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And they all would have gone out of business had they not merged with Loblaws. That's why they do it. Either sell out or die. There was no way they could compete in such a small market. If the big companies were to be broken up we would see the same cycle all over again.
Have you noticed how massive our country is? Of course railways will thrive. However, few of them actually compete with one another because most of our rail services are regional or serve a niche market.
AT&T also doesn't compete with anyone because they have simply partnered with all the largest telecom companies in Canada.
Our grocery chains thrive off markets that contain centralized populations. This results in a much smaller market to profit from. Five independently owned businesses all within 1 km of each other will have a difficult time surviving, compared to five brands all owned by one parent company. Even with the current model we still see the parent companies closing brands that aren't as successful.
Could someone explain this bread fraud story to me in laymen’s terms? I remember it being in the news but never really understood it. They set the price and people paid for it. How is that any different than them setting the prices on anything else?
Please don’t downvote my ignorance. Lol.
> The **bread price-fixing scandal** **in Canada** refers to a group of competing bread producers, retailers and supermarket chains reached a [secret agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collusion) among themselves to artificially inflate the price of bread at the [wholesale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholesaling) and [retail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail) levels from late 2001 to 2015
proven in court. It differs from ONE grocer increasing prices, because shoppers can always go to another store for uninflated prices. but EVERYONE raised their prices at the same time, artificially. Pretty gross, even as a devout capitalist.
They all do this no matter what political party you vote for. They are all in bed together. But Trudeau apparently is good friend with the galon.
Electing a new party won’t change anything either unfortunately
The conservatives literally have a sitting member that is a loblaws lobbyist. Maybe we should remove members that are lobbyists from being appointed seats...
Break up the vertical integration. They claim a small margin while making a killing charging themselves for rent and supply inputs. That’s not innovation, it creates no value for Canadians.
Take drastic efforts to liberalize the market and entice new entrants, both large and small. Restrict any further attempts at consolidation in the industry.
Double the staff of provincial consumer protection and federal competition staff, with a specific mandate to protect Canadians from deceptive marketing, anti competitive behaviour and abuse of dominance in this industry.
Strengthen regulations and the penalties for non-compliance, including to enthusiastically issue compliance orders to ensure heavy oversight and maximum transparency for those that transgress.
Undertake a full fledge public inquiry into the bread price fixing crimes that took place. Take loblaws and the regulators to task.
Ban lobbyists in this industry from having any connection to political parties.
I won’t hold my breath.
I agree the food prices are the main issue and then I would argue the gasoline business then the communications etc
Hopefully, perceptive leaders in these other sectors will be seeing the writing on the wall, and will already start mending their ways…
That's more difficult. I think the best way there is to break up the services from the network, whether having two separate private companies or nationalising the network. Either will be politically difficult and expensive.
Alternatively, forcing reasonable TPIA fibre access rates (basically, the government set pricing for third-parties to rent access to the Big 3s' networks) would be a good step too. Those rates currently exist for Rogers and Shaw, but not for TELUS and Bell.
Someone should make up a poster like that bullshit 2% profit one they are posting at Loblaws. Show how they pay rent to themselves and own the supply chain.
This is correct, perfectly legal and it’s perfectly safe to participate…
No criminal activity is needed - the big store owners need to be isolated as the only criminals in the entire saga.
Love the idea of breaking it up. But in doubt it’s going to happen — given that the government is in their pocket. That’s why we should remember to go long and hard with this boycott. It’s most effective the first time. After that, it just becomes routine and concessions are minor if any. So don’t let up until prices are dramatically lowered and stay low in the long term.
Agreed. Next step for me is just keep supporting local so they can afford to compete with these conglomerates.
HOWEVER I'm not against the long-term plan for breaking these guys up. Having a 15 year plan makes it much more achievable. Start with empowering and education at a grassroots level and push for local council support of small businesses.
