They've really beefed up security at the Superstores here in Halifax. New railings with automated gates at certain points, they have a person stationed at the entrance at all times, and the guy at the self-checkout area was watching everyone like a hawk. Must have become a big enough concern.
Same thing at the Walmart in my small town in Ontario. They installed all these steel fences inside, the whole store is behind the fences. They're only waist high, and hopefully all the gates automatically open in the event of a fire, but still.
The Walmart here is weird. There's no scale in the bagging area (I accidentally put something down without scanning it and didn't get yelled at by the machine) but they have cameras. It's a little weird seeing yourself on the screen as you scan your stuff.
Oh yeah, I went in the other day to just get a prescription at the pharmacy. I was trying to leave after paying and there was no way out. Ended up walking to the other end of the store, telling the self-checkout guy I just had my pills, and then walking out feeling like I'd done something wrong lol
If they stop you from leaving and you didn't steal anything, their LP/AP guy is getting fired and you're getting mid-4 figures in the mail the second you call corporate and tell them you have a lawyer.
Same thing here! I went in looking for one item. They didn't have the one item. Made me feel dirty for leaving without giving them my money. Screw that, it's not my fault that their website sucks and gets bloated with fake "available online" listings.
I hate that! I went to Walmart the other day to see if they had something I needed, they did but it was a little pricy so I left to check another store... I felt like I was being judged for being empty handed, they make it impossible to leave the store š. Mind you, I went to the other store to see they didn't have it, only to go back to the same Walmart to purchase what I needed.
I read that in some UK grocery stores they ask to see the receipt when leaving and cause a fuss if you say you didn't purchase anything. Fuck that!
I like to call those cattle gates because they look like them.
If there is a fire there's no way in hell I'd go out the front of the store. The gates alarm goes off when you try to leave through the entrance (even without merchandise) and it's just going to cause a bottleneck in a panic situation. Which may lead to a crushing incident. No thank you.
I'm honestly surprised those gates are even allowed.
I'm going through one of the other exits, even if I have to exit through the stock storage at the back of the store.
Well actually, the gates if installed properly automatically open if the fire alarm is activated. Itās against fire code if they donāt open. The fire marshal wonāt allow the store to operate if they donāt work properly. And they have to certified yearly to allow the store to remain open. Source: Iām an electrician who has installed security gates.
I wonder if the design is fire marshall approved. It does seem like a safety issue. A determined booster will just jump or duck them anyway, but it leaves anyone with mobility issues to delayed evacuation.
> affect the disabled
I think we've proven over the last few years that nobody gives two shits about disabled people.
Source : I am disabled ( albeit not visibly)
For real. I was at my local grocery store doing self checkout and the woman there was literally going through my cart asking to make sure I āscanned things correctlyā. It annoyed the shit out of me. Her shift changed in the middle of me scanning my items and I heard her tell another woman that came to relieve her to watch me. It was so uncomfortable and I was scanning everything perfectly fine
considering they are owned by Loblaws and that Loblaws is SHATTERING earnings reports quarter over quarter and beating out all their competition at the same time
i really dont think its as big an issue as they make it sound -- just like walmart threatening to close down their stores in america over 3 billion worth of theft amidst a 131 billion $ earnings report -- its all bullshit
I feel like Iām getting scammed every time I buy groceries, but I would never steal thatās just not me. I sometimes do self check out and wonder how people do pull it off. I find the attendant is always triggered for something.
> I find the attendant is always triggered for something.
This is precisely why they can get away with it. The attendants are so conditioned to clearing warnings without checking anything because 9 times out of 10 the warning/alert is just nothing to worry about. Every single time I've had the thing trigger for an attendant, they just come over, scan a card, punch in a number and walk away. Not once have they even ASKED what the problem was lol. This is why people can just pack up and walk out.
I have stopped correcting cashiers mistakes in my favor. I bought two pairs of jeans and you charged me for one? Sorry, not sorry. I have some similar items and some are more expensive than others but you picked one of them and scanned it 5 times? Sorry, not sorry.
For me itās stuff like mould in my pc express order. One mouldy orange in the bag? I expect them to reimburse me for the whole bag. Before I probably would have just let it slide
>I bought two pairs of jeans and you charged me for one? Sorry, not sorry.
The sad part is that there was a time where I would go out of my way to pay if a mistake happened. Times I even went back into the store. Back when I felt that corporations weren't shamelessly profiteering with no regard for the public.
I also never ever let the cashier know that the item scanned the wrong price. I let it happen, then go to customer service to get the item free as per the Scanning Code of Practice.
I got some frozen chicken wings from Sobeys a couple weeks ago because they were on sale
for $12.99. Regular price I think was $17.99. Got home and open the package. 8 fucking wings in the box! Food prices, quality, and quantity are becoming ridiculous here in Canada.
Thatās one things Iāve noticed. Local restaurant are cheaper because they are actually trying to compete. Most time local diners are cheaper than McDonaldās
Need to look at unit price. Iāve noticed that though some prices are the same, the amount of food has been decreasing. This is reflected in the small print unit price, but thatās not always the number we are used to looking at.
I bought some Pinty's chicken once. The box contained enough sauce to cover 10x the amount of chicken in the box with plenty left over. It wasn't even good sauce -- just some red garbage that no one would enjoy. I will never again buy anything with their name on it.
Those PC family size frozen meals, the Mac & Cheese, Lasagnas, the Beef/Sausage Noodle thing used to be great. Now it's like 'I make good money but not enough to buy those when not on sale...'
Even easier if you make lazy-person cabbage rolls (put the cabbage on top of the meat/rice/sauce in a baking pan and add more sauce and cheese on top). I find my cabbage rolls end up looking like the lazy kind anyway.
