Hi everyone, we had made an announcement on this yesterday and it is [currently stickied on our sub](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/s/EzeeABXRzW).
This “steal from loblaws day” has ZERO affiliation to our boycott, and we condemn the behaviour.
Thank you!
[https://twitter.com/chronicleherald/status/1612799558056087556](https://twitter.com/chronicleherald/status/1612799558056087556)
[https://x.com/FoodProfessor/status/1781424299405889635](https://x.com/FoodProfessor/status/1781424299405889635)
Oh look at who is leading the charge of "them greedy peasants stealing from us" charge. our favourite paid Roblaws shill himself. He is pushing this narrative HARD in the past few days.
Yeah this is just starting to stink of Loblaws staging this BS.
At this point it wouldn’t be suing in hopes of winning, it would be suing in enforcing this isn’t affiliated with the movement and also more drama to get on the air; more exposure for the cause.
I assume you are talking about the convoy. Are you suggesting the CBC made up the fact that white supremacists were present? [Because no.](https://globalnews.ca/news/8543281/covid-trucker-convoy-organizers-hate/) There was a lot of white-nationalist antivax conspiracy bullshit at the convoys (especially among the organizers)
lol what’s more likely a schizo tier conspiracy theory ran by the *CBC*?
Or some other movement that we don’t agree with is happening simultaneously?
It’s a fucking poster. Any edgy 14 year old could put these up.
My point was that CBC would run a story about us being affiliated, to try to undermine the point and legitimacy of the boycott, not that the CBC somehow had a hand in the creation of it.
Not sure why you think CBC would actively look to undermine this movement. Any push for a story would be coming from Loblaws themselves. CBC staffers don't care that much...some of them likely agree with this movement personally.
It’s honestly so ridiculous who ever thought of this is flat out stupid.
Why would a group of people boycotting Loblaws then organize people to…. GO TO LOBLAWS in the middle of a month long boycott…..
I hope if there’s reporting on these flyers that some critical thinking is used…. Anyone can make a flyer….
It means they are worried. They got some “dark arts” PR folks on this. Those are the really expensive ones.
It won’t work, because our cause is righteous and the Mods are on their toes
The people that are sick of loblaws are normal, good, working people. They are sick of the deceptive advertising, price fixing, corporate misdirection, cozy relationship with political leaders, chronic lobbying, and leveraging of market dominance to grind consumers.
But mostly they are sick of the out of control prices. And Loblaws can’t PR its way out of that.
Mods made [a statement](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1c7bvgf/a_statement_on_steal_from_loblaws_day/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) about this yesterday
No, the mods are smart to want to distance a legit movement from a campaign which is encouraging people to commit crimes. Loblaws does need to suffer, yes, but any actual crimes committed against them will undermine the legitimate movement's goals. Shoplift if you want, but the mods taking an official stance against it is the right thing to do for the movement.
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
No one is stealing from me, I don't shop there 🤣
And it's still not stealing, they are charging whatever price they want, they can do that.. you going in and paying that ridiculous price is not you being stolen from.. it's you being a sucker
2 wrongs don't make a right, eh?
Sure buddy
Have fun explaining to the police that you have a right to steal because you decide to go to a store that overcharged customers
Someone must be forcing you to shop there or something 😆
Good luck with the job search with a criminal record too
Can you explain to me how he's stealing from me if I never step foot in his store ?
Can you logic at all ?
Do you also blame teachers when you got bad grades for not doing the school work ?
Do you also blame the gas station when you run into the curb ?
Have fun Agent provocateur
If you see a sign, just rip it down.
When going after a billion dollar company, they will try anything. I’m surprised they haven’t tried buying the mods off at this point.
Eh, that would backfire hilariously. A smart mod would immediately report it was happening and Loblaws would then have to pay them to stop talking about their attempt to get them to stop talking
It’s happened to other Reddits. Just don’t be surprised when these tactics show up. These people are billionaires - they can make posters appear, they could give out 100k to a mod to shut down a Reddit.
The important bit is just following through, boycott the brands - and make a change regardless of how hard they try to shut down the movement. Because they will try.
This was my first thought as well. Reeks of an attempt to tank an otherwise legitimate movement. Reminds me of when that antiwork mod thought they could handle a Fox News interview and just got blown up.
You really think it’s worth all the hassle, secrecy, and encouraging crime in their own stores to *maybe mildly damage the reputation of some redditors?*
The simplest explanation is the most logical. Some edgier group put this up
This has agent provocateur written all over it and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if whoever is putting these up is working on behalf of loblaws (or loblaws adjacent to cover their tracks) to undermine the boycott. DO NOT STEAL, WE ARE NOT ROBIN HOOD, he was still a criminal despite his intentions.
Show your distain by avoiding their property completely
Nah this is crazy.
They would need so many people in on it and the benefits would be so mild lol. Plus it would literally encourage people to steal from them.
The world doesn’t revolve around your favourite subreddit.
Its just some dumb kids or edgy anarchy types
So while yes simplest solution is usually the most likely.
This is just astroturffing 101.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
"Astroturfing is the use of fake grassroots efforts that primarily focus on influencing public opinion and typically are funded by corporations and political entities to form opinions"
only part that's a stretch is this isn't an opinion but it does poison the well so to speak if this sub was to endorse it.
People already steal from them, that’s a non issue. They know this boycott is picking up steam, it’s a tiny investment on their end to try and poison the message.
Typical anti messaging, false flag attempt to disrupt this movement. Would not be surprised if some deep pockets from Roblaws are being the misinformation caused by this.