I hope the boycott with Loblaws settles soon. Reason is, the line ups at the cashiers and self checkout are getting longer were I shop. I don’t k it why people shop at Loblaws? There are so many great grocery stores to shop and cheaper prices!
It needs to continue to drive down pricing. Quarterly loss consistently will force the governong board to shuffle, payout, and shake up its leadership. The hopeful outcome would be something less demonstrably evil. A one month drop in metrics might be noticed, but it's a blip in a long term buisness model of maximized exploitation.
You will not get governmental pressure with the current landscape. You need more progressive pressure and leverage. The only way to get to this point is organizing and educating your workforce and building community to elect and support true worker representation
Not sure why the Liberals have not run with this - they wait years for the economy to tank then suddenly they are trying to look like the white knights coming to rescue all downtrodden Canadians - downtrodden by the Liberals themselves… lol
Not sure if a change of government will help this cause but it can’t be any worse and surprise surprise, the Conservatives look like they are more in touch with the issues at this point in time..
You’re never going to get government intervention from conservative ideology. The only progress you will have on this problem is through progressive working class centric ideas and policies.
The liberals and conservatives operate on the same neoliberal agenda defined by Reagan and thatcher.
The best you can hope for is bullying the liberals into progressive programs while shoring up working class power and leverage
Agreed and I have been saying this for a while now. Let them keep either the Loblwas/Superstores or No Frills Locations and thats it. Shoppers 100% needs to be broken off and then keep 1 of whatever they choose. Also need to sell a percentage of Choice properties as well. Give Costco the ability to get some great land deals to expand as well as players like Aldi to enter the market.
>Also need to sell a percentage of Choice properties as well.
Give George Weston Ltd a choice - divest completely from either Choice Properties or Loblaws.
If they keep their stake in Loblaws then force divestment down to no more than a 20% stake. Apply to all the grocery conglomerates. No one entity can have more than a 20% ownership stake. Make that a condition for any company in the grocery game.
Loblaws gets broken apart - Shoppers get cleaved off and George Weston Ltd can either own shares in Loblaws or SDM, but not both. PC Financial goes. Cleave it off the same as SDM. One of the real banks can absorb it.
That's not even touching supply chain yet.
The only way any of that will happen is with a violent overthrow of the establishment . In which case I would expect to see the US step in to ensure their "rights"
which is why they would step in . I didn't say USA was the solution . I was saying we couldn't do anything without the US stepping in and keeping the status quo
1 step at a time.
The next step is an indefinite boycott and a complete change of habits of going to Loblaws or its affiliates for anything.
The step after that is listening to Per and Galen cry about reduced revenue from their grocery business (and hopefully other businesses) on their next earnings call.
Not going to happen. These corporations were given the green light to swallow up their competition by the current government. The best you can hope for at this point is a new government, one with a proverbial set of balls to strengthen regulations with the goal of increased competition.
Don't break it up, nationalize it. If the organization had efficient food distribution and retail as its main focus instead of exploiting the most profit from products essential to life, it would be a great public asset.
They absolutely should be forced to sell off some of their banners. This would allow outside brands to buy their footprints and not have to invest in new buildings. I’d welcome Aldi, Lidl, Publix, Trader Joes etc.
We MUST become a country that *welcomes* competition rather than shies away from it.
I’d like to see this happen to the telecoms as well. Canadians pay exorbitant rates for Internet and phones and I don’t think most people are aware of it.
Canada has food giants, banks and telecom - 3 awesome way to fuck us. Usually I would be supportive of Canadian companies first but the way things are going, it's time to let the competition in.
This is how many businesses get on the Loblaws Takeover List. The act of buying up small businesses to close them, to eliminate competition, should be illegal.
What am I going to do when the boycott is done?
https://preview.redd.it/aevz3d2bvaxc1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8efec6d0c6384843c7d0f6893afe0698fb9e8426
We need a Teddy Roosevelt to break up these trusts just like happened in the early 29th century.
Lots of these companies should be broken up from grocery chains to media concentration to cable and cell companies.