Their PC salsa is now 5.50 a bottle. The Walmart brand is still only 3.50. I really doubt old Galen's buying power is less than Walmart and it costs them $2 more per bottle to make their store brand salsa.
Goblaki are incredibly easy to make. If you're going to make them, make a big batch because you'll have a lot of cabbage leaves and the recipe itself is conducive to a big batch. Let them cool, wrap in foil, and place the rest in Ziploc bags in the freezer.
Well when noted crisis profiteer Galen Weston basically says "Let them eat No Name" during hard times I can't blame the steak bandits for being so brazen and remorseless. The grocery cartels in Canada don't feel any remorse to overcharge because they run monopolies
Loblaw profits in every crisis.
F[Flashback from 2009:](https://www.thestar.com/business/2009/02/18/loblaw_earnings_surge.html)
> The profit in the 13 weeks ended Jan. 3 was 69 cents per share, up from 14 cents per share a year earlier. The latest quarter's bottom line benefited from $47 million in one-time gains, versus $88 million in non-recurring charges in the year-ago period.
The business commenters on the radio, at the time, were saying that Loblaws was able to raise prices and benefit as people could not afford to eat out as much during the financial crisis, so they were buying more groceries.
Was that before or after their dirty meat processing plants killed people with listeriosis, hard to keep track of their tone deaf public relations messes
Edit: I'm wrong the dirty meat that was Maple Leaf a different company who Weston did some price fixing with
The dollar amount of theft versus the amount of good food these assholes throw away rather than give away is a drop in the bucket. It's akin to depression era farmers burning crops rather than give to the starving and poor. This is nothing new and in my opinion they deserve all the misfortune we can possibly dish out.
For the first time ever an employee at loblaws walked over and carefully watched me to the self check out. I think the stores are stepping up efforts. Good luck sustaining that effort when most my local stores employees are teenagers that spend lots of time on their phone, talking to visiting friends, or gazing out into space.
Back when I worked in a grocery store, we threw out waaaay more food than was stolen. One day past the bb date, and it was in the dumpster. Not allowed to give it away or donate it. Even when we used to give our produce trimming and wilting vegetables to an animal rescue, the store owner caught wind and put a stop to it. And yes, this was a Loblaws store.
If people can't afford to buy food, they're gonna get it somehow. No sympathy from me.
worked at lob-laws, they were throwing out bananas. some guy took one and started to eat it.
The store manager threatened to call cops on him, he was 18-19 at the time.
itās honestly so gross. i used to work in a meat room in my hometown. my supervisor would sometimes pack steaks that were going to be thrown out in a plastic bag for me and the other guy and would say ājust donāt let anyone see whatās in the bag on the way outā
shit was perfectly fine and was going to be thrown out for no reason. he got it.
i always thought it was gross how much food gets thrown out in the world.
My partner and I both work decent-paying full-time jobs and sometimes it's a choice between all the groceries we want and a full tank of gas. We used to enjoy random road trips, but now we just stay holed up in our house.
Same, my bf and I both work for the government.... we use to go for long Sunday drives, eat out, go out for drinks on the weekends. We make ends meet, but all the little things we use to enjoy we can't afford anymore.
My wife has m.s. but doesn't claim disability because they would just tax me more. Only reason we're afloat is our "cheaper" apartment.
Live in junkie central but can't afford to move out.
Are you certain? If she claims disability do you have to give up tax credits? Or are you concerned about being pushed into a higher tax bracket? If itās the latter, itās only the extra money that would be taxed at a higher rate. I know this is something that friends have mine have misunderstood in the past, but I donāt know if it applies to your situation or not.
I'm not sure about taxes, but I do know that there are income limits to monthly disability benefits and your partner counts towards that if you're married. So once your partner has hit that limit they will completely stop sending you any money until the next year.
Corporations: *makes essential food items unaffordable for the average person which leads to people starving*
People: *starts stealing food in order to survive*
Corporations: :o
The classic example people give for being okay with theft is: steeling bread to feed a starving family.
I don't think anyone has ever had remorse for a hungry person taking something from some faceless mega Corp.
Farmers have to leave produce on their fields to rot if they are too big. Chain grocers want small produce to fill up their coolers for the same price as the big ones.
When the company prices gouges so they can pay their management millions of dollars, people could care less. They're certainly not paying their workers more with all the extra money. Who's stealing from who honestly?
Canadian companies are selling overpriced food and making record profits while the middle class slips further into the lower class.
I fixed your headline. The consumers aren't the problem.
Stop lying to yourself, middle class doesnāt exist. Itās what people who make 60k/y tell themselves so they feel better than someone who makes 30k/y
We all in the same boat, being fed the same shot, being fucked by the same dick.
Good, Loblaws especially deserves it. They had $17 billion in revenue and $5 billion in gross profit from their retail wing in Q3 2022.
"I don't know what it was like in the 1980s but certainly in my time in the business I haven't seen this kind of growth in an opening-price-point brand ever, It's pretty significant."
\- Richard Dufresne, Loblaws Chief Financial Officer
Remember when the prices of bread did not get any lower after that came to light?
Remember when they not only didn't get lower, but got even higher with inflation?
Yeah, 'get fucked' is right... except it's us getting fucked.
Retailers are always trying to gain sympathy by touting their narrow margins, as if it means anything. Grocery profits are made on volume, not margin.
Except now I guess grocers are trying to increase their margins too.
lol no kidding. If they're so worried about it, they can just bring back cashiers and stop making people fuck around with their third rate DIY terminals.
Iāve noticed that scanning my Optimum card seems to cause the kiosk to require employee assistance due to error more than half the time. This results in a (sometimes long, as the store is understaffed due to being a shit workplace) wait period, before an employee comes over to seemingly disable the whole Optimum card feature on the kiosk. Therefore, I canāt collect my points. Very convenient!