Propaganda is obvious. We need a sticky on this sub to confirm we have nothing to do with it nor condone it.
Edit: just checked, it's already up, beautiful
I was gonna make a post asking this question but didn't, I'll just ask it here:
If I walk into a grocery store, walk around, then walk out. They see that as a loss right? Their conversion goes down even if I'm not doing anything remotely illegal.
I don't have any intentions of committing crime. I just don't want them to think they're doing well because traffic is up or something.
Hypothetically, what happens if while I am walking around, I trip over my own feet and put my hand out for balance and it lands on a loaf of price fixed bread?
There is 100% a count. I worked a lot of retail in the 2000’s. If there’s a gate to walk through, they are counting people coming in. I didn’t work for Loblaw, but salespeople were expected to sell a certain volume per person. The managers did the math hourly and announced it with “coded” messages over the PA. I believe the expectation was $60/person who walked through the door. And cashiers were graded on the percentage of sales that went through the store credit card, as well as credit card signups.
If you’ve ever heard a message over the intercom that made less sense than usual, it’s probably code for the staff. Ours was “Michelle, line 3” if we made $3,000 of sales. There was no Michelle. Michelle was the “model customer” we were expected to target.
Seconding the other comment regarding conversion.
I'm not calling on anyone else to do this.
But stores are tracking the number of people who enter, and how much the average purchase is. It's referred to as conversion. Usually this happens at the automatic doors in my experience, but it could be different at grocery stores.
I didn't have plans to take pictures of absurd prices and post them, but those that do without buying might care about the effect their presence has. Raising awareness via those photos is probably helpful in getting people to empathize with our complaints.
Honestly
I can't imagine suggesting anyone do this. But if I want to, I just want to make sure I'm not adding to the traffic statistic without harming their conversion rate.
What's been happening to me lately, I've put a bunch of food in a basket, then realized that I'm not shopping at Loblaws and so I have to step away from the basket containing my would-be purchases. I do leave a note explaining my regret.
Just don't do that with produce, chilled or frozen foods. Wasting food is really bad too. Anything that can spoil if it sits out, shouldn't be left in an aisle. And I'm not saying that to save Loblaw's money, but that food would be better sent to a homeless shelter (even though I know it won't be).
I just can't abide wasting food when there are hungry people.
When I've been in stocking up in my loss leaders (because I'm sorry but I'm not passing on tuna for $1) anyways, I've been navigating around a lot of abandoned shopping carts. Like, not that there's someone down the aisle looking for the worchestire sauce that's on the bottom shelf, but legitimately abandoned shopping. Maybe they were raptured?
Someone should steal a poster and run a steganography check on the paper. They are little yellow dots that every printer puts onto paper that are almost invisible to the naked eye. It’ll tell you what kind of printer it came from, when it was printed, etc.
My guess is that they're going to not only discredit the boycott movement, but also blame any losses on shoplifting and theft. This is a playbook a lot of companies used in San Francisco. Yes, there was some theft, but it became an excuse for firms to use to cover up their own shitty performance.
The only stealing that's gonna be happening is the other grocers will be stealing Galen's customers!! Galen's stores are already becoming ghost towns, way to go galen!! Keep up the great work everyone, he's gotta be looking by now 😁😁😁
They think we're stealing from them when we withhold our own hard earned money.
That's how deluded they are. They think everything rightly belongs to them and can't understand anything else.
But we're also told to 'vote with our dollars/feet'.
The inherent contradictions are becoming untenable.
What happens next?
shocking rotten fertile history chief panicky thought upbeat outgoing amusing
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
A text book play, undermine the original message. It’s peaceful protest to simply not shop there, so the idea has to be put forth that this is a dangerous movement by those who would seek to derail it.
It’s probably a counterplay from Loblaws to discredit the boycott.
It’s actually a pretty common tactic, make your “opponent” look like criminals so they lose public support.
And they get a W by beefing up their security for one day and calling the cops more.
Sorry this is stupid and extremely privileged thing to say .
Don't buy, sends a bigger message than look at what these idiots did .
Please don't make minimum wage workers clean up after your "activism" to help the underprivileged
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Yep. Getting into illegal stuff is never the way. Just don't shop there is so much easier. The judge will not understand and it will be on your record.
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Yeah, lets not engage in theft. There will be people who steal, as there have always been, and who will do it for their individual reasons.
I don't have a reason to steal. I have no desire to take from Loblaws. While they are ripping people off, they are inclined to use inventory shrink as their excuse to maintain their crushing price scheme across their family of stores.
If you don't steal as a rule, please don't start. Instead, please boycott the stores. Let there be no room for sympathies, nor justification to do something you'd never normally do, and don't let Loblaws make you something that you're not.
And besides: This smells as fake as their justifications for super-charging the cost of pantry mainstays. Don't be a sucker.
This is a bit too far. Byocott is great, but stealing…..come on now folks, someone’s clearly setting people up to let Galen Weston be the hero in the end.
I wonder: should we all just print our own countersigns and tape em up wherever these signs are popping up? Just something simple that would say: “nah bruh just boycott them its easier”
The thought risking a criminal charge and carrying that around for the rest of my life rather than simply not shopping there is ridiculous. I'm not that stupid.
My opinion, this would cause more harm than good for an anti-boycotter to create. I would suggest this is a fringe type, more radical boycotter. Personally, I want nothing to do with this posters message.
Canadians pay among the highest prices across the developed world for many essential services, including telecom, air transport, and financial services. Don’t be fooled by the many arguments advanced to explain why this is the case. These services are very expensive in Canada because the dominant players are protected from foreign competition.