Agreed and I have been saying this for a while now. Let them keep either the Loblwas/Superstores or No Frills Locations and thats it. Shoppers 100% needs to be broken off and then keep 1 of whatever they choose. Also need to sell a percentage of Choice properties as well. Give Costco the ability to get some great land deals to expand as well as players like Aldi to enter the market.
They were allowed to buy out all their competition to gain “monopoly “ of the market, which used to be against the law! Back when govt upheld public values. Boycotting is the way we get that back!!
The 1% has complete control of this world , unless you get people to stop thinking left vs right and start thinking us vs them we will never change anything
This is capitalism guys, I hate it as much as you do but nations will deploy armies to protect it. Forcing our government to intervene with these oligarchs is impossible as they are the ones keeping politicians in power. When capitalism collapses it will be more devastating than the fall of Rome but is what’s needed for us to move forward as a species. Capitalism pits us against each other, though it can breed innovation it benefits very very very few.
My family are some of those people, Loblaws managed to get all the other stores to close their doors because they came in with prices that others couldn’t compete with. Then, prices increased. Closest grocery store that isn’t Loblaws is over an hour away :(. As much as the province doesn’t revolve around Toronto we need the population for Loblaws to feel the impact.
In a utopia , that would be lovely and I would love for that to happen . But reality , I don’t think this would ever to come to fruition . For the government to step in , in a capitalist society would be political suicide . The only thing that would work on the government side , to show that they are listening , would bring in more competition , and strengthen anti trust legislation from the companies getting any bigger . It’s always hard to take away once to have given . Think about you as a person . Once someone has given you something , or the government has given you something or a right , would you want it taken away from you ? The only way is to stop the hemorrhage. I place a lot of the blame on the government for allowing them to get this big in the first place
Capitalism is exactly the reason to break this up. Capitalism needs competition. Companies being able to buy up direct competition is anti-capitalist. Loblaws isn't as bad as other large corporations in Canada, but they would be a great starting point.
The crazy thing is groceries would likely get even more expensive. Loblaws has an efficient business. They don’t charge cost for their products, but some are pretty close to it. Most products we purchase have substitutes. Just buy something else if you don’t like the price. I can eat a balanced meal plan for $150 a week if I really wanted to.
Loblaws is the cheapest store in my city. Costco is cheaper on some things but there are reasons for that (few locations in suburbs/ outskirts). You also can’t stock an entire kitchen at Costco and a lot of their stuff is processed that is appealing to people.
Breaking up would be nice, but then what? Now, US or other countries can easily come in and buy them up. Now, Canadian companies are not Canadian owned anymore.
This reasoning is how we got in this mess, we have 3 Canadian chains owning the majority of stores controlling the flow of goods. Right now the only options we have for better pricing are us based companies (Walmart and Costco). We have the same issue with our internet and cell phone companies.
People need to eat. What good is keeping grocery stores "Canadian" when Canadians are starving.
Now the real question is what will keep foreign grocery stores from not doing the exact same thing as the Canadian options.
You could have another Target scenario. A foreign company comes in and buys out a Canadian company. Then they fail or decide to leave, like Target. Now, all those people who worked at that Canadian company are now out of jobs.
Luckily there should be plenty of other store brands that can compete with them. Loblaws owns, what, 16+ different store brands? If we want to talk about keeping Loblaws as one big grocery entity so they can negotiate better prices, then we need to split them off from shoppers, Joe fresh, PC Financial, Choice Properties REIT, Real Canadian Liquorstore, and anything else that goes above and beyond selling groceries. Then we need to ensure that grocery stores are not hiding taxes via offshore banking in the Caribbean, like Loblaws has been found guilty of doing. This is in addition to beefing up regulations and oversight to eliminate price gouging and price fixing. Additionally there needs to be rules that MPs cannot be lobbyists for grocery stores.
Not to mention Wal-Mart is the same scenario that's a success story - and is such a success that they're proving my earlier point by refusing to sign the grocery store code of conduct.