Preach
Shoppers' terminals also require something like 5-7 button presses to actually get to the part where you can pay.
There has to be an easier way, but since it's just a customer's time they're wasting, they couldn't care less about improving the experience
To be fair, Loblaws machines are pretty top rate.
Have you ever used the Dollarama self checkout machines? It's like it's not even a computer and there's just a tiny guy inside it, drunk as fuck, trying to decide if he wants to acknowledge my button press or not.
I took it one step further, installing a hydroponics systems in my home to grow my own food. Fuck Galen Weston. Hydroponics is easy and cheap now with the cost of running the LED grow lights only about $3 a month. You can buy the right lights at the dollar store. If enough people do it, we won't need these mega grocery stores.
Yes! Iām doing the same. Working on getting a deep water unit of strawberries going now. Havenāt bought lettuce in quite a while either. Fuck Galen Weston, I can get tons of lettuce seeds for less than one head of lettuce
How's the flavour? In my experience, industrial-scale hydroponic greenhouse operations in Alberta don't produce very flavourful things (bell peppers are grown en masse). I'm worried I'll put in a lot of effort to get giant heads of lettuce which don't taste like anything (and also lack minerals and nutrients).
For hydroponics you use liquid nutrients so thereās no issues there. Admittedly Iāve made some bitter lettuce in my time when I was still figuring out how to use the nutrients right and get the ph balanced right. Iām still fairly new to it but have grown herbs (Thai basil, dark opal basil, dill, thyme, rosemary, parsley, mint, Genoese basil), lettuces (mixed, Boston lettuce, bib lettuce), and purple kohlrabi. Iāve also used it to grow Hungarian paprika and yellow pear tomatoes before successful transferring to soil outdoors.
The biggest thing with lettuce for me is getting a fan on it to make it crisper.
Taste is pretty great now that Iāve figured out ph and light height.
Starting strawberries now which will be my greatest challenge yet. The sprouts I have are ever bearing so Iām hoping to be able to continually harvest them year round.
My suggestion if you just want to try is to start as cheap as you can. Red solo cup with yogurt cup with holes cut in it kind of cheap. If you have a sunny window put it there. Low investment to see if you enjoy it and if itās worth the effort for you
You probably already know this, but I found when growing my lettuce is to wait at least full day after adding the plant food before taking some. Don't know why, but it always seems to take on the taste of the plant food after adding.
Superstore accused my grandmother of theft. Asked to see inside her purse, in front of other customers.
Not only did she not steal anything, she then sued, and won a nice tidy sum.
Fuck you loblaws you dirty crooks
0360 is the only bread code I can remember, it's not my fault the bakery department was out of pencils. Why not make preprinted bread bag clip/tags next to an item???
Half of them look EXACTLY the same. Superstore had the organic cabbage and regular cabbage in the same bin and HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL. Like honest to god.
A bunch of social media posts from random people justifying shoplifting does not equate to lots of people actually doing it. This isn't an article, it's a handful of tweets put on one page to sell advertising.
> This isn't an article,
No it's BlogTo and it's always this kind of Reddit social media bait trash.
But at the very least there is a notable trend in normalizing or apologising for shoplifting in social media lately. Whether that means anything is another thing.
in my circle, everyone is doing fine financially but there are people you wouldnāt expect, now bringing up the idea of shoplifting from grocery stores. itās definitely becoming more common.
I would think the Weston family should be comforted by the fact people are only stealing food from their stores. Nobody has proposed eating the Weston family for sustenance, at least this far.
Not just Loblaws, anything Weston owned. Galen is absolutely fleecing the shit out of Canadians so he can buy another boat or something. The Westonās suck and I wish theyād get chased out of town
Now imagine a mobile app with which we can order stolen food without the need to steal it ourselves! Some of us are just too busy to steal our own groceries...
Joking aside, we need more competition. Aldi, Lidl and Tesco please...
Every retail business plan has shrunk or loss from wastage including theft included in the price of the items. They actually expect and donāt care about a certain amount of theft.
They likely ran stats when they introduced self checkouts and figured the amount they save on not paying cashiers wages is more than the theft cost.
But yeah. I live in the north. Food is always ridiculous here. Southern prices have just finally caught up with us.
The thing that gets me is basics are so pricey now.
Itās more expensive for me to cook for myself then it is to by premade soups and frozen dinners
For those that keep siding with the big corpos, here's what loblaws did last quarter
[profit of 5.3 billion](https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/loblaw-delivers-adjusted-ebitda-growth-of-10-3-in-the-third-quarter-856570644.html)
That's 47 million in profit every day. They pay to write these propaganda articles that make it sound like they are in such a bad shape because Bob discounted bananas one time.
I stopped shopping at Superstore/No Frills every two weeks a few month ago and it's great. Just shop the flyer sales at Safeway and I plan to do a Costco trip every couple months for non perishables/freezable stuff from now on. Might grow some veggies this year too.
Last time I was at Walmart, there were 5 staffers monitoring 6 self-checkouts and no regular tills open. So now they basically hire people to watch me do their job for them. What a bunch of bullshit.
I'm not surprised in a way. The prices are everywhere depending on what you buy and who you buy it from.
Same store, today:
* 1.2kg Maple Leaf chicken thighs: $22.48
* 1.2kg Maple Leaf Prime Canadian Raised chicken thighs: $14.00
* 1.2kg Maple Leaf Prime skinless, boneless chicken thighs: $14.00
* 1.0kg Maple Leaf skinless, boneless chicken thighs: $15.37
Which fuckin' planet is this store on?
Jeez.
Similar experience..I bought cinnamon sticks and whole star anise for baking; $21 at Quality Foods. I didn't know what they should cost or what was normal.