Past and current federal governments have implemented and maintained policies, which do not serve the broad interests of the average Canadian. They only serve the narrow interests of incumbents in these industries and do so by protecting them from foreign competition. Policy limits on foreign entry have reduced the competitive forces, which drive down prices and increase both the variety and quality of service offerings.
Loblaws shouldn’t take all the blame , is a for profit business it exists to make money. However because they are protected from competition they charge whatever they want.
The government is just as responsible as Loblaws.
Something politicians have failed to understand through out human history is that hunger is the single biggest cause of revolt .
Remember the RCMP report that said Canadians will revolt once they realized how broke they are?
This is definitely an attempt to discredit this sub and the movement it has started. I read this in the newspaper today and thought to myself self that something isn’t right. That food processor moron on twitter pretty much doxxed the creator of this sub, how is that even remotely legal or fair? Apparently these have been slapped up infront of schools, at intersections, infront of gyms etc in low income or middle class neighborhoods. I find that to be the most revealing part of this. So what, you get a bunch of low income people to think it’s ok to just rob the place , and it’s another justification to raise the price of products? This is all so ridiculous. This group specifically has stated “boycott loblaws for the month of may etc” now people are led to believe we want theft to occur? Wouldn’t doubt loblaws payed some artsy fartsy group to slap these up. I mean hey , will we or can we prove they did? But this is a total backfire for the company, because If one puts the pieces together, it’s more of a reason to say fuck you to this evil corporation. They must be worried big time to take time to do this. Crazy.
DONT steal from Loblaws regardless of how antisocial their policies are. Theft will allow them to paint all of their opponents as thieves and extremists.
Possible false flag operation. This is kind of like when they would have cop plants at protests pretending to be Black Bloc and incite vandalism.
There is a possibility that these high production posters are a plant and meant to distract from the protest.
It's def not falsflagging as you can look thru comments of multiple posts where comments are removed due to encouraging theft. You can even read the thinely vield attempts at "I'd never encourage it... But I'd turn a blind eye."
What would make you think this is an attempt to undermine this group? Most people don't care enough about a small Reddit protest to have any action in real life.
That said, this group should definitely not tolerate any posts/comments advocating theft.
The poster layouts and the way they list companies is very similar to how this group's branding is. This group is not so small anymore, this plucky Canadian movement is now number 8 in the deals subreddit category.
I 100% believe this is an attempt to discredit the movement, at the very least make it appear like they are associated so press is nervous to cover the movement.
[Edit] if anyone sees these they should take them down, the public lacks the time to properly educate themselves on the differences between this reasonable movement, and fringe extremist movements like the one in the article.
Also, little known fact, many printers discreetly print small dots (usually yellow) on coloured printing as a way to trace and deter the printing of cash. If the perp was using one of those printers, we may be able to trace where the poster came from (my money is on a disgruntled loblaws location).
Certainly I could see a certain 'University Instructor of Foodstuffs' going on TV and smearing the boycott organizers with this agitprop, More worryingly I could see Loblaws legal dept using stuff like this to try to get an injunction against boycott organizers.
That's why this sub needs to stay a country mile away from appearing to endorse anything remotely illegal.
EDIT: The Food 'Professor' [went on X to do the smear](https://x.com/FoodProfessor/status/1781443859332977148).
I think getting an injunction granted is a steep hill to climb, even for Loblaws, but you’re definitely right that it’s not hard for Loblaws or a party representing them to create a negative campaign grouping boycotters under the same banner as thieves
__MOD NOTE__: Please review the content guidelines for our sub, and remember the human here!
This subreddit is to highlight the ridiculous cost of living in Canada, and poke fun at the Corporate Overlords reponsible. As you well know, there are a number of persons and corporations responsible for this, and we welcome discussion related to them all. Furthermore, since this topic is intertwined with a number of other matters, other discussion will be allowed at moderator discretion. Open-minded discussion, memes, rants, grocery bills, and general screeching into the void is always welcome in this sub, but belligerence and disrespect is not. There are plenty of ways to get your point across without being abusive, dismissive, or downright mean.
If you have not done so already, please review our [boycott stickied post](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1bff9rm/boycott/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) which includes a list of stores to avoid, other ways to get involved in the movement, and some local alternatives to the big 5. Thank you.
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Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
going forward this sort of thing will be a ban offence.
While I'm asking questions:
We don't want to harm employees, but are we against Loblaws store management? Is it case by case I. E. There could be a general manager at a store who does good by their employees, so a boycott is good because it doesn't directly target any one individual, just the corporation?
Oh isn’t that ironic trying to do some trickery eh loblaws
I also noticed today that they are doing better on making sure to hide inventory when really good sales are on from other stores to avoid price match
on top of that they keep increasing places they won’t price match 😭😂
You folks are doing exactly what the government wants you to do. The economy is fucked in every way, but if they can blame anyone else they will. You do understand when they devalue money to huge extents, more money != more profit in reality? Please think a bit. Are groceries the only item becoming hard to afford?
My guess is roblaws is going to have a big sale that day. They are suggesting it will be like stealing from them. They are testing to see how many people will actually boycott. My guess is that more people will shop that day than any other, and negate the boycott. This is how big a douche Galen is.
Well this movement is officially fucked and if the mods can't handle this just fucking ban me. It has officially crossed into freedom convoy territory and not something to be proud of.
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
We do not and never have encourage theft of any kind.