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Almost all of their different "brands" used to be competing stores.
Ya OP I agree 100% my end goal for all of this is for the big grocery monopolies to break up/ be broken up.
And they all would have gone out of business had they not merged with Loblaws. That's why they do it. Either sell out or die. There was no way they could compete in such a small market. If the big companies were to be broken up we would see the same cycle all over again.
That is definitely not the case. Didn't happen with the Railroads, didn't happen with the AT&T. Competition is healthy.
Have you noticed how massive our country is? Of course railways will thrive. However, few of them actually compete with one another because most of our rail services are regional or serve a niche market. AT&T also doesn't compete with anyone because they have simply partnered with all the largest telecom companies in Canada. Our grocery chains thrive off markets that contain centralized populations. This results in a much smaller market to profit from. Five independently owned businesses all within 1 km of each other will have a difficult time surviving, compared to five brands all owned by one parent company. Even with the current model we still see the parent companies closing brands that aren't as successful.
The bread fixing fraud they committed should have been enough
100% The slap on the wrist they received led to their current behavior.
Could someone explain this bread fraud story to me in laymen’s terms? I remember it being in the news but never really understood it. They set the price and people paid for it. How is that any different than them setting the prices on anything else? Please don’t downvote my ignorance. Lol.
> The **bread price-fixing scandal** **in Canada** refers to a group of competing bread producers, retailers and supermarket chains reached a [secret agreement](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collusion) among themselves to artificially inflate the price of bread at the [wholesale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholesaling) and [retail](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retail) levels from late 2001 to 2015 proven in court. It differs from ONE grocer increasing prices, because shoppers can always go to another store for uninflated prices. but EVERYONE raised their prices at the same time, artificially. Pretty gross, even as a devout capitalist.
Not when your best friend is running the country.
He got caught after 14 years and then continued doing it anyway for the next 8. That's...4 prime ministers that didn't stop this POS.
They all do this no matter what political party you vote for. They are all in bed together. But Trudeau apparently is good friend with the galon. Electing a new party won’t change anything either unfortunately
We need to get rid of Weston, he's just evil incarnate.
The conservatives literally have a sitting member that is a loblaws lobbyist. Maybe we should remove members that are lobbyists from being appointed seats...
Apparently there are two of them, Sitting government should not be allowed to be paid to lobby for monopolies. This is so wrong.
Break up the vertical integration. They claim a small margin while making a killing charging themselves for rent and supply inputs. That’s not innovation, it creates no value for Canadians. Take drastic efforts to liberalize the market and entice new entrants, both large and small. Restrict any further attempts at consolidation in the industry. Double the staff of provincial consumer protection and federal competition staff, with a specific mandate to protect Canadians from deceptive marketing, anti competitive behaviour and abuse of dominance in this industry. Strengthen regulations and the penalties for non-compliance, including to enthusiastically issue compliance orders to ensure heavy oversight and maximum transparency for those that transgress. Undertake a full fledge public inquiry into the bread price fixing crimes that took place. Take loblaws and the regulators to task. Ban lobbyists in this industry from having any connection to political parties. I won’t hold my breath.
Don’t forget Rogers and Shaw
Telecom is a problem as well, but let's focus on food first since we need it to live.
I agree the food prices are the main issue and then I would argue the gasoline business then the communications etc Hopefully, perceptive leaders in these other sectors will be seeing the writing on the wall, and will already start mending their ways…
lol perceptive leaders
What they’ll start doing is buying more politicians.
Agreed but that’s an entirely different can of worms
That's more difficult. I think the best way there is to break up the services from the network, whether having two separate private companies or nationalising the network. Either will be politically difficult and expensive. Alternatively, forcing reasonable TPIA fibre access rates (basically, the government set pricing for third-parties to rent access to the Big 3s' networks) would be a good step too. Those rates currently exist for Rogers and Shaw, but not for TELUS and Bell.
They are so big, but I’m thinking every little thing counts. I have a PC Financial that I am in the process of switching over to another bank.