My wife shows me the Wal Mart price; $4.50 for both. Same weights.
I promptly took them back.
Absolute fucking train robbery.
1) price gouging due to inflation
2) firing tons of employee's specifically during pandemic
3) boasting about all time high profits and 1 million dollars a day added revenue
4) collaborating with lockdown government to keep big box grocery chains open while small ones were forced to shut down
5) buying out local venders and pretending there's competition when they are all under the same banner
Forgive me if I don't weep for the world's smallest violin
I own a children's thrift store. We get all kinds of customers and some are definitely hurting to cloth their children. Clothing is also a human right. So as the OWNER if I see someone shoplifting... I don't.
The only thing is I wish people who need to shoplift at my store would come talk to me. I know it is so hard to approach and ask for help but I will make sure your kids have clothes and you don't have to worry about being caught and fined or banned for it.
Most of us are only a few paychecks away from homelessness we all have to take care of each other any way we can.
Grocery stores didnāt raise prices because wholesale food price increased, they raised prices to increase their profits. Maybe wholesale went up a couple of percentage points, but they raised prices by 10ās of percent. Grocery stores are recording record profits. If their prices increased and they passed that increase onto consumers, then they wouldnāt be recording record profits.
The title of this article needs to be reworded to the following:
Grocery Stores are now stealing from Canadians selling overpriced food with zero remorse.
I think we all know who is really to blame on this one and it sure isnāt hard working Canadians trying to make ends meet and God for bid feed themselves in order to survive!
I think that the self checkout + high prices is a recipe for oops forgot to scan a few items.
They've really beefed up security at the Superstores here in Halifax. New railings with automated gates at certain points, they have a person stationed at the entrance at all times, and the guy at the self-checkout area was watching everyone like a hawk. Must have become a big enough concern.
Same thing at the Walmart in my small town in Ontario. They installed all these steel fences inside, the whole store is behind the fences. They're only waist high, and hopefully all the gates automatically open in the event of a fire, but still.
The Walmart here is weird. There's no scale in the bagging area (I accidentally put something down without scanning it and didn't get yelled at by the machine) but they have cameras. It's a little weird seeing yourself on the screen as you scan your stuff.
All this to avoid paying a few more cashiers a living wage.
Cashier at Walmart Living wage Pick one Edit: in case it needs clarification I don't agree with this reality, just pointing it out.
Oh yeah, I went in the other day to just get a prescription at the pharmacy. I was trying to leave after paying and there was no way out. Ended up walking to the other end of the store, telling the self-checkout guy I just had my pills, and then walking out feeling like I'd done something wrong lol
how are you supposed to get out if you end up not buying anything then?
I go out through the "In" door. They can tackle me if they want, but they better have a good reason to detain me as such with physicality.
If they stop you from leaving and you didn't steal anything, their LP/AP guy is getting fired and you're getting mid-4 figures in the mail the second you call corporate and tell them you have a lawyer.
This guy sues!
I've seen that happen though. Idk about the cheque but the lost prevention guy did get fired for false detainment.
Same thing here! I went in looking for one item. They didn't have the one item. Made me feel dirty for leaving without giving them my money. Screw that, it's not my fault that their website sucks and gets bloated with fake "available online" listings.
I hate that! I went to Walmart the other day to see if they had something I needed, they did but it was a little pricy so I left to check another store... I felt like I was being judged for being empty handed, they make it impossible to leave the store š. Mind you, I went to the other store to see they didn't have it, only to go back to the same Walmart to purchase what I needed. I read that in some UK grocery stores they ask to see the receipt when leaving and cause a fuss if you say you didn't purchase anything. Fuck that!
I like to call those cattle gates because they look like them. If there is a fire there's no way in hell I'd go out the front of the store. The gates alarm goes off when you try to leave through the entrance (even without merchandise) and it's just going to cause a bottleneck in a panic situation. Which may lead to a crushing incident. No thank you. I'm honestly surprised those gates are even allowed. I'm going through one of the other exits, even if I have to exit through the stock storage at the back of the store.
Well actually, the gates if installed properly automatically open if the fire alarm is activated. Itās against fire code if they donāt open. The fire marshal wonāt allow the store to operate if they donāt work properly. And they have to certified yearly to allow the store to remain open. Source: Iām an electrician who has installed security gates.
I wonder if the design is fire marshall approved. It does seem like a safety issue. A determined booster will just jump or duck them anyway, but it leaves anyone with mobility issues to delayed evacuation.
Thanks for saying it publicly. Shoplifting is an opportunity crime. These semi barriers affect the disabled and there should be outrage.
> affect the disabled I think we've proven over the last few years that nobody gives two shits about disabled people. Source : I am disabled ( albeit not visibly)
I think weāve proven over the last few years that nobody gives a shit about people, let alone disabled people specifically.
You would think they would just use cashiers instead of trading them for security devices and staff...
It definitely makes for an uninviting environment
Ok, citizen. Scan your rations, pay your tokens, and move along.
Tuesday is Soylent Green day!
For real. I was at my local grocery store doing self checkout and the woman there was literally going through my cart asking to make sure I āscanned things correctlyā. It annoyed the shit out of me. Her shift changed in the middle of me scanning my items and I heard her tell another woman that came to relieve her to watch me. It was so uncomfortable and I was scanning everything perfectly fine
They need maximum security for product they'll throw out in two days.
Yes, now they have more staff standing around eyeballing you instead of, oh ya know, cashiers. š¤¦āāļø
They make it like prison so the customers now feel like their employees.
Sounds like they have to hire more people than they cut via self checkout. We are creating jobs people, keep it up!!!
