Editor,
This letter concerns corporate policies, not those of individual store franchisees and operators, who are forced to comply with the corporate line.
Loblaws Co. Ltd. continues to be the food industry pacesetter in corporate greed and dismissal of affordability. They have changed their 50% discount on fresh foods nearing an expiry date down to 30%. Customers whose income forces them to seek such bargains are hurt the most by this initiative.
I suppose better the food goes to landfill than to actually help someone out.
Loblaws (along with Walmart Canada) have refused to sign on to a government grocery Code of Conduct. Their chairman has used false data to prop up his argument.
The Empire chain (Sobeys, FreshCo, etc.) disputes the Loblaw stance and is willing to sign on to the code, but it will not happen because of the refusals of Loblaws and Walmart.
It has come to light that Loblaws has been aggressively lobbying the Ontario government to allow them to sell cannabis products in mini-stores within their facilities. After all, there are lots of small retailers out there who are earning very modest profits that rightly need to be Loblaw profits.
Years ago their Shoppers Drug Mart policies hurt small independent operators severely.
Many of their outlets sell clothing because there are clothing retailers taking way too many consumer dollars in.
Loblaws was the first chain to implement “multi” unit pricing, whereby one has to buy more than one unit to get a lower price. All other food retailers eventually followed suit.
I could go on, but most of your readers already know these things. How much profit is enough?
Mike Robertson, Meaford