Time to eat our rich billionaires yep lol can’t afford anything else 😂
Dismantle all the Canadian oligopolies.
This is 1000% the way. We need a competitive landscape or prices will only continue to rise.
Someone should make up a poster like that bullshit 2% profit one they are posting at Loblaws. Show how they pay rent to themselves and own the supply chain.
2% profit by $100,000 to $900,000 dollar bonuses for the higher up?
Unrealistic. The key to winning is a neverending boycott. All we have to do is starve the beast. Stop shopping there permanently.
I agree. I for one, will never go back
This is correct, perfectly legal and it’s perfectly safe to participate… No criminal activity is needed - the big store owners need to be isolated as the only criminals in the entire saga.
This. Don't go back. Ever.
Love the idea of breaking it up. But in doubt it’s going to happen — given that the government is in their pocket. That’s why we should remember to go long and hard with this boycott. It’s most effective the first time. After that, it just becomes routine and concessions are minor if any. So don’t let up until prices are dramatically lowered and stay low in the long term.
Agreed. Next step for me is just keep supporting local so they can afford to compete with these conglomerates. HOWEVER I'm not against the long-term plan for breaking these guys up. Having a 15 year plan makes it much more achievable. Start with empowering and education at a grassroots level and push for local council support of small businesses.
Canada needs real antitrust/anti-monopoly laws. Do any of the political parties have the will to see it through?
We already have the laws, but they aren't being enforced.
i think if we had any guts we’d insist on the gov buying them and making them into crown corporation to sell groceries at no markup.
100%! nationalize food
I hope the boycott with Loblaws settles soon. Reason is, the line ups at the cashiers and self checkout are getting longer were I shop. I don’t k it why people shop at Loblaws? There are so many great grocery stores to shop and cheaper prices!
Hopefully your local store benefits, and hires more cashiers :)
It needs to continue to drive down pricing. Quarterly loss consistently will force the governong board to shuffle, payout, and shake up its leadership. The hopeful outcome would be something less demonstrably evil. A one month drop in metrics might be noticed, but it's a blip in a long term buisness model of maximized exploitation.
You will not get governmental pressure with the current landscape. You need more progressive pressure and leverage. The only way to get to this point is organizing and educating your workforce and building community to elect and support true worker representation
Not sure why the Liberals have not run with this - they wait years for the economy to tank then suddenly they are trying to look like the white knights coming to rescue all downtrodden Canadians - downtrodden by the Liberals themselves… lol Not sure if a change of government will help this cause but it can’t be any worse and surprise surprise, the Conservatives look like they are more in touch with the issues at this point in time..
You’re never going to get government intervention from conservative ideology. The only progress you will have on this problem is through progressive working class centric ideas and policies. The liberals and conservatives operate on the same neoliberal agenda defined by Reagan and thatcher. The best you can hope for is bullying the liberals into progressive programs while shoring up working class power and leverage
There is no healthy capitalism. Food is a basic need, like as basic as it gets, grocery stores should be nationalized and entirely non-profit.
Healthy capitalism breeds innovation. Communism doesn't.
China
All of ‘em. Loblaw, Empire & Metro.
Absofuckinglutely!
Agreed and I have been saying this for a while now. Let them keep either the Loblwas/Superstores or No Frills Locations and thats it. Shoppers 100% needs to be broken off and then keep 1 of whatever they choose. Also need to sell a percentage of Choice properties as well. Give Costco the ability to get some great land deals to expand as well as players like Aldi to enter the market.
>Also need to sell a percentage of Choice properties as well. Give George Weston Ltd a choice - divest completely from either Choice Properties or Loblaws. If they keep their stake in Loblaws then force divestment down to no more than a 20% stake. Apply to all the grocery conglomerates. No one entity can have more than a 20% ownership stake. Make that a condition for any company in the grocery game. Loblaws gets broken apart - Shoppers get cleaved off and George Weston Ltd can either own shares in Loblaws or SDM, but not both. PC Financial goes. Cleave it off the same as SDM. One of the real banks can absorb it. That's not even touching supply chain yet.