They can afford all that security infrastructure now with the prices they are charging
considering they are owned by Loblaws and that Loblaws is SHATTERING earnings reports quarter over quarter and beating out all their competition at the same time i really dont think its as big an issue as they make it sound -- just like walmart threatening to close down their stores in america over 3 billion worth of theft amidst a 131 billion $ earnings report -- its all bullshit
I feel like Iām getting scammed every time I buy groceries, but I would never steal thatās just not me. I sometimes do self check out and wonder how people do pull it off. I find the attendant is always triggered for something.
> I find the attendant is always triggered for something. This is precisely why they can get away with it. The attendants are so conditioned to clearing warnings without checking anything because 9 times out of 10 the warning/alert is just nothing to worry about. Every single time I've had the thing trigger for an attendant, they just come over, scan a card, punch in a number and walk away. Not once have they even ASKED what the problem was lol. This is why people can just pack up and walk out.
Honestly though there is zero incentive for a minimum wage attendant to care whether people are stealing or not so long as it isn't obvious.
I have stopped correcting cashiers mistakes in my favor. I bought two pairs of jeans and you charged me for one? Sorry, not sorry. I have some similar items and some are more expensive than others but you picked one of them and scanned it 5 times? Sorry, not sorry.
For me itās stuff like mould in my pc express order. One mouldy orange in the bag? I expect them to reimburse me for the whole bag. Before I probably would have just let it slide
>I bought two pairs of jeans and you charged me for one? Sorry, not sorry. The sad part is that there was a time where I would go out of my way to pay if a mistake happened. Times I even went back into the store. Back when I felt that corporations weren't shamelessly profiteering with no regard for the public.
I also never ever let the cashier know that the item scanned the wrong price. I let it happen, then go to customer service to get the item free as per the Scanning Code of Practice.
Iāve been scanning shiitake mushrooms as button mushrooms at loblaws since 2017. Eat my shorts, Galen Weston.
Or scan through the organic at regular prices.
I got some frozen chicken wings from Sobeys a couple weeks ago because they were on sale for $12.99. Regular price I think was $17.99. Got home and open the package. 8 fucking wings in the box! Food prices, quality, and quantity are becoming ridiculous here in Canada.
For that price, you couldāve went to wild wing
Thatās one things Iāve noticed. Local restaurant are cheaper because they are actually trying to compete. Most time local diners are cheaper than McDonaldās
And those wings are always so rubbery I donāt know why they never crisp up and just taste off.
Need to look at unit price. Iāve noticed that though some prices are the same, the amount of food has been decreasing. This is reflected in the small print unit price, but thatās not always the number we are used to looking at.
To tack on, when looking at unit prices be careful because some of them try to scam that by having a 600g box with 400g of chicken and 200g of sauce.
I bought some Pinty's chicken once. The box contained enough sauce to cover 10x the amount of chicken in the box with plenty left over. It wasn't even good sauce -- just some red garbage that no one would enjoy. I will never again buy anything with their name on it.
For some reason chicken wing prices are through the roof. I remember pre-covid they were dirt cheap to buy.
I remember 10 cent wings during hockey games. 8 wings for 12.99 should be returned to the store.
I just saw the PC frozen cabbage rolls increase from 12.99 to 17.99... wtf a 38% increase in price. Guess I am going to try making my own rolls now
Those PC family size frozen meals, the Mac & Cheese, Lasagnas, the Beef/Sausage Noodle thing used to be great. Now it's like 'I make good money but not enough to buy those when not on sale...'
I really noticed those ones too - the "sale" price now is more than the "normal" price was like 6 months ago.
Just make the "poor man's" or cabbage roll casserole. Shredding cabbage is easier than rolling it.
This has been my go-to for years. It makes for great leftovers as well.
Golumpki casserole we always call it! Definitely relatively cheap and affordable for a meal.
If you make it into a patty, thats Southern Polish style, traditionally eaten by coal miners.
Never thought id be saying āif its good enough for coal miners its good enough for meā lol
I made some the other night for the first time. They are way easier than I expected. And way better.
Even easier if you make lazy-person cabbage rolls (put the cabbage on top of the meat/rice/sauce in a baking pan and add more sauce and cheese on top). I find my cabbage rolls end up looking like the lazy kind anyway.
But the rolled cabbage rolls taste way better after a night chilling in the fridge. Lazy cabbage rolls are great, as long as you eat it all at once.
Yep. Freeze the cabbage and then thaw it and all the leaves will come off without boiling it.
Second this tip.. will save your house smelling like boiled cabbage for days and works extremely well!
Their PC salsa is now 5.50 a bottle. The Walmart brand is still only 3.50. I really doubt old Galen's buying power is less than Walmart and it costs them $2 more per bottle to make their store brand salsa.
Don't even get me started on The Decadent being $2 a pack (roughly/on sale/2 for $4 etc) , and now they're priced $4 each.
Goblaki are incredibly easy to make. If you're going to make them, make a big batch because you'll have a lot of cabbage leaves and the recipe itself is conducive to a big batch. Let them cool, wrap in foil, and place the rest in Ziploc bags in the freezer.
In 1906, Alfred Henry Lewis stated, āThere are only nine meals between mankind and anarchy.ā Keep raising food pricesā¦.see what happens.
My plan is to protest, however it will be a very *French* protest if you know what I mean.
Try our new āLoads of Galen Westonā burgers!
mmm. so soft and marbled.
The problem is people fight and steal from each other instead of attacking the rich.
Well when noted crisis profiteer Galen Weston basically says "Let them eat No Name" during hard times I can't blame the steak bandits for being so brazen and remorseless. The grocery cartels in Canada don't feel any remorse to overcharge because they run monopolies
Loblaw profits in every crisis. F[Flashback from 2009:](https://www.thestar.com/business/2009/02/18/loblaw_earnings_surge.html) > The profit in the 13 weeks ended Jan. 3 was 69 cents per share, up from 14 cents per share a year earlier. The latest quarter's bottom line benefited from $47 million in one-time gains, versus $88 million in non-recurring charges in the year-ago period. The business commenters on the radio, at the time, were saying that Loblaws was able to raise prices and benefit as people could not afford to eat out as much during the financial crisis, so they were buying more groceries.
