Organizers of a fast-growing boycott movement against Loblaw over high food prices say they are keenly aware they need to target more than just grocery stores to impact the mammoth corporation’s bottom line.
Loblaw Companies Ltd. is the parent company of nearly two-dozen store brands spread across food, pharmacies, fashion, beauty and financial services. The company says it operates over 2,400 stores across Canada, such as Shoppers Drug Mart, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills and more.
2:23 Consumers gear up for Loblaw boycott as petition for investigation gains traction
And its PC Financial products, which includes a bank account and credit cards linked to Loblaw’s PC Rewards system, serves roughly three million customers.
That vast network raises the challenge for the boycott movement starting in May, but those leading the charge say they are rising to it.
“I’m going to be closing my PC bank account,” said Emily Johnson, who created the Reddit group r/loblawsisoutofcontrol where the boycott began. “I’ve already moved all of my prescriptions to my local pharmacist as well.”
What else does Loblaw own?
Loblaw’s grocery division alone is expansive.
In addition to its namesake Loblaws grocery store and the aforementioned Real Canadian Superstore and No Frills, it also oversees Freshmart and its affiliates SuperValu, Shop Easy and Axep, Real Canadian Liquorstore.
The company also owns the Asian-focused T&T Supermarket, Zehrs, Valu-Mart, Provigo, No Name, Your Independent Grocer, City Market, Fortinos, Wholesale Club, Maxi, Extra Foods and Dominion Stores in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The company’s PC Express online delivery service serves all of those brands.
5:57 Loblaws boycott picks up steam as resentment grows online
Its Joe Fresh fashion brand operates stand-alone stores as well as departments inside Real Canadian Superstore.
Loblaw also has a partnership with Esso and Mobil gas stations that allows customers to earn and redeem PC Optimum points, although as of 2017 the company no longer owns any of those gas stations directly.
In 2014, Loblaw acquired Shoppers Drug Mart, which operates over 1,300 locations alone and is known as Pharmaprix in Quebec. That company also operates Wellwise home health care centres, Simply Pharmacy and MediSystem Pharmacy, The Health Clinic walk-in and family health services, and Specialty Health Network patient supports.
In 2022, Loblaw announced Shoppers would acquire the Lifemark group of physiotherapy, massage therapy, chiropractic and rehabilitation clinics.
The company even operates a prepaid wireless cellular service, PC Mobile, that runs on the Bell network. Earlier this month, it announced a new low-cost plan under the No Name brand.
Loblaw also owns and operates Maple Leaf Gardens, the former home arena of the Toronto Maple Leafs, which now houses the Mattamy Athletic Centre. The facility is home to Toronto Metropolitan University’s athletic program and PWHL Toronto, as well as the flagship Loblaws store.
Choice Properties, Loblaw’s real estate investment trust, owns and operates business parks, shopping centres and mixed-use retail and residential properties across the country, many of which are anchored by its grocery stores. Some of its business clients include Dollarama and GoodLife Fitness.
How are consumers impacted?
Boycott organizers have already acknowledged many Canadians will be unable to participate, given the lack of alternatives for groceries and other services in some communities.
The r/loblawsisoutofcontrol page includes a link to AltGrocery.ca, which helps connect people to independent grocers in their community.
But the movement has also served as a reminder of how large Loblaw and other multi-faceted corporate grocers like Metro and Empire, which owns Sobeys and several other brands, have become.
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Richard Powers, an associate professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, says those corporations have created an “economy of scale” that targets customer convenience, making it difficult for those customers to look elsewhere.
That has included setting up more stores in urban environments close to public transportation.
“Are people going to travel further to pick up the groceries or other services? That’s questionable,” he said in an interview. “I think this boycott will be short-lived.”
Loblaw has to keep looking for ways to provide value to keep people coming back, he said: “We don’t have a contract with our customers. They can choose to shop elsewhere tomorrow, if they don’t like the offer that we’re giving.”
Bank says he takes customer complaints personally, and if customers aren’t happy, “that’s something I want to fix.” He added that if one customer really dislikes Loblaw, “that’s one too many.”
6:22 Will the proposed Loblaw boycott reap any rewards?
Loblaw claims 90 per cent of Canadians live within 10 kilometres of one of its stores.
Despite its diverse portfolio, Loblaw still makes the majority of its revenue from its grocery stores. Its 2023 earnings report showed that out of the $58.3 billion in retail sales the company earned throughout 2023, $41.2 billion — 70 per cent — came from food retail.
Yet drug and pharmacy retail has routinely outpaced food sales in terms of year-over-year growth, which Loblaw has said is helping to drive its profits higher thanks to demand for cough and cold treatments and beauty products.
Loblaw said its PC Financial services brought in $1.54 billion last year, a 15 per cent increase from 2022. In the first quarter of 2024, revenue from those services grew 10.7 per cent from the same period last year.
By comparison, its retail revenues grew by 5.1 per cent year-over-year between 2022 and 2023, and 4.4 per cent from the first quarter of 2023 to the same period this year.
Wednesday’s first-quarter results showed profit available to common Loblaw shareholders increased almost 10 per cent year over year to $459 million, or $1.47 per diluted share.
Johnson points to a list posted to the Reddit page outlining the ways Canadians can show “solidarity” with the boycott movement if they can’t untangle themselves from Loblaw’s various services.
Chief among those alternatives is a template letter people can use to write their local member of Parliament and voice their anger over rising prices at corporate grocers.
Johnson says people can also donate food or money to their local food bank, and to share news and information about the boycott on social media to ensure the movement continues to grow.
“You might not be able to to boycott, but other folks in your circle may be able to, and that’s a big way of encouraging solidarity among Canadians,” she said.
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