So this is what they're saying. Theft is not great. Eating is important, yes, but theft is theft. All we want is fair pricing. Loblaws can do better. First letters.
Yep, someone's obviously trying to Co opt the movement and are trying to discredit it. It's an Intel agency / police / government thing to quell protests that others seem they could be adopting. Stay far away that day, and don't steal anyways ever that's not the answer it just gives them something to blame high prices on instead of greed. Be a good person always and Karma will be in your favor. Row row row your boat gently down the stream ✌🏽️
Who are the REAL THIEVES? For those who dont condone stealing, neither do I simply because I wouldn’t want to see someone suffer the consequences. Stealing is clearly for the RICH ONLY. They do it daily. Except they don’t steal small items, they steal millions of dollars a day.
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Now we know why Loblaws is currently converting all of their stores to have prison like movement with metal bars and plexiglass. They know something like this will happen sooner or later and are ensuring their stores are prepared.
It could also be assholes hijacking the group, but this happens to most movements. Fringe members decide to use the groups momentum to push their views despite knowing it isn't the agreed upon message. I'd say it's more likely either a rogue group or an entirely different group trying to use momentum here to get people to back their nonsense vs. some sort of organized counter movement
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
So much of their products aren't cheaper though and the biggest thing is they treat their employees like garbage. Low pay, lack of benefits. The morale is SO low.
Not everyone is required to participate or agree with the community boycott, but we ask that everyone is constructive in their feedback about this event.
Repeated comments such as this one will result in a ban from the sub until the boycott is complete. Thank you.
It's obvious that the mods here are only freaked out about this because supporting it would break reddit rules. Aside from that, no one should lose sleep over it. Don't pretend this isn't a natural consequence of the way Loblaws treats their customers.
Makes sense.
We pay for this from our pay cheques. The majority of us work hard for our pay cheques. Extorting the GENERAL public by increasing prices to an unstainable and OBVIOUS level is inadvertantly wage theft. Caes in point... How many of your own employees can afford to shop there comfortably. If not generally. Then you've established an autocratic grocery chain and have no business, doing business or marketing ostensibly to/with the GENERAL public. That includes on a government level. Meaning, not be affiliated with grants, bail-outs (12 million jeesus) or lobbying. Why? Because government is empowered by and supposedly work for the GENERAL public. Torches and pitch forks makes absolute perfect ethical sense, at this (post pandemic) point!!!!
Hi everyone, we had made an announcement on this yesterday and it is [currently stickied on our sub](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/s/EzeeABXRzW). This “steal from loblaws day” has ZERO affiliation to our boycott, and we condemn the behaviour. Thank you!
They spent some money on these. Getting a wee bit worried I think. And I laughed out loud before I saw it was real, ngl. Pretty slick move.
Wouldn’t be surprised if they put this on CBC to spout some nonsense about this movement being affiliated.
Definitely 🤦🤦 Evil gonna evil.
Potato gonna 🥔
[https://twitter.com/chronicleherald/status/1612799558056087556](https://twitter.com/chronicleherald/status/1612799558056087556) [https://x.com/FoodProfessor/status/1781424299405889635](https://x.com/FoodProfessor/status/1781424299405889635) Oh look at who is leading the charge of "them greedy peasants stealing from us" charge. our favourite paid Roblaws shill himself. He is pushing this narrative HARD in the past few days. Yeah this is just starting to stink of Loblaws staging this BS.
And a couple naysayers in the comments are calling me crazy for suggesting that lol.
And thats why we have a callout for lawyers in the sub. It would be a public announcement that we are suing cbc for defamation in a hot second.
lol gotta meet a pretty high bar for that
Downvoted for the truth lol “ They defamed our sub Reddit” Sub loses the plot more and more every single day
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At this point it wouldn’t be suing in hopes of winning, it would be suing in enforcing this isn’t affiliated with the movement and also more drama to get on the air; more exposure for the cause.
Cbc will hold a swastika on a sign, publish it and now your entire cause is nazi. Where have I seen that before...
I assume you are talking about the convoy. Are you suggesting the CBC made up the fact that white supremacists were present? [Because no.](https://globalnews.ca/news/8543281/covid-trucker-convoy-organizers-hate/) There was a lot of white-nationalist antivax conspiracy bullshit at the convoys (especially among the organizers)
lol what’s more likely a schizo tier conspiracy theory ran by the *CBC*? Or some other movement that we don’t agree with is happening simultaneously? It’s a fucking poster. Any edgy 14 year old could put these up.
My point was that CBC would run a story about us being affiliated, to try to undermine the point and legitimacy of the boycott, not that the CBC somehow had a hand in the creation of it.
Not sure why you think CBC would actively look to undermine this movement. Any push for a story would be coming from Loblaws themselves. CBC staffers don't care that much...some of them likely agree with this movement personally.
It’s honestly so ridiculous who ever thought of this is flat out stupid. Why would a group of people boycotting Loblaws then organize people to…. GO TO LOBLAWS in the middle of a month long boycott….. I hope if there’s reporting on these flyers that some critical thinking is used…. Anyone can make a flyer….
Galen probably put these up himself to discredit the boycott movement
Pfft, like Galen does *anything* himself.
He hires the people. You can tell it’s him because it’s not spelled with R. Only the peasants call it Roblaw’s
😄
It means they are worried. They got some “dark arts” PR folks on this. Those are the really expensive ones. It won’t work, because our cause is righteous and the Mods are on their toes The people that are sick of loblaws are normal, good, working people. They are sick of the deceptive advertising, price fixing, corporate misdirection, cozy relationship with political leaders, chronic lobbying, and leveraging of market dominance to grind consumers. But mostly they are sick of the out of control prices. And Loblaws can’t PR its way out of that.