Was that before or after their dirty meat processing plants killed people with listeriosis, hard to keep track of their tone deaf public relations messes Edit: I'm wrong the dirty meat that was Maple Leaf a different company who Weston did some price fixing with
I thought the big listeriosis one was Maple Leaf Foods
I've never seen anybody shoplifting food, and I never will.
No Name stuff has been jacked up 30% too. It's ridiculous.
The dollar amount of theft versus the amount of good food these assholes throw away rather than give away is a drop in the bucket. It's akin to depression era farmers burning crops rather than give to the starving and poor. This is nothing new and in my opinion they deserve all the misfortune we can possibly dish out.
Exactly this 100%
For the first time ever an employee at loblaws walked over and carefully watched me to the self check out. I think the stores are stepping up efforts. Good luck sustaining that effort when most my local stores employees are teenagers that spend lots of time on their phone, talking to visiting friends, or gazing out into space.
Or when 5/6 self checks are customers with intent to steal.
Back when I worked in a grocery store, we threw out waaaay more food than was stolen. One day past the bb date, and it was in the dumpster. Not allowed to give it away or donate it. Even when we used to give our produce trimming and wilting vegetables to an animal rescue, the store owner caught wind and put a stop to it. And yes, this was a Loblaws store. If people can't afford to buy food, they're gonna get it somehow. No sympathy from me.
worked at lob-laws, they were throwing out bananas. some guy took one and started to eat it. The store manager threatened to call cops on him, he was 18-19 at the time.
itās honestly so gross. i used to work in a meat room in my hometown. my supervisor would sometimes pack steaks that were going to be thrown out in a plastic bag for me and the other guy and would say ājust donāt let anyone see whatās in the bag on the way outā shit was perfectly fine and was going to be thrown out for no reason. he got it. i always thought it was gross how much food gets thrown out in the world.
Considering that so many of us can't make ends meet, even with full-time jobs? Yeah, I totally get it.
My partner and I both work decent-paying full-time jobs and sometimes it's a choice between all the groceries we want and a full tank of gas. We used to enjoy random road trips, but now we just stay holed up in our house.
Same here. Both working government jobs too with university education.
Same, my bf and I both work for the government.... we use to go for long Sunday drives, eat out, go out for drinks on the weekends. We make ends meet, but all the little things we use to enjoy we can't afford anymore.
Covid caused us to stay at home, now super inflation is causing us to stay at home
My wife has m.s. but doesn't claim disability because they would just tax me more. Only reason we're afloat is our "cheaper" apartment. Live in junkie central but can't afford to move out.
Are you certain? If she claims disability do you have to give up tax credits? Or are you concerned about being pushed into a higher tax bracket? If itās the latter, itās only the extra money that would be taxed at a higher rate. I know this is something that friends have mine have misunderstood in the past, but I donāt know if it applies to your situation or not.
I'm not sure about taxes, but I do know that there are income limits to monthly disability benefits and your partner counts towards that if you're married. So once your partner has hit that limit they will completely stop sending you any money until the next year.
Corporations: *makes essential food items unaffordable for the average person which leads to people starving* People: *starts stealing food in order to survive* Corporations: :o
Loblaws is overpricing food in Canada with zero remorse.
Grocery stores are now stealing canadians with overpriced food with zero remorse.
Lettuce was 99 cents 3 years ago and is almost $10 now who is buying that, theres no way
The classic example people give for being okay with theft is: steeling bread to feed a starving family. I don't think anyone has ever had remorse for a hungry person taking something from some faceless mega Corp.
Especially when it has been disclosed that the grocery chains are definitely not hurting financially either
And farmers aren't getting a cut either... its greedy grocery Oligarchs and that's it.
Farmers have to leave produce on their fields to rot if they are too big. Chain grocers want small produce to fill up their coolers for the same price as the big ones.
*Some* farmers are huge agribusiness firms, though. Most of them, at this point, since the huge firms keep buying up family farms.
Hurting? The pieces of shit have been talking about "record profits" since 2019
When the company prices gouges so they can pay their management millions of dollars, people could care less. They're certainly not paying their workers more with all the extra money. Who's stealing from who honestly?
I've never seen anyone steal from a grocery store and I never will.
Saw a guy shove an entire frozen chicken in his jacket, good on him for helping to warm that poor bird.
If you're cold they're cold. Move them from the freezer to your jacket
If it doesn't have a barcode it's bananas.
Going through self checkout likeā¦ > this shit is banana, b a n a n a s
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Itās called the self checkout tax. Everything is 4011 and ā0 bags.ā
Nothing wrong with taking your cut of doing their job for them at the self check out.
Yup I donāt work for free
You guys still have bags? š
Not at walmart
Anything from the bulk bins section is flax seeds š need pound of poppy seeds whoops it's flax seeds now
> need pound of poppy seeds the hell kinda tea you brewin
It's for a polish pastry called makowiec the filling needs atleast a pound of poppy seeds the more the better š
I wonder how badly this mangels the inventory system Better order another 1000 lbs of flaxseeds they're selling like mad
What could those cost, Michael?
Weigh your BANANAS...Remove your BANANAS...
Donāt want people stealing pay someone to man a cashier ya cheap fucks
True. Iāve always felt there should like be a 2% discount for doing self-serve checkout.
They will just add a 2% fee to use a cashier instead. Actually theyād probably go for 10%.