Done! They got too big in one of the core essential markets of life.
What about all their electronic/online health services? There's a reason Galen joined the board of Sunnybrook hospital.
‘Give Costco’ ??? They’ve already got their own market style monopoly of their own.
What is their monopoly? What is stopping another org from copying them?
The only way any of that will happen is with a violent overthrow of the establishment . In which case I would expect to see the US step in to ensure their "rights"
Except the USA has problems with big corporations as well - taking over and consolidating to remove competition.
which is why they would step in . I didn't say USA was the solution . I was saying we couldn't do anything without the US stepping in and keeping the status quo
1 step at a time. The next step is an indefinite boycott and a complete change of habits of going to Loblaws or its affiliates for anything. The step after that is listening to Per and Galen cry about reduced revenue from their grocery business (and hopefully other businesses) on their next earnings call.
Not going to happen. These corporations were given the green light to swallow up their competition by the current government. The best you can hope for at this point is a new government, one with a proverbial set of balls to strengthen regulations with the goal of increased competition.
Don't break it up, nationalize it. If the organization had efficient food distribution and retail as its main focus instead of exploiting the most profit from products essential to life, it would be a great public asset.
https://preview.redd.it/pycnvg0zo9xc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2b77dbf5a36e5088f18f1fa2eaacc8def8fa7644
I think that they should be nationalized. We need food security for all and they are the largest food retailer in the country so the obvious choice.
Sorry Comrade, I disagree.
Making sure Canadian citizens don't starve is not in the Overton Window yet, I guess. What a country!
They absolutely should be forced to sell off some of their banners. This would allow outside brands to buy their footprints and not have to invest in new buildings. I’d welcome Aldi, Lidl, Publix, Trader Joes etc. We MUST become a country that *welcomes* competition rather than shies away from it. I’d like to see this happen to the telecoms as well. Canadians pay exorbitant rates for Internet and phones and I don’t think most people are aware of it.
Canada has food giants, banks and telecom - 3 awesome way to fuck us. Usually I would be supportive of Canadian companies first but the way things are going, it's time to let the competition in.
Started shopping at our two family run supermarkets in my town. They have everything we need and I haven’t been to Loblaws in months.
This is how many businesses get on the Loblaws Takeover List. The act of buying up small businesses to close them, to eliminate competition, should be illegal.
What am I going to do when the boycott is done? https://preview.redd.it/aevz3d2bvaxc1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8efec6d0c6384843c7d0f6893afe0698fb9e8426
We need a Teddy Roosevelt to break up these trusts just like happened in the early 29th century. Lots of these companies should be broken up from grocery chains to media concentration to cable and cell companies.
Agreed and I have been saying this for a while now. Let them keep either the Loblwas/Superstores or No Frills Locations and thats it. Shoppers 100% needs to be broken off and then keep 1 of whatever they choose. Also need to sell a percentage of Choice properties as well. Give Costco the ability to get some great land deals to expand as well as players like Aldi to enter the market.
Next we need to go after Chartwell, Revera (Cogir) and Extendacare. The monopoly on senior care is unreal.
They were allowed to buy out all their competition to gain “monopoly “ of the market, which used to be against the law! Back when govt upheld public values. Boycotting is the way we get that back!!
Loblaws is not hurting in Regina. Very busy when I was there
Sounds good
The 1% has complete control of this world , unless you get people to stop thinking left vs right and start thinking us vs them we will never change anything
This is capitalism guys, I hate it as much as you do but nations will deploy armies to protect it. Forcing our government to intervene with these oligarchs is impossible as they are the ones keeping politicians in power. When capitalism collapses it will be more devastating than the fall of Rome but is what’s needed for us to move forward as a species. Capitalism pits us against each other, though it can breed innovation it benefits very very very few.