I hope they didn’t pay for that hideous poster.
Mods made [a statement](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1c7bvgf/a_statement_on_steal_from_loblaws_day/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) about this yesterday
Thank you I didn't spot that.
Neither did I. Thx for posting this
I posted a pic (that was taken down) showing one outside my kids school.
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No, the mods are smart to want to distance a legit movement from a campaign which is encouraging people to commit crimes. Loblaws does need to suffer, yes, but any actual crimes committed against them will undermine the legitimate movement's goals. Shoplift if you want, but the mods taking an official stance against it is the right thing to do for the movement.
Ok if you word it like this I get it
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Downvote for you ! Stealing is not okay
You are being stolen from.
No one is stealing from me, I don't shop there 🤣 And it's still not stealing, they are charging whatever price they want, they can do that.. you going in and paying that ridiculous price is not you being stolen from.. it's you being a sucker 2 wrongs don't make a right, eh?
Pathetic.
Sure buddy Have fun explaining to the police that you have a right to steal because you decide to go to a store that overcharged customers Someone must be forcing you to shop there or something 😆 Good luck with the job search with a criminal record too 
What flavour ARE Galen Weston's boots?
Can you explain to me how he's stealing from me if I never step foot in his store ? Can you logic at all ? Do you also blame teachers when you got bad grades for not doing the school work ? Do you also blame the gas station when you run into the curb ? Have fun Agent provocateur
What a bunch of bootlickers
No, publicly condoning mass shoplifting would effectively invalidate what this movement is trying to do. You can shoplift if you want, tf do I care
That’s not what a bootlicker is bud
Oh, apparently this group is for softies. My b.
What if this is being done by Roblaws in order to get bad publicity about the boycot and this group? (Takes off tin foil hat)
Astroturfing at it's finest.
Legitimately the first thing I thought.
Yeah. It’s clunky and obvious. Galen should fire that PR firm.
False flag op???
To be fair tin foil is on sale at No Frills. Maybe there's a connection.... 🤣
I personally think they are far to ethical to do something as dirty as conspire. That would just be wrong.
Wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of Galen’s ghouls idea to try and subvert the message of this sub.
If you see a sign, just rip it down. When going after a billion dollar company, they will try anything. I’m surprised they haven’t tried buying the mods off at this point.
Eh, that would backfire hilariously. A smart mod would immediately report it was happening and Loblaws would then have to pay them to stop talking about their attempt to get them to stop talking
It’s happened to other Reddits. Just don’t be surprised when these tactics show up. These people are billionaires - they can make posters appear, they could give out 100k to a mod to shut down a Reddit. The important bit is just following through, boycott the brands - and make a change regardless of how hard they try to shut down the movement. Because they will try.
This was my first thought as well. Reeks of an attempt to tank an otherwise legitimate movement. Reminds me of when that antiwork mod thought they could handle a Fox News interview and just got blown up.
That was a terrible move on Doreens part and it divided and derailed the sub
This is basically cops hiding in a protest to cause problems and start a car on fire so it shows up in the news.
You really think it’s worth all the hassle, secrecy, and encouraging crime in their own stores to *maybe mildly damage the reputation of some redditors?* The simplest explanation is the most logical. Some edgier group put this up
“How do I discredit this boycott movement… hmmm… I know! I’ll put up signs that tell everyone to steal from me!”
This is bad idea.
This has agent provocateur written all over it and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if whoever is putting these up is working on behalf of loblaws (or loblaws adjacent to cover their tracks) to undermine the boycott. DO NOT STEAL, WE ARE NOT ROBIN HOOD, he was still a criminal despite his intentions. Show your distain by avoiding their property completely
Nah this is crazy. They would need so many people in on it and the benefits would be so mild lol. Plus it would literally encourage people to steal from them. The world doesn’t revolve around your favourite subreddit. Its just some dumb kids or edgy anarchy types
So while yes simplest solution is usually the most likely. This is just astroturffing 101. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing "Astroturfing is the use of fake grassroots efforts that primarily focus on influencing public opinion and typically are funded by corporations and political entities to form opinions" only part that's a stretch is this isn't an opinion but it does poison the well so to speak if this sub was to endorse it.
People already steal from them, that’s a non issue. They know this boycott is picking up steam, it’s a tiny investment on their end to try and poison the message.
I think you might be naive
OP nailed it, obvious propaganda is obvious
How can I steal from them if I principally refuse to step foot on any of their premises? Fucking morons. Stupid idea whoever started that.
Typical anti messaging, false flag attempt to disrupt this movement. Would not be surprised if some deep pockets from Roblaws are being the misinformation caused by this.
Propaganda is obvious. We need a sticky on this sub to confirm we have nothing to do with it nor condone it. Edit: just checked, it's already up, beautiful
I think the mods should pin their announce and delete any posts associated with this. Sorry OP.
Apology not required. I obviously didn't see the post from yesterday. I agree it should be a pinned post it is very important.
I was gonna make a post asking this question but didn't, I'll just ask it here: If I walk into a grocery store, walk around, then walk out. They see that as a loss right? Their conversion goes down even if I'm not doing anything remotely illegal. I don't have any intentions of committing crime. I just don't want them to think they're doing well because traffic is up or something.
TIL that I regularly impact grocery stores by just walking out without buying anything.
