – a bit
We heard, nearer the end of the initial boycott period, that Canadian food prices had, in fact, dropped – 0.3 percent – in April. It’s seen as a pivotal point in the food price saga. But not enough of a decline to make a palpable difference to shoppers.
Additional good news comes in predictions from Statistics Canada and the independent Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, that food prices will drop another sliver at least when the May numbers come out.
The Committee speaks
Perhaps the biggest news on the food price front is the call from a special Parliamentary Committee on Food Prices to the Trudeau government to take action.
The committee has declared that Canadians are in a bad and worsening position, increasingly falling below the poverty line, and incgreasingly unable to feed their families.
Food sector economists say there’s little chance of prices ever coming down on their own to anywhere near where they rested before the soaring increases of the past few years. And that’s prompted the Committee to issue a loud call for immediate, decisive action, mandating significant food price cuts.
My take
It’s already past time for concerted action on food prices. The supermarket industry is reporting record profits while Canadians starve. Only the government can force the supermarket cartel to do the right thing. And that’s to sacrifice are least a little of their excess profit to the greater good.
The Big 5 virtually own the Canadian supermarket industry. They need to be reminded – as harshly as necessary – that with ownership come responsibilities…
~ Maggie J.