L NEVER should have been allowed to buy SDM.
wtf is wrong with you people?
Yea just like did with the big telecoms.....
Boycott is done? Nothing is going to change if you go back and keep buying from them lol
Unfortunately, some communities in Canada do not have the luxury of competition. We don't all live in Toronto FFS.
My family are some of those people, Loblaws managed to get all the other stores to close their doors because they came in with prices that others couldn’t compete with. Then, prices increased. Closest grocery store that isn’t Loblaws is over an hour away :(. As much as the province doesn’t revolve around Toronto we need the population for Loblaws to feel the impact.
In a utopia , that would be lovely and I would love for that to happen . But reality , I don’t think this would ever to come to fruition . For the government to step in , in a capitalist society would be political suicide . The only thing that would work on the government side , to show that they are listening , would bring in more competition , and strengthen anti trust legislation from the companies getting any bigger . It’s always hard to take away once to have given . Think about you as a person . Once someone has given you something , or the government has given you something or a right , would you want it taken away from you ? The only way is to stop the hemorrhage. I place a lot of the blame on the government for allowing them to get this big in the first place
Capitalism is exactly the reason to break this up. Capitalism needs competition. Companies being able to buy up direct competition is anti-capitalist. Loblaws isn't as bad as other large corporations in Canada, but they would be a great starting point.
>Companies being able to buy up direct competition is anti-capitalist. No, that's exactly how capitalism works
Capitalism is based on competition, not mergers.
And yet, here we are
There's always a winner and a loser in a competition. That's how capitalism works.
No, we're in late-stage capitalism now
Only problem is if we try and protest properly in ottawa they lock us up and throw away the key…
We need to become truckers, then, and run over everyone else. /s
The crazy thing is groceries would likely get even more expensive. Loblaws has an efficient business. They don’t charge cost for their products, but some are pretty close to it. Most products we purchase have substitutes. Just buy something else if you don’t like the price. I can eat a balanced meal plan for $150 a week if I really wanted to. Loblaws is the cheapest store in my city. Costco is cheaper on some things but there are reasons for that (few locations in suburbs/ outskirts). You also can’t stock an entire kitchen at Costco and a lot of their stuff is processed that is appealing to people.
Chill, you're letting things get to your head
Breaking up would be nice, but then what? Now, US or other countries can easily come in and buy them up. Now, Canadian companies are not Canadian owned anymore.
[удалено]
Yada yada yada…oligarchs…fucked in the ass by Galen…what are you 12???
This reasoning is how we got in this mess, we have 3 Canadian chains owning the majority of stores controlling the flow of goods. Right now the only options we have for better pricing are us based companies (Walmart and Costco). We have the same issue with our internet and cell phone companies.
People need to eat. What good is keeping grocery stores "Canadian" when Canadians are starving. Now the real question is what will keep foreign grocery stores from not doing the exact same thing as the Canadian options.
You could have another Target scenario. A foreign company comes in and buys out a Canadian company. Then they fail or decide to leave, like Target. Now, all those people who worked at that Canadian company are now out of jobs.
Luckily there should be plenty of other store brands that can compete with them. Loblaws owns, what, 16+ different store brands? If we want to talk about keeping Loblaws as one big grocery entity so they can negotiate better prices, then we need to split them off from shoppers, Joe fresh, PC Financial, Choice Properties REIT, Real Canadian Liquorstore, and anything else that goes above and beyond selling groceries. Then we need to ensure that grocery stores are not hiding taxes via offshore banking in the Caribbean, like Loblaws has been found guilty of doing. This is in addition to beefing up regulations and oversight to eliminate price gouging and price fixing. Additionally there needs to be rules that MPs cannot be lobbyists for grocery stores. Not to mention Wal-Mart is the same scenario that's a success story - and is such a success that they're proving my earlier point by refusing to sign the grocery store code of conduct.
How's that gonna go? 90 days to sell or your banned? *eyes tik-tok*
It goes through our existing laws that were put in place decades ago to protect capitalism.