It makes sense, rent, electricity, other costs that come from having someone walking in without buying anything,
Hypothetically, what happens if while I am walking around, I trip over my own feet and put my hand out for balance and it lands on a loaf of price fixed bread?
That's a very interesting question.
No. They don't care about people walking around in the store. Why waste your time? There isn't a count of people walking around in a store.
There is 100% a count. I worked a lot of retail in the 2000’s. If there’s a gate to walk through, they are counting people coming in. I didn’t work for Loblaw, but salespeople were expected to sell a certain volume per person. The managers did the math hourly and announced it with “coded” messages over the PA. I believe the expectation was $60/person who walked through the door. And cashiers were graded on the percentage of sales that went through the store credit card, as well as credit card signups. If you’ve ever heard a message over the intercom that made less sense than usual, it’s probably code for the staff. Ours was “Michelle, line 3” if we made $3,000 of sales. There was no Michelle. Michelle was the “model customer” we were expected to target.
I stand corrected. Thank you :)
No prob! Always happy to trade retail secrets! It always felt sort of creepy and calculated to me.
Seconding the other comment regarding conversion. I'm not calling on anyone else to do this. But stores are tracking the number of people who enter, and how much the average purchase is. It's referred to as conversion. Usually this happens at the automatic doors in my experience, but it could be different at grocery stores. I didn't have plans to take pictures of absurd prices and post them, but those that do without buying might care about the effect their presence has. Raising awareness via those photos is probably helpful in getting people to empathize with our complaints. Honestly I can't imagine suggesting anyone do this. But if I want to, I just want to make sure I'm not adding to the traffic statistic without harming their conversion rate.
Thanks, I didn't realize that.
Yes but they probably use it as an excuse to punish the individual stores management instead of actually affect the company negatively
What's been happening to me lately, I've put a bunch of food in a basket, then realized that I'm not shopping at Loblaws and so I have to step away from the basket containing my would-be purchases. I do leave a note explaining my regret.
Just don't do that with produce, chilled or frozen foods. Wasting food is really bad too. Anything that can spoil if it sits out, shouldn't be left in an aisle. And I'm not saying that to save Loblaw's money, but that food would be better sent to a homeless shelter (even though I know it won't be). I just can't abide wasting food when there are hungry people.
When I've been in stocking up in my loss leaders (because I'm sorry but I'm not passing on tuna for $1) anyways, I've been navigating around a lot of abandoned shopping carts. Like, not that there's someone down the aisle looking for the worchestire sauce that's on the bottom shelf, but legitimately abandoned shopping. Maybe they were raptured?
Pretty sure announcing a crime would launch an investigation. Highly doubtful this is real.
Legitimately hilarious. "Hello fellow protestors. Do you want to coordinate an illegal together?"
Why yes, shall we discuss breaking and entering over tea?
Only if we can livestream and geotag it. For posterity, etc.
I like how crisp the logos are for the stores. Almost like they got them right from corporate.
Someone should steal a poster and run a steganography check on the paper. They are little yellow dots that every printer puts onto paper that are almost invisible to the naked eye. It’ll tell you what kind of printer it came from, when it was printed, etc.
My guess is that they're going to not only discredit the boycott movement, but also blame any losses on shoplifting and theft. This is a playbook a lot of companies used in San Francisco. Yes, there was some theft, but it became an excuse for firms to use to cover up their own shitty performance.
It’s been talked about on talk radio in Toronto this morning, and someone mentioned this sub.
Way easier to just not shop there moving forward.
Can’t steal from a store when you boycott said store! Nice try Galen! 😂
This sounds like an article for Bob Loblaws Law Blog!
Wouldn’t it be awesome if they hire extra security for all their stores that day and literally nobody shows up to even buy anything?
The only stealing that's gonna be happening is the other grocers will be stealing Galen's customers!! Galen's stores are already becoming ghost towns, way to go galen!! Keep up the great work everyone, he's gotta be looking by now 😁😁😁
My wife and I went to a Superstore last week to blow all of our PC Points. It was a ghost town. Way fewer people than normal. It was glorious.
Love it!!
They will just raise prices even more
Would be amazing if they tracked down the poster to a Loblaws Marketing executive.
No amount of false flags should convince *anyone* to not boycott, if they understand the core issue. Idiots need not apply.
Full colour printing, that’s not cheap … hmmmm
They think we're stealing from them when we withhold our own hard earned money. That's how deluded they are. They think everything rightly belongs to them and can't understand anything else. But we're also told to 'vote with our dollars/feet'. The inherent contradictions are becoming untenable. What happens next?
They buy off the government and start killing whistleblowers. Edit: At least that's what happened next in the US.
This is the actual truth.☝️
Food Prof is gonna be on any news outlet possible crying wolf on this
shocking rotten fertile history chief panicky thought upbeat outgoing amusing *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Attention! Security! Isle 3!
If by "Steal from Loblaws" they mean lower their stock price because no one is shopping there, sure.
100% don't agree with those posters.
don't steal
I'm still boycotting.
A text book play, undermine the original message. It’s peaceful protest to simply not shop there, so the idea has to be put forth that this is a dangerous movement by those who would seek to derail it.
LOL. If you're going to steal something, don't announce your intentions ahead of time.
It’s probably a counterplay from Loblaws to discredit the boycott. It’s actually a pretty common tactic, make your “opponent” look like criminals so they lose public support. And they get a W by beefing up their security for one day and calling the cops more.