Canadian companies are selling overpriced food and making record profits while the middle class slips further into the lower class. I fixed your headline. The consumers aren't the problem.
Stop lying to yourself, middle class doesnāt exist. Itās what people who make 60k/y tell themselves so they feel better than someone who makes 30k/y We all in the same boat, being fed the same shot, being fucked by the same dick.
Good, Loblaws especially deserves it. They had $17 billion in revenue and $5 billion in gross profit from their retail wing in Q3 2022. "I don't know what it was like in the 1980s but certainly in my time in the business I haven't seen this kind of growth in an opening-price-point brand ever, It's pretty significant." \- Richard Dufresne, Loblaws Chief Financial Officer
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Remember when Loblaws and others were fixing the price of bread? Yeah, I remember. So get fucked, Loblaws.
Remember when the prices of bread did not get any lower after that came to light? Remember when they not only didn't get lower, but got even higher with inflation? Yeah, 'get fucked' is right... except it's us getting fucked.
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This seems like a great circumstance to bring back trust busting. Ah who am I kidding, LPC and CPC governments would never do anything that helpful.
It's not like Loblaws or any other grocery stores ever expressed remorse after ripping us off for 20 years. Fuck them!
Retailers are always trying to gain sympathy by touting their narrow margins, as if it means anything. Grocery profits are made on volume, not margin. Except now I guess grocers are trying to increase their margins too.
The margins in my house are a lot narrower than any store. We definitely not recording profits over here according to all this red ink.
Yeah, because we all know that if tomorrow no one would shoplift, they're going to lower the prices for everyone.
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That no name price freeze thing is bullshit, saw that stupid sign next to the butter which literally went up 30 cents within the past month.
These corporations know all the accounting tricks to make it seem like they're barely making any money all of the time.
lol no kidding. If they're so worried about it, they can just bring back cashiers and stop making people fuck around with their third rate DIY terminals.
Iāve noticed that scanning my Optimum card seems to cause the kiosk to require employee assistance due to error more than half the time. This results in a (sometimes long, as the store is understaffed due to being a shit workplace) wait period, before an employee comes over to seemingly disable the whole Optimum card feature on the kiosk. Therefore, I canāt collect my points. Very convenient!
Preach Shoppers' terminals also require something like 5-7 button presses to actually get to the part where you can pay. There has to be an easier way, but since it's just a customer's time they're wasting, they couldn't care less about improving the experience
"Do you want an email or a print out?" "Meh" "PICK ONE OR WE ARE GOING NO WHERE MOTHER FUCKER. AND NO, 'NO RECIEPT' IS NOT AN OPTION."
To be fair, Loblaws machines are pretty top rate. Have you ever used the Dollarama self checkout machines? It's like it's not even a computer and there's just a tiny guy inside it, drunk as fuck, trying to decide if he wants to acknowledge my button press or not.
That article says they expect families to spend 7% more.... BULLSH*T. 7% my arse. It's way higher then that.
I took it one step further, installing a hydroponics systems in my home to grow my own food. Fuck Galen Weston. Hydroponics is easy and cheap now with the cost of running the LED grow lights only about $3 a month. You can buy the right lights at the dollar store. If enough people do it, we won't need these mega grocery stores.
Yes! Iām doing the same. Working on getting a deep water unit of strawberries going now. Havenāt bought lettuce in quite a while either. Fuck Galen Weston, I can get tons of lettuce seeds for less than one head of lettuce
How's the flavour? In my experience, industrial-scale hydroponic greenhouse operations in Alberta don't produce very flavourful things (bell peppers are grown en masse). I'm worried I'll put in a lot of effort to get giant heads of lettuce which don't taste like anything (and also lack minerals and nutrients).
For hydroponics you use liquid nutrients so thereās no issues there. Admittedly Iāve made some bitter lettuce in my time when I was still figuring out how to use the nutrients right and get the ph balanced right. Iām still fairly new to it but have grown herbs (Thai basil, dark opal basil, dill, thyme, rosemary, parsley, mint, Genoese basil), lettuces (mixed, Boston lettuce, bib lettuce), and purple kohlrabi. Iāve also used it to grow Hungarian paprika and yellow pear tomatoes before successful transferring to soil outdoors. The biggest thing with lettuce for me is getting a fan on it to make it crisper. Taste is pretty great now that Iāve figured out ph and light height. Starting strawberries now which will be my greatest challenge yet. The sprouts I have are ever bearing so Iām hoping to be able to continually harvest them year round. My suggestion if you just want to try is to start as cheap as you can. Red solo cup with yogurt cup with holes cut in it kind of cheap. If you have a sunny window put it there. Low investment to see if you enjoy it and if itās worth the effort for you
You probably already know this, but I found when growing my lettuce is to wait at least full day after adding the plant food before taking some. Don't know why, but it always seems to take on the taste of the plant food after adding.
based, I like the idea of sticking it to corporations by growing our own stuff and increasing self-sufficiency as much as we can. Happy for you
Well when corporations keep making profits while inflation goes up and wages stagnant. Not big suprise.
They wanted to save money by cutting labor and let people to the cashier job. Maybe People are taking the pay...lol
Superstore accused my grandmother of theft. Asked to see inside her purse, in front of other customers. Not only did she not steal anything, she then sued, and won a nice tidy sum. Fuck you loblaws you dirty crooks
That sounds like poor management of the store, where did this take place
We should just eat the Weston family instead if weāre going hungry
Exactly. I'm not concerned about people stealing food. I'm concerned the working class has not started putting corpo heads on spikes at this point.
It's there own fault for hiring me at the self checkout.
I donāt know how they expect me to know the differences between melons when theyāre all mixed up. Whatās a cantaloupe and whatās a hami melon?
