The online jungle drums have been oddly quiet recently, even as the Loblaw’s Boycott campaign presses on… The company isn’t admitting it’s felt so much as a mosquito bite. But protesters say they’ve made some ideological inroads…
A recent Financial Post updater on the Loblaw’s Boycott broke what had been an eerie silence in the media about the grassroots protest. The was so much hoopla and sabre-rattling by protestors leading up to the ‘event’ that I expected a continuing storm of coverage. Like the daily updates about the Trump Trial, but on an appropriately smaller scale.
Alas, there’s been next to nothing by way of a follow-up…
A mid-point assessment
The Post‘s
Organizer Phoenix (Vince) Geisler, told the Post the boycott picked up momentum entering its second week. He said that the supporting data, based on Google Maps, indicated strong participation in Eastern regions such as Ontario, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, as well as in Alberta.
Significant developments
The group claims eight other organizations from across Canada have signed onto the protest. Shoppers are being challenged to avoid all Loblaw’s stores and its subsidiaries for the whole month of May. Organizers claim their Reddit page has had more than 4.5 million views, and the group’s Instagram account has attracted more than 10,600 followers.
The group also claims it’s official membership has shot up by more than 20,000, from 56,000 on May 1 to 77,000 by the halfway point of the protest.
A meeting of minds
Perhaps more important is the meeting that boycott group founder Emily Johnson was granted May 2 with Loblaw’s CEO Per Bank. Loblaw’s is saying nothing about the meeting. But Johnson says the dialogue is ongoing and ‘positive’. But the supermarket chain has not made any firm commitments to address the protesters concerns.
The Boycott Protest’s demands centre on a 15 to 20 percent reduction in retail food prices. The group also wants Loblaw’s to extend its ‘members only’ deals to all customers. And it’s asking for greater transparancy on ‘shrinkflation’.
My take
Loblaw’s has enjoyed a robust year financially thus far: “The same day the boycott was launched, the company released its first quarter earnings results and hiked its dividend by 15 per cent after reporting an almost 10 per cent rise in profits. Loblaw said the increase […] was due to a jump in customer traffic, as prices at its stores rose less than the general level of food inflation tracked by the consumer price index.”
We’ll have to wait until mid-summer for Loblaw’s second-quarter results. It will be interesting to what kind of impact the boycott produced.
Perhaps most telling ‘indicator’ is the comment from one of Sister Erin’s fave cashiers at our local Loblaw’s. Asked about the effects the boycott was having at her store, she shrugged and said, “I haven’t really noticed anything…”
~ Maggie J.