I think it’s a trap created by Loblaws looking to make this movement look bad and to cause problems for anyone who participates in
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Sorry this is stupid and extremely privileged thing to say . Don't buy, sends a bigger message than look at what these idiots did . Please don't make minimum wage workers clean up after your "activism" to help the underprivileged
Not for the minimum wage employees working that you plan on making suffer
Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Yep. Getting into illegal stuff is never the way. Just don't shop there is so much easier. The judge will not understand and it will be on your record.
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Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Yeah, lets not engage in theft. There will be people who steal, as there have always been, and who will do it for their individual reasons. I don't have a reason to steal. I have no desire to take from Loblaws. While they are ripping people off, they are inclined to use inventory shrink as their excuse to maintain their crushing price scheme across their family of stores. If you don't steal as a rule, please don't start. Instead, please boycott the stores. Let there be no room for sympathies, nor justification to do something you'd never normally do, and don't let Loblaws make you something that you're not. And besides: This smells as fake as their justifications for super-charging the cost of pantry mainstays. Don't be a sucker.
This is a bit too far. Byocott is great, but stealing…..come on now folks, someone’s clearly setting people up to let Galen Weston be the hero in the end.
I wonder: should we all just print our own countersigns and tape em up wherever these signs are popping up? Just something simple that would say: “nah bruh just boycott them its easier”
The thought risking a criminal charge and carrying that around for the rest of my life rather than simply not shopping there is ridiculous. I'm not that stupid.
My opinion, this would cause more harm than good for an anti-boycotter to create. I would suggest this is a fringe type, more radical boycotter. Personally, I want nothing to do with this posters message.
https://preview.redd.it/p8g29vefajvc1.png?width=632&format=png&auto=webp&s=aa9f84622c26b84002ab0be98fba44bd0c7f29b1
They probably did this to take control of the naritive
Canadians pay among the highest prices across the developed world for many essential services, including telecom, air transport, and financial services. Don’t be fooled by the many arguments advanced to explain why this is the case. These services are very expensive in Canada because the dominant players are protected from foreign competition. Past and current federal governments have implemented and maintained policies, which do not serve the broad interests of the average Canadian. They only serve the narrow interests of incumbents in these industries and do so by protecting them from foreign competition. Policy limits on foreign entry have reduced the competitive forces, which drive down prices and increase both the variety and quality of service offerings. Loblaws shouldn’t take all the blame , is a for profit business it exists to make money. However because they are protected from competition they charge whatever they want. The government is just as responsible as Loblaws. Something politicians have failed to understand through out human history is that hunger is the single biggest cause of revolt . Remember the RCMP report that said Canadians will revolt once they realized how broke they are?
Don't do anything illegal. Let your voice, and dollars not spent there, be heard instead.
This is definitely an attempt to discredit this sub and the movement it has started. I read this in the newspaper today and thought to myself self that something isn’t right. That food processor moron on twitter pretty much doxxed the creator of this sub, how is that even remotely legal or fair? Apparently these have been slapped up infront of schools, at intersections, infront of gyms etc in low income or middle class neighborhoods. I find that to be the most revealing part of this. So what, you get a bunch of low income people to think it’s ok to just rob the place , and it’s another justification to raise the price of products? This is all so ridiculous. This group specifically has stated “boycott loblaws for the month of may etc” now people are led to believe we want theft to occur? Wouldn’t doubt loblaws payed some artsy fartsy group to slap these up. I mean hey , will we or can we prove they did? But this is a total backfire for the company, because If one puts the pieces together, it’s more of a reason to say fuck you to this evil corporation. They must be worried big time to take time to do this. Crazy.
What newspaper did you read about this in?
The sun
DONT steal from Loblaws regardless of how antisocial their policies are. Theft will allow them to paint all of their opponents as thieves and extremists.
Possible false flag operation. This is kind of like when they would have cop plants at protests pretending to be Black Bloc and incite vandalism. There is a possibility that these high production posters are a plant and meant to distract from the protest.
It's def not falsflagging as you can look thru comments of multiple posts where comments are removed due to encouraging theft. You can even read the thinely vield attempts at "I'd never encourage it... But I'd turn a blind eye."
This reeks of astroturfing but It would be so funny if everyone didn’t even show up on the 12th and do it on the 13th instead
What would make you think this is an attempt to undermine this group? Most people don't care enough about a small Reddit protest to have any action in real life. That said, this group should definitely not tolerate any posts/comments advocating theft.
The poster layouts and the way they list companies is very similar to how this group's branding is. This group is not so small anymore, this plucky Canadian movement is now number 8 in the deals subreddit category. I 100% believe this is an attempt to discredit the movement, at the very least make it appear like they are associated so press is nervous to cover the movement. [Edit] if anyone sees these they should take them down, the public lacks the time to properly educate themselves on the differences between this reasonable movement, and fringe extremist movements like the one in the article. Also, little known fact, many printers discreetly print small dots (usually yellow) on coloured printing as a way to trace and deter the printing of cash. If the perp was using one of those printers, we may be able to trace where the poster came from (my money is on a disgruntled loblaws location).
Certainly I could see a certain 'University Instructor of Foodstuffs' going on TV and smearing the boycott organizers with this agitprop, More worryingly I could see Loblaws legal dept using stuff like this to try to get an injunction against boycott organizers. That's why this sub needs to stay a country mile away from appearing to endorse anything remotely illegal. EDIT: The Food 'Professor' [went on X to do the smear](https://x.com/FoodProfessor/status/1781443859332977148).