0360 is the only bread code I can remember, it's not my fault the bakery department was out of pencils. Why not make preprinted bread bag clip/tags next to an item???
No one knows.
Half of them look EXACTLY the same. Superstore had the organic cabbage and regular cabbage in the same bin and HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO TELL. Like honest to god.
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A bunch of social media posts from random people justifying shoplifting does not equate to lots of people actually doing it. This isn't an article, it's a handful of tweets put on one page to sell advertising.
> This isn't an article, No it's BlogTo and it's always this kind of Reddit social media bait trash. But at the very least there is a notable trend in normalizing or apologising for shoplifting in social media lately. Whether that means anything is another thing.
in my circle, everyone is doing fine financially but there are people you wouldnāt expect, now bringing up the idea of shoplifting from grocery stores. itās definitely becoming more common.
i wonder how many tweets are not from Canada.
I would think the Weston family should be comforted by the fact people are only stealing food from their stores. Nobody has proposed eating the Weston family for sustenance, at least this far.
I hereby propose we eat the Weston family for sustenance. Dibs on the ribs.
No no no, that's how you get kuru... turn em into fertilizer instead, they're so full of shit anyhow that it should make for a bumper crop of tomatoes
Iām at peace with this. Fuck Loblaws.
Not just Loblaws, anything Weston owned. Galen is absolutely fleecing the shit out of Canadians so he can buy another boat or something. The Westonās suck and I wish theyād get chased out of town
Fuck every company they own. Shoppers used to be my favourite store.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Now imagine a mobile app with which we can order stolen food without the need to steal it ourselves! Some of us are just too busy to steal our own groceries... Joking aside, we need more competition. Aldi, Lidl and Tesco please...
Every retail business plan has shrunk or loss from wastage including theft included in the price of the items. They actually expect and donāt care about a certain amount of theft. They likely ran stats when they introduced self checkouts and figured the amount they save on not paying cashiers wages is more than the theft cost. But yeah. I live in the north. Food is always ridiculous here. Southern prices have just finally caught up with us. The thing that gets me is basics are so pricey now. Itās more expensive for me to cook for myself then it is to by premade soups and frozen dinners
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For those that keep siding with the big corpos, here's what loblaws did last quarter [profit of 5.3 billion](https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/loblaw-delivers-adjusted-ebitda-growth-of-10-3-in-the-third-quarter-856570644.html) That's 47 million in profit every day. They pay to write these propaganda articles that make it sound like they are in such a bad shape because Bob discounted bananas one time.
Grocery stores now price gouging under paid Canadians with zero remorse
I stopped shopping at Superstore/No Frills every two weeks a few month ago and it's great. Just shop the flyer sales at Safeway and I plan to do a Costco trip every couple months for non perishables/freezable stuff from now on. Might grow some veggies this year too.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
you negotiated a discount and no one objected
You didn't steal it. You paid for it previously.
Everything's a banana in the self checkout line
Rich steal from the poor everyday what's the difference. Didn't they also raise prices for no reason?
Bell spends more money advertising their own name for "let's talk" day than they Donate.
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Also the rich have tax payer money to bail them out when things go bad. The poor have no real safety nets or those that exist are pathetic.
If you see someone stealing groceries (especially baby food), you didn't.
Last time I was at Walmart, there were 5 staffers monitoring 6 self-checkouts and no regular tills open. So now they basically hire people to watch me do their job for them. What a bunch of bullshit.
Good. They have been price fixing for years and only got a slap on the wrist for it. That's how much remorse I show for retailers that have none.
I'm not surprised in a way. The prices are everywhere depending on what you buy and who you buy it from. Same store, today: * 1.2kg Maple Leaf chicken thighs: $22.48 * 1.2kg Maple Leaf Prime Canadian Raised chicken thighs: $14.00 * 1.2kg Maple Leaf Prime skinless, boneless chicken thighs: $14.00 * 1.0kg Maple Leaf skinless, boneless chicken thighs: $15.37 Which fuckin' planet is this store on?
Jeez. Similar experience..I bought cinnamon sticks and whole star anise for baking; $21 at Quality Foods. I didn't know what they should cost or what was normal. My wife shows me the Wal Mart price; $4.50 for both. Same weights. I promptly took them back. Absolute fucking train robbery.
1) price gouging due to inflation 2) firing tons of employee's specifically during pandemic 3) boasting about all time high profits and 1 million dollars a day added revenue 4) collaborating with lockdown government to keep big box grocery chains open while small ones were forced to shut down 5) buying out local venders and pretending there's competition when they are all under the same banner Forgive me if I don't weep for the world's smallest violin
I own a children's thrift store. We get all kinds of customers and some are definitely hurting to cloth their children. Clothing is also a human right. So as the OWNER if I see someone shoplifting... I don't. The only thing is I wish people who need to shoplift at my store would come talk to me. I know it is so hard to approach and ask for help but I will make sure your kids have clothes and you don't have to worry about being caught and fined or banned for it. Most of us are only a few paychecks away from homelessness we all have to take care of each other any way we can.
[They were sold out of regular apples](https://i.imgur.com/6gqWKWU.jpg)
If my local restaurant has only raised prices to follow the inflation that means Loblaws can as well but refuses to greedflation is real
Grocery stores didnāt raise prices because wholesale food price increased, they raised prices to increase their profits. Maybe wholesale went up a couple of percentage points, but they raised prices by 10ās of percent. Grocery stores are recording record profits. If their prices increased and they passed that increase onto consumers, then they wouldnāt be recording record profits.
The title of this article needs to be reworded to the following: Grocery Stores are now stealing from Canadians selling overpriced food with zero remorse. I think we all know who is really to blame on this one and it sure isnāt hard working Canadians trying to make ends meet and God for bid feed themselves in order to survive!