It’s not just the prices and ‘shrinkflation’ that make folks mad when they shop for food. It’s a host of other aggravations that sting like pins in a Voodoo doll. One Redditor spilled out his food shopping blues in a 9-minute video rant…
@yahoonewscanada Scott Simpson, who lives in London, Ont., posted a “rant” to the Loblaws Is Out Of Control forum on Reddit, detailing all the things he feels have changed for the worse over the 20 years and quickly went viral on the platform. Do you agree with him? #news #yahoo #canada #viral #reddit #loblaws #superstore #fyp ♬ original sound – Yahoo News Canada
Out of control
Many folks post reactions to food price stories on Reddit’s r/loblawsisoutofcontrol thread. But a recent video rant is catching the greater online community’s attention. I think it may be looked back upon by historians as a classic. An iconic expression of the frustrations of the 2020s consumer…
Mad as Hell
Scott Simpson of London, Ontario, is mad as hell. And he’s not going to take it anymore. Unable to control himself any longer, he created a marathon 9-minute video rant detailing how the grocery shopping experience has taken a decided turn for the worse over the past 20 years.
Simpson’s complaints do not reprise the big issue – prices. He says that’s more than adequately addressed in daily posts and comments to the r/loblawsisoutofcontrol thread.
“It’s a big company doing what big companies do,” he told Yahoo! News. “But I’m talking about the choices they’re making to make those profits happen at a ground level that I feel and a lot of people feel … It doesn’t have to be this way.”
It’s personal
“[Grocery shopping] ceased being something really useful that helped me manage a chaotic life, to something that just became an added piece of chaos.” Simpson, explains. “Some of my earlier memories are of going shopping at Loblaws with my mother. That’s special to me. And knowing I’ve mostly stayed with one chain and to have them kick you a little bit, I don’t like it. It feels rotten. It feels personal.”
Simpson says he’s shopped at Great Canadian Superstores in Nova Scotia and Ontario over the past 20 years. But his patience has reached the breaking point.
Stonewalled
One of the most vexing provocations Simpson has run into is the failure of Loblaw’s managers and head office people to even acknowledge his complaints. The store manager told him to send his issues up the line, to the corporate level. But he’s been stonewalled. And now he’s fed up.
Boycott set for May
He’s far from alone. The 50,000-member Reddit thread has been called on by its organizers to boycott all Loblaw’s supermarkets for the whole month of May. That includes all stores in chains owned by Loblaw’s across Canada that carry on business under other names.
My take
I think Simpson speaks for many of us when he says the way his go-to grocery store has ‘kicked him a little bit’ feels ‘rotten’.
My questions to you:
Do you feel ‘kicked a little’, personally affronted – rotten?
Will you join the Loblaw’s boycott?
Are you ready to switch supermarkets over the way your current store is treating you?
Muse on that…
~ Maggie J.