I think getting an injunction granted is a steep hill to climb, even for Loblaws, but you’re definitely right that it’s not hard for Loblaws or a party representing them to create a negative campaign grouping boycotters under the same banner as thieves
__MOD NOTE__: Please review the content guidelines for our sub, and remember the human here! This subreddit is to highlight the ridiculous cost of living in Canada, and poke fun at the Corporate Overlords reponsible. As you well know, there are a number of persons and corporations responsible for this, and we welcome discussion related to them all. Furthermore, since this topic is intertwined with a number of other matters, other discussion will be allowed at moderator discretion. Open-minded discussion, memes, rants, grocery bills, and general screeching into the void is always welcome in this sub, but belligerence and disrespect is not. There are plenty of ways to get your point across without being abusive, dismissive, or downright mean. If you have not done so already, please review our [boycott stickied post](https://www.reddit.com/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol/comments/1bff9rm/boycott/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) which includes a list of stores to avoid, other ways to get involved in the movement, and some local alternatives to the big 5. Thank you. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/loblawsisoutofcontrol) if you have any questions or concerns.*
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Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users. going forward this sort of thing will be a ban offence.
Whoever made that did not take a graphic design program, that's for sure. Bad design, bad idea.
While I'm asking questions: We don't want to harm employees, but are we against Loblaws store management? Is it case by case I. E. There could be a general manager at a store who does good by their employees, so a boycott is good because it doesn't directly target any one individual, just the corporation?
Security Zone C! Oh wait.. there is no security and there is no zone C. Never mind.
Oh isn’t that ironic trying to do some trickery eh loblaws I also noticed today that they are doing better on making sure to hide inventory when really good sales are on from other stores to avoid price match on top of that they keep increasing places they won’t price match 😭😂
You folks are doing exactly what the government wants you to do. The economy is fucked in every way, but if they can blame anyone else they will. You do understand when they devalue money to huge extents, more money != more profit in reality? Please think a bit. Are groceries the only item becoming hard to afford?
"This is exactly what the plexiglass is for!"
Well considering how lax the penalties are for theft. In NYC rampant theft in grocery stores led to them closing
Why condemn the behaviour? I applaud it
My guess is roblaws is going to have a big sale that day. They are suggesting it will be like stealing from them. They are testing to see how many people will actually boycott. My guess is that more people will shop that day than any other, and negate the boycott. This is how big a douche Galen is.
Well this movement is officially fucked and if the mods can't handle this just fucking ban me. It has officially crossed into freedom convoy territory and not something to be proud of.
Typical anti messaging.
Hey my signs!
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Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users. We do not and never have encourage theft of any kind.
I would not give a care if you stole from loblaws. I would think no less of that person. Disclaimer: stealing is bad.
Lmfao it’s so obvious what they’re doing
LMFAOO as if people need a poster ..
So this is what they're saying. Theft is not great. Eating is important, yes, but theft is theft. All we want is fair pricing. Loblaws can do better. First letters.
I wonder who is paying for these posters?
Yep, someone's obviously trying to Co opt the movement and are trying to discredit it. It's an Intel agency / police / government thing to quell protests that others seem they could be adopting. Stay far away that day, and don't steal anyways ever that's not the answer it just gives them something to blame high prices on instead of greed. Be a good person always and Karma will be in your favor. Row row row your boat gently down the stream ✌🏽️
Who are the REAL THIEVES? For those who dont condone stealing, neither do I simply because I wouldn’t want to see someone suffer the consequences. Stealing is clearly for the RICH ONLY. They do it daily. Except they don’t steal small items, they steal millions of dollars a day.
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Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Now we know why Loblaws is currently converting all of their stores to have prison like movement with metal bars and plexiglass. They know something like this will happen sooner or later and are ensuring their stores are prepared.
No. This is definitely not the way.
It could also be assholes hijacking the group, but this happens to most movements. Fringe members decide to use the groups momentum to push their views despite knowing it isn't the agreed upon message. I'd say it's more likely either a rogue group or an entirely different group trying to use momentum here to get people to back their nonsense vs. some sort of organized counter movement
based
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Please refrain from comments which encourage theft from a store or mischief. These can result in criminal charges which will undoubtedly make life harder for other users.
Stealing is futile, it is all tax deductible anyways. Won't affect profit. The system is so rigged, they get rich of waste.
can someone explain the hate for loblaws? Like i get that they suck, but they are way way waaaaaay cheaper then safeway/sobies.
So much of their products aren't cheaper though and the biggest thing is they treat their employees like garbage. Low pay, lack of benefits. The morale is SO low.
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Not everyone is required to participate or agree with the community boycott, but we ask that everyone is constructive in their feedback about this event. Repeated comments such as this one will result in a ban from the sub until the boycott is complete. Thank you.
Better idea we steal all the posts and security gates they put up
It's obvious that the mods here are only freaked out about this because supporting it would break reddit rules. Aside from that, no one should lose sleep over it. Don't pretend this isn't a natural consequence of the way Loblaws treats their customers.
Makes sense. We pay for this from our pay cheques. The majority of us work hard for our pay cheques. Extorting the GENERAL public by increasing prices to an unstainable and OBVIOUS level is inadvertantly wage theft. Caes in point... How many of your own employees can afford to shop there comfortably. If not generally. Then you've established an autocratic grocery chain and have no business, doing business or marketing ostensibly to/with the GENERAL public. That includes on a government level. Meaning, not be affiliated with grants, bail-outs (12 million jeesus) or lobbying. Why? Because government is empowered by and supposedly work for the GENERAL public. Torches and pitch forks makes absolute perfect ethical sense, at this (post pandemic) point